PITTSFIELD, Mass. — At call-in town hall on Thursday, constituents in the First Mass District shared their fears and concerns over actions being taken at the federal level.
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal detailed the "chaotic nature" of President Donald Trump's recent executive actions during a telephone town hall that drew more than 8,000 participants.
"Congress does not serve under a president of the United States," Neal said from his Washington, D.C., office, the Capital dome in the background.
"I need and you need to have our colleagues on the other side of the aisle begin to challenge some of these edicts that are coming from the administration."
In the last couple of weeks, Trump has filed 60 executive orders including "Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization" and "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling." Neal said that 56 lawsuits have been filed in response and describes the administration's actions as "executive overreach."
"It's a dismantling of the administrative state brick by brick and those institutions that millions of Americans rely upon," one caller said.
"My concern is it appears that the rapidity of how this is occurring and the response with respect to how we're addressing this is not adequate."
What has been bothersome to Neal and many of his colleagues is "the fact that there's been a usurpation of congressional authority in the effort to announce these edicts that may well have very little legal standing."
He said this doesn't deny the pain caused to many, whether it is the U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Institutes of Health, the General Services Administration, or for those on Medicaid.
Many expressed concerns for the future of Medicaid and Social Security, the largest federal government programs. A nearly 80-year-old caller is worried about her disabled daughter who lives in a group home and is dependent on it.
"What happens to our children with different abilities?" she said. "Who's going to care for them? I can't take her home. She runs faster than I do."
Trump has said he will not cut these programs but the House Budget Committee's budget draft aims for $2 trillion in spending cuts and allows $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.
"The blueprint draft called for at least $880 billion in spending cuts from the House Energy and Commerce Committee over the next decade. This would likely mean large Medicaid cuts, potentially leading many Americans to lose their benefits," Business Insider wrote on Wednesday.
"A list from Republicans on the House Budget Committee published by Politico outlining reconciliation options reveals over $2 trillion in potential Medicaid cuts, though some could overlap."
Neal reported that there are 71 million Americans that benefit from Medicaid "In fact, in many of the red states, it is the primary source of health care for millions of Americans.?"
"All of this is being done to provide an avenue to maintain substantial tax cuts for people who aren't even asking for them at the very top of our economic system," he said.
"So the numbers look like this: The proposal is $4 trillion borrowed over the next 10 years, borrowed for the purpose of tax cuts for wealthy people, and again, when you hear and look at distribution tables, the argument that everybody's getting a tax cut might be true but the more effective argument is who's getting what."
The congressman said anyone following his career knows his support for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is "unwavering," as "Social Security is the basis of our nation's retirement system."
"The average Social Security benefit is $1,976 a month, or $24,000 a year. What that means is that half the people who receive Social Security receive less than $24,000 a year. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, every child in Massachusetts has health insurance. Let me repeat that. Every child in Massachusetts has health insurance as do 97 percent of the adults," he said.
"One hundred eighty-three thousand people in our district, they depend on Medicaid. Sixty-four thousand children and 18,000 seniors over the age of 65 derived that benefit. The idea that we're going to give a tax cut to the top 2 percent of the American family at the expense of these initiatives, raise the debt ceiling in an arbitrary manner so that we can borrow more money for tax cuts, and then say that we need to cut health care to pay for all of it is irresponsible and indeed reckless."
Neal urged attendees to contact both Democratic and Republican lawmakers with their concerns.
"I'm glancing right over at that dome," he concluded. "It means something to me and I know it means something to you and we're going to stand together to push back at these ill-conceived proposals that we're witnessing."
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GE Plans for PCB Removal Gets OK
BOSTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved, with several conditions, the General Electric Company's Revised On-Site and Off-Site Transportation and Disposal Plan. GE's revised plan maximizes the use of rail and hydraulic pumping for the transport of sediments and soils in and along the Housatonic River that are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls.
Approximately 75 percent to 80 percent of the material to be removed from the river will be transported hydraulically without the need for any trucks. Approximately 17 percent of the material can be transported by rail (combined with trucking). As little as approximately 5 percent of the material may be transported solely by truck to the Upland Disposal Facility, depending on the final transportation plans for Reach 5A and the successful implementation of the rail option.
The overall local round-trip truck trips are reduced by approximately 65 percent compared to GE's original plan that was submitted in October 2023. This will reduce local truck trips from an estimated 71,000 trips to approximately 24,600 trips.
EPA approved three locations for rail spurs for the loading/off-loading of material: Utility Drive in Pittsfield, Woods Pond/Berkshire Scenic Railroad in Lenox, and Rising Pond in Great Barrington. GE will submit to EPA for approval a pre-design investigation work plan that will propose sufficient data collection to allow for the design of the Utility Drive and the Woods Pond rail spurs. This work plan will be submitted no later than May 15.
This expedited schedule is necessary to ensure the rail spurs are operational when the Reach 5A (Pittsfield reach) remediation gets underway in 2027 or 2028. The design/construction of the rail spur at Rising Pond is not needed for approximately 10 years from now.
Although EPA concurred with the proposed use of rail, GE will develop a backup plan for the transportation of material via trucks. This is necessary because of potential capacity limitations, potential coordination issues with the sole operator of the railroad, staffing issues, equipment limitations, conflicts with freight shipments, accidents, and other issues that may prevent the use of rail needed to maintain the remediation schedule.
Material from Reach 5A (Pittsfield Reach) and from Rising Pond going to the UDF can be transported by rail to the Woods Pond/Berkshire Scenic Railroad in Lenox for off-loading and subsequent truck transport to the UDF. The three rail spurs can also be used to transport the 100,000 cubic yards of material that are required by the Final 2020 Cleanup Permit to be sent to off-site disposal facilities.
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