News Coverage
WesternMass News: State senators urge federal officials for more research on EEE virus
Now with the threat of EEE in the Bay State rising, state senators are speaking up to bring change.Senators Markey and Warren are pressing health officials for additional research on EEE, a deadly disease that is still surrounded by questions.The total number of human cases of the Eastern Equine Encephalitis in Massachusetts has risen to 7 after officials confirmed two new human cases of EEE with the latest being a 5-year-old girl from Sudsbury, who had just started kindergarten.Read the full … Continue Reading
September 03, 2019
New England Public Radio: After Public Outcry, Feds Agree To Reopen Certain Medical Deferral Requests
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) now says it will reopen certain medical deferred action cases, including for a number of Boston-area immigrants who previously received denial letters.The announcement comes after a tumultuous week in which federal agencies contradicted one another and severely ill patients feared a total end to the humanitarian process that allows immigrants to remain longer in the U.S. while they receive medical treatment.WBUR first reported the apparent end … Continue Reading
August 30, 2019
WBUR News: ICE Confirms The End Of Medical Deferrals; Mass. Delegation Urges Trump To Reconsider
After a week of confusion around a long-standing medical deferment program for immigrants with serious illnesses, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday made things clear: the program no longer exists.ICE spokesperson Shawn Neudauer told WBUR in a statement that "ICE does not exercise discretion on a categorical basis to exempt entire groups of aliens from the immigration laws enacted by Congress."Though ICE does have a process by which individuals can apply for a temporary … Continue Reading
August 28, 2019
Boston Globe: Warren, Markey, Pressley letter demands answers on asylum delays in Boston
Three members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation are questioning the Trump administration’s decision to divert immigration officers from Northeast offices to assist with processing asylum cases at the southern border, leaving behind a backlog of 40,000 New England cases.In a letter to acting US Citizenship and Immigration Services director Ken Cuccinelli, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Senator Edward J. Markey, and Representative Ayanna Pressley called the move an “unfair and unjustified … Continue Reading
August 26, 2019
Rolling Stone: Elizabeth Warren: Trump’s Student-Loan Watchdog Pick Is ‘Revolving Door Corruption’
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) blasted the chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for appointing a high-ranking official from a scandal-plagued loan servicer to be the Bureau’s new student-loan watchdog.On Monday, Warren’s office released three fiery letters the senator had sent to Trump-nominated CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Robert Cameron, the man picked to serve as the CFPB’s new student-loan ombudsman. The ombudsman position was created to … Continue Reading
August 15, 2019
Bloomberg: Elizabeth Warren Presses Tom Barrack Over Deals With Saudis
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is demanding Donald Trump ally Tom Barrack explain how he won business with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund after working closely with the president and his administration.In a letter to Barrack, the lawmaker highlighted deals the financier’s Colony Capital Inc. arranged after he met with Saudi officials including Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman while serving as head of Trump’s inaugural committee and as an adviser to the presidential transition team. The … Continue Reading
July 23, 2019
HuffPost: Elizabeth Warren Introduces Bill To Cancel $640 Billion In Student Loan Debt
The Massachusetts senator and the House majority whip, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), introduced the Student Loan Debt Relief Act on Tuesday. The bill would eliminate student debt entirely for 75% of borrowers and partially for another 20% of borrowers. “[Student loan] debt not only affects the people who try to carry it ? it affects our entire economy,” Warren said at a press conference. “Finding a way to cancel a big chunk of that student loan debt means freeing up young people to do more.” … Continue Reading
July 18, 2019
CNBC: Elizabeth Warren attacks the private equity industry with new regulation proposals
The Massachusetts senator, in tandem with colleagues on Capitol Hill, introduced what she calls the “Stop Wall Street Looting Act.” It stands no chance of enactment so long as Republicans control the White House and Senate, but it matters because Warren has risen to the top tier of 2020 Democratic contenders. Warren framed her proposal as an effort to shrink the amount of money wasted on 21st century financial engineering and redirect it to improve the living standards of average American … Continue Reading
February 20, 2019
GQ: Elizabeth Warren's Universal Child Care Program Will Save American Families Thousands of Dollars
Elizabeth Warren made it clear [that she wants] to be a populist crusader who doubled as a check on the power of corporations and the super-rich. She proposed a "wealth tax," a 2 percent tax on families with assets over $50 million and 3 percent on those with assets over $1 billion. It would generate an estimated $2.75 trillion over the next ten years, and now we know what Warren wants to do with that money: fund a national child-care program. Earlier this year, a New York Times poll found … Continue Reading
February 19, 2019
New York Times: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Universal Child Care
Elizabeth Warren's plan, the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, would create a network of government-funded care centers based partly on the existing Head Start network, with employees paid comparably to public-school teachers. Families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level would be able to send their children to these centers for free. Families earning more than that would be charged on a sliding scale, up to a maximum of 7 percent of their income. The plan … Continue Reading
