LAST 2 WEEKS IN REVIEW

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

• Protecting Social Security in Fall River
• 1:1 tutoring to address pandemic learning loss
• Contesting Trump’s post-truth tactics
• My responses to a Trump supporter on guns, immigration & trans rights
• Meeting with seniors to discuss current events
• Discussing tech, media & culture with students
• Supporting industry & its energy needs, old & new, in the district

Protecting Social Security in Fall River

Standing up for Social Security in Fall River: 150,000 residents in the Massachusetts Fourth receive Social Security benefits. They earned these benefits; Social Security is not an entitlement. It is an insurance contract between Americans and their government that serves as the most important anti-poverty program in the country for both elders and children. That contract must be honored.

Recently, DOGE listed the Social Security field office in Fall River as a ‘non-core’ asset that may be closed. Along with state and local leaders, Social Security employees, and Social Security beneficiaries, I held a press conference in front of the Fall River field office to raise awareness of the threat and make plain that there would be unified and muscular opposition to any attempts to degrade customer service for Social Security recipients.

Degrading service is the first in a three-step process towards the ultimate Republican aim of privatization. The second step is claiming widespread waste, fraud, and abuse in the Social Security system, which both Elon Musk and the president have done on multiple occasions. These claims are lies – Social Security runs a tight ship. 

The third step is for Republicans to point towards degraded service (which they caused) and widespread fraud (which they lie about) as the pretext for privatization, so that the private sector can ‘clean up the mess’. George W. Bush tried to do this; Senator Rick Scott of Florida has kept the ambition alive; and I am on guard against even shuffling steps down this path. I am committed to protecting Social Security against all hazards.

1:1 tutoring to address pandemic learning loss

The benefits of high-dosage tutoring: Fewer than half of elementary students are reading at grade level in Massachusetts. The pandemic school closures widened the gap between proficient and struggling readers. I visited Fall River schools to learn about proven strategies for literacy. Meeting with Fall River teachers and leaders from the One8 Foundation and the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, we discussed the pairing of instruction plus intervention: a science-based reading curriculum, which generally gets about half a classroom to proficiency, supplemented by interventions of 1:1, high-dosage tutoring for the other half of the class.


Working with Ignite Reading and supported by the One8 Foundation, Fall River schools have been able to offer 400 of their first graders 1:1, high-dosage tutoring to supplement the science-based reading instruction from teachers in the classroom. The results have been, as one teacher said, a “gift”. Fifteen minutes of remote, professional tutoring every day has provided these first graders with the equivalent of 6 months in learning acceleration. Getting them ready to read in first grade radically increases the likelihood that they will be reading proficiently in third grade, thereby preparing them to go from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn.’


The Massachusetts House of Representatives has approved $25 million to scale this program, and I will work to find ways to federally support 1:1 tutoring for our children. 

Contesting Trump’s post-truth tactics

The president’s authoritarian ambition relies upon post-truth tactics. ‘Post-truth’ tactics are not simply lying. They consist of flooding the information zone with so much trolling, conspiracy, falsehood and whataboutism that the public loses confidence that truth and fiction are even distinct and discernible. Trump’s core epistemic argument is ‘believe nothing except me’. This epistemic crisis has been turbocharged by social media, with its enrage-to-engage business model that profits from outrage, not truth-seeking. 


To contest these post-truth tactics, I spend a lot of time, through many different channels, trying to connect facts together in arguments that might resonate with Americans.


Here’s a few examples from the last couple weeks: 

On CNN, explaining why the military’s commitment to good order and discipline in the ranks is allergic to the double standards that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sets for himself. Jake Tapper and I also discussed how Russian and Chinese leaders Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping view America’s national security team: as a junior varsity squad unable to drive hard bargains.

On the local Sunday show for Greater Providence, discussing what the president’s ‘one big, beautiful bill’ actually means: $6.9 trillion in more debt over the next decade (this number is affirmed by multiple independent analysts) in order to give massive tax cuts to the 1%. This will drive higher taxes and inflation for the middle class in the future; in fiscal policy, there’s no free lunch.

