LAST 2 WEEKS IN REVIEW

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

• Supporting Ukraine against Trump & Putin
• Defending science and healthcare from attacks by DOGE & congressional Republicans
• An economy on edge: tariff uncertainty, insurance spikes, healthcare cuts, and tax debates
• Rejecting discrimination against our neighbors
• Preserving progress on the Taunton River
• Discussing the future of media with digital natives

Supporting Ukraine against Trump & Putin:

Supporting Ukraine against Putin & Trump: Yet again, Speaker Johnson and congressional Republicans remain silent and afraid as the president sells out NATO and weakens the United States. President Trump’s shameless spectacle in the Oval Office last week, followed by cutting off military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, is a national disgrace that threatens Ukraine's strong position on the battlefield and in diplomacy. 

Zelenskyy flew to Washington, but he walked into the Kremlin. 

Republicans still committed to Ukraine must join Democrats in insisting that America sustain the G7's $50 billion economic lifeline to Ukraine, persist with military support for Ukrainian warfighters, and support Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

Stand with Ukraine Rally on the Boston Common: I joined the Stand with Ukraine Rally on the Boston Common with a message from Americans to Ukrainians: we don't want your minerals, we want your freedom. Massachusetts is fortunate to have a significant Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American community, which strongly condemns the Trump administration’s attempts to appease the Kremlin and whitewash Russia’s atrocities.

How Ukraine can overcome Trump’s weakness: On the Jake Broe Show, I discussed how Ukraine and Europe can secure its eastern border despite Trump's weakness: 

1. Extend to Ukraine Article 42.7 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which is its collective defense provision. Attach specific and substantive commitments from individual EU Member states for how each would respond in support of Ukraine to Russian belligerence
2. Put Ukraine on a one-way path to EU membership by 2030
3. Claim the ~300 billion euros of frozen Russian assets held in Brussels for the support of Ukrainian defense and economic development
4. Expend the 300 billion euros primarily towards the $20-40 billion annually it would cost Ukraine to field an approximately one-million-person army (both reserve and active), Black Sea Navy, and air defense-systems that can 

a. Secure the eastern border with troops & defense fortifications

b. Ensure freedom of navigation in the Black Sea

c. Field a strategic response force

d. Provide air-defense for cities & critical infrastructure

Trump ends US global health leadership: The president has dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), cutting over 90% of its 6,300 awards, including initiatives that treat HIV, malaria, and polio. One official at USAID projected that 200,000 children would be paralyzed by polio because of Trump’s cuts; he was then fired for speaking out.

To stand up for U.S. global health leadership at a time when too many politicians find it convenient to criticize or ignore it, I invited USAID’s former Assistant Administrator for Global Health, Dr. Atul Gawande, as my guest for President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress. Dr. Gawande is a renowned surgeon, writer, and public health leader.

Dr. Gawande and I separately and jointly made the case that, despite bad-faith and cherry-picked examples of waste, USAID saves lives, enhances American prestige, and promotes stability in regions prone to extremism. It is a tiny fraction of the federal budget that pays out moral and strategic dividends.

Holding RFK Jr. to account for measles-outbreak response: In 2019, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. conducted what he referred to as a "natural experiment" in Samoa, where he derailed the country's measles vaccination campaign. This led to 5,600 infections and 83 deaths, the majority of whom were children. 

Now, as Secretary of Health & Human Services, Kennedy still refuses to recommend the MMR vaccine despite a measles outbreak in Texas in which 146 people have been infected and an unvaccinated school-aged child has tragically died. This marks the first measles-related death for a child in the United States since 2003. It is directly tied to Kennedy's efforts to foment vaccination hesitancy.

At last week’s Oversight subcommittee meeting, Congresswoman Kim Schrier, a pediatrician, and I demanded that the Republicans force RFK Jr. to testify on his plan of action for measles. They refused to make that commitment.

Through both public pressure and committee action, I will continue my efforts to build bipartisan oversight of RFK Jr.’s ‘natural experiment’ on vaccines, which I am concerned will include undermining the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program that underpins vaccine distribution in the United States.

