Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Congressman Auchincloss: An Update For the prior 2 weeks (as of 3/19/24)

LAST 2 WEEKS IN REVIEW

I'm your representative in Congress and I write to keep you informed.

Introducing legislation to hold social media corporations accountable for youth mental health
Supporting TikTok's divestment
State of the Union recap
Lowering drug prices
Ukraine aid update
Bay State students in Washington

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Biotech conversation with European consuls general
Talking taxes with Citizens for Citizens
Visiting Mansfield
Delivering funds for bridges, clean water, and after-school activities

On the Hill

Introducing legislation to hold social media corporations accountable for youth mental health: I was excited to welcome Myrieme Nadri-Churchill, one of my constituents from Brookline, as my guest for President Biden's State of the Union. Myrieme is the Executive Director of Parents for Peace, a non-profit that empowers families, friends, and communities to prevent teens from falling victim to radicalization, violence, and extremism online using a public health approach.

With the help of Myrieme's invaluable counsel, I recently introduced legislation to hold social media companies accountable for their effects on American youth. The Verifying Kids Online Privacy Act would build on the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 2000 (COPPA) by 1) increasing the internet age of adulthood from 13 to 16, and 2) requiring social media companies to verify the ages of their users in a privacy-protected manner.

As the youngest Democratic parent in Congress, I am intent on ensuring that parents don't have to fight the Big Tech companies alone. Congress must protect our children's well-being from the greed of social media platforms that productize our children's attention spans for the benefit of advertisers.

Supporting TikTok's divestment: Last week, I voted to force TikTok to separate from its Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, as the first step in a comprehensive policy to support youth mental health and de-platform disinformation. Under Chinese law, TikTok is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

There are three steps Congress should take:

Step 1: Force TikTok to answer to Congress, not the Chinese Communist Party.
Step 2: Pass my legislation to raise the age of internet adulthood from 13 to 16.
Step 3: Hold social media corporations accountable for illegal actions committed on their platforms, through Section 230 reform.

State of the Union recap: I joined MSNBC following President Biden's State of the Union address to share my key takeaways on the sharp contrasts the president laid out between Democrats' and Republicans' positions on reproductive freedom, affordable healthcare, addressing gun violence, and defending our allies against dictators. The enduring legacy of Obamacare is just one example. For over a decade, Democrats have been fighting on behalf of the American patient to protect those with pre-existing conditions, and we're going to continue that fight against insurance companies to lower prescription drug costs.

The president opened the speech by directly linking January 6th with the Ukraine war: both are examples of authoritarians trampling on the rule of law. Russians didn't get a free and fair vote for their president in 2024; but Americans do. We must consider which vision of the American future to believe in – possibilities and progress or anger and regression.

Lowering prescription drug pricing: I joined The Hill for a fireside chat focused on lowering prescription drug pricing. I discussed my plan to rein in pharmacy benefit managers, which are drug-pricing middlemen owned by Fortune 50 health insurance companies. In particular, I advocated bipartisan legislation I helped introduce in the House, the Protecting Patients Against PBM Abuses Act, which would sever the link between PBM compensation and the cost of medications. After decades of aggressive lobbying by the likes of UnitedHealthcare, Congress must get serious about holding these drug-pricing middlemen accountable. In his State of the Union speech, President Biden highlighted how Democrats were able to come together to take on the health insurance companies and pass Obamacare in the 2010s. This decade's fight against the insurance lobby must include lowering drug costs through PBM reform.

Ukraine aid update: I spoke with CNN's Kasie Hunt about the immediate need for Congress to authorize additional military assistance for our allies in Ukraine. I signed a discharge petition filed by Congressman McGovern to force a vote on Ukraine aid in the House. Congress has the votes to fund Ukraine in its fight for freedom, but Speaker Johnson refuses to allow an up-or-down vote on the floor. I encourage all my Democratic colleagues – and those Republican Members who quote Reagan in their campaign ads – to join me and sign the discharge petition.

