News Coverage
Gloucester Daily Times: Fed panel backs $150M in fishing aid
July 20, 2013 The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has included $150 million for fisheries disasters in its fiscal 2014 budget proposal for the Department of Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies. And the budget measure includes a number of other directives aimed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including a proposed requirement that NOAA charter private and commercial fishing boats to carry out cooperative research with an eye toward addressing a long … Continue Reading
July 10, 2013
Huffington Post: Elizabeth Warren's Student Loan Fairness Act Gains Endorsement Of More Than 1,000 Professors
By Tyler KingkadeJuly 10, 2013 More than 1,000 college professors from 568 higher education institutions around the country have signed a letter calling on Congress to pass legislation authored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that would dramatically lower interest rates on federal student loans. Warren's proposal, presented in May, would offer the same interest rate on federal Stafford loans as the one that banks receive from the Federal Reserve. Under her plan, the rate on … Continue Reading
June 11, 2013
Boston Globe: Warren, Tierney urge students to fight rate hike
By Alyssa A. BotelhoJune 11, 2013 US Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative John Tierney rallied Northeastern University students Monday to speak out against a looming interest rate hike on student loans. If Congress fails to act by July 1, the rate on federally subsidized Stafford loans, need-based funds for undergraduates, would double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. With debate over student loan legislation in Congress heating up, Warren and Tierney urged students to put pressure on their … Continue Reading
May 24, 2013
Huffington Post: Elizabeth Warren Student Loans Bill Endorsed By Several Colleges, Organizations
A little more than two weeks after introducing her first bill, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is already seeing a wave of strong support. Back on May 8, Warren announced her plans to set student loan interest rates at the same level big banks receive from the Federal Reserve. Come July 1, some student loan rates are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, prompting Warren to push for legislation that reduces the level to 0.75 percent. By Thursday, Warren's website showcased that more … Continue Reading
May 22, 2013
USA Today: Nobel winner: Cut student loan rates
A proposal by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to reduce interest rates on student loans has one big economic backer: Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz. Warren's proposal would tie the interest rate on Stafford student loans to the Federal Reserve's discount rate, currently, 0.75%. Government-subsidized Stafford loans have a 3.4% interest rate, and are scheduled to rise to 6.8% this summer, unless Congress decrees otherwise. College graduation has become a big factor in whether students … Continue Reading
May 21, 2013
Daily Times Chronicle: Officer Gibbons earns ‘Badge of Bravery’
BOSTON - The honors and accolades to Woburn Police Officer Mark Gibbons keep on coming as state and national leaders recognized the hazards of being a police officer as well as bravery in the line of duty. In Boston on Monday, the entire Gibbons family showed at the John J. Moakley Federal Courthouse at One Courthouse Way and went to the third floor courtroom for even more honors for the heroic officer. In formal ceremonies with much pomp and circumstance, Officer Gibbons was given another … Continue Reading
May 19, 2013
Warren asks the nation to focus on student loan crisis: New Bedford Standard-Times Column
By Jack Spillane Anyone who thought Elizabeth Warren was not going to bring to the Senate her insightful analysis of the nation's economic problems now knows that they were more than wrong. Warren's first piece of standalone legislation takes square aim at the crushing student loan debt that's crippling a generation of millenials, and the adverse effect on the national economy when a whole cohort of the populace is boxed out of the consumer game. Warren's proposal last week to reduce student … Continue Reading
May 18, 2013
Boston Globe Editorial: Warren focuses on college debt; Congress must join the debate
ELIZABETH WARREN was elected to the Senate with the expectation that she'd make bold use of her bully pulpit. Her first proposed bill, which would dramatically lower student-loan interest rates, fits that profile. Warren has gotten considerable attention for her bill, which would reduce the interest rate on some student loans to 0.75 percent, the same rate the Federal Reserve currently charges to banks for short-term lending. This has allowed Warren to talk about the need to invest in … Continue Reading
May 13, 2013
Springfield Republican Editorial: Elizabeth Warren's looking out for college graduates
As college graduates begin to grapple with how they're going to pay off their student loans, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren has crafted a timely graduation gift for them. Warren last Wednesday introduced legislation - the first Senate bill with her name on it - that would significantly lower interest rates on student loans for one year while the federal government works on a longer term solution to the crushing debt that has limited the prospects of so many of today's … Continue Reading
May 13, 2013
Sun Chronicle: Warren says public can pressure politicians to act on student loans
The U.S. Senate is dealing with issues ranging from terrorist attacks to budget deficits, but freshman Sen. Elizabeth Warren chose student loans as the subject of her very first piece of legislation. Warren, D-Mass., told The Sun Chronicle today that she chose to concentrate on student loans because they effect the economy, the security of the middle class, and the state of higher education. More so, the price the federal government charges students for college loans is a reflection of what … Continue Reading
May 09, 2013