On Fox News, asserting that in a free country, politicians can’t appoint themselves judge, jury, and executioner. The cornerstone of freedom is equal justice under law: the public understanding that unless everybody gets due process – yes, everybody – then none of us can be certain of our own individual freedom in the face of the awesome power of the state. 

In the Beltway press, arguing to my Republican colleagues that the president is presenting a false choice on immigration. The government can deport criminals and also welcome the builders and inventors from other countries that help make America rich and strong. Drawing on my extensive conversations with academic and industry leaders here in Massachusetts, I’m deeply concerned that the administration’s xenophobic posture is deterring the global talent we need to succeed in biotechnology, AI, quantum, energy, environmental engineering, industrials, and more.

My responses to a Trump supporter on guns, immigration & trans rights

Veterans Q&A in Swansea: American Legion Post #303 in Swansea hosted me for a Q&A with veterans. One gentleman in the audience, a friendly, self-identified Trump supporter, pressed me on guns, immigration, and trans rights. I responded that —

On guns, I support the Second Amendment, which is the only part of the Constitution to use the word "regulate." Safe storage laws, background checks, and an assault weapons ban are all examples of a ‘well-regulated' collective right.

On immigration, I agree that allowing 5 million migrants to cross the southern border without documentation was a failure of the Biden Administration. We are a nation of laws. We are also a nation of immigrants, and the Trump Administration's assault on due process for immigrants is both unfair and a potential prelude to wider attacks on citizens' rights. If your neighbors fall below the law, what's to stop you from getting pulled down, too?

On trans rights, I defend trans-Americans' pursuit of happiness and support strong non-discrimination laws. I also recognize that safety and sportsmanship require leagues and localities to make granular rules for participation and competition. But most critically: politicians should be spending a lot less time talking about bathrooms and locker rooms and a lot more time talking about classrooms, where half of American children are not reading at grade level. Our focus should be surging the instruction and interventions necessary to ensure both the academic flourishing and moral formation of our students.

Meeting with seniors to discuss current events

Deep dive into housing costs with Attleboro seniors: The Attleboro Senior Center welcomed me for a discussion alongside the mayor and the state delegation. I addressed my work protecting Social Security from DOGE and lowering copays through the regulation of the pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen of drug pricing. I was also interested in hearing from my state and local partners about their work on housing. 

State Senator Paul Feeney and Mayor Cathleen DeSimone are both bold policymakers in addressing the Commonwealth's housing crunch; the state must build 250,000 units of housing by 2035 to get costs under control. Senator Feeney has been promoting missing middle housing, and Mayor DeSimone is working on zoning reforms to permit more walkable, affordable development. I will continue to support and partner in their efforts to address Massachusetts' top economic issue: rent.

Playing dominoes with our newest centenarians: The Somerset Dominoes Club boasts two members, Mary Cronan and Jean O'Brien, who have just celebrated their 100th birthdays. I surprised Mrs. Cronan and Mrs. O'Brien at the weekly Dominoes Club game with flowers and congressional certificates to commemorate their centennial. A special thank-you to Debra Desmond, who organized everything and is a committed volunteer in Somerset.

Reining in an out-of-control executive: The Brandeis Lifelong Learning Institute welcomed me for a Q&A with its adult students. When questioned about the Democratic Party’s path forward, I emphasized the need to stop condescending, start offering a differentiated economic program that lowers costs, and continue defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

The immediate challenge today is the Rubber Stamp Republicans in Congress, who refuse to uphold their Article I obligations against an out-of-control executive, instead acting like courtiers to a MAGA King. We must continue to pressure them from both inside and outside the Chamber to do their Constitutional jobs and respond to their constituents' concerns.

