In The News
Democratic lawmakers ask regulators to look into Donald and Melania Trump meme coins
Two senior congressional Democrats have asked multiple regulators to look into the propriety of meme coins issued by President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Jake Auchincloss, both of Massachusetts, raised issues regarding the first couple using their respective offices for enrichment, along with the potential for “rug-pull” scams similar to what has happened with the other such tokens, as well as possible conflicts of interest. “We write with deep … Continue Reading
January 16, 2025
TikTok’s forced sale is an opportunity to reclaim digital town square
The oral arguments before the Supreme Court on TikTok made clear that the social media app is skating on thin legal ice. Last term, I cosponsored the bipartisan bill it is challenging. This term, Congress must follow through on forcing TikTok’s divestment from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. That will require muscling past President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle, who want to put his China policy up for sale. Then lawmakers must stand up to the entire Big Tech lobby by establishing a … Continue Reading
January 15, 2025
Why Trump's target should be China, not Panama
Donald Trump is threatening to invade Panama. Chinese influence over the Canal Zone, he argues, undermines U.S. security. Ten years ago, I commanded a 60-man counter-narcotics training mission for the Marines to the Panama Canal Zone. Over the last two years, I served on the Select Committee on China in Congress. I introduced the U.S. Supply Chain Security Review Act, which is now the law of the land. The president-elect is right to support the Monroe Doctrine. This pillar of American … Continue Reading
January 14, 2025
US oil group under pressure to exit Russia after Biden administration widens sanctions
One of the US’s biggest energy groups has come under new pressure to halt its operations in Russia following the imposition of sweeping new sanctions on the country’s oil sector by the Biden administration. Two US Congress members told the Financial Times that oilfield services company SLB, better known as Schlumberger, should get out of Russia or risk breaching US sanctions. Lloyd Doggett and Jake Auchincloss issued the warning following an order published by the Biden administration on … Continue Reading
January 10, 2025
Lawmakers urge FTC to release newest report on pharmacy benefit managers
A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers is calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to vote in favor of releasing an interim staff report on pharmacy benefit managers (PBM). Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), along with Reps. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) and Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), wrote to the FTC in light of Tuesday’s open commission meeting to consider issuing a second interim staff report on PBMs. “PBMs were originally created to handle the prescription … Continue Reading
January 06, 2025
‘They get to applaud. We had to evacuate.’ Jake Auchincloss reflects on two very different Jan. 6s.
WASHINGTON — The certification of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential victory proceeded routinely Monday in the House chamber, a methodical announcement of each state’s electoral votes so unexciting that Representative Jake Auchincloss leaned back in his seat. “Dignified and boring,” the Newton Democrat said after the 30-minute exercise before a joint session of Congress presided over by Vice President Kamala Harris. “Just like it should be.” His last words hung in the air of one of the tunnels … Continue Reading
December 31, 2024
Auchincloss urges Senate to vote ‘no’ on RFK Jr. appointment
President-Elect Donald Trump has named Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his pick to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss is asking Democrats in the Senate to vote against that appointment. Kennedy—known for his controversial views on vaccines and medical treatment—ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for president this year before launching an independent bid and then dropping out to endorse Trump. Auchincloss recently appeared on MSNBC to … Continue Reading
December 28, 2024
Massachusetts Democrat suggests Trump’s TikTok support stems from his popularity on the app
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) suggested that President-elect Trump’s opposition to a TikTok ban comes from his popularity on the app and the video-sharing platform lobby’s influence on his inner circle. “With Donald Trump, it’s always some combination of two things, Jim. It’s one, flattery and inflating his ego,” Auchincloss told CNN guest host Jim Sciutto during his Friday appearance on CNN. “And then number two is the soft corruption and sycophancy of his inner circle. Those two threads … Continue Reading
December 18, 2024
U.S. Rep. Auchincloss joins Republican colleagues in bringing fentanyl fight to China
A Bay State Congressman reached across the aisle this week to join his Republican colleagues in offering legislation to stop the flow of deadly fentanyl into the U.S. from China. U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, joined by U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), John Moolenaar (R-MI), and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), announced they will offer three bills focused on stopping the lethal drug problem where it starts. Late on Tuesday the lawmakers announced that three bipartisan pieces of legislation developed … Continue Reading
November 23, 2024
Senate must reject Kennedy as health secretary