Salon: Elizabeth Warren Q&A: Students “deserve the same break that big banks get”:
"The U.S. government invests in big banks by giving them a great deal on their interest rates," freshman Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in an interview with Salon on Wednesday afternoon (the transcript of which is below). "We should make at least the same investment in our students." Warren was discussing the first bill she has introduced in the Senate, a plan released on Wednesday to address the crisis of outstanding student debt - which topped $1 trillion this year, with over 37 million … Continue Reading
May 02, 2013
Cape Cod Times: Elizabeth Warren brings consumer cause to Cape
BREWSTER - U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told a packed house at the Back Nine Cafe on Wednesday to fight to take government control back from big business. "How do Fortune 500 companies pay zero in taxes while college loans go up to 6 percent?" she asked. "This game is rigged." The consumer must "get up and fight," she said. "You've all got to be there to fight." Warren was guest speaker at the Community Development Partnership's annual meeting. It was her first official Cape visit … Continue Reading
May 02, 2013
Patriot Ledger: Students hear from Warren at Plymouth court’s Law Day
PLYMOUTH - U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined 159 South Shore students in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the national anthem to begin the Law Day program at Plymouth Superior Court. Warren and the other two keynote speakers, state Senate President Therese Murray and Plymouth District Court Judge Rosemary Minehan, talked to the student about the importance of law in our society. Looking out into the crowd of middle and high school students from Sacred Heart, Plymouth South, New … Continue Reading
April 13, 2013
Salem News: Salem bends Warren's ear
SALEM - The first thing U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren did on arriving at a morning meet-and-greet yesterday was walk directly up to Mayor Kim Driscoll and give her a big hug. In a visit orchestrated by Driscoll - a strong supporter during Warren's hard-fought Senate campaign - Warren met with city leaders and toured the North Shore Community Health Center on Congress Street yesterday. She ended her jaunt to the Witch City by stopping by Salem State University's career services center to chat with … Continue Reading
April 11, 2013
Huffington Post: Foreclosure Review Program's Regulators Take Pounding From Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown
Two prominent Democratic senators levied a withering attack on federal bank regulators on Thursday, accusing them at a Senate hearing of putting the interests of banks ahead of consumers in refusing to disclose what they know about the failed foreclosure review program that ended abruptly earlier this year. Most aggressive was Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and longtime consumer advocate who is quickly developing a reputation as perhaps the Senate's most effective … Continue Reading
April 01, 2013
Patriot Ledger: In Washington, a new push to aid New England fishermen
WASHINGTON - Less than three months after an effort to provide a pool of aid to distressed fisheries across the nation died at the end of the last Congress, efforts to secure disaster relief funding for New England fishermen are heating up on Capitol Hill. Just before Congress left last weekend for a two-week Easter/Passover recess, the Senate passed a bipartisan amendment - sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska - calling for money in the fiscal 2014 … Continue Reading
March 24, 2013
Springfield Republican: Senator Elizabeth Warren, encouraged by nonbinding vote, says time to end subsidies for 'too big to fail' banks
Buoyed by a nonbinding U.S. Senate vote to eliminate billions in subsidies for "too big to fail" banks, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren called the measure a step toward "leveling the playing field" between megabanks and their smaller competitors and customers. The Senate, in a unanimous 99-0 vote Friday, passed the measure to eliminate the subsidies that big banks receive through lower borrowing costs because of the "implicit guarantee they will be bailed out by the government … Continue Reading
March 19, 2013
HousingWire: Senators Warren, Corker reach across the aisle on GSE reform
Four Senators are crossing party lines to propose a GSE reform bill that, if passed, would prevent the government from using guarantee-fee hikes at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to cover other spending initiatives. The proposed legislation also would prohibit the sale of GSE-preferred shares owned by the Treasury without congressional approval and the completion of GSE reform first. The bill, titled ‘Jumpstart GSE Reform Act,' pulled in four well-known sponsors: CFPB architect and U.S. … Continue Reading
March 07, 2013
Huffington Post: Elizabeth Warren: Banks Get Wrist Slaps While Drug Dealers Get Jail
Sen. Elizabeth Warren unloaded on bank regulators Thursday about the fact that British bank HSBC is still doing business in the U.S., with no criminal charges filed against it, despite confessing to what one regulator called "egregious" money laundering violations. Her comments came just a day after the attorney general of the United States confessed that some banks are so big and important that they are essentially above the law. His Justice Department's failure to bring any criminal charges … Continue Reading
March 04, 2013
Somerville Patch: Sen. Warren Tours Union Square, Blames 'a Minority of the Minority' for Sequestration
Sen. Elizabeth Warren toured Somerville's Union Square Monday morning, and she spoke briefly about the "sequestration" deadlock in Washington, saying there's "a minority of the minority that says no way" to compromise, making progress on ending the deadlock difficult. "People are right to be afraid of sequestration," Warren said. "It's a real problem because it's so mindless." "There are many things we can do to get our house in order financially, and the president has put a very balanced … Continue Reading