Discussing tech, media & culture with students

Discussions with Newton North & Boston College: In afternoon and evening sessions, I met with Newton North High School student leaders and members of the Boston College Democrats. As always with young people, I raised the question of technology, media, and culture. Technology shapes media, which shapes culture. High school and college students are at the cutting edge of this tech → media → culture dynamic. I learned from them about communications in a TikTok age and also challenged them to help America do a 'digital detox.’ The social media platforms of Web 2.0 have made Americans lonelier, angrier, and sadder, with corrosive effects on our politics, and I believe it will be Gen Z who craft Web 3.0 platforms that build community, not tribes.

Raising the age of internet adulthood: I met with MIT Sloan business students for a wide-ranging discussion on policy and politics, then drove down the street to discuss TikTok with a classroom of Harvard undergrads. Social media has launched a 'printing press' moment for society, in which technology changes media, media upends culture, and culture realigns politics. Congress must get off the sidelines, through measures like raising the age of internet adulthood to 18 from 13 and levying digital advertising revenue as an 'attention-fracking tax'.

Should Congress raise the age of internet adulthood from 13 to 18? 

Blackstone Valley Heritage Corridor walking tour: I met with Blackstone Valley Heritage Corridor stakeholders at the Blackstone Public Library and then did a walking tour of Millville with local historians. Blackstone Valley's role in the genesis of the Industrial Revolution, harnessing water for energy and transportation, makes for fascinating history. 

On the tour, I walked over an old lock on the river, enjoyed the rail trail, and read about Millville and Blackstone's industrial heyday. I'll continue working with Rhode Island and Massachusetts officials to secure appropriate recognition and programming for the Blackstone Valley Corridor, to teach its history, preserve the ecosystem, and enable recreation.

Fueling heavy industry through clean energy investments: Pierce Aluminum in Franklin is a third-generation family-owned distributor and manufacturer of aluminum products. Along with State Representative Jeff Roy, I toured the factory and met with owner Bob Pierce and his leadership team. I learned about the legacy of customer service that drives the company's culture. We agreed on how mixed signals regarding tariffs drive uncertainty for their business and all businesses.

We also discussed the critical role of affordable, reliable energy for heavy industry. For the United States to offer cheap, clean energy, the public sector must mobilize more investment in small modular nuclear reactors, hot-rock geothermal, and renewables like solar and wind. I have been a strong defender of the Bay State's offshore wind development; I have voted for legislation to advance nuclear power; and I'm working on bipartisan legislation to support hot-rock geothermal. We must march forward on clean energy even in these challenging circumstances.

Question: “What is being done to restore money to our libraries?  As a child, this was my only resource for books and knowledge outside of school."

 - Fran, Milford

Answer: Libraries are special places. In New England, especially, cities and towns rightfully pride themselves on the quality of their public libraries. They are sites of community and lifelong learning.

Since President Trump took office, we have seen the Administration work to dismantle and unilaterally reorganize key federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) which provides funding to many of our local libraries in Massachusetts. The IMLS seeks to advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. It distributes thousands of grants nationwide, totaling in recent years to more than $200 million annually. On March 14, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order calling for severe reductions in the IMLS in addition to six other federal agencies, leading the IMLS to put its entire workforce on paid administrative leave. 

On April 2, 2025, I joined my colleagues in urging the Administration to reconsider this decision and recognize the far-reaching impact of IMLS funding. Cuts to the IMLS will leave a critical gap in education and community programming nationwide, decimating crucial services such as early literacy development and reading programs, high-speed Internet access, employment assistance, homework and research resources, and accessible reading materials. 

Libraries provide access to economic, cultural, professional, and social opportunities for the American people. This is why I have supported bills like the Build America’s Libraries Act. Specifically, this bill would have upgraded the nation's libraries to address broadband capacity, environmental hazards, and accessibility barriers by establishing a $5 billion grant program to modernize libraries in rural and urban communities. 

I have also requested funding for programming under the Library Services and Technology Act, which was passed under President Bill Clinton and is vital in supporting libraries across the country. As your Representative, I will continue to defend libraries, museums, and public education.

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. 

Onwards,

Jake