News Coverage
Politico Massachusetts Playbook: The cost of Social Security cuts
SOCIAL INSECURITY — After launching a Social Security “war room” earlier this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is running the numbers on how cuts to the financial assistance program for seniors could impact the Bay State. According to data compiled by Warren’s office and shared with Playbook, nearly 1.5 million Massachusetts residents rely on Social Security. The numbers, broken down by county, show that Massachusetts takes in more than $2.5 billion in monthly benefits from the program. The … Continue Reading
April 02, 2025
The Hill: Senate Democrats open investigation into reports AI could replace contract workers at Education Department
Senate Democrats are opening an investigation into reports that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is attempting to replace some contract workers at the Education Department with artificial intelligence (AI). Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), sent a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon after The New York Times reported call centers that take questions from students and … Continue Reading
April 01, 2025
The Hill: Democratic senators call for investigation into assisted living facilities in Medicaid
Senate Democrats are calling on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a new review of how oversight is conducted over assisted living facilities that participate in Medicaid following a 2018 report that uncovered a stark lack of transparency and reporting across states. Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) wrote to the GAO, asking that the office provide an update to a 2018 report in which it found that federal oversight of … Continue Reading
April 01, 2025
Axios: First look: Warren outlines plan for revamping MA
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and a group of Democratic senators are laying out a four-step plan to crack down on Medicare Advantage overpayments and make other changes to improve the program. Why it matters: CMS administrator nominee Mehmet Oz has supported the MA program but during his confirmation hearing criticized some insurer practices, such as categorizing patients as sicker to get higher payments. What's inside: The plan is described in a letter shared first with Axios that's signed by … Continue Reading
March 31, 2025
Axios: Scoop: Senate Dems to launch Social Security war room
Senate Democrats will launch a war room Tuesday dedicated to fighting back against the Department of Government Efficiency's cuts to Social Security, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The White House is planning service cuts to Social Security that current and former officials warn would break an already strained system. The war room will serve as a central hub for Senate Democrats to plan messaging, create content, provide oversight, make field visits and host town halls to pummel the … Continue Reading
March 28, 2025
Wall Street Journal: Democrats Fear Trump’s Crypto Entity Will Pose Regulatory Conflict
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and four other Democrats warned U.S. financial regulators they might soon confront “an extraordinary conflict of interest”: overseeing a cryptocurrency entity controlled by the sitting U.S. president and his family. In a letter sent early Friday to the Federal Reserve’s vice chair of bank supervision, Michelle Bowman, and the acting comptroller of the currency, Rodney Hood, the senators pressed for answers on how they intend to regulate World Liberty Financial, the … Continue Reading
March 27, 2025
Axios: Dem lawmakers push Trump on FTC firings
Democrats wrote to President Trump on Thursday urging that he abandon the effort to get rid of the two Democratic members of the FTC, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter. Why it matters: The congressional support comes as the two fired commissioners kick off their legal fight to reclaim their jobs. Bedoya and Slaughter filed suit against the Trump administration in D.C. District Court Thursday, calling their firings illegal per a 1935 Supreme Court case, Humphrey's Executor. What … Continue Reading
March 26, 2025
Yahoo Finance: Warren asks Lutnick how Trump will stop tariff-driven price hikes
Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter Tuesday to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urging him to explain how the Trump administration plans to prevent companies from using tariffs as a cover to hike prices. "Tariffs can be a strategic tool to grow American industry and good manufacturing jobs, but President Trump’s across-the-board tariffs have been chaotic, not strategic," the Democratic lawmaker wrote in the letter reviewed by Yahoo Finance. "I am deeply concerned that President Trump is now … Continue Reading
March 26, 2025
NBC News: Democratic senators want an investigation into Trump's Education Department cuts
Eleven Democratic senators sent a letter Thursday demanding an investigation into the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department, warning the cuts could have “disastrous consequences.” The letter, sent to the department’s acting inspector general, René Rocque, comes amid upheaval at U.S. agencies as President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk embark on a frenetic spree to slash government spending. Trump has long wanted to eliminate the Education … Continue Reading
March 24, 2025
CNBC: Senators press Trump Social Security nominee on his views about privatizing the agency
Two Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon — sent a letter Monday to Frank Bisignano, the nominee to lead the Social Security Administration, to ask whether he supports privatizing the agency and if he would be willing to undo recent changes. Bisignano, who is the chief executive officer of payments technology company Fiserv , has been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as commissioner of the SSA. Bisignano’s Senate confirmation hearing is … Continue Reading
March 24, 2025
Military.com: As Pentagon's Top Health Nominee Prepares for Confirmation Hearing, One Senator Has a Lot of Questions
