Congressman James McGovern hosted a discussion about the issues plaguing the North Quabbin region — including transportation, aging infrastructure and affordable housing — on Friday in Petersham. Local, state and federal officials met Friday to discuss the issues plaguing the North Quabbin region — including transportation, aging or long-abandoned infrastructure, and affordable housing — and to brainstorm possible solutions. The officials, as well as representatives from various economic develop...
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BOSTON — President Donald Trump “thinks he is a dictator,” U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern said Friday as he predicted that both Congress and the courts will react to Trump’s announcement that he is declaring a national emergency at the southern border. McGovern, speaking to WGBH’s “Morning Edition” on Friday, said he hopes the U.S. House and Senate will pass resolutions disapproving of the president’s action with enough support from Republicans to override a potential presidential veto. “I think the pre...
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WASHINGTON - When newly-minted chairman U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern calls the Rules Committee to order, the Worcester Democrat will wield a gavel that holds significance to his family and native city. Having been in the minority for the last eight years and awaiting a chance to chair the Rules Committee since former Rep. Joe Moakley helped secure his spot on the committee, Mr. McGovern said his office realized as it prepared for the first committee meeting that it did not have a gavel. “Well, when my...
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The saying may be that democracy dies in darkness. But Rep. Jim McGovern has joked that over the past few years it’s actually the House Rules Committee “where democracy goes to die.” As the ranking Democrat on the Rules Committee under Republican leadership, McGovern frequently protested the majority party’s historic lack of openness in the legislative process. “They presided over the most closed Congress in history,” the Massachusetts congressman told Boston.com in an interview. “I don’t want t...
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NORTHAMPTON — Many Tibetans in western Massachusetts are pleased that a bill prohibiting Chinese officials responsible for limiting access to Tibet from entering the United States is one step closer to becoming law. The bipartisan Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, has passed Congress after receiving support from the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, and now awaits the signature of President Donald Trump. “We the local people here are very excited, so happy,” sai...
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AMHERST -- As Massachusetts residents lined up Tuesday to purchase legal recreational marijuana for the first time, two members of the state's congressional delegation said they're optimistic Capitol Hill lawmakers will soon address federal laws barring such sales. U.S. Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, and Joe Kennedy III, D-Newton, told The Republican that recent Trump administration changes and Democrats' winning control of the U.S. House set the stage for Congress to finally take action on ma...
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U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, and anti-hunger advocates from across Western Massachusetts took to the streets Monday for the ninth annual "Monte's March," an 43-mile walk which seeks to raise awareness about food insecurity and help local families in need this Thanksgiving. McGovern, WRSI The River radio host Monte Belmonte and Andrew Morehouse, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts' executive director, began the two-day trek at Springfield's Martin Luther King Community Center. Link to ...
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For years, the US House’s powerful Rules Committee has been the place proposed marijuana laws go to die. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, made sure of that. Since becoming chairman of the committee in 2013, and despite strong public support for reforming marijuana laws, he has stopped dozens of cannabis-related amendments and bills from reaching the House floor — including at least 34 since January 2017, according to one analysis. Among the bills blocked by Sessions were proposals that would h...
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BOSTON -- In Massachusetts, it didn't take a wave to turn the state's representation in Congress blue. But the all-Democrat Congressional delegation might be poised to take advantage of the Republican washout in ways few other state delegations can. A crush of voters turned out Tuesday in Massachusetts and around the country to vent their pent up frustration from the 2016 election, and deliver a partial verdict on President Donald Trump's first two years in office. While the GOP defended their c...
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WASHINGTON — With Democrats taking over the House for the first time in eight years, Massachusetts’ all-Democratic delegation stands to regain clout in the Capitol, with two likely chairmen poised to help shepherd the Democratic agenda in the chamber. But they and their party will face a conundrum when coming up with that agenda — do they try to work with the unpopular president or satisfy their fired-up base with obstruction and aggressive oversight? The two likely chairmen from Massachusetts s...
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