Measles is highly contagious and requires a high herd immunity rate to protect children from outbreaks. We must prevent politicians from bringing back a disease that scientists cured.

Access & innovation at Southcoast Health: Southcoast Health CEO David McCready welcomed me to Charlton Memorial Hospital for a meeting and a tour of their cardiac center. Mr. McCready and I discussed the role of technology in improving doctors' and nurses' job satisfaction and reducing costs (for example, Epic's Ambient Listening technology, to transcribe patient notes automatically); Southcoast's reliance on 340B cross-subsidies and the need to make that program sustainable; and the potential for hospitals and community health centers to take on more risk, and more control of the healthcare dollar, via population health management.

Three-quarters of Southcoast Health's patients are insured by the government, so the cuts to Medicaid that congressional Republicans will soon vote on would be especially destabilizing for Charlton Memorial and other Massachusetts hospitals, like Boston Medical Center, with a high percentage of Medicaid patients.

Physicians at Charlton Memorial walked me through the cardiac center, where I was able to observe a pulsed field ablation procedure to treat atrial fibrillation in the heart. Charlton Memorial was at the forefront of the recent clinical trials for the new medical device, and the hospital continues to specialize in the surgery.

Advocacy for rare disease research: Last week, I was honored to receive an award from the Barth Syndrome Foundation for my advocacy for rare diseases. After years of research and development, there is now a promising therapy for Barth Syndrome. However, the chaos at the FDA, where labs are being closed and scientists fired, has left the patient community in limbo.

I share below, anonymously, a message I received from a scientist at the FDA.

“This is a five-alarm fire for rare diseases. I was recruited to the FDA because of my very specific expertise and I moved my family across the country for this role. I didn't sign up to be a political pawn, to be ridiculed, and to have my entire team be made to feel like their life's work doesn't matter. I have had all of my direct reports ask me about alternative jobs/recommendations. They haven't been fired – but the job is not the same – and we have multiple remote employees who were hired out of state for fully remote, very specialized roles who will absolutely quit mid to late March, given no option but to do so. No one will stay in an environment where we are not allowed to speak, travel, interact with external stakeholders, and words like "inclusion" are being removed from internal templates. This is not a question of how many people will be terminated – come April, we may only have a shell of people with any expertise left – and there isn't an army of rare disease specialists waiting in the wings… meaning what's left will be a check mark, self-governance, or worse. I'm not sure what else to do, but I hope you have some ears who can hear this and take action – we are rare disease advocates who are advocating for flexibility and progress – and are being silenced and pushed out, contrary to popular belief. What's left won't be what anyone hoped for, and time is not on our patients' side.”

The Energy and Commerce Committee, on which I serve, has oversight over the FDA. I will be focused on platforming and protecting the scientists at the FDA and elsewhere who are under siege for following the evidence, not the politics.

Defending the NIH against GOP attacks: Basic science is inspired by curiosity, accountable to evidence, and subject to peer review. Politics should have no role.

You can watch here my remarks defending the National Institutes of Health after Republicans attacked it. Every agency can improve – and I have supported bipartisan reforms to the NIH – but recent attacks by DOGE against science funding are driven by politics, not policy. It’s demoralizing young scientists and eroding America’s edge in science and technology.

3 bipartisan steps to lower Rx-drug prices: Congress must take on the middlemen of drug pricing. I joined the PBM Accountability Project to outline how Congress should approach reining in the pharmacy benefit managers that price-gouge patients and pharmacists:

Step 1: pass the bipartisan PBM reform package that Speaker Johnson removed from last year's bill at the last minute, under pressure from the health insurance lobby. That package includes de-linking PBM revenues from list prices in Medicare; requiring transparency in contracts and reimbursements; mandating reporting to the government survey that supports cost-plus pricing of generic drugs; and banning spread pricing in Medicaid, which routes taxpayer dollars to Fortune 20 health insurers.

