Press Releases
Senator Warren’s Statement on FHFA’s Principal Reduction Announcement
Washington, DC- United States Senator Elizabeth Warren issued the following statement today about the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) recent announcement that principal reductions will be made available for certain homeowners: "While this program will help a small number of underwater homeowners, last week's announcement was a bitter pill to swallow for the millions of homeowners who could have benefitted from a much broader program years ago. As part of the 2008 bill authorizing … Continue Reading
April 15, 2016
Senate Passes POW/MIA Remembrance Act
WASHINGTON,DC - Yesterday, the United States Senate unanimously passed H.R. 1670, the National POW/MIA Remembrance Act of 2015, legislation introduced by Congressman Stephen F. Lynch (D-Boston). United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) introduced the bipartisan Senate companion bill. The legislation honors American service members who are Prisoners of War (POW) or Missing in Action (MIA) by placing a commemorative chair on the grounds of the U.S. … Continue Reading
April 13, 2016
Statement from Senator Warren on Rejection of Banks' "Living Wills" by Fed and FDIC
Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren released the following statement today: "Eight years ago, Too Big to Fail banks sparked a financial meltdown, then sucked up hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts. Today, after an extensive, multi-year review process, federal regulators concluded that five of the country's biggest banks are still - literally - Too Big to Fail. They officially determined that five US banks are large enough that any one of them could crash … Continue Reading
April 13, 2016
Senator Warren Introduces Bill to Simplify Tax Filing
Bill Text, Fact SheetTax Report Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) today introduced the Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2016 to simplify and decrease the costs of the tax filing process for millions of American taxpayers. This year, taxpayers will spend an average of 13 hours preparing and filing their returns, and will pay $200 for tax preparation services - a cost equal to almost 10 percent of the average federal tax refund. The legislation introduced today … Continue Reading
April 12, 2016
Senators Call on New FDA Commissioner to Address Gaps in Policies to Reduce Antibiotic Use in Animals
Washington, DC - Today, United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) wrote to urge recently-confirmed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf to address clear gaps in the agency's policies on antibiotic use in food animal production. In their letter, the senators noted that many food animals are still fed low doses of … Continue Reading
April 12, 2016
Warren and Enzi Support Creation of Online Retirement Savings Transfer Process for Federal Workers
Text of the letter available here Washington, DC - United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) wrote today to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to encourage the creation of an online process that would allow federal workers to transfer or roll over funds from existing retirement accounts to their federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) accounts. TSP accounts have low fees and a variety of simple, effective investments options. However, to transfer savings … Continue Reading
April 11, 2016
Cummings and Warren Release GAO Report Highlighting Dramatic Growth of Nonbank Mortgage Servicers
Washington, DC - Today, United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that documents the dramatic growth of nonbank mortgage servicers and details the need for stronger regulatory oversight of the industry. GAO produced the report in response to a request from Cummings and Warren. The GAO report, Nonbank Mortgage … Continue Reading
April 08, 2016
Senator Warren Introduces Legislation to Address Concerns About Flight Noise in Local Communities
Washington, DC - Today, United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced the FAA Community Accountability Act to give local communities a voice in the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) decision-making process for flight paths. The bill was also filed as an amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2016, which is currently being debated on the Senate floor. Additionally, Senator Warren filed an amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Act requiring the Government Accountability … Continue Reading
April 07, 2016
Warren and Brown Urge Treasury Department to Investigate Involvement of U.S. Entities in Activities Revealed by “Panama Papers”
Washington, DC - In a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Banking Committee Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) urged the U.S. Treasury Department to investigate whether any U.S. or U.S.-linked entities were involved with Mossack Fonseca & Co., the Panama-based law firm whose leaked internal records appear to reveal that it has helped thousands of clients create shell companies to hide assets, some allegedly to launder money or … Continue Reading
April 07, 2016
Ernst, Bennet, Ayotte, and Warren Introduce Tax Credit for Family Caregivers
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) today introduced the Credit for Caring Act, which would provide up to a $3,000 nonrefundable tax credit to working family caregivers for qualified expenses. According to AARP, there are an estimated 40 million family caregivers in the United States. Most of these caregivers spend approximately 18 hours per week providing critical support to a family member. The … Continue Reading
April 07, 2016
Federal Agencies Commit to Marijuana Scheduling Decision by Mid-2016
