LAST 2 WEEKS IN REVIEW

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

• Tragedy in Fall River
• Massachusetts versus Trump on healthcare
• Treating cost disease: the framework to lower prices & create jobs
• New bill: bipartisan fixes to immigration 
• on Health subcommittee: no place for fear or favoritism at the Food & Drug Administration
• on PFAS Task Force: connecting regulators with innovators
• ‘A deer in the headlights’: Trump on Ukraine
• Opposing Trump’s lawlessness
• Working to prevent illegal gun sales and silencers 
• DOGE’s dividends: cuts to polio vaccines & public broadcasting

Tragedy in Fall River

Daniel Medeiros / Herald News Staff Photos

Tragedy in Fall River: I mourn for the 10 Fall River residents who died in this weekend’s fire, the most lethal in Massachusetts’ recent history. I am keeping the hospitalized residents in my thoughts, wishing them all a full recovery. I have maintained close communication with Mayor Paul Coogan in support of the city and its residents. Fall River recently applied for a federal grant to help fund more firefighters, which I supported, and I will double down in my efforts to secure that grant. 

Massachusetts versus Trump on healthcare

GOP: brave then cave on Medicaid: After a few days of performative opposition, House & Senate Republicans caved to the president’s Medicaid cuts and debt-binge bill. I voted with all Democrats against legislation that slashes a trillion dollars from healthcare, reducing access to at-home care for seniors, threatening hospitals & community health centers, and raising health insurance premiums for everyone. The law is also projected to increase the debt by at least four trillion dollars, which self-proclaimed ‘fiscal hawk’ Republicans ignored under pressure from the president. 

The tax code has been so badly mauled that Democrats should platform a ‘fresh-start’ rewrite that is simple, efficient, and progressive.

Bracing for impact in Massachusetts: I joined WCVB to discuss the passage of the Medicaid cuts bill and one way federal and state officials can work together to prepare Massachusetts.

When people are kicked off Medicaid, they don’t stop getting sick; they just lose access to affordable primary and preventive care. They end up in hospital emergency rooms, which are the most expensive sites of care. Hospitals are legally obligated to provide that care, which is uncompensated. To reimburse those losses, hospitals raise prices on commercial payers, leading to higher insurance premiums for everyone. Whether you get your coverage through an employer or the Affordable Care Act exchanges, you'll end up paying more. 

To forestall this spiral, the congressional delegation and the governor will need to work together on our section 1115 waiver renewal. The 1115 waiver is what allows MassHealth (our state’s Medicaid agency) more autonomy from Washington over health payment and delivery. For example, the waiver allows the state to move away from fee-for-service and to integrate behavioral health and substance-use treatments into primary care. The waiver expires under this president and will need to be renewed. 

From the Boston Globe’s editorial today:

“Massachusetts also needs to negotiate a new waiver with federal Medicaid officials by the end of 2027, which sets the parameters around how MassHealth is structured and what services the federal government will cover. Massachusetts Congressman Jake Auchincloss suggested, in an interview with the editorial board, that the state could seek to negotiate more state flexibility and autonomy in running its own program — for example, to make enrollment easier, to experiment with pilot programs, do more with alternative payment systems, or get paid for investments that save Medicare money, like community-based care for seniors.”

Treating cost disease: the framework to lower prices & create jobs

Treating housing & healthcare for cost disease: In a recent op-ed for The Economist, I laid out a framework for how to lower prices for the middle class.

From my op-ed:

"Cost disease is also known as the Baumol effect. It helps explain why rent and healthcare consume ever-more of Americans' wallets. Economist William Baumol detailed how inflation is not evenly spread across the economy. Service industries with low productivity growth inflate fast. Manufactured goods and automated services deflate prices.

The Baumol effect is both esoteric and—everywhere. Housing construction and hospital services are highlighted here because these two service industries are consuming so much money. Housing and healthcare costs absorb half of a middle class family’s income in America. Families wondering why their rent and health insurance premiums are going up faster than their income are asking the question that Professor Baumol helped to answer.

Three decades before Baumol described the problem in 1965, Theodore Wright found the cure for cost disease. Wright’s law observed that cost per unit goes down as more units are produced. Want a service to be affordable? Turn the service into a product. Then, manufacture the product at scale to lower cost per unit. New manufacturing jobs will not be taken from other countries through tariffs. They will be created from services, by turning them into products.

