When the 120th Congress convenes next year, with Democrats in control of both the House and the Senate, the Massachusetts delegation will play an unusually significant role— a dynamic that could help the state rebound from some of the setbacks it experienced in the first half of Trump’s second term.
In addition to Rep. Katherine Clark’s likely promotion to majority leader, Rep. Richard Neal is in line to become chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, which handles everything from taxes and tariffs to the fiscal aspects of programs like Social Security and Medicare. And Rep. Jim McGovern is expected to chair the House Rules Committee, which is sometimes referred to as Congress’s “traffic cop” and sets rules for the body, as well as deciding which pieces of legislation advance when.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is likely to become the new chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Sen. Ed Markey is poised to chair the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Rep. Bill Keating is in line to chair the Europe subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, whose purview includes the war in Ukraine. And Reps. Stephen Lynch and Ayanna Pressley will both sit on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is broadly tasked with holding the entire federal government accountable.
It is, UMass political scientist Ray La Raja said, a remarkable amount of legislative power for a relatively small state.
Clark “is number two — she’s probably the most powerful woman and the third most powerful person in Congress,” La Raja said. “Richie Neal … taxes, trade, tariffs, Medicare — those are all major issues. And then Jim McGovern, setting the agenda in Congress and how people are going to talk about it, that’s where you get tons of your leverage.
“That’s a tremendous amount of power,” La Raja added.
He also singled out Warren’s likely role, saying she’ll likely be in charge of setting the agenda on consumer finance, crypto and banking.
La Raja said the delegation’s clout could help undo some of the damage that’s been done to crucial parts of the Massachusetts economy during President Donald Trump’s second term.
“Think about the sectors in Mass that are really important — research, science and technology, healthcare,” he said. “They’re going to be thinking about those things. They’re not going to produce much legislation, because Trump’s going to probably veto it, but they’re going to push back on everything Trump’s done to cut that back. And when he doesn’t spend the money that Congress has already allocated, they’re gonna take him to court.
“And who knows?” La Raja added. “This president’s so unpredictable, he might cut some deals with the leadership in ways that might benefit Massachusetts.”
In an interview with GBH News, McGovern said the House will be “focused like a laser beam on legislation that deals with affordability, affordability, affordability, as well as accountability. Doing both is incredibly important.
“Look, the price of everything is too damn high, and people are demanding that Congress do something to lower prices,” McGovern said.
McGovern cited ending the Iran war, repealing the president’s tariffs, lowering the cost of health care, and banning stock trading by members of Congress as steps that could be taken “in the very first few weeks” of the new Congress.
Other members of the delegation stressed the importance of quickly exercising Congress’ oversight function — while also drawing a distinction between appropriate oversight and retribution.
“The Republican Senate and the Republican House have given the president a pass,” Lynch told GBH’s Morning Edition. “They’ve completely refused to hold anybody accountable. We have people like Steve Witkoff out there, Jared Kushner out there ... who have never been called before Congress to answer for their actions, the way they’ve parlayed that power and that connection with the president into financial gain in the billions of dollars.
“So we’re going to bring some people before Congress. We’re going to use the subpoena power … and we’re going to hold people accountable. And I think we have to do that first, whatever we do after that — we have to restore that trust in government, that we are operating within the law. And it’s not just revenge, it is actually enforcing the rule of law. That’s what we have to be seen as doing.”
Pressley struck a similar note while also calling attention to issues with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I expect that we will use the full weight and power of the subpoena to hold accountable anyone and everyone in the executive that has obstructed justice for the [Jeffrey] Epstein survivors, that has moved with not only callousness but corruption and enriched themselves,” she told GBH News Friday.
“I will be seeking accountability for the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to better understand the impact of that,” Pressley said. “Certainly one of the largest casualties, if you will, in that has been the pushout of the Black worker in the federal workforce disproportionately.
“It means holding ICE accountable for their reckless and lawless terror campaign. This is not retribution — this is just simply the work of oversight.”
But Pressley also urged Democrats to wholeheartedly throw themselves into undoing the damage she believes the Trump administration has wrought over the past two years.
“They have been flooding the zone with lawlessness, with cruelty, with corruption, and we have to match their energy, and we should not be apologists about that,” Pressley said.
“The people made it clear that they don’t want a Democratic Party that just asserts that they are the adults in the room,” she added. “They want us to prove that we are fighters. And they understand that we may not win every fight, but they fully expect us to take those righteous fights on.”