Step 2: tackle offshore Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) and specialty steering, which are the new frontier for PBMs' profiteering at the expense of patients. Congress must skate to where the puck is headed, and the PBM CEOs are already boasting on earnings calls about how much profit they will make by marking up generic drugs and steering them to affiliated pharmacies; or by colluding in Ireland and Switzerland through GPOs to avoid US regulatory oversight. My bill, Pharmacists Fight Back, addresses both specialty steering and GPOs. 

Step 3: uproot the conflict of interest by passing the bipartisan PBM Act, which I lead. This bill structurally changes the system by banning PBMs from owning pharmacies. 

I also raised these points during the Health subcommittee hearing titled “An Examination of How Reining in PBMs Will Drive Competition and Lower Costs for Patients.” As one witness said – ”where there is mystery, there is margin.” There is a lot of mystery in the middle of the drug-pricing supply chain!

An economy on edge: tariff uncertainty, insurance spikes, healthcare cuts, and tax debates

Insurance premiums will go up due to Trump’s actions: Before getting elected to Congress, I worked in the insurance industry, where I helped build new solutions to changes in homeownership, mobility, and litigation. The president’s actions, from tariff threats to targeting immigrant workers, are setting off actuarial alarm bells. In an MSNBC op-ed, I explain how President Trump’s chaotic actions will raise insurance premiums:

“Homes and cars are bundles of lumber, steel, aluminum, and semiconductors. The president plans to tax all those materials at double-digit rates. That inflation will course through repair-or-replace costs for automobiles. Expect double-digit tariffs to lead to double-digit auto insurance hikes — notably, quite the opposite of Trump’s campaign promise to cut auto insurance premiums in half.

“Home insurance may be even more sensitive to the president’s agenda. In 2022, the United States imported $469 billion in construction-related goods, accounting for nearly 15% of total U.S. imports. Canada alone accounts for 50% of U.S. wood imports and 20% of metal imports. With Canadian goods getting taxed, the material costs of home construction and repairs surge. So will the labor costs: The construction industry has the highest percentage of undocumented workers of any sector…

“Health insurance premiums may inflate from yet another driver. Trump and congressional Republicans appear intent on axing Medicaid, which insures children, the poor and the elderly. The uninsured still get sick, though. Lacking access to preventive care, they may get sicker faster. When they do, they go to emergency rooms, where hospitals foot the bill.

“Actually, you foot the bill, because hospitals bundle the cost of uninsured care into the rates they charge for insured care. Especially if you are insured through your employer, your premiums will pay for the government’s cuts to Medicaid.”

Meeting with North Attleboro & Lakeville officials: I met separately with state and local officials from North Attleboro and Lakeville to discuss the towns' priorities. North Attleboro leaders remain focused on dredging Ten Mile River and remediating PFAS with federal support, which I will continue to provide as available. Lakeville officials emphasized fire safety infrastructure and the need for local commercial tax revenue to make them less dependent on state and federal grants.

Both towns, alongside municipalities and employers everywhere, are struggling with spiking health insurance premiums. These conversations reinforce my commitment to health policy focused on lowering costs of care policy, not simply expanding insurance coverage, in my role on the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee.

Breaking down Trump’s plan to cut healthcare to pay for his tax cuts: Hundreds of constituents from the I-495 belt of the district joined me for a virtual town hall. I laid out the arithmetic behind the Trump tax cuts and pay-fors. It starts with recognizing that the federal government spends money on five things:

• The United States Armed Forces
• Social Security
• Medicare
• debt service
• non-defense discretionary (NDD) 

This last item, NDD spending, accounts for less than a fifth of federal expenditures but includes most things that come to mind when you consider the federal government: border security, Head Start, research funding, air traffic control, food and farm subsidies, and Medicaid.

Trump has told congressional Republicans to pay for his $4 trillion of tax cuts, most of which goes to the 1%, by cutting only NDD spending. The arithmetic is quite clear: Republicans must slash Medicaid, which covers 40% of American children as well as at-home care for seniors, in order to pay for the tax cuts. Even that math won't add up, though; so Republicans are also intent on increasing the federal deficit to cover the cost, claiming that the tax cuts will pay for themselves.

