{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-blumenthal-urge-hhs-to-take-action-to-protect-wheelchair-users-from-private-equity-abuses", "Warren, Blumenthal Urge HHS To Take Action To Protect Wheelchair Users From Private Equity Abuses", "2024-10-22", "2024", "2024-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", "warren", "https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "On October 10, 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren reintroduced the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, comprehensive legislation to fundamentally reform the private equity industry and level the playing field by forcing private investment firms to take responsibility for the outcomes of companies they take over, empowering workers and protecting investors.\n\nOn October 3, 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to John Deere accusing the company of undermining its own \u201cright-to-repair\u201d agreements and evading its responsibilities under the Clean Air Act by failing to grant its customers the right to repair their own agricultural equipment.\n\nOn September 30, 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, along with Representative Jake Auchincloss and Representative Stephen Lynch, sent a letter to the CEO of Rural Healthcare Group raising concerns over its proposed acquisition of Steward Health Care\u2019s physician group, Stewardship Health.\n\nOn September 26, 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent two letters regarding the costly restrictions imposed on the Department of Defense that bar the military from repairing its own military equipment and instead force it to pay billions of dollars extra to military contractors.\n\nOn September 4, 2024, Senator Warren urged the IRS to crack down on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) squeezing the health care industry.\n\nOn August 8, 2024, Senators Warren and Markey requested information from private equity firm Apollo Global Management (Apollo) on the company\u2019s role in Steward\u2019s bankruptcy, and urged Apollo to work in good faith to facilitate the sale of Steward\u2019s Massachusetts hospitals.\n\nIn July 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren included a provision in the Senate Fiscal Year 2025 NDAA that would require contractors to provide DoD with \u201cfair and reasonable\u201d access to repair materials.\n\nOn July 3, 2024, Senators Warren and Markey wrote to Medical Properties Trust and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, owners of Steward\u2019s eight Massachusetts hospitals, urging them to offer lease concessions to keep the hospitals open and viable.\n\nOn June 11, 2024, Senators Warren and Markey introduced the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act of 2024 to root out corporate greed and private equity abuse in the health care system, specifically preventing what happened with Steward from happening again.\n\nOn June 5, 2024, Senator Warren wrote to the DOJ, FTC, and HHS calling out high health care costs due to vertically-integrated insurers, private equity companies, and pharmaceutical companies that are driving health care consolidation.\n\nOn June 3, 2024, Senators Warren, Brown (D-Ohio), and Markey wrote to the Director of the U.S. Trustee Program (USTP), calling for USTP to move to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee to run the company in place of Steward\u2019s current management, and to monitor the hospitals\u2019 bankruptcy proceedings to protect patients and local communities.\n\nOn May 24, 2024, Senator Warren sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, urging them to support communities and health care providers affected by the crisis caused by Steward\u2019s financial mismanagement.\n\nOn April 19, 2024, Senators Warren and Senator Markey sent a letter to six private credit funds that are holders of Steward\u2019s debt, asking them a series of questions about their loans and calling on them to offer loan modifications that could potentially help keep the hospitals afloat.\n\nOn April 16, 2024, Senators Warren and Markey called out Medical Properties Trust and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners for exploiting Steward Hospitals, and urged them to help keep the hospitals open.\n\nOn April 8, 2024, Senators Warren, Markey, and the rest of the MA delegation urged the FTC and DOJ to closely scrutinize UnitedHealth Group\u2019s proposed acquisition of Steward Health Care\u2019s physician group, Stewardship Health.\n\nOn April