LAST THREE WEEKS IN REVIEW

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

ICE as an instrument of fear, not an arm of the law

Secretary Kristi Noem must answer for her failure: I went on Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing with host Peter Doocy to discuss the killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer during an operation in Minneapolis. In the aftermath, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Noem called it an “act of domestic terrorism” by Good. ICE Director Todd Lyons also placed the blame on Good for being in the “wrong place at the wrong time.” 

It is gaslighting.

When Americans watch the video of Good’s murder, they see a young mother behind the steering wheel of a car, ‘armed’ with only a cell phone and a whistle, who was shot three times in the head by an overly aggressive and under trained officer.

ICE has become an instrument of fear, not an arm of the law. The public demands and deserves accountability, and this administration must cooperate with Minnesota authorities. Congress should launch an impeachment inquiry into the DHS Secretary. She must answer for her leadership failure, and learn firsthand what due process looks like.

I joined Needham residents protesting on Sunday: 

Below are a portion of my remarks:

“In an era when lies become political currency, the most radical and important thing that we can do is to tell the truth. Here is the truth that we all saw with our own eyes about what happened to Renee Good.  This mother of three and US citizen was driving her vehicle. She had broken – and was breaking – no laws. 

…This ICE officer was not in any imminent danger of his life. That is the truth, and for this administration to try to gaslight the American public within minutes of this assault is yet another demonstration that they do not care about due process. They do not care about transparent investigations. They do not care about the rule of law. They want the raw exercise of power. They want to take ICE and change it from an arm of the law to an instrument of fear. 

We will not be afraid, and I need you all to know your power. This President came into office claiming a mandate on immigration, but over the last year, he has taken that mandate and tried to transform it into his own personal police force.

…So do not listen to those who adopt an attitude of learned helplessness or apathy or say there's nothing we can do. That is not true. We are winning. He is losing, but he has not lost yet. I will head back to Washington tomorrow. You have my commitment to continue to be your voice and vote for the rule of law. And what that starts with is Kristi Noem. Now, she has not given Americans the benefit or the dignity of due process. So it's time for Congress to show her what due process looks like by launching an impeachment inquiry.

Do you support the launch of an impeachment inquiry against Secretary Kristi Noem?

Preventing boots on the ground in Venezuela

For weeks, I have been warning and organizing against the president’s blood for oil adventurism in Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro was a tyrant, but his capture should not be a pretext for extortion of a weak nation by a strong one. The president has no strategy for a democratic transition, no congressional authority for his past or present operations, and no credibility that he won't just embrace the remaining leaders of the brutal Chavista regime, like he did the former Honduran president and drug lord when it suited him.

Of greatest immediate concern: the president has refused to rule out boots on the ground to serve as armed guards for oil extraction. My boots have been in the Latin American jungle & I have three concerns for infantry: 

• tactics & navigation in the jungle. Our troops trained for desert, 
• close air support with a dense canopy. Again — drone & crewed training done with long line of sight,
• and malaria. Communicable diseases can lay low our troops, regardless of whether Trump & RFK Jr. believe in them.

The U.S. military, which conducted itself heroically and proficiently in the capture operation, deserves a commander in chief operating lawfully and strategically. 

After voting No in December, Republicans in Congress must now join Democrats to grab hold of the steering wheel of Venezuela policy and prevent this capture from spiraling into open-ended nation-building.

Keeping up the pressure on the drug-pricing middlemen

At the end of the year, I introduced the bipartisan, bicameral PBM Fiduciary Accountability, Integrity, and Reform (FAIR) Act that would establish fiduciary responsibilities for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) – the middlemen of drug pricing – requiring them to act in the best interests of employees relying on employer-sponsored health plans. My bill will help curb hidden fees and practices that drive up what employees pay for their medications. Here’s a segment of the Newton Beacon’s reporting on the PBM FAIR Act below:

“Auchincloss has long accused PBMs of “self-dealing,” which is when an insurance company requires the drugs with the biggest profit margin only be dispensed by that company’s affiliated pharmacies.

[Auchincloss] introduced the bill, PBM Fiduciary Accountability, Integrity, and Reform (FAIR) Act , with Senators Roger Marshall, of Kansas; Tim Kaine, of Virginia; Maggie Hassan, of New Hampshire; and Chuck Grassley, of Iowa.

PBMs that provide drug benefits for employer health plans are not legally required to put employees’ interests first. Auchincloss maintains that this new bill would fix that by making them fiduciaries, which would put a legal obligation on them to practice in the best financial interest of customers.

“Instead of looking out for the best interests of employees, pharmacy benefit managers have been hitting them with prescription drug mark-ups, inconvenient pharmacy options, and wrongful denials,” said Congressman Auchincloss. “This legislation puts force of law behind the best interest standard. The PBMs either improve access and affordability, or they’ll pay out in lawsuits.”

Lifting up local voices in the MA-04

Small business walkabout in Newton: The Charles River Regional Chamber of Commerce organized a Newton Center small-business walking tour for Newton State Representatives Amy Sangiolo & Greg Schwartz and me. We met with the owners of Derby Farm Flowers, Fulfilled Goods, Thistle & Leek, Union Pharmacy, and Baramor. Different businesses have varied day-to-day challenges, but as always one constant is the cost of health care. 

My bipartisan legislation to wring out price gouging in the pharmaceutical supply chain is one step towards lower prices and more simplicity, but much more is necessary: expanding primary care & preventative care to reduce chronic disease (particularly with more funding for community health centers), challenging consolidation that drives up prices, and adopting technology where it takes out cost.

