On February 18th, Congressman Jake Auchincloss visited the town of Franklin to hold a Town Meeting at Franklin High School with local residents. Congressman Auchincloss addressed the fast-moving changes taking place at the federal level by Executive Order, how they would impact the Commonwealth, and measures he and others were taking to protect Massachusetts’ interests. Residents lined up to voice their concerns, including some Federal employees impacted by layoffs, parents of children whose hospitals would be moving or closing, and others upset by the rapid pace of drastic action by the current administration. 

A few days earlier, on February 12th, Congressman Jake Auchincloss delivered remarks on the House Floor on the NIH’s policy on caps for indirect costs, a $2 billion tax on Massachusetts’ Eds & Meds enterprise, which generates billions of dollars in economic activity and supports hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs. 

Below is a portion of his remarks. You can find the full speech at https://x.com/RepAuchincloss/status/1889789301686444356 .

“Here’s my challenge to my Republican colleagues: go back to your districts. Talk to your universities. Talk to your hospitals. See how they’re feeling about this policy. 

What you are going to hear is they can’t afford to take these grants. 

The research, and the development, and the commercialization that you brag about when you go home;  the ribbons that you cut for new companies and for new projects. They all rest upon this research infrastructure that is getting cut.

Go talk to these companies. Go talk to these institutions of higher education. Go talk to these hospitals. They don’t want to see this policy go into effect.  

And, they want to see you vote for it and explain it back home, not hide behind the NIH. So they’re losing. Who’s winning? China. 

There were two main themes in the recent J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. One was AI, which, by the way, requires a lot of research infrastructure. 

The second was how good China has gotten at biotech in the last five years. The Chinese biotech enterprise is looking at the United States cutting our own research infrastructure at a time when they’re investing tens of billions of dollars, and they cannot believe their luck…”