POLITICO Pro Q&A: Rep. Jake Auchincloss, the new E&C Dem fighting back against RFK Jr.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a southern Massachusetts Democrat, is using his new seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee
to advocate for overhauls of health care policies and provide a check on what he sees as the Trump administration's anti-
vaccine agenda.
The 37-year-old Harvard graduate and former Marine in his third term in office is among a group of Democrats seated to the
powerful panel this year and injecting youth into the ranks, joining fellow millennial Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY.).
He's the son of Hugh Auchincloss, who succeeded Anthony Fauci as acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, but he is quickly emerging as a key voice for Democrats on the committee in his own rite — particularly
as his party pushes for a standalone vote on legislation that would place new regulations for pharmacy benefit managers, who
negotiate drug costs for consumers and employers. So-called PBM reform almost sailed through Congress last year but got
stripped out of a larger government funding package at the last minute, with President Donald Trump and Elon Musk
complaining about extraneous policy riders on the underlying bill.
Auchincloss sat down for a wide-ranging interview that touched on his goals on the committee, how Democrats can resist
Republicans in GOP-controlled Washington and where Democrats can align with Health and Human Services Secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are your priorities for E&C?
My overarching priority is oversight and accountability for [HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] on vaccines. That's the
fire in the House right now, obviously with what's happening with measles in Texas and Georgia, with the first death of a
child in the U.S. in 20 years. RFK Jr. will still not recommend the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to parents. According
to him, chicken soup is the answer.
I'm trying to make this oversight bipartisan because it is 10 times more effective if you can make it bipartisan. Kennedy made
a lot of promises to [Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.)]. I don't think his promises are worth his understanding of Medicare and
Medicaid, but he at least asserted them to Cassidy. He did not make any promises about the National Vaccine Injury
Compensation Program. He can eviscerate that program, and the vaccine makers would likely pull their vaccines off the
market. I have limited confidence in my Republican counterparts to hold them to account for that. We've got to protect
children's health.Across the subcommittees — On the health subcommittee, PBM reform; on the environment subcommittee, it's trying to
phase out the use of PFAS. On the energy subcommittee, we're working on legislation about superhot rock geothermal, a
really promising technology.
What concrete things can you do on oversight of RFK Jr.?
The most important thing we can do is raise public awareness of the threat that he poses to children's health. We can try to
persuade our Republican colleagues, and I'm working on that. The other thing we can do is go out into the public and then
have it refract back to Republican members of Congress. I did this yesterday, putting out a video asking people in Texas and
Georgia to call their members of Congress and ask them for oversight on RFK Jr. We have to bring him to Congress to
explain. He's no longer just out there talking to people on podcasts — he's the nation's top health official. It's going to be
oversight, legislation and litigation if necessary.
Are you talking with Republicans privately about RFK Jr.?
I'm trying to talk to Republican members on the committee as well as in the administration. I'll talk to anybody about the
issue. During the oversight hearing, every time we said “measles,” they said ‘'Covid.” They want to make the conversation
about “Covid.”
There was a marathon hearing on E&C's oversight plan this week that Democrats hijacked with more than 100
amendments. Do you expect more of this?
Yes. As you saw with the PBM reform hearing, we want this health package that got booted out [of the funding bill last year]
at the last minute. Speaker [Mike] Johnson allowed Elon Musk to sabotage excellent health care policy without even
knowing what it was. Speaker Johnson needs to grow a backbone and put this package on the floor, and I'll vote for it.
What would you like to see going forward on PBM reform?
One is passing the bipartisan PBM reform package. That's more than I was hoping for in the 118th Congress. Step 2 is that
we've got to skate to where the puck is headed. If you listen to the PBM CEOs, they say their growing business is going to
come from fees and specialty steering. I've got legislation that would significantly constrain both of those practices. The final
step is we have to address the root cause — the consolidation.
On the TikTok bill you cosponsored forcing ByteDance to divest or have the app face a ban, what do you hope the
Trump administration will do with a deadline approaching?
Congress has done its job. The president needs to do his job. He needs to take care that the laws are faithfully executed,
which he has not done. Even the delay was illegal. Clearly the Republicans want to give him some space, but he has to sell,
make sure that this thing is sold.
If both chambers adopt the House GOP budget resolution, Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee will
have to find $880 billion in cuts to programs under its purview to pay for their reconciliation bill to enact Trump's
agenda. Do you think Republicans can hit that target without cutting benefits to Medicaid?
Not to my knowledge of how the arithmetic works.
You've talked a lot about an interesting concept called “cost disease.” Can you explain that a little more?
Cost disease infects sectors that have high demand, low productivity and are very labor intensive — and productivity here,
it's not a moral term. It's literally a definition of output per labor input hour. Health care — many sectors within health care
— suffer from cost disease, which is why you see health care inflating faster than the consumer price index. It's the number
one thing I hear from employers and municipalities: Our health insurance is devouring wages and profits. Getting a handle on
lower health care costs is an imperative for Democrats.One way to think about treating cost disease in health care is to think about the areas where the most cost is centered in our system and how do we deflect demand for those areas — intensive care units, emergency rooms and nursing facilities. Those are obviously vitally important areas, but they're very expensive. So designing policy to keep people out of those areas. One way to do so is community health centers: They're a tremendous return on investment. We should radically expand them, and
that's popular with the [Make America Healthy Again] Caucus. There's a hidden area of bipartisan consensus.
Are there areas where you could work with the MAHA Caucus?
Democrats have never contested RFK Jr.'s point that chronic illness is a problem and that food and Americans' diet and
environmental conditions are a problem. It's insufferably arrogant that he acted like it was this epiphany — 15 years ago,
Michelle Obama wanted healthier school lunches. To the extent that we could improve Americans' diet, reduce the incidence of diabetes, reduce the incidence of obesity — absolutely we're going to work with them on it. Going to fight him tooth and nail on vaccines, though.
By: Ben Leonard
Source: Politico