February 19, 2019
WaPo: Elizabeth Warren proposes universal child care, paid for by tax on ultra-millionaires
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a plan Tuesday for creating a "universal child care" system in the United States paid for by a tax on the very wealthy. The plan proposed by Warren would ensure that every American would be able to enroll children up to 5 years old in a child-care program while paying no more than 7 percent of their income in fees. Families below a certain income level - $50,000 a year in today's dollars, for a family of four - could use the facilities free of charge, … Continue Reading
February 19, 2019
Vox: Elizabeth Warren's Ambitious Plan to Fight the Opioid Epidemic, Explained
Elizabeth Warren is widely known for her public battles with big banks and Wall Street. She's gotten attention for her wealth tax proposal. She's praised, even by some conservatives, for her book The Two-Income Trap. As a US senator for Massachusetts, Warren has built a formidable record on the opioid crisis, which now kills more Americans than gun violence or car crashes. She's called for more research into alternative painkillers, including medical marijuana. She's tried to holdPresident … Continue Reading
January 28, 2019
The Week: How Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax could save America
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has a big new idea: She wants to directly tax the assets of the richest Americans. Her associates are calling it the "ultra-millionaire tax." This is not crazy. Taxes on wages and income are common, including taxes on the money people get when they sell assets. Straight-up wealth taxes like Warren is proposing - which go after the value of things that individuals own - are less common, but not unheard of. "My proposal will help address runaway wealth … Continue Reading
January 24, 2019
Washington Post: Sen. Warren’s plan to tax the ultrawealthy is a smart idea whose time has come
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has just introduced a tax idea this country desperately needs: a tax on high-end wealth. It's an idea that's well-crafted for our time, one that promises to add fairness to an unfair tax code, raise significant, much-needed revenue and push back on the historically high level of wealth concentration in the United States. Here's the plan, which, for the record, is extremely simple to explain, an advantage when it comes to tax policy: Wealth over $50 million … Continue Reading
January 16, 2019
Vox: Elizabeth Warren is confronting big banks over how they intend to “help” workers during the shutdown
Banks say they’re helping federal workers missing pay during the partial government shutdown, but exactly what they’re doing, in many cases, is unclear. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is pushing for more details.The Massachusetts Democrat and 2020 presidential contender sent letters to Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, US Bancorp, and Wells Fargo on Tuesday, asking them for details on the actual services and solutions they are offering to federal workers who are furloughed or aren’t … Continue Reading
January 16, 2019
American Banker: Warren asks big banks for details on their shutdown response
WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pressed the five largest U.S. retail banks Wednesday on details about what the firms are doing to reduce the effects of the partial government shutdown on furloughed government employees.Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee and potential 2020 presidential hopeful, said in a letter to Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo that the challenge for furloughed federal employees is now reaching … Continue Reading
December 20, 2018
Vox: Elizabeth Warren’s ambitious new bill to lower generic drug prices, explained
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) would like the federal government to start manufacturing prescription drugs when the market fails and prices for certain medications become unaffordable. It's an interesting idea, experts who lean right and left agree. But more than that, it is a reminder that there are all kinds of creative ways we might go about bringing down drug prices. We know Americans are really worried about drug costs - six in 10 people take a prescription … Continue Reading
December 12, 2018
Curbed: Elizabeth Warren doubles down on affordable housing legislation
Today, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) doubled down on her strategy to fix America's housing crisis. Along with Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), she introduced the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act to the House, a companion to a Senate bill Warren introduced in September. "America is facing a housing crisis-a crisis that has been decades in the making," Sen. Warren said at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. "This is a crisis that hits … Continue Reading
December 06, 2018
McClatchy: Senators want broader probe of FEMA contracts in Puerto Rico
Four prominent Democratic senators on Thursday asked the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security to broaden an ongoing investigation into contracting and hurricane relief problems in Puerto Rico. More than a year after Hurricane Maria's devastating rampage across Puerto Rico, the island is struggling to rebuild. The letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and three other senators, directs the inspector general to look closely at the $1.2 billion Tu Hogar Renace … Continue Reading
November 30, 2018
The Nation: Elizabeth Warren Just Took a Crucial Stand for Democracy and Enlightened Internationalism
Warren is proposing to break the grip of billionaire campaign donors and corporate interests on US foreign policy. Americans who seek an enlightened alternative to the crudely nationalist and frequently antidemocratic ideology of Trumpism, and to a broader misdirection of US foreign policy that began long before the current president took office, got it this week from Elizabeth Warren. "Our country is in a moment of crisis decades in the making, a moment in which America's middle class has … Continue Reading