Cuts to Medicaid do not just harm its beneficiaries. Anyone with health insurance through their employer is likely to see premiums go up, because Americans without health insurance visit the ER when they get sick, and hospitals cross-subsidize that unfunded mandate by increasing rates on commercial payers.

Trump is trying to distract from this unpopular policy by keeping the media focused on his chaos and corruption. Democrats in Congress must defend the rule of law while still staying laser-focused on exactly what Trump doesn't want Americans talking about: he's trying to cut healthcare to pay for his tax cuts.

Uncertainty freezes up business: The Metro South Chamber of Commerce, which covers Brockton and Sharon, invited me to address business and civic leaders. The chaos and corruption of the Trump administration is breeding uncertainty throughout the global and local economy. With federal regulations swirling and tariff threats in the headlines daily, big businesses are starting to pull back from investments, hiring, and dealmaking. They need more certainty before they can commit capital.

That pullback is squeezing small-and-medium-sized businesses, now. One prominent manufacturer told me that his order book has shrunk for the first time in years; not because end-user demand has decreased, but because the bigger businesses that buy from him have pushed pause. Now this local businessman has had to reconsider his own hiring decisions.

Reckless presidents can talk a good economy into a recession.

Do you support the president’s approach to tariffs? 

Rejecting discrimination against our neighbors:

Non-discrimination protections for trans Americans: My friend Holly Ryan, co-chair of the Bay State Stonewall Democrats and a member of the Board of Governors for the National Stonewall Democrats, met with me in my district office to discuss civil rights for the trans community. We agreed on the need to focus on national non-discrimination protections for trans Americans, including in housing, employment, public accommodations, voting, and public service. We also discussed Sarah McBride, the new Delaware congresswoman and the first transgender Member of Congress. Sarah's dignity in the face of bullying by some Republicans has been one of the most impressive things I've ever seen from an elected official.

Opposing immigration raids at religious institutions: The Murray Unitarian Universalists welcomed me to their Attleboro church for a conversation with Reverend F. Vernon Wright and President Russet Morrow. We discussed the UU congregation's concerns for the safety and dignity of immigrants, which led them to join the lawsuit challenging Trump's policy of allowing raids at houses of worship. I join them in opposing any raids at schools or churches. Immigration enforcement authorities should focus on deporting lawbreakers, not sowing fear amongst our immigrant neighbors.

We also discussed how faith-based communities are critical to the health of American civil society. At a time when national politics is polarizing and chaotic, we are reminded that the United States is a federal republic that draws its resilience and cohesion from localism and apolitical organizations. The Reverend was gracious enough to give me a book with the essential writings of James Luther Adams. I appreciate their hospitality.

Ensuring legal representation for every child: I joined the entire Massachusetts Congressional delegation in urging the Trump administration to maintain funding for legal services for unaccompanied immigrant children. We wrote to Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to emphasize the importance of these services.

The administration created confusion and distress by issuing an order that jeopardized the safety and welfare of vulnerable minors—including infants and toddlers—by stripping them of critical legal representation. Just days later, it rescinded the order, further adding to the uncertainty. In Massachusetts, several hundred unaccompanied minors risked losing their lawyers, while more than 2,000 children who rely on limited legal services faced the loss of assistance. The delegation calls on the administration to renew the contract that ensures minors receive legal counsel.

Preserving progress on the Taunton River:

Preserving progress on the Taunton River: The Taunton River is a National Wild and Scenic River with 43 cities and towns in its watershed. It runs free-flowing for 40 miles, from Bridgewater through Mount Hope Bay off Fall River. After more than a century of industrial use, it was toxic, but strong action by the Environmental Protection Agency beginning in the 1970s cleaned it up. Now, water quality and biodiversity are high; recreation is booming; and the communities it serves are invested in its health. 

