Q&A: Congressman Jake Auchincloss on Democrats’ constitutional fight, the Massachusetts housing crisis, and trans rights
As Democrats in Congress look to assert themselves during a chaotic, dramatic presidential transition, Brookline.News sat down with Congressman Jake Auchincloss in his Newton office to discuss the issues facing his constituents and the nation.
Auchincloss, who represents Brookline and 34 other cities and towns in the Massachusetts Fourth District, answered questions from our team and some of our readers on subjects including what he called a “constitutional fight” with the executive branch, his strategy for upcoming budget talks, his approach to issues like transgender rights and DEI, and his vision for addressing Massachusetts’ housing crisis.
Brookline.News: We asked readers and Brookline community members to pass along some questions for you. By far the most common thing that people wanted to ask about was some variation of this: Why are Democrats in Congress not doing more? To read from what one community member asked: “Why are you and your party acting as if the United States is not in the midst of a constitutional crisis?”
Rep. Jake Auchincloss: The moment at which Democrats are going to have leverage to box in Article Two will be the appropriations fight in March. As the minority party across the House, Senate and White House, our moments of leverage are few and far between, and so when we get them, we have to maximize them.
In March, government funding runs out. The Republicans need our votes to keep the government running. They don’t have the votes to do them. The central question is, how do we secure enforceable provisions to rein in the President’s abuse of emergency powers, prevent the president from usurping Congress’s power of the purse, and end the corruption and monetization of the presidency?
I will only vote for an appropriations package that has enforceable provisions to protect the separation of powers, because right now, what Trump is trying to do is he’s trying to claim Congress’s power of the purse, and that’s one of the four things that authoritarians seek to do.
The other three are they ignore judges, they steal elections, and they control media outlets, all of which in various forms, he’s also tried to do.
The power of the purse, we have to enforceably protect it, and that will be step one. That’s defense.
On offense: the Republicans are going to do a party line vote to cut Medicaid in order to fund tax cuts for the rich. Democrats need to go on offense and explain clearly to the American public that depriving seniors of at-home care and kids of access to primary care in order to fund tax cuts for the tech billionaires who sat at his inaugural address is not lowering costs for Americans.
Brookline.News: So just to be clear, you would be willing to vote against an appropriations bill, and vote in a way that leads to the government shutting down?
Auchincloss: We have to protect the Constitution. Yes, I would be willing to do that, because if we don’t get enforceable provisions to protect the power of the purse and to ensure that the corruption of the presidency does not continue, then funding the government is a fool’s errand, because he’s not going to appropriate funds the way that Congress directs. Legislatures and executives have been fighting over this for 400 years. Literally 400 years ago, parliament and King Charles fought a war over this very issue of power of the purse. This is not a new problem to have, and one of the mainstays of our federal republic is Congress controls appropriations. If we lose that, we end up with an authoritarian.
Brookline.News: Regardless of the leverage point coming up, one of the criticisms I’ve heard frequently is that Democrats haven’t been doing enough so far. Is there anything you’d point to that you or your caucus have done that you feel like has been effective?
Auchincloss: We have to use every lever we have: Oversight, litigation, legislation. Litigation has proven effective in some cases. More than 20 lawsuits filed have impaired some of the executive overreach. We’re two months into a two year cycle here ahead of the midterms, and so the real tests and the real fights are yet to come.
Brookline.News: In a Quinnipiac poll out a couple days ago, 40% of Democrats polled approved of the way that Democrats in Congress are handling their job. 49% disapprove. Polls are only worth what they’re worth, but do you feel frustrated that Democrats, your party, your base, don’t seem to be understanding or approving of the way that you and the party are approaching this challenge?
Auchincloss: I think Americans should be frustrated. We shouldn’t be surprised. He’s doing exactly what he said he was going to do. But we should be frustrated because he is trying to replace the rule of law with the law of the ruler. And so I’m frustrated. The verdict that matters is not a poll in February. It’s an election next November, and Democrats need to stay disciplined in contrasting the corruption and the chaos from the administration with the higher cost of living for Americans, because he came in and he was going to lower costs for Americans, that is the mandate that he got. And home insurance, car insurance, energy bills, housing bills and healthcare bills are all going to go up under his watch over these next two years.
Brookline.News: So do you agree with the approach of House Minority Leader Jeffries, which has been to really drill down on economic issues, pocketbook issues, and skip some of the more culture war stuff? Or do you want to take on more than just economic issues?
Auchincloss: I think the message, the focus on cost of living going into the midterms, is critical. What I have said repeatedly, though, is that on the culture issues, Democrats should not attempt to become MAGA light. We should not offer voters a Diet Coke when they ordered a Coca Cola. We are not going to cede our defense of this country as a nation of immigrants. We are not going to back off from protecting the Constitution, the rule of law. We are not going to engage in climate denialism. We are not going to flinch from saying we want to ban assault weapons. We’re not going to throw the LGBT community under the bus. These are our values as a party.
I think that they are values that will get a hearing and agreement from the big middle of this country, where there is a deep reservoir of common sense and decency. But in order to get that hearing, we have to demonstrate that we can perform on the basics, on housing, on health care, on public safety. I think what happened is voters lost confidence that we were delivering on the basics, and thought we were getting distracted.
Brookline.News: Talking to constituents and people in your district, in Brookline or elsewhere, what have been the most strong impacts of the Trump administration? Of the early actions that you hear about and notice and see in the district, what are the biggest problems that people here are experiencing right now because of the Trump administration?
Auchincloss: It’s not one thing. It is the fear that is induced by brazen lawlessness.
Brookline.News: Just to give one example, in Brookline, we’ve got a big medical research community. The NIH cuts are being felt really strongly. Could you name a couple of examples of the things that you’re most worried about for your constituents?