When children die of measles, their lungs inflame and fill with fluid. They die gasping for air. It’s a tragedy all the more awful for being preventable. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. consigned scores of children to this death in 2019. On tour in Samoa for his anti-vax road show, he spread enough fear and confusion to derail its vaccination campaign. What happened next is history — and biology. Measles infected thousands. Eighty-three people, the majority of them children, died in pain. … Continue Reading
October 21, 2024
Bipartisan House members call for tighter sanctions on oil field servicers in Russia
A bipartisan coalition of more than 50 congressional representatives called on the Biden administration to tighten sanctions on Russian oil and specifically address a major U.S. oil field servicer’s presence in Russia. In the letter, led by Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), the members asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to restrict activity by the firm SLB in Russia after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Since … Continue Reading
October 21, 2024
US lawmakers question oil service company's SLB's exception to Russian sanctions
WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Dozens of U.S. Representatives from both political parties urged the Biden administration to toughen sanctions on Russian oil shipments and questioned an exception issued to the world's largest oilfield company SLB (SLB.N), opens new tab to operate in the country. Since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. and European countries have sought to cut Moscow's energy revenue for fighting the war through sanctions. That prompted several oilfield service … Continue Reading
September 23, 2024
Local pharmacists support Rep. Auchincloss’s “Pharmacists Fight Back” Act
Rep. Jake Auchincloss has been leading a bipartisan effort to pass the Pharmacists Fight Back Act (HR9096) to regulate what the Congressional supporters term “price gouging abuses by the Pharmacy Benefits Managers (PBMs) — the middlemen of drug pricing.” On September 19, the group held a press conference in front of the Capitol Building to highlight the ways in which the PBMs are driving up drug costs and favoring the three largest companies - CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s ESI, and … Continue Reading
September 18, 2024
Lawmakers urge independent civil rights commission to investigate campus antisemitism
A bipartisan group of 23 lawmakers wrote to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Tuesday urging it to investigate the rise of antisemitism on college campuses and provide recommendations to Congress and the administration to address the issue. The commission is an independent bipartisan body created by the Civil Rights Act that investigates and provides recommendations to the administration and Congress on responding to civil rights issues in the U.S. The commission has investigated campus … Continue Reading
September 08, 2024
OTR: Jake Auchincloss on gun violence and schools
BOSTON —Rep. Jake Auchincloss speaks about gun violence and schools in the wake of a shooting in Georgia that left two students and two teachers … Continue Reading
September 04, 2024
‘An unspeakable tragedy’: Rep. Auchincloss says of death of Israeli-American hostage with Mass. ties
Two days after an Israeli-American slain by Hamas was laid to rest in a Jerusalem cemetery, calls for justice an ocean away continued to reverberate. The death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who had family in Newton, is an “unspeakable tragedy,” U.S Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-4th District, said Wednesday. “Hersh had connections to Massachusetts, and indeed to my hometown of Newton,” Auchincloss said after an unrelated event in Brookline. Hersh Goldberg-Polin was one of six hostages killed … Continue Reading
August 08, 2024
Cong. Auchincloss Joins Franklin Vets for Purple Heart Day
Above, Franklin Vietnam Vet and Purple Heart recipient Robert Gardner, holding his award and posing with Congressman Jake Auchincloss Wednesday at the Senior Center. Wednesday morning, thanks to some advanced planning, the monthly Veteran's Coffee was transformed into an event honoring Purple Heart recipients, living and dead, and their families. Emceed by Veterans Services Officer Shannon Nisbett, living recipients wounded in Vietnam, Korea, and the Second World War were honored along with … Continue Reading
July 30, 2024
Lawmakers want to carve out intimate AI deepfakes from Section 230 immunity
July 30, 2024
Lawmakers want to carve out intimate AI deepfakes from Section 230 immunity
A bipartisan pair of House lawmakers are proposing a bill to carve out Section 230 protection for tech companies that fail to remove intimate AI deepfakes from their platforms. Reps. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) and Ashley Hinson (R-IA) unveiled the Intimate Privacy Protection Act, Politico first reported, “to combat cyberstalking, intimate privacy violations, and digital forgeries,” as the bill says. The bill amends Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, which currently shields online … Continue Reading
July 23, 2024
Lawmakers introduce bipartisan bill aiming to crack down on drug middlemen as scrutiny ramps up
Key Points Bipartisan lawmakers introduced a new bill that aims to crack down on the business practices of drug supply chain middlemen who allegedly inflate prescription medication prices in the U.S. The legislation aims to lower costs for patients enrolled in federal healthcare programs and ensure that community pharmacies are reimbursed fairly by so-called pharmacy benefit managers. It comes amid a House committee hearing featuring testimony by the three largest PBMs, UnitedHealth … Continue Reading