MA-04 students in Washington: I welcomed groups from Dexter-Southfield, Dover-Sherborn, and my own alma mater, Newton North, over the last two weeks during their annual trips to D.C. With our nation's Capitol as the backdrop, I talked to students about the importance of social media regulations (they didn't always agree), supporting Ukraine, and defending democracy at home and abroad. They asked questions about a typical day in the life of a Congressman and how I got the job. I advised them to be willing to take risks in pursuit of their curiosity. I'm always impressed by how thoughtful and engaged Bay State students are.

Make your voice heard → I want to hear from you.

Do you support forcing TikTok to be owned by a U.S. company?

Around the Fourth

Biotech conversation with European consuls general: I met with consuls general from Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Italy to discuss how the life sciences in Massachusetts factor into the global biotech enterprise. In the wide-ranging conversation, we discussed the importance of immigration, medical research, IP laws, and commercialization policies that reward makers, not takers. A booming biotech sector has propelled the Bay State's economy for over twenty years, but policymakers should not allow our success to justify complacency. Other states and countries–friends and foes alike–are competing hard.

In my recent op-ed on the subject in the Boston Globe, I explain how Congress should support progress:
"Rationalizing the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology, as recently advised by the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, is one opportunity to reward biotech makers and discourage snake-oil salesmen, by simultaneously streamlining and toughening regulations. Another example is regulating pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen of the drug supply chain who decide on behalf of insurance companies which drugs patients can access. The PBMs take billions in profits that should be directed to lowering patients' out-of-pocket costs.

In addition to supporting talent and passing pro-maker policy, policymakers should also provide infrastructure and standards for the life sciences. Clinical trials are the most expensive phase of biomedical innovation and are getting costlier. Improving the efficiency and diversity of clinical trials would be a rising tide to lift all biomedical boats, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, which I helped site in Massachusetts, should make it a priority.

Another way to lift all boats is standardization, especially across bio-manufacturing, a growth sector for Massachusetts. Standardization of conventions, measures, and data reduces friction and amplifies U.S. soft power in international industry, as it did for telecommunications."

Talking taxes with CFC: I met with Citizens for Citizens (CFC), a Massachusetts Community Action Agency that assists over 30,000 individuals in the Greater Fall River and Taunton areas each year to provide short-and long-term services for low-income individuals and families. CFC provided information about free tax prep services offered through the Massachusetts Association for Community Action.

The IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program offers free tax preparation services for qualifying taxpayers. The VITA program has operated for over 50 years and provides free tax help to people who need assistance in preparing their tax returns, including:

People who generally make $64,000 or less
Persons with disabilities
Limited English-speaking taxpayers

Our district has five VITA locations: CAN-DO in Newton, Citizens for Citizens in Fall River, Franklin Public Library in Franklin, and High Street Veterans Family Learning Center and Trustman Family Learning Center in Brookline. You can find the one nearest to you using the IRS locator tool: Find a Location for Free Tax Prep.

Visiting Mansfield: I kicked off a full day in Mansfield by meeting with seniors at the Village at Willow Crossing, a senior living community that over 200 seniors call home. I toured the neighborhood and main lodge, which features 24-hour healthcare support that includes expert mind and memory care developed with Alzheimer's specialists. We discussed Medicare's ability to negotiate drug prices and the lowering of Part D costs for millions. Now, Congress must ensure that health insurance companies are passing on further negotiated prescription drug savings to patients.

Next, I joined seniors for the town's annual St. Patrick's Day Lunch at the Mansfield Council On Aging, where we continued the conversation on the future of Medicare. Many also asked about Social Security, and I emphasized my commitment to protecting those earned benefits as well as my continued support of the Social Security Fairness Act and the Social Security 2100 Act.

Then, alongside Rep. Adam Scanlon and Town Manager Kevin Dumas, I toured the Cate Springs PFAS treatment plant, which was funded in part by the American Rescue Plan. Cate Springs is one of several local PFAS treatment facilities supported by federal funds. Clean drinking water is a human right, and since taking office I have directed millions of dollars to local PFAS remediation.

Finally, I wrapped up the day at the Mansfield BioIncubator to meet with the startup Aclarity, which electrochemically destroys PFAS using technology invented in Massachusetts. Tougher EPA regulations are rightfully pushing industry, landfills, and treatment plants to eliminate PFAS rather than cycle it.