Auchincloss: We’re an “eds and meds” economy, so obviously the cuts to medical research overhead are going to have a disproportionate impact, particularly in the inner suburbs of Boston. We have a lot of federal employees, including many who work for Health and Human Services or for USAID and were affected by DOGE.
We have school districts who are worried about potential cuts to Title I funding under the Department of Education. Nonprofit groups focused on housing and healthcare and human services are very worried about funding freezes. The universities are worried about, not just the overhead cuts, but to the extent that they have engaged on DEI, whether that’s going to cause them to lose grant funding.
Eds, meds and feds matter a lot to this area, so people are deeply impacted by it. But again, I don’t think people would say it’s this one thing. What people are responding to is a sense of dread and fear about lawlessness from the most powerful person in the world, someone who thinks he’s above the law.
Brookline.News: Another question from a reader: “I’d like to ask the Congressman how he plans to oppose the erasure of our trans neighbors’ existences. The executive order on federal documents plainly violates Bostock versus Clayton County . Gender identity is protected under the Civil Rights Act. How would you address this overreach?”
Auchincloss: I voted against the Republicans’ blanket ban on trans women’s participation in women’s sports. I think that is an issue where leagues and localities need to develop rules to ensure that our trans community can pursue happiness while also respecting sportsmanship and fair play and safety. It’s not an issue for the president or Congress to issue an edict on in a blanket way, and Democrats must not throw the trans community under the bus and think it’s going to win them elections.
Brookline.News: What do you make of the way that Massachusetts is governing itself right now, between the governor and the legislature and muncipalities?
Auchincloss: I’m certainly happy to be living in Massachusetts. I would say two things concern me. One, we need to build a quarter-million units of housing in this state in the next decade, and the pace of housing production right now is anemic. We are not on pace to meet that goal. We will suffocate the middle class in this state if we do not build housing.
Number two is students. Scores in reading and math have gone down since COVID. We have to confront head-on that the school closures were a catastrophe. It should not have happened. My day-one issue when I took office in 2021 was reopening the schools. We worked across my district to do that, and I would like to see more boldness and more creativity in how we not only address learning loss, but make Massachusetts the paragon of excellence in delivering public education.
Brookline.News: We had a reader question about housing and zoning, so I will throw that in now. They said: “How can blue cities reduce zoning restrictions and encourage the building of more housing stock without creating political backlash?” And I think that last point is very relevant in Brookline, where we see huge fights over zoning. It’s the biggest issue in town. What’s your take?
Auchincloss: There will be political backlash. We have to build through the backlash. I’d also like to see the state charter a new city and build there. A former military base, whether at Devens or near Weymouth. Those don’t have municipal zoning associated with them. We already have some development happening at the site near Weymouth, a couple thousand units, I think, just got permitted. Let’s make that 100,000 units.
If we’re going meet the housing production goals, trying to, get a few hundred ADUs there or a mixed-use development here, it’s not the pace that we need. We need tens of thousands of new units. Spending our political capital fighting local zoning, it matters. We’ve got to do that, but I think it can maybe best be expended also in just literally developing a new city here in Massachusetts.
Americans used to found cities all the time. Every time we came to two rivers that intersected, we would found a city. Every time we bumped into a body of water, we found a city. We stopped doing that. Why? Let’s build cities.
Brookline.News: Another local issue I wanted to raise: a recent audit found major issues at the United States Post Office in Coolidge Corner.
Auchincloss: The deliverability has been unacceptable.
Brookline.News: Is there anything you’re doing? Ideas or solutions?
Auchincloss: We have been in constant and vigorous engagement with the Brookline postmaster, and they had to cycle out some of the postmasters because of unacceptable performance, and we’ll continue to work the issue, even with the new administration. Now [Trump is] talking about moving it under the Department of Commerce. If that change proceeds, we’ll evaluate how that change might produce better service for Brookline.
Brookline.News: People are worried about the loss of federal funding, which you raised as being an issue in the district and people you talk to, whether that’s the state governments, local governments, nonprofits, service providers. Do you feel confident that Congress can keep this money flowing?
Auchincloss: That’s the fight we have ahead of us. That is the central fight is appropriation and the power of the purse. It’s not just a policy fight. It’s a constitutional fight.
Brookilne.News: I was going to go back to that term, because our reader’s question described this moment as a “constitutional crisis.” That’s been a common phrase used in the last few weeks. Do you agree that the country is currently in a state of constitutional crisis?
Auchincloss: Ask me again after the appropriations fight.
Brookline.News: So you don’t necessarily think that what has happened to this point rises to that level of extremity?
Auchincloss: I think Democrats need to ensure that when we sound alarms, that we’re doing it at a time when we can explain to the average American why it rises to that level. January 6 was a constitutional crisis. If we get into a situation with the appropriations fight where he is either stepping on Congress’s power of the purse or ignoring judges, that will be a constitutional crisis as well. Right now we are in a constitutional fight. We’ve got a long way to go these next two years.
Brookline.News: Can you name one or two other big things you’ll be working on in the coming weeks and months, besides the budget and appropriations?
Auchincloss: I’m on the Energy and Commerce Committee. That has jurisdiction over Health and Human Services and the EPA. So I have three big focus areas: One, holding social media corporations accountable through both regulation and tax for their attention -racking of American youth and their corrosion of our civil discourse. Number two, preventing Robert F Kennedy Jr. from eviscerating science driven regulation and undermining children’s public health through attacks on our vaccine distribution and development system, and then three, supporting the EPA and preventing polluters from getting a free pass under the Trump administration.
By: Sam Mintz
Source: Brookline.News