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Democrats need to think differently: Opposing the Trump administration isn’t enough. I recently spoke with Ezra Klein on his New York Times podcast about the imperative for Democrats to offer alternative governance. Ezra and I had a wide-ranging conversation about modular construction & land-use reform to lower housing costs; pivoting healthcare policy away from subsidizing insurance companies; delivering 1:1 high-dosage tutoring to children; taxing social media corporations’ abuse of the attention economy to fund local journalism; and even building new cities.
My party is not going to win back the center by offering MAGA-lite views on immigration or gun safety. We must stand by our values while offering our own big & bold ideas for how we can govern better, lower costs, and make America strong.
DOGE cuts at FDA, NIH: Elon Musk is ‘moving fast and breaking things’ in federal healthcare regulation, to the detriment of patients and medical innovators. It’s not about saving money. Cutting a $1 trillion annual deficit doesn't happen by canceling vaccine clinics overseas or firing FDA scientists here at home. That's penny-wise and pound-foolish. Deficit reduction happens through bipartisan negotiations on taxes and entitlements.
I am also alarmed by Musk and DOGE infiltrating the U.S. Department of the Treasury, accessing highly sensitive payments and records, including Social Security checks, tax returns, and Medicare bills. I am also disappointed, although not surprised, that Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to act on behalf of Congress against presidential overreach.
I co-sponsored the Taxpayer Data Protection Act to curb corruption and protect privacy by ensuring that only trusted public servants without conflicts of interest and with appropriate security clearances can access the Treasury Department’s most sensitive systems. Democrats should protect sensitive systems, and uphold Congress’s power of the purse, as a condition of any government-funding deal this spring.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed as HHS Secretary: Last week, Senate Republicans voted to confirm an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist as Secretary of Health and Human Services, overseeing vaccine development and distribution. In 2019, RFK Jr. ran what he called a "natural experiment" in Samoa, derailing its measles vaccination campaign. Fifty-six hundred people contracted measles as a result. Eighty-three people died, the majority of them children.
Kennedy now has power over the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, the HHS-run alternative process to civil lawsuits against vaccine makers. I am concerned he will use that power to encourage vexatious anti-vaccine litigation that sows fear amongst parents & pregnant women; enriches his associates; and discourages vaccine makers from developing and distributing vaccines.
Sitting on the committee overseeing RFK Jr, I will be laser-focused on preventing any more of his "natural experiments" on children's immunity.
Rallying for the Mass Eds & Meds economy against NIH cuts: Massachusetts’ economy depends upon its vibrant education and medical enterprise. Under the guidance of the Trump administration, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) changed its indirect cost recovery rate to 15% of a grant total. That means that when a researcher receives an NIH grant, only 15% of the funds can be used for facilities, utilities, IT systems, or support personnel. I spoke with The Boston Globe to discuss how this policy will disrupt Massachusetts’ biomedical success, without increasing R&D nationally.
Scientific overhead is well more than 15% of the cost of the experiments themselves: facilities, IT, and support personnel are essential elements of cutting-edge research. Some universities and hospitals may be able to cover some of their higher share of these indirect costs with cuts to other staff and programming or through more generous unrestricted philanthropy. Even presuming some efficiency gains, though, the net result of a 15% indirect cap would be that NIH grants become much more expensive to accept, because of the unfunded overhead associated with them.
The NIH policy is a significant tax on Massachusetts’ Eds & Meds enterprise. It is also illegal, since Congress has expressly forbade this approach every year since 2017, when Trump’s first administration made a similar attempt.
The NIH envisions that it can distribute more direct-research dollars from the same pool of money, by reducing its portion of indirect funding. In actuality, though, the NIH is attempting to privatize a public good, by shifting the costs of research infrastructure onto non-profit institutions. More direct research dollars may, in theory, be available, but in practice, recipients will find it increasingly challenging to pursue and support those grants. America could see its young scientists discouraged, its discoveries withering on the vine, and its global leadership in science and technology receding.
Instead of this gratuitous approach, the NIH should work collaboratively with experts and grantees on ways to improve research efficiency. One promising vein would be rationalizing the 250+ federal research regulations that have mushroomed since the turn of the century and which require corresponding administrative bloat from grantee institutions. Congress, for its part, must (again) negate this executive action through law and radically increase its funding for the NIH so that the tension between direct and indirect costs is not a zero-sum equation.
Challenging my Republican colleagues to support basic science: Last week, after the NIH announced its new indirect cost cap policy that will undercut research infrastructure, I spoke on the House Floor to deliver a challenge to my Republican colleagues: go back to their districts and speak to the universities and academic medical centers they represent. What they will hear is that scientists back home will lose out on grants, because there’s no funding to cover their overhead.
The winner is China. Bolstered by investment in their own ‘Kendall Squares’, the Chinese biotech enterprise is now a global powerhouse, no longer fast-following American science but breaking new ground and attracting top talent. They are investing in research facilities and IT systems, not undermining them.
America has been at the cutting edge of science and technology since World War II because of robust public-private funding, strong intellectual property laws, and an immigration system that serves as a magnet for talent. Each of these three tenets requires sustained political will.
