News Coverage
Washington Post: Senators urge tougher chip controls to stymie Chinese AI advance
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) have issued a populist appeal to Commerce Secretary-designate Howard Lutnick to toughen chip export controls against China, in response to the country’s surprise DeepSeek AI breakthrough. “Multiple administrations have failed — at the behest of corporate interests — to update and enforce our export controls in a timely manner. We cannot let that continue,” they wrote in a letter provided exclusively to The Washington … Continue Reading
February 03, 2025
NBC News: Democratic senators say they have 'grave concerns' over RFK Jr.'s potential financial conflicts
Two Democratic senators on the committee that will get to decide whether to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination say his recent financial disclosure filing gave them “grave concern” about whether he should become the next health and human services secretary. In a letter to Kennedy dated Sunday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said his recently amended ethics disclosure form only raised additional questions about the scope of his potential financial conflicts of … Continue Reading
February 03, 2025
New York Times: Warren Questions Bessent Over Musk Access to Treasury Payment System
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sent a letter on Monday to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent demanding answers for why the so-called Department of Government Efficiency was granted access to the federal payments system, giving Elon Musk and his team a powerful tool that could be used to track and potentially limit government spending. The letter is a sign of mounting outrage among Democrats over the unorthodox efforts that the Trump administration and Mr. Musk are preparing to take … Continue Reading
February 01, 2025
CNN: Sen. Warren demands Musk explain potential involvement in FAA administrator’s resignation
Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to know what role billionaire Elon Musk played in the resignation of Mike Whitaker, who led the Federal Aviation Administration during the Biden administration. Whitaker’s departure earlier this month left the agency without a key leader during Wednesday’s deadly aviation collision in the Washington, DC, area. The Massachusetts Democrat on Friday wrote a letter to Musk — addressed to the White House, where he is working as head of President Donald Trump’s … Continue Reading
January 30, 2025
Notus: The Senate’s Top Democrats on Housing Are Demanding Answers About the Impacts of the Federal Aid Freeze
Key Democrats on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee are trying to get answers from the Trump administration on how its intended federal aid freeze could or has affected federal housing programs. In a letter obtained by NOTUS, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member of the committee, and Sen. Tina Smith, the ranking member of a subcommittee focused on housing, requested more information about which Housing and Urban Development programs were part of the … Continue Reading
January 28, 2025
Bloomberg: Warren Presses Lutnick on Crypto Firm Loved by Outlaws
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is pressing Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick on connections he and his firm Cantor Fitzgerald LP have with a company that’s the go-to cryptocurrency of the criminal world, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest ahead of his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Warren asked Lutnick about his relationship to Tether Holdings Ltd., including how much he and Cantor Fitzgerald — the Wall Street investment bank and brokerage — have invested … Continue Reading
January 28, 2025
Associated Press: Trump’s nominee for Pentagon weapons buyer was a key figure in the president’s first impeachment
President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the military’s top weapons buyer is an official who directed the Pentagon to withhold aid from Ukraine in 2019 as Trump sought a commitment from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate the Biden family — a key component of the impeachment of Trump in his first term. That relationship is raising questions among some senators about whether the nominee will follow the law if confirmed for a powerful new position that oversees a budget of $311 … Continue Reading
January 27, 2025
NBC News: Democratic lawmakers slam Trump for not making good on promise to 'immediately' lower food prices amid egg shortage
Donald Trump vowed to slash grocery prices as soon as he took office, yet he has barely addressed the cost of food in the whirlwind of executive orders he signed in his first week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic lawmakers wrote in a searing letter. The letter, addressed to Trump, accuses the president of backtracking on a campaign promise to lower supermarket bills starting on Day 1 of his term. “During your campaign, you repeatedly promised you would lower food prices … Continue Reading
January 23, 2025
CNBC: 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 23, 2025
CBS News: Big banks hiked interest rates on borrowers but not for savers, senators say
As interest rates climbed, major banks charged borrowers more for mortgages and auto loans, yet never increased payouts to savers, despite telling lawmakers they would do so, say two U.S. senators in letters to seven CEOs, shared exclusively with CBS News. In March 2022, the Federal Reserve started raising the federal funds rate, with banks following suit by hiking rates for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. But those increases were not matched with high interest rate payouts on savings … Continue Reading
January 23, 2025
TIME: Warren's Plan for Musk to Cut U.S. Spending
