LAST TWO WEEKS IN REVIEW

 Digital dopamine versus IRL

Digital dopamine versus IRL: The average American child spends less time outdoors than a federal inmate. Big Tech profits by gluing kids to screens on which bits of software deliver hits of digital dopamine. This bits-to-hits pathway is not the future I want for my children. 

In a New York Times guest essay, I outline why Americans must take the fight to the social media and online gambling companies that have become the merchants and miners of digital dopamine. 

Here are segments from my op-ed:

“You own the most valuable real estate in the world. Deep inside your brain is the nucleus accumbens, a pea-size bundle of neurons. When you do or anticipate something rewarding, dopamine is released in this part of your brain, motivating you to repeat that behavior.

Corporations are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to capture this reward system….

As the father of three children under 6, I do not want their brains programmed by corporations, like software. And as a congressman on the committee that oversees much of technology and commerce, I know there are deeper forces at work here: In our laws and in our markets, America has stacked the deck in favor of virtual reality over our material reality….

The Consumer Product Safety Commission insists that pharmaceutical companies put medications in child-safe bottles. It should do the same for apps that deliver digital dopamine…

This kind of medical approach will be more effective than roundabout antitrust action…

America needs to build five million more homes, generate gigawatts more nuclear and geothermal power and manufacture more ships than the Chinese Navy…

We should establish 1,000 new trade schools across the country. Along with trade unions, these schools can enlist the next generation — particularly young men, who are struggling in school — to sweat and strive offline.

When I joined the Marines 15 years ago, the corps gave me camaraderie and competence in service of a mission bigger than me. The infantry made me a better man. But young Americans should not need to carry an assault weapon to help the nation or themselves. We must recruit them into building the real world.”

Getting kids active IRL: I visited the Foxboro branch of the Hockomock Area YMCA to see the summer camp in action and speak with the CEO, board chair, and leadership team. In addition to healthy living and athletics programming, the Hockomock YMCA also does social work to help families gain financial freedom. Across its branches, it serves thousands of families year-round in addition to hundreds of campers during the summer.

We discussed strategic planning & budgeting, challenges with insurance, and the issues that are top of mind for families these days. One of them: screen time. YMCAs are one of the best antidotes Americans have to the ever-expanding hold that screens claim over children's time.

Investing in trade skills: The Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School in Franklin had its topping off ceremony to celebrate the last steel beam installed for its construction. After speaking, I toured the geothermal installation, which takes advantage of tax credits passed by Congress's clean energy legislation from the Biden Administration. I had encouraged Tri County to take advantage of these tax credits and am thrilled to now see a geothermal project that will provide heating & cooling year-round for the school at almost no ongoing cost. The geothermal wells, which are underneath playing fields, go hundreds of feet deep and will be powered by solar panels; the ongoing cost of maintenance and operation for this heating & cooling system will be near zero.

Explaining cost disease on Pod Save America

Explaining cost disease on Pod Save America: I sat down with Pod Save America’s Jon Favreau in Los Angeles to talk about treating cost disease, upholding law & order, and taking on the social media corporations that treat our children like products.

Here is a segment of our interview: 

Jake Auchincloss: Inflation is not evenly spread across the economy. Some sectors inflate really fast, and in some sectors actually prices have actually gone down, like electronics. And the sectors that are most infected by cost disease are housing, health care, utilities, and local taxes. The reason is because they’re very labor-intensive and they’ve had low productivity growth. When you get your rent bill, when you get a utility bill for energy, when you get a health insurance premium, for sure, that bill is afflicted with cost disease. And Democrats have got to be doctors of cost disease.

We should be specific that our goal is to treat cost disease within housing, within health care, within utilities. So how do we do that? One, we should cut regulations that are making it too hard to build stuff. Housing here is a great example. We need to build five million more units of housing across this country in the next five years. We should adopt technology where it takes out cost. 

Energy is a great example. We should be building five Hoover Dams’ worth of nuclear power over the next five years. Nuclear power is safe, affordable, and reliable. We need to build a lot more of it in a standardized way. And then we’ve got to take on special interests where they are artificially keeping prices high.

Health insurance is a superb example. Jon, your old boss helped Democrats see that fighting health insurance corporations turns out to be good policy and good politics. I would like us to rediscover that. In President Obama’s tenure, the central thrust of the fight was about coverage. Right, let’s get more Americans covered, preexisting conditions, up until 26 on your parents’ plan.

Jon Favreau: We started talking about costs.

Jake Auchincloss: You did.

Jon Favreau: And the more politically popular thing to do was to focus on government.