Read the agencies' response here Washington, DC - The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) responded on Monday to a letter from several U.S. Senators requesting information on these agencies' efforts to facilitate medical marijuana research. In the response, DEA, HHS and ONDCP announced plans to release a determination on rescheduling petitions in the first half of 2016 and laid out a … Continue Reading
April 06, 2016
Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Advance Strategic Planning and Representation in Medical Research at NIH
Washington, DC - Yesterday, United States Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) introduced the Advancing NIH Strategic Planning and Representation in Medical Research Act. The legislation will advance a number of policies to improve planning, collaboration, and representation in research conducted and funded by the National Institutes of Health … Continue Reading
April 05, 2016
Senator Warren Questions Former Fed Regulator Whose Failures Helped Cause the Financial Crisis
Full Video Here Washington, DC - Today, United States Senator Elizabeth Warren attended a Senate Banking Committee hearing about assessing the effects of consumer finance regulations. At the hearing, Senator Warren questioned one of the witnesses chosen by Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.): former Federal Reserve (Fed) regulator Leonard Chanin. From 2005 to 2011, Chanin helped lead the Fed's Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, where he had the responsibility and authority to regulate … Continue Reading
April 05, 2016
Senators Warren and Enzi Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen Genetic Privacy Protections for Research Participants
Washington, DC - United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) today introduced the bipartisan Genetic Research Privacy Protection Act, which would strengthen privacy protections for the genetic information of medical research participants. Federal agencies as well as research institutions maintain large databases of genetic information. It also is now possible to use genetic information to identify individuals and to learn information about their health and the … Continue Reading
April 01, 2016
Warren, Markey, Keating, and Kennedy Applaud Release of Additional LIHEAP Funds for Mass. Residents
Washington, DC - United States Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, along with Congressmen Bill Keating and Joe Kennedy III applauded today's release of an additional $14,806,664 of Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funds for families in Massachusetts. With this second release, 99 percent of FY 2016 formula funds will have been provided to grantees. The remaining one percent is being held back pending final agency-wide budget decisions by the U.S. Department of … Continue Reading
March 31, 2016
Senator Warren Calls for SEC Investigation Into Financial Services Providers Over Contradictory Statements on the DOL Conflict of Interest Rule
Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren today sent a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Jo White to request that the SEC open an investigation into whether financial services providers violated securities laws by misleading investors by making contradictory statements about the impacts on their business practices of the Department of Labor's (DOL) pending Conflict of Interest Rule. "Corporate interests have become accustomed to saying whatever they … Continue Reading
March 30, 2016
Senator Warren Calls on Department of Education to Implement Five Fundamentals to Reform Student Loan Servicing
Washington, DC - Senator Elizabeth Warren has called on the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to implement five fundamentals to reform federal student loan servicing, following a recent ED Office of Inspector General (OIG) report identifying significant flaws in the Department's 2015 review of Navient's and other servicers' compliance with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. "When a private company breaks the law and steals from American soldiers who are literally in the field fighting … Continue Reading
March 30, 2016
Senator Warren Applauds Medical Journals’ Proposal to Require Sharing of Clinical Trial Data
Washington, DC- United States Senator Elizabeth Warren today sent a letter to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) applauding its proposal for journals to require the sharing of clinical trial data by researchers as a condition of publication. Under ICMJE's proposal, the author of a journal article would be asked to share the deidentified individual-patient data (IPD) that was used to generate the article's results. In the letter, Senator Warren explains how increased … Continue Reading
March 23, 2016
Sen. Warren and Rep. Takano Commend Social Security Administration for Taking Steps to Ensure SSI Beneficiaries in Same-Sex Marriages Are Not Penalized
WASHINGTON, DC - Following a letter from United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Congressman Mark Takano (D-Calif.), and 119 of their congressional colleagues, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has adopted a streamlined waiver process to address errors in SSA's treatment of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries in same-sex marriages. The October 26, 2015 letter sent by the Members of Congress urged Acting Commissioner of Social Security Carolyn W. Colvin and … Continue Reading
March 17, 2016
Senate Committee Approves Bipartisan Amendment based on the Bipartisan, Bicameral Reducing Unused Medication Act to Allow Partial Filling of Opioid Prescriptions
Washington, DC - The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Wednesday approved an amendment based on the bipartisan, bicameral Reducing Unused Medication Act that would allow prescriptions for opioid medications to be partially filled by pharmacists at the request of patients or doctors, reducing the number of unused painkillers. More than 70 percent of adults who misuse prescription opioids get them from friends or relatives, according to the … Continue Reading