Meeting with Massachusetts health leaders: The Fourth District is a hub of healthcare, which is why I'm excited to now be serving on Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee. I met separately with the CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers and the Immediate Past President of the Massachusetts Medical Society, both of whom are constituents and physicians. They each raised the value of primary care and the need for Congress to support it through robust Section 330 grants to Community Health Centers and higher Medicare reimbursement rates to physicians.
Community health centers treat 10% of Americans for just 1% of total U.S. healthcare spending. Expanding their reach would yield significant benefits, including improved preventive care, lower downstream costs, and healthier children.
Sanctioning fentanyl manufacturing: At an Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee hearing, I questioned experts on fentanyl abuse in the United States. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Mexican drug cartels are poisoning Americans to death through fentanyl exports, nearly all of which originate from a few dozen Chinese manufacturers. Last Congress, I led three pieces of legislation to address the fentanyl crisis:
- The Joint Task Force to Counter Illicit Synthetic Narcotics Act would establish a joint task force, with leadership accountable to the president and to Congress, to fuse together federal counter-fentanyl action in law enforcement, customs, sanctions, and diplomacy
- The CCP Fentanyl Sanctions Act would codify President Joe Biden’s counternarcotics executive order and grant the Executive Branch additional authority to target bad actors in China that facilitate fentanyl trafficking, from the manufacturers to the ports to the online platforms
- The International Protection from PRC Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Opioids Act would impose civil penalties on Chinese ships docking at U.S. ports if they fail to properly vet their cargo for fentanyl.
I also pressured the experts on the role that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have played in our nation’s opioid crisis. The Big 3 PBMs pushed opioids onto prescribers, helping fuel the opioid epidemic. Now, the PBMs are charging a higher co-pay in Medicare for the first painkiller on the market to match opioids in efficacy for acute pain. Patients in pain who want a non-addictive option will have to pay more. This is backwards, and I am exploring legislative options to address the PBMs’ approach.
Cross-border collaboration with our Canadian allies: I met with Andrew Furey, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Dennis King, the Premier of Prince Edward Island. Premier Furey, a surgeon and celebrated international humanitarian, is also the chair of the New England Governors – Eastern Canadian Premiers intergovernmental forum. He works closely with New England on cross-border collaboration related to clean energy and critical minerals.
I relayed to the premiers that the president's hostile posture toward Canada does not reflect Bay Staters' attitude. Tariffs on Canadian energy and materials would raise utility and insurance bills in Massachusetts. We value our two nations' close economic, cultural, and security partnership.
Helping Mass companies sell to the Pentagon: I perennially vote against Defense appropriations because I am so frustrated by how poorly the Pentagon spends money.
The Alliance for Commercial Technology represents innovators trying to sell solutions — not cost-plus contracts — to the Defense Department. I met with the Alliance’s Massachusetts companies to discuss Phase III Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) reform to bridge the valley of death; instituting a shot-clock for contract notifications; and enforcing the market research requirements of FASA, 10 USC 3453, and FAR Part 10.
The laws are complicated, but the goal is simple: bypass bureaucracy and put cost-competitive technology in the hands of the warfighter that makes them safer and more lethal.
Massachusetts is a driver of the R&D and specialized manufacturing of this technology. Particularly at the intersection of robotics, AI/autonomy, and maritime operations, Massachusetts can host cutting-edge companies and good jobs helping the Pentagon outmatch China in the Indo-Pacific.
Welcoming Massachusetts Fire Chiefs to the Capitol: The Massachusetts Fire Chiefs Association welcomed me to their breakfast on Capitol Hill. At the top of the agenda were the FIRE grants that support training and equipment for local departments. Since taking office, I’ve helped secure millions in these grants and will continue to support that program. I also highlighted for the chiefs my bipartisan work on fentanyl interdiction. To support our first responders, Congress must prevent fentanyl precursors from flooding into our country from China.
Founding of the Congressional Jewish Caucus: I was grateful to join the inaugural meeting of the Congressional Jewish Caucus, which will aim to represent the values and priorities of the American Jewish community regarding the issues of the day.
Standing up for USAID: DOGE’s dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) undercuts an important tool for addressing global poverty and instability. USAID works to help and heal vulnerable mothers and children, to support education and development, and to stabilize fragile states.
By law, USAID is an independent entity separate from the State Department, and any changes to that structure would require legislative approval from Congress. I joined with 100 other Congressional Democrats in rebuking the administration and opposing the illegal disbandment of USAID.
By pulling the rug out from nations and people in need, the administration is acting cruelly and creating a void that will be filled by China, Iran, and Russia’s global axis of authoritarianism.
The future of NATO: At this year’s GLOBSEC Transatlantic Forum, I reinforced the importance of NATO while proposing that America and Europe should better differentiate. America should downsize its Army and grow its Navy to deter and prepare for conflict in the oceans of the Indo-Pacific, while Europe should fortify its eastern flank with a bigger and more lethal army. "We'll do the Navy, you do the Army."
In the immediate term, the gravest challenge to the NATO alliance is the Trump administration's willingness to appease the Kremlin and undermine Ukraine. Putin has already won round one against Trump. In Riyadh this week, the Kremlin was normalized in bilateral diplomacy that excludes Ukraine and NATO, and it gave up nothing in return.
Supporting Ukraine in its war and involving it in the negotiations for peace is essential to achieving a stable victory for our ally—one that fortifies its eastern border, guarantees freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, and secures its accession to the European Union.
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