Take computers. A century ago, a ‘computer’ was a person. Sitting side-by-side, hundreds of individuals penciled out algorithms. It was an expensive service. Then, a ‘computer’ became a product. It was a machine as big as a room. That first product was expensive, too. But then computer manufacturing took off, and cost per unit went down. Today, computing is cheap. It was cured of cost disease."

Housing, healthcare, and utilities all still suffer from cost disease. Policy-makers should help these service-intensive industries benefit from more manufacturing and automation. Cut regulations that drive up costs, like zoning laws do for housing. Promote technology that reduces costs, especially in hospital services. Challenge special interests, like health insurance corporations, that keep prices high.

Read the full op-ed here.

Faster transit, less red tape: In June, I joined my Build America Caucus colleagues in sending a letter to the leaders of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, urging them to prioritize a forward-looking surface transportation reauthorization bill that helps get projects built faster and at a lower cost for the American people.

Some of our recommendations included: 

• Speeding up infrastructure delivery by improving the permitting fast track;

• Blocking vexatious litigation;

• Ending redundant permitting and paperwork;

• Creating a de minimis exemption;

• Building more housing near transit.

New bill: bipartisan fixes to immigration 

Moving past the immigration blame game: Congress has not passed immigration reform since 1996. The blame game is bad for America. The Dignity Act, which I cosponsored this week, secures the border, fixes the visa backlog, and vests undocumented immigrants with legal rights & responsibilities. America is a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. The Dignity Act honors both.

This comprehensive bill makes meaningful reforms to several aspects of our immigration system:

• It grants legal rights and responsibilities to undocumented immigrants already living in the United States on or before December 31, 2020, subject to background checks;

• It reforms the asylum screening process to provide an opportunity for review and access to counsel;

• It grants visas to individuals waiting longer than a decade;

• It creates new regional processing centers for asylum claims to prevent migration surges;

• It funds border security and modernizes our land ports of entry;

• It mandates accountability for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE);

• It provides a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.

on Health subcommittee: no place for fear or favoritism at the Food & Drug Administration

Challenging the legality of pet projects at the FDA: Recently, Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary announced the “Commissioner's National Priority Voucher” (CNPV), which allows him to favor certain companies or drugs in the FDA’s review. He has no authority to offer special approval pathways based on his policy preferences. 

At a hearing of the Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee, I questioned an FDA official on this unscientific program. Congress mandates that clinical data proving safety & efficacy should be evaluated by scientists who grant approval. The CNPV is a fear-and-favoritism mechanism that undermines the FDA's integrity.

on PFAS Task Force: connecting regulators with innovators 

The technology needed to treat PFAS at scale has not been invented yet:  As a member of the PFAS Task Force and the Subcommittee on Environment, I organized a meeting between senior Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials and a leading technologist to discuss PFAS remediation. Water utilities will need to adopt new technology at affordable prices in order to sustainably meet the tougher Biden-era PFAS standards. 

No technology yet on the market meets both efficacy and affordability requirements. To spur innovation, the EPA should:

• Restore funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which helps utilities invest in water treatment upgrades.

• Mandate better on-site remediation by PFAS producers in industry, who would be early and deep-pocketed adopters of emerging technology.

• Work with the private sector to develop real-time, in-line, precise testing of PFAS levels in drinking water.
  

Stop & start on Ukraine weapons shipments: I joined 53 bipartisan colleagues in sending a letter to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, expressing serious concern over the Department of Defense’s recent decision to pause shipments of vital munitions to Ukraine. The delay affected key weapon systems, including Patriot air defense interceptors, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, artillery rounds, surface-to-surface rockets, and Stinger missiles. The president then claimed he didn’t know about this pause and reversed it.

Victory through strength for Ukraine: When pressed to explain his Ukraine strategy, President Trump looks like a deer in the headlights. Rather than weakness and confusion when questioned on Ukraine, the president must project clarity and strength. Strength starts with defining victory alongside our ally: a secure eastern border, freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, and accession to the European Union. 

As I’ve conveyed repeatedly during both the Biden Administration and now the Trump Administration, achieving that victory then requires that the USA and EU:

1. Sanction and target Russia’s oil & gas industry, which is the lifeblood of its war economy. In particular, tighten the oil price-cap and authorize Ukraine to use Western-made long-range missiles to strike Russian oil refineries.

2. 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.

3. Put Ukraine on a one-way path to EU membership by 2030.

4. Claim the ~300 billion euros of frozen Russian assets held in Brussels for the support of Ukrainian defense and economic development.

5. 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: 

• Secure the eastern border with troops and defense fortifications;

• Ensure freedom of navigation in the Black Sea;

• Field a strategic response force;

• Provide air defense for cities and critical infrastructure;

• Build out a military-industrial base in Western Ukraine.

