LAST 2 WEEKS IN REVIEW

I’m your representative in Congress and I write to keep you informed.

Discussing lower healthcare costs at BioFuture NYC
Condemning the antisemitic attack in Amsterdam
Kim Jong Un’s Ukraine gambit
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Reflecting on the human cost of opioid addiction
Employment for individuals with intellectual & developmental disabilities
Veterans Day in Swansea and Foxborough
“Bring your Congressman to School Day” at Hopedale
Nuclear at scale
Visiting our local pharmacists in Milford

On the Hill

Discussing lower healthcare costs at BioFuture NYC: At the BioFuture 2024 Conference in New York City, I joined a panel to discuss biotech’s role in U.S. healthcare, which is a ~$4.5 trillion sector – as large as Germany’s economy. The most expensive, and most inflationary, element of our healthcare system is hospital visits. Measures that reduce aggregate hospital bed-days are the best way to take cost out of the system, and thereby lower your health insurance premiums, which have been rising faster than hourly earnings.

There is no one intervention to reduce aggregate hospital bed-days, of course, but there are proven measures. From macro to micro, they include:

Reducing rates of smoking, alcohol intake, gun violence and obesity and increasing rates of exercise and sleep
Improving diagnostics and preventative treatments, and expanding patient access to them through better insurance design
Empowering pharmacists & other non-M.D. medical professionals to widen their scope of practice, so that more care can be delivered in outpatient or at-home settings
Shifting the incentives of hospitals away from primarily ‘heads on beds’ payment models
Investing in and rewarding new medicines and medical devices that cure or treat disease without intensive care

Condemning the antisemitic attack in Amsterdam: I joined thirteen of my Jewish colleagues to call on the Dutch government to arrest those participating in heinous acts of antisemitic violence across Amsterdam. On November 7th, what should have been a normal evening of fans enjoying a soccer game turned into a pogrom as Israeli and Jewish fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team were ambushed by a pre-organized, violent mob. Over several hours, dozens of Jews and Israelis were severely injured after being hunted down, beaten, attacked with knives, and run over by cars. We are now witnessing these antisemitic riots spreading further across Amsterdam and Europe.

I support Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt’s call for the Netherlands to conduct a thorough investigation as to why it took police hours to break up the pogrom and protect Israeli and Jewish victims of these attacks. I also urge our European allies to meaningfully address the rapid rise of antisemitism across the continent. As a Jewish Member of Congress, I will never abandon the fight against antisemitism. I will continue to monitor the situation until those responsible for these attacks are fully brought to justice.

Kim Jong Un's Ukraine gambit: Over 10,000 North Korean troops are now invading Europe. While this indicates the Kremlin’s manpower & morale weakness, it also points to the power of the axis of autocracy between Russia, North Korea, China, and Iran. Along with our South Korean ally, the United States should make every effort to prevent Kim Jong Un from receiving ballistic-missile upgrades from Russia in exchange for its troops. More broadly, the United States will need to drive wedges between these four nations at every opportunity: seeking to prevent Chinese imports of Iranian oil, for example, or Iranian exports of drones to Russia. The axis has thin ideological alignment, unlike the deeper commitments that bind NATO, and America and its allies should seek to grind down their mutual assistance

Around the Fourth

Reflecting on the human cost of opioid addiction: With Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, I visited Wheaton College’s Into Light exhibition, which chronicles the human toll of the opioid epidemic. Through portraits, artifacts, and testimonials from family members, I learned about dozens of young Bay Staters who died from opioid overdoses. These were regular kids who spiraled into a living nightmare of addiction, deception, and despair as their neuro-chemistry was hijacked by opiates. Moms & dads struggled to keep them safe, to get them help, and sometimes just to make sure they knew they were loved when they were at their very lowest.

Sheriff Koutoujian & I are each tackling the opioid crisis from different angles. He’s leading one of the nation’s premier mental health and substance abuse programs for inmates, the majority of whom suffer from either or both illnesses. I am the co-chair of the Fentanyl Working Group, crafting bipartisan legislation to interdict the supply of fentanyl from China, which originates almost all fentanyl precursors. Together, we wanted to connect with the individuals behind the policy & statistics that we grapple with every day.

Employment for individuals with intellectual & developmental disabilities: Employment for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) is a win-win-win for those individuals, their families, and their employers. While labor-force participation for IDD persons has been trending in the right direction, there are still millions who want the dignity, agency, and remuneration of employment but can’t find a fit.

In Milford, I visited Sweet Inspirations, founded by Joe Zenus, Sr. and Jennifer Walsh, which is a candy store that employs IDD individuals. Joe told me how he was inspired to start Sweet Inspirations upon the passing of his beloved grandson, who was a passionate volunteer. Jen, a former special education instructor, and I discussed the state of special education in the schools. I also spoke to several employees and one of their parents, who all affirmed the unique value that Sweet Inspirations brings to them, their families, and Milford.

Improving employment opportunities for IDD individuals can be a bipartisan issue where Congress can make progress even in polarized periods.

Veterans Day in Swansea and Foxborough: On Veterans Day, I joined my fellow veterans in Swansea and Foxborough. Our nation is grateful to our veterans not just for their courage in combat but also for their honor in peace. As I nominate the next generation of officers to the service academies, I am impressed and gratified by their proficiency and patriotism. When I speak to these young men and women, I tell them to draw inspiration and take an example from the veterans we honor, who fought fiercely for freedom and never forgot their loyalty to the Constitution and to this republic of laws.

"Bring your Congressman to School Day" at Hopedale: Hopedale 8th-graders welcomed me to their school to discuss civics. I discussed my bipartisan legislation to regulate the social media corporations that are attention-fracking them, and got their feedback on how TikTok & other platforms influence their sense of self & society. I also encouraged them to foreground local news & municipal policy: the opportunities for engagement & impact in your own community are often overlooked, but deeply meaningful.

Nuclear at scale: I participated in a national security panel at Harvard that included former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joe Dunford (USMC Retired). Among other topics, we discussed how to create overmatch against the Chinese in the domains of energy, information operations, and weaponry. One important way I proposed: committing to build nuclear power plants at scale, so that American engineers and operators sprint down the production cost curve.

My closing remarks, at a time when North Korean troops are invading Europe, focused on the imperative to win in Ukraine. Half measures will not do – NATO cannot abide by any other outcome than a sovereign, democratic, and prosperous Ukraine.

Visiting our local pharmacists in Milford: Ali Ardakani is a constituent who owns two pharmacies in our district, one each in Milford & Sherborn. I met with him at his Milford location to discuss his reimbursement challenges with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the drug-pricing middlemen owned by health insurance corporations that have been sued by the Federal Trade Commission for antitrust violations. My bipartisan bill, the Pharmacists Fight Back Act, would level the playing field for Ali so that he doesn’t lose money every time he fills a prescription for these Fortune 20 PBMs. It would also prevent the PBMs from practices that raise your co-pays & premiums by inflating the cost of prescription drugs.

Ali and I also discussed the opportunity for pharmacists to expand their scope of practice, into services like optical, immunizations, and telehealth. These would provide a diversified revenue stream that expands access to medical providers at a time when there is a deficit of primary care physicians.

Make your voice heard → I want to hear from you.

Would you be interested in getting basic medical care at your local community pharmacy?

Onwards,

Jake