Ahead of his confirmation hearing Thursday to become assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, Keith Bass is facing tough questions from a prominent Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Bass, a retired Navy commander and substance abuse counselor who previously led the Central Intelligence Agency's Office of Medical Services and the White House Medical Unit, was nominated Dec. 22 to manage the Defense Department's $61 billion health system, which serves 9.5 million … Continue Reading
March 24, 2025
USA TODAY: Government agency to review health and safety effects of Trump's mass firings
An independent government watchdog agency will probe how President Donald Trump's mass firings of early-tenure employees affect air travel, the spread of diseases, nuclear safety, food safety, veterans health care, the opioid epidemic, and the ability to respond to floods and wildfires. The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog agency that investigates, audits, and evaluates government operations for Congress, said it would open the investigation in response to a March 6 … Continue Reading
March 24, 2025
Mass Live: ‘Prelude to privatization?’: Mass. Sen. Warren seeks answers on Trump’s plans for Social Security
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants President Donald Trump’s pick to run the U.S. Social Security Administration to come clean about the Republican White House’s plans for an agency that touches the lives of millions of Americans. Frank Bisignano, the banker and financial technology executive tapped to lead the agency, is set to appear before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. Ahead of that appearance, Warren, D-Mass., and the panel’s ranking Democrat, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, are … Continue Reading
March 21, 2025
NBC News: Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth demand answers about Musk's Pentagon meeting
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., are demanding information from the Defense Department about Elon Musk's meeting this morning at the Pentagon. "Did the Pentagon today provide Mr. Musk with a top-secret briefing today on U.S. war plans for China?" Warren and Duckworth asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a letter obtained exclusively by NBC News. They sought additional details about the briefing, including whether the Pentagon changed its original plans for the … Continue Reading
March 21, 2025
NBC News: Elizabeth Warren questions SEC chair on meme coin guidance after Trumps' tokens launch
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, is seeking information from the Securities and Exchange Commission over its decision to relax federal regulations around meme coins weeks after Trump and first lady Melania Trump released their own versions. The SEC defines a meme coin as a type of crypto asset inspired by internet memes, characters, current events, or trends. In a staff statement last month, the agency said because of its … Continue Reading
March 21, 2025
Bloomberg: Syria Sanctions Relief Sought by Bipartisan Pair of Lawmakers
A bipartisan pair of lawmakers is seeking sanctions relief for Syria as the country rebuilds after the fall of President Bashar al Assad. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Representative Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, wrote a letter to to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asking them to review the US's Syria sanctions policy with an eye toward removing some measures to help the country's development and counter the … Continue Reading
March 20, 2025
NBC News: Sen. Warren calls Trump's expected Education Department executive order a 'code red'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., slammed Trump's attempt to dismantle the Education Department, saying in a statement that it's "a code red for every public school student, parent, and teacher in this country." "Trump is telling public school kids in America that their futures don't matter. Billionaires like Trump and Musk won't feel the difference when after school programs are slashed, class sizes go up, and help for families to pay for school gets cut," she said in a statement first to NBC … Continue Reading
March 20, 2025
Reuters: US Senate Democrats call on Trump Medicare nominee Dr. Oz to pay $400,000 in avoided taxes
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician nominated by President Donald Trump to oversee the government's Medicare and Medicaid health plans, should commit to paying over $400,000 in taxes he avoided, two Democratic U.S. Senators said on Thursday. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee that will decide whether to advance Oz's nomination to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and committee member Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, in … Continue Reading
March 20, 2025
Boston.com: Warren blasts NIH leaders amid funding disruptions
Sen. Elizabeth Warren demanded answers from National Institutes of Health (NIH) leaders Wednesday, accusing them of not knowing basic information about the agency and saying that the Trump administration sidestepped a basic court order. Warren excoriated NIH Acting Director Matthew Memoli and President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the agency, Jay Bhattacharya, in a new letter. She decried the "paralytic state" of the NIH amid Trump's funding cuts. Massachusetts, a national leader in … Continue Reading
March 20, 2025
ABC News: Warren warns of 'dire consequences' of Education Department firings for student loans
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is urging Education Secretary Linda McMahon to reinstate former Department of Education employees who were critical to the nation’s federal student aid process or else borrowers will suffer “dire consequences,” according to a letter Warren sent to McMahon on Wednesday. “The Department of Education (ED) appears to be abandoning the millions of parents, students, and borrowers who rely on a functioning federal student aid system to lower education costs,” Warren and a … Continue Reading