Should the United States use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s defense?

Fighting for our schools: As part of his effort to dismantle the Department of Education, Donald Trump is illegally withholding more than $108 million from Massachusetts schools, creating uncertainty just as districts prepare to welcome students this fall. In Taunton alone, more than $600,000 is being held back, affecting programs related to STEM, English language learning, and school safety.

To oppose these harmful cuts in Taunton and across the Commonwealth, I joined colleagues in demanding answers and accountability from the Office of Management and Budget and Department of Education. School funding should not be held hostage to Washington politics. As with illegal cuts to science, I’ll continue to press the case to restore funding for education.

Bolstering judicial enforcement power: The Trump Administration’s disrespect for judges requires Congress to help insulate the judiciary from executive interference. The U.S. Marshals Service is charged with protecting the federal judiciary and enforcing its writ, but the Marshals currently operate under the Department of Justice. That is why I cosponsored the Maintaining Authority and Restoring Security to Halt the Abuse of the Law (MARSHALS) Act.

This legislation would transfer the U.S. Marshals Service from the Department of Justice to the judicial branch and establish it as a standalone bureau. It would also create a U.S. Marshals Board, led by the Chief Justice, modeled on the Capitol Police Board, which is Congress’ standalone law enforcement agency.

Contesting reckless tariffs: I joined an updated amicus brief in the case of Oregon, et al. v. Trump to defend Congress’s exclusive power under Article I to impose tariffs and regulate commerce. This case is now being appealed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the lawsuit, twelve states’ attorneys general are challenging the Trump Administration for misusing emergency powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to unlawfully impose broad and reckless tariffs on allies. Failing to negotiate trade deals does not qualify as an emergency under IEEPA.

Congress should not be subsidizing gun silencers: Buried in the president’s Medicaid cuts legislation was a provision that eliminates excise taxes on gun silencers. A related provision removed short-barreled shotguns and rifles from the National Firearms Act of 1934. I cosponsored an amendment to strike this reckless provision from the final bill. Unfortunately, this provision did pass in the final bill. 

Preventing illegal gun sales: While immensely frustrated by the silencer and shotgun provisions, I am trying to make progress on gun safety elsewhere. Ninety percent of firearms recovered by law enforcement at crime scenes are traced back to just five percent of firearms dealers. I cosponsored the Prevent Illegal Gun Sales Act to hold these bad actors accountable and help stop the flow of illegal firearms.

The Prevent Illegal Gun Sales Act:

• Increases the allowable number of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) inspections of firearms dealers from one to three per year;

• Increases the number of ATF inspectors

• Strengthens criminal penalties for dealers who knowingly violate the law by committing serious record-keeping offenses that aid gun trafficking;

• Permits the Department of Justice (DOJ) discretion in issuing firearm dealer licenses to applicants who pose a threat to public safety or are likely to break the law;

• Provides the DOJ with more flexibility to revoke the license of a firearm importer, manufacturer, dealer, or collector who is convicted of serious crimes;

• Lowers the liability standard for penalizing dealers who have broken the law.

After six months of lies, threats, and antics from Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has delivered its work product to Congress. It promised $1 trillion in savings for taxpayers, which was always nonsensical; instead, taxpayers are on the hook for more than $100 billion in increased costs due to disruptions and delays. Congress will vote on so-called savings of less than $10 billion, which come from slashing public broadcasting and polio vaccines.

I oppose these cuts. Taxpayers deserve a lean and clean government, and certainly the federal bureaucracy needs reform. But DOGE’s attempt has been expensive, chaotic, and counterproductive.

Question: “Seems like over the last few cycles, 1 or 2 seats in Congress can dramatically change the balance of power.  Is there any way to change voting laws so that it's not a strict majority (ie, 51 to 49) but rather a higher threshold, like 3/5ths?  This would force both parties to collaborate and work together in a bipartisan fashion to get votes, versus trying to get 1 or 2 members to "defect" across the aisle.”

 - Ron, Plainville 

Answer: The Senate employs the ⅗ rule for most (not all) legislation, via the filibuster. It does indeed promote bipartisanship, although not without impediments and frustrations along the way. The most impactful reform for the House would not be changing the majoritarian vote threshold, but rather changing state election laws to get rid of gerrymandering and partisan primaries. Independently drawn congressional districts with ‘top-two’ voting, in which all candidates and all voters participate in both a preliminary and general election, would be a seismic shift towards the median American voter. You can learn more here.

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