Jake Auchincloss: And vital, and Medicaid expansion. And we got work to do. We got 90% of Americans; we got 10% more to go. I think that inflection point has arrived, though. It’s about cost now. People have health insurance, but it doesn’t feel affordable. 

If it’s going up 15% year over year and your out-of-pockets are $20,000, I think the Democratic Party should say quite simply: “We don’t think anything is free in this world. You pay health insurance premiums, but if you then get sick and a doctor tells you, you need something, you don’t have to pay out-of-pocket costs. You’re not paying twice for this service. You pay one time and you get the service.”

Defending medical science

Working to unlock federal research funding: Massachusetts, home to the nation’s densest clusters of research institutions, is bearing the brunt of the $4.7 billion in research grants that have been frozen by the Trump Administration. Since January 20th, our state’s scientists have been frustrated by delays, bureaucracy, and politicized funding decisions.

That’s why I led the Massachusetts congressional delegation in a letter to NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, demanding that the agency release all funds. These are taxpayer-funded, congressionally authorized, peer-reviewed grants. Neither the president nor his appointees has any right to cancel them. Without reliable federal investments in basic science, the Trump Administration risks undoing decades of U.S. global leadership in medical innovation.

The good news: in the last week, there are indications that the NIH is now expediting grant disbursements ahead of the end of the fiscal year on September 30th.

Better, faster, cheaper clinical trials: I invited Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food & Drug Administration, to meet with members of the Build America Caucus to discuss improving clinical trials in the United States. Faster and more rigorous clinical trials would unlock more therapies, generate more competition and thereby lower prices for prescription drugs, and help America compete with China in biomedical innovation. Dr. Gottlieb laid out a series of reforms that could be bipartisan and also gave Members of Congress insight into how to support the FDA as it is under assault by RFK Jr.

RFK Jr. scraps vaccine mandates while axing top epidemiologists: RFK Jr.'s MAHA report is another attack on the childhood vaccination schedule. Make no mistake: the result will be more measles, whooping cough, and even hepatitis B in children. Meanwhile, on issues regarding baby formula and food ingredients, where RFK Jr. could actually have made progress to help children, the report is heavy with jawboning and thin on actionable policies.

At the same time that RFK Jr. is destroying the childhood vaccination schedule, he is also causing generational damage to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, gutting the agency of our nation’s top health experts. I signed onto a letter addressed to Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie and Health Subcommittee Chair Morgan Griffith, urging them to hold a hearing with RFK Jr. and former CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez, whom he removed from the position.

Pay-to-play at FDA: I’m raising serious concerns about FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s national priority voucher (CNPV) program, which I believe is unlawful, lacks transparency, and risks further politicizing the agency. In a letter I sent to the FDA, I pointed out that “there is no statutory authority in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) for the FDA to consider drug pricing in its new drug reviews.” 

I asked Commissioner Makary to clarify the agency’s legal authority to award CNPV vouchers based on post-approval drug pricing and Most Favored Nation pricing, and to explain how incorporating drug pricing into application reviews aligns with the FDA’s mandate to evaluate new drugs and biologics for safety and efficacy. The vague criteria and lack of clarity in the selection process raise serious concerns that this program could be exploited to reward companies with political connections rather than advancing public health.

Should pharmaceutical companies that comply with Trump directives receive expedited approvals?

Discussing drug-pricing with fellow health policy nerds: If bagels cost $7 in one market and $400 at another across the street, you’d ask the grocery managers some tough questions. Well, that’s prescription drugs under the control of the pharmacy benefit managers — the middlemen of drug pricing. You don’t see it directly because of their insurance games, but you’re paying for their price-gouging through your premiums and co-pays.

In a perfect system, the wholesalers would compete for the best price from the drug manufacturers and then compete for the business of pharmacies. Further upstream, manufacturers would compete on the quality of their R&D. Meanwhile, downstream, pharmacists would compete on patient service. I’m working with my colleagues across both sides of the aisle to make this a reality with a series of bipartisan bills.

No National Guard in Mass unless governor asks

No National Guard in Mass unless governor asks: Bay Staters want safe communities. Thieves, violent criminals, and other threats to public safety should be deported if they are not citizens. Law & order also requires the vigilant defense of civil liberties. We reject instances of masked agents in unmarked vans, grabbing people off the streets, and operating outside the bounds of due process. That is not the American way of law.

I was recently an original co-sponsor of bipartisan legislation to, amongst other immigration reforms, raise standards and accountability for ICE agents. I have also been vocal in opposing the deployment of National Guard troops without a request from Governor Maura Healey. As I told MassLive: “Greater Boston refused to quarter the king’s troops 250 years ago, and we should refuse to quarter the president’s troops now.”

