News Coverage
Washington Post: Senate Democrats seek information on family reunifications, call for briefings
Democratic senators want to know — in detail — how the government is trying to reunite migrant families separated after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. In a letter Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and 10 colleagues asked federal officials for information that would reveal the progress of the reunification efforts. They asked for anonymized lists of all children and adults who were separated from family members at the border; how long they have been detained and where; and … Continue Reading
June 27, 2018
Common Dreams: 'We're Not Going Anywhere': Sanders, Warren, and Ellison Vow to Stand With Workers After SCOTUS Undermines Labor Movement
Progressive voices in Congress vowed to stand with workers and defend labor rights on Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against the largest public sector union in the country in a landmark case over union fees. Sen. Eizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a video featuring labor leaders including American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten and Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME, and attacking the corporate interests which helped deliver a crushing blow to … Continue Reading
June 26, 2018
LA Times: U.S. Sens. Sanders and Warren call for a living wage for resort workers
The dispute over living wages at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif., has spread to Congress. Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have joined 21 other Democratic legislators in signing a letter to Walt Disney Co. CEO urging him to tap the company's hefty profit to pay his resort workers a living wage. Sanders and Warren said Disney is profitable enough to pay a living wage without hurting the company's bottom line.Read the full story on the LA Times … Continue Reading
June 26, 2018
MassLive: Massachusetts lawmakers denounce Supreme Court's decision to uphold President Donald Trump's 'travel ban'
Members of Massachusetts' congressional delegation condemned the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday for upholding a Trump administration policy that limited the ability of individuals from five Muslim-majority countries to enter the United States. Massachusetts Democrats, who have vocally opposed the White House's controversial "travel ban," slammed the high court's 5 to 4 ruling that found the president has authority to suspend the entry of foreign nationals into the country. U.S. Sen. … Continue Reading
June 25, 2018
Time: Elizabeth Warren Describes 'Disturbing Picture' After Visiting Immigration Facility in Texas
Elizabeth Warren paid a visit Sunday to an immigration facility in McAllen, Texas amid the ongoing crisis over family separations at the Mexican border. “It’s a disturbing picture. There are children by themselves. I saw a six month old baby, little girls, little boys. There are mothers with their babies, with small children. Family units are together if it’s a very small child, but little girls who are 12 years old are taken away from the rest of their families or held separately. … Continue Reading
June 25, 2018
Boston Globe: Democrats flood border, demanding answers on immigrant child separations
Congressional Democrats are flocking to the border, investigating conditions in immigrant detention centers and denouncing President Trump.Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Katherine Clark and Mike Capuano of Massachusetts were among the more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers who traveled to the Southern border this weekend in a blue wave of outrage.But they were unable to extract many answers from front-line US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement … Continue Reading
June 21, 2018
MassLive: Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey again press FEMA to help hurricane evacuees, slam agency's claims on Disaster Housing Assistance Program
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, condemned the Trump administration Thursday for refusing to utilize a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program to help Puerto Rican families who remain in mainland hotels nine months after Hurricane Maria made landfall. The senators renewed their call for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to utilize HUD's Disaster Housing Assistance Program to provide long-term shelter supports to evacuees, contending that … Continue Reading
June 19, 2018
The Hill: Warren to put hold on Trump consumer bureau nominee
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday said she would block President Trump’s nominee to lead a consumer protection agency until the White House budget official explains her role in the administration’s controversial “zero-tolerance” immigration policy.Warren said in a tweet she would put hold up Kathy Kraninger's nomination to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) until questions are answered about her involvement in policies that include separating migrant … Continue Reading
June 18, 2018
Washington Post: Are Betsy DeVos’s policies exacerbating racial inequities in student debt? These lawmakers think so
Senate and House Democrats are accusing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos of exacerbating racial disparities in student debt by failing to help defrauded borrowers, enforce consumer protections and examine the root causes of debt inequity.They point to the rewriting of Obama-era regulations intended to guard against predatory for-profit colleges, highlighting two rules known as borrower defense to repayment and gainful employment. As originally conceived, those regulations would benefit students … Continue Reading
June 14, 2018
The Nation: The Poor People’s Campaign Is Changing the Moral Narrative of Congress
The Poor People’s Campaign has come to Washington to challenge members of Congress to address systemic racism, poverty, and inequality, ecological devastation and militarism.The members who showed up were moved by the call. “We’re here today because there is something happening in America. The poor and the marginalized and the suffering are taking to the streets in our capitals across this country to reclaim our government and to demand a government for all the people,” Senator … Continue Reading