Looking at 2026 with the League of Women Voters: In December, a number of chapters across the Massachusetts Fourth joined an LWV Town Hall for Q&A on current events. We discussed health care costs, medical research funding, election integrity laws, the administration's actions against Venezuela, and more. Thank you to LWV for its civic enterprise and the thoughtful conversation that it platforms.

Meeting with special needs families: I met with parents of special-needs students for a Zoom Q&A. I expressed my support for IDEA funding (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), which along with other Department of Education grants sends hundreds of millions of dollars to Massachusetts schools to help educate more than 180,000 students with disabilities across the Bay State. 

I also expressed that RFK Jr.'s contempt for science undermines research into causes and treatments for autism. The autism community deserves better than his lies and fear-mongering – individuals and their families should see rigorous science that attempts to answer their questions and improve the quality of their lives. 

In addition to answering questions, I was able to ask a couple of my own. 

I got great feedback on how the autism community approaches questions of integration in general-education classrooms versus specialized instruction. I also got ideas on how to expand employment opportunities for individuals with physical or intellectual disabilities.

Responding to concerns regarding the Brookline post office: My office has received numerous concerns regarding recent unannounced closures of the Brookline Post Office, which has not met the mark for my constituents during my five years in office. 

My office has repeatedly tried to work with a rotating cast of postmasters to improve service, without sustained results. It's unacceptable and the pressure needs to ratchet. In 2026 I am pursuing new avenues to apply pressure to the Postal Service to ensure the Brookline Post Office operates effectively.

In December, I met with both the Irish (top) and Bosnian (bottom) Ambassadors to the United States. While the nations and issues are very different, there were shared themes: 

• Alarm about Russian belligerence and a desire for the United States to stand with NATO and Europe. Ireland is concerned about Ukraine, and Bosnia about Russian malfeasance through Serbian proxies. 
• Commitment to deep economic integration with the United States. Ireland already has some of the richest trade and investment ties of any country with the United States; Bosnia seeks to build them.
• Recognition that bipartisan support in Congress for the partnership is vital. Ireland values congressional support for the Good Friday Agreement, and Bosnia for the Dayton Accords. 

I will continue to support these two bilateral relationships in my work as a member of both the Friends of Ireland and Bosnian caucuses.

RFK Jr.’s groundless child vaccine changes: This week, at a Health Subcommittee hearing, I criticized the committee’s failure to exercise meaningful oversight over Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services after he gutted the childhood vaccination schedule. This move will lead, predictably and preventably, to an increase in morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases for children. 

Over the last year, my office has repeatedly requested oversight hearings on RFK Jr.’s conspiratorial and anti-science rhetoric and policy-making, particularly on vaccines and the Food and Drug Administration.

While I will continue to wage a Democratic-only fight for oversight through 2026, there is immediate bipartisan action Congress can take to improve public health. Community Health Centers (CHC) need stable funding. CHCs are struggling through a period of acute financial uncertainty, with their federal funding scheduled to expire in 22 days, on January 30th. Repeated short-term funding extensions limit their ability to plan for their patients’ needs. 

I encouraged my colleagues to work with me on legislation to expand that funding, help CHCs triple their reach across the United States, and protect patients' access to comprehensive primary care before the January 30th deadline. 

Nuclear & wind in Massachusetts: Also last week, the Energy subcommittee held a hearing, “American Energy Dominance: Dawn of the New Nuclear Era.” I spoke to the potential of both nuclear and offshore wind in Massachusetts. 

“I think Massachusetts should lift its moratorium on nuclear production and build more nuclear power plants for higher baseload power. What [Democrats on this committee] are asking for is for the ability for investors and states to make their own decisions about the appropriate portfolio of energy sources. 

In Massachusetts, we have a tremendous amount of offshore wind…we could have powered 200,000 homes with our offshore wind, which actually blows so hard off the coast of Massachusetts that it matches the baseload reliability of other sources of energy, like natural gas. We could have traded with Hydro-Québec for off peak hours. It made all the sense in the world, but the administration's arbitrary and capricious practices have made it harder to invest in that energy source and other energy sources, where investors have to put capital at risk for the long term.

I don't want lectures from the GOP on ‘all of the above’ energy strategies when they are silent about this administration canceling long term investments in the types of energy generation that we need.”

Unlocking affordable housing: Housing affordability is the number one issue in the U.S. economy right now, and manufactured housing is part of the solution. On Friday, the House passed the Affordable Homes Act, which I led on the Democratic side, to unlock the production of manufactured housing and lower prices by up to $10,000 per unit. 

The bill vests the Department of Housing & Urban Development with final authority over energy efficiency standards, preventing the Department of Energy from unilaterally imposing standards that Biden-era housing officials already determined to be prohibitively expensive and ineffective at reducing emissions. Coming off a big bipartisan vote in the House, with the endorsement of the National Housing Conference, the Senate should pass this legislation, fast, to start cutting costs in the housing market.

Question: You have stated that "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."  How do you propose handling the highly toxic waste generated by both nuclear fusion and fission -- given that no state wants to act as a repository and the transportation of said waste is fraught with risks?

- Carolyn

Answer:  Deep geological disposal is the gold standard. Finland, Sweden and France are all adopting this method, in which nuclear waste is placed hundreds of meters deep in stable rock formations. There are both natural and engineered barriers to prevent radionuclide migration. 

The transportation of nuclear waste in Type B shipping casks, which are built and tested to withstand one-in-a-billion scenarios, has a superb safety record in the United States.

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.  

Happy New Year, 

Jake