If Elon Musk is serious about cutting government waste, fraud, and abuse, he may find help in an unusual place: Elizabeth Warren. While many Democrats in Congress want nothing to do with the billionaire who spent a fortune to help elect Donald Trump, the Massachusetts Senator says she wants to find common ground with Musk in his new role leading the White House's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In a letter she sent him Thursday morning, Warren proposed 30 recommendations for … Continue Reading
January 21, 2025
Bloomberg: Trump Urged by Democratic Senators to Keep Biden’s Drug Price Cuts
A group of lawmakers are urging President Donald Trump to reject pharmaceutical companies' efforts to pause the Biden administration's drug-price cuts. Trump should use his deal-making skills to "flat out reject any request to end negotiations from giant pharmaceutical makers that have spent decades putting profits over patients," Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon and Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote in a letter to the president seen by … Continue Reading
January 20, 2025
Roll Call: Finance Democrats seek assurances from Bessent on taxes ahead of vote
A trio of top Senate Democrats is pressing Scott Bessent, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Treasury secretary, to submit to an IRS audit and release his tax filings ahead of the Finance Committee’s vote on his confirmation Tuesday. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, along with Finance ranking member Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, sent a letter Monday with the requests. They cited reports on a confidential memo prepared by Finance Democratic staff raising … Continue Reading
January 18, 2025
Washington Post: Pressure builds on RFK Jr. as confirmation hearing remains unscheduled
Bipartisan critics of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are sharpening their arguments that he is unfit to serve as the nation's top health official, embracing the extra time they have been given while Kennedy waits for his confirmation hearings to be scheduled. The Office of Government Ethics as of Friday was still evaluating Kennedy's financial disclosures, which are required for potential Cabinet officials, delaying his anticipated hearings in front of the Senate’s finance and health committees. The … Continue Reading
January 17, 2025
The Hill: Warren pushes for Hegseth’s wife to divest from defense company stocks
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter Friday to President-elect Trump's Defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, asking for his wife to divest from thousands of dollars worth of stock she holds in defense company stocks, calling it a conflict of interest. Warren said she found Hegseth's wife, Jennifer Rauchet, holds stock in top defense contractors like Northrop Grumman Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., Honeywell International, IBM, and Microsoft, along with smaller contractors and also … Continue Reading
January 17, 2025
The Guardian: Elizabeth Warren urges Trump to beef up ethics rules as Musk takes key role
The Massachusetts Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren has called on Donald Trump to institute new ethics rules to guard against scandals involving appointees such as Elon Musk, the SpaceX, Tesla and X owner who will jointly lead an effort to slash federal spending after the new administration takes power on Monday. Trump “can and should top” Joe Biden’s ethics standards for government officials, Warren told Trump’s transition co-chairs in a letter exclusively obtained by the … Continue Reading
January 17, 2025
The Verge: Lawmakers press Meta, Apple, Google, and others on massive Trump donations
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) are putting pressure on big tech firms to explain their motives for donating to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. In letters to Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Uber, the lawmakers express concerns about the companies making contributions to “avoid scrutiny, limit regulation, and buy favor.” Over the past several weeks, Google, Microsoft, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman all … Continue Reading
January 15, 2025
Business Insider: Democrats urge Trump nominees to keep the IRS's free direct tax-filing tool, touting it as a DOGE-friendly program
As some Republicans urge President-Elect Donald Trump to kill the IRS's free direct tax-filing tool, Democrats are attempting to preserve it. In a letter to Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent and IRS Commissioner nominee Billy Long, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chris Coons of Delaware touted what they see as the benefits of the program. "Direct File is making the process of interacting with the government more efficient, a goal we all can agree on," Warren and … Continue Reading
January 13, 2025
Yahoo Finance: Elizabeth Warren has more than 180 questions for Trump Treasury pick Scott Bessent
Senator Elizabeth Warren is outlining a detailed list of her concerns with Scott Bessent in a new letter that runs for 31 pages and includes more than 180 questions that she wants the Trump Treasury secretary pick to answer before his confirmation vote. The missive from the influential senator on the left, which was provided for review exclusively to Yahoo Finance before its publication, covers an array of topics from taxes to banking oversight to terrorist financing - and even ethics … Continue Reading
January 13, 2025
HuffPost: Elizabeth Warren To Grill Trump Housing Nominee On Rents, Shell Companies
Rent price-fixing by computer algorithms and keeping real estate from being used for money laundering through shell companies are two issues that Scott Turner, the former professional football player picked to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will likely face at this committee confirmation hearing Thursday. In a lengthy 13-page letter to Turner on Sunday obtained by HuffPost, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, laid out … Continue Reading