June 14, 2018
The New York Times: Rubio and Warren Seek to Protect Licenses of Student-Loan Debtors
Senators Marco Rubio and Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill on Thursday that would prevent states from suspending residents’ driver’s and professional licenses over unpaid federal student loans. Critics have called the practice a self-defeating approach that denies borrowers the means to pay their debts. The bipartisan proposal came after a November report by The New York Times revealed that 20 states had laws allowing government agencies to seize licenses from residents who had … Continue Reading
June 13, 2018
The Hill: Warren: GOP tax bill is 'evidence of corruption in Congress'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) railed against widespread corruption in Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court, taking direct aim at the GOP’s tax law as “evidence of corruption.”Speaking at Wednesday’s We the People Summit in Washington, D.C., Warren largely focused her speech on economic disparity in the U.S., arguing that the economy unfairly benefits wealthy Americans and corporations over the middle class.“Our government has been captured by powerful corporations and … Continue Reading
June 13, 2018
Vox: Sen. Warren blasts FEMA for doing nothing about Puerto Rico’s hurricane death count
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and two House Democrats blasted the Trump administration Tuesday for not doing anything to verify the true hurricane death toll in Puerto Rico, which researchers now believe could be more than 70 times higher than the official count. President Trump and his Cabinet have remained silent in the face of growing evidence that Puerto Rico is undercounting the deaths of US citizens who died in connection to Hurricane Maria. The local government’s official death … Continue Reading
June 12, 2018
The Hill: Warren presses health chief over Trump's promise of drug price cuts
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar on Tuesday about why no drug companies have announced price decreases despite President Trump saying they would soon. Warren focused on Trump’s statement at the end of May that "in two weeks" drug companies would "announce voluntary massive drops in prices." The two-week mark from that statement is this Wednesday. "He said there would be massive decreases in prices within two weeks," … Continue Reading
June 12, 2018
The Guardian: Democrats urge Congress to take action on 'appalling rates of poverty'
Bernie Sanders and a group of top Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to present a plan to Congress to combat “massive levels of deprivation and the immense suffering this deprivation causes”, following an excoriating United Nations report into extreme poverty in America. In a congressional letter delivered on Tuesday to Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, the group said the UN report was “a call to action that we must heed”. They stand ready, the signatories say, … Continue Reading
June 11, 2018
American Banker: Senior Democrats to Mulvaney: Stop 'starving' CFPB of consumer data
Two top Democratic senators accused the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mick Mulvaney, of “starving” the agency of data used to help write new rules. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Mark Warner, D-Va., submitted a letter to the agency Monday as part of a comment period for public input on whether to change the CFPB’s rulemaking process. The lawmakers emphasized that the agency should maintain data collection as part of its rulemaking process, while … Continue Reading
June 09, 2018
CBS Boston: Walsh, Warren, Etheridge Join Thousands In Boston Pride Parade
With rainbow flags and bright colors, tens of thousands of people marched with pride and concern Saturday in the 48th Boston Pride Parade.Boston Mayor Marty Walsh marched the two-mile route through the Back Bay and South End with the U.S. Council of Mayors and 300 different organizations. This year’s theme of “Rainbow Resistance” reflects opposition to new and rising threats against the LGBTQ community, including a November ballot question asking voters whether to keep or repeal the state’s … Continue Reading
June 08, 2018
MassLive: Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker backs Sen. Elizabeth Warren's marijuana bill, urges Capitol Hill leaders to pass the legislation
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and his counterparts in 12 states on Friday urged Congressional leaders to pass US Sen. Elizabeth Warren's marijuana bill and protect the tax and regulatory structures set up by voters and state lawmakers.In a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, Baker and his fellow governors noted that 46 states allow the use of medical marijuana and 9 states broadly legalized … Continue Reading
June 07, 2018
Salem News: Warren introduce bipartisan pot bill
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren joined a Colorado Republican on Thursday to roll out federal legislation that would resolve much of the tension between the federal prohibition on marijuana and the growing pot industries in states that have voted to legalize marijuana, like Massachusetts.The Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act (STATES Act) seeks to ensure each state the right to determine the best approach to marijuana regulation within its borders, Warren … Continue Reading
June 07, 2018
Colorado Politics: Gardner, Warren introduce bill to safeguard states with pot
Sens. Cory Gardner and Elizabeth Warren unveiled legislation Thursday to make it clear that states that adequately regulate marijuana need not fear the federal government.Colorado, Massachusetts and other states that have legalized marijuana have fretted intervention from the Trump administration, given Attorney General Jeff Session’s animosity toward pot and the fact federal law still deems it illegal.In a media advisory, Warren’s office said the goal of the legislation would be to … Continue Reading