The Taunton River Watershed Alliance (TRWA) has been the voice of the river for three decades. Its coordinator and volunteers are committed experts and environmentalists who monitor water quality, conserve wildlife and history, educate citizens and policymakers, and guide tours and recreation. As the congressman for five of the six main communities served – Fall River, Dighton, Berkley, Freetown, Taunton, and Raynham – I am committed to continued funding and federal backing for the TRWA on behalf of the Taunton River. Over the last decade, the TRWA leveraged $1.5 million in federal funds into $15 million worth of useful projects along the river, from children's programming to boat racks to fish conservation. 

I'm grateful for these volunteers' commitment to the Taunton River and their partnership with me over the past four years.

Discussing the future of media with digital natives:

Discussing the future of media with digital natives: The Dana Hall School Civics Club invited me to speak with students and faculty. We had an especially engaging discussion about the potential for Gen Z to reinvent social media. I offered the premise that media is upstream of politics: from the printing press to radio, changes in media technology drive political realignments.

Currently, creator media is disrupting corporate media in the competition for Americans' attention. The corporations that platform this creator media, from Meta to X to TikTok, have become the most wealthy and powerful corporations in history, but they have demonstrated no duty of care to their users or sense of responsibility as curators of civic content. I have introduced two pieces of legislation that hold the social media corporations accountable, including for the rise of deepfake intimate privacy violations targeting young women.

I encouraged the young women at Dana Hall to engage on the issue of how next-generation media platforms should operate: What do they owe users as individuals, and what do they owe society at large? How are they held accountable to the community while still encouraging freedom of expression and contrarian viewpoints? It will be the digital natives who help America answer these vital questions.

Question: “Should Democrats give more time to Elon Musk and President Trump to get to the bottom of the enormous government-created and what seems like reckless spending and downright criminal activity? Don't Democratic voters want this? Isn't it also their pockets that are affected?”

 - Kenneth, Attleboro

Answer:
When the president announced DOGE after his election, I offered that I would work with it to cut waste, fraud & abuse; but that if Elon Musk threatened Social Security I would fight back hard.

Regrettably, Musk is not cutting waste, fraud and abuse. The numbers he is posting are, themselves, fraudulent. For example, the president’s claims in his address to Congress about Social Security fraud have been widely & repeatedly debunked. Social Security fraud does happen, but it is rare and is not related to the database records that Trump described.

My concern is that these outlandish claims about Social Security fraud are the beginning of a campaign by Republicans to privatize Social Security, as they attempted to do during George W. Bush’s presidency and as GOP Senators have consistently proposed ever since. Close to home, DOGE is already trying to close a Social Security office in Fall River.

Outside of Social Security, DOGE occasionally does find wasteful spending, but more often it is acting in a reckless manner – doing surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel. For example, DOGE recently closed a state-of-the-art FDA laboratory in St. Louis that tests pharmaceuticals for toxins. The lab had previously helped protect Americans from nitrosamines and heparin. After significant pushback, DOGE re-opened the lab. This arrogant and irresponsible approach, writ large across hundreds of agencies, undermines business confidence and the health and safety of Americans. It also doesn’t save money, since federal employees and real estate only accounts for single-digit percentage of federal spending. 

Both as a city councilor and as a congressman, I have often challenged red tape and unaccountable spending. I do believe that federal regulations and spending should be subject to intense scrutiny. But I’m not going to let Elon Musk run roughshod over upstanding civil servants, lie to the American people about his work, or mess with Social Security.

You can submit a question for a future newsletter here. Please note that casework inquiries for federal agencies must be submitted to my website here. My casework team will respond to these in a timely manner. 

PS. On Saturday, March 8, I'll be hosting a Congressional Update and Q&A in Fall River (12:45-1:45pm), and Taunton (3:15-4:15pm). This is an opportunity for you to raise questions and hear updates on what I'm doing to represent the district’s values and priorities. 

RSVP for Fall River HERE.
RSVP for Taunton HERE. 

Onwards,

Jake