Politicizing public safety: I met with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism of Massachusetts to discuss their priorities on immigration, antisemitism, and gun safety. Several of the rabbis conveyed that the administration is politicizing Nonprofit Security Grants by demanding that temples change their programming and ICE-cooperation policies in order to qualify for the grants. 

This is dangerous. Federal grants to upgrade safety measures at places of worship, child-care centers, and other community institutions should be based upon risk and need, not politics. It would not be acceptable for a Democratic administration to withhold security grants from places of worship that oppose abortion, and it's not acceptable for a Republican administration to withhold security grants from places of worship that disagree with Trump's policies. I will continue working to both expand these grants and insulate them from politics.

This Old House (needs to be more affordable)

A three-pronged approach to housing affordability: As co-chair of the YIMBY Caucus, I moderated a panel at California Congressman Jimmy Gomez’s National Summit on the Housing Affordability Crisis. Three themes emerged: more apartments near transit, expansion of the federal low-income housing tax credit, and streamlining regulations for manufacturing modular and ADU housing. Along with other reforms like getting rid of parking minimums, America must pursue all three in order to build the 5 million homes our country needs this decade.

This Old House (needs to be more affordable): I visited the set of PBS’s This Old House as Jill and Dan constructed an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) for her parents. Affordable housing is our state's biggest challenge, and ADUs are part of the solution. Whether stick-built or prefabricated, all levels of government should be streamlining regulations and helping homeowners add flexible living & earning options to their property.

Phasing out forever chemicals: PFAS, the toxic chemical used for oil-and-water resistance in many household and industrial goods, is a major problem for at least three reasons: it persists in the body and in the environment for a long time, earning it the moniker the 'forever chemical'; it reacts with many other chemicals, so that it spreads easily; and — most importantly — it causes cancer and reduces fertility.

Both the Massachusetts state government and the Biden Administration took bold regulatory strides on PFAS in drinking water, but there's a tremendous amount more work to do to achieve my goal of a 'Montreal protocol for PFAS': phasing out PFAS in production in the same manner that ozone-depleting chemicals were phased out at the end of the 20th century. Unfortunately, Trump's EPA is moving in the wrong direction by cutting clean-water funding and reducing PFAS R&D.

I discussed these challenges and the way forward with about 100 stakeholders in a conversation hosted by the New England Council. Over the last 5 years, I've been able to deliver $15M+ to cities & towns in the MA-4 for PFAS remediation, and now, as a member of the committee with jurisdiction over the EPA, I'm working to strengthen the standards that govern the use of PFAS in production. Trying to clean up PFAS when it's diluted in millions of gallons of drinking water is the hardest place to tackle the problem; keeping them out of factories in the first place, or destroying effluent on site at companies using them for essential products, is the better way to solve this problem.

After the New England Council, I visited the PFAS R&D shop at Battelle, a non-profit science & technology firm that has pioneered methods to both detect and destroy PFAS. I spoke with scientists and engineers about the policy that promotes their anti-PFAS work, case studies of success in Michigan, with the Pentagon, & elsewhere, and saw their laboratories up close.

Supporting a ban on stock-trading for Congress: Americans deserve to know that their elected officials are making decisions based on what’s right for the country, not what’s profitable for their portfolios. This month, I cosponsored the Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust (TRUST) in Congress Act, which would require Members of Congress—as well as their spouses and dependent children—to place certain investments into a qualified blind trust for the duration of their service and for 180 days after they leave office. I myself do not trade equity or debt in either the public or private market.

Town hall in Franklin: I appreciate the hundreds of constituents who missed the Patriots game to attend my town hall in Franklin. One theme of the afternoon was empowering the 'exhausted majority' – those two-thirds of Americans who reject MAGA extremism but do not hear from Democrats a relevant & refreshing platform. The next generation of Democrats must convey to Americans what we are for, not just who we are against. And this platform needs to include bold action on homeownership, democracy reform & anti-corruption action, and social media regulation.

Question: Will you support/or push for a major expansion of the US fleet of icebreakers?

 - Shaul, Newton

Answer: Hi Shaul, Yes. The Arctic Circle has become an important zone of contention between NATO and Russia & China, due in part to climate change expanding the navigability of the region. Icebreakers are mission-critical to force projection in the Arctic Circle. Unfortunately, the US Polar Security Cutter program has failed to build icebreakers on time or on budget. It has been two decades of frustration.

For that reason, I am a strong supporter of the ICE Pact, launched in July 2024 between the USA, Canada, and Finland. The ICE Pact is a series of agreements, backed by funding, to collaboratively build a fleet of icebreakers. The Finns are much better at building icebreakers than we are, and the ICE Pact helps us build with them and learn from them. It’s another example of how our nation is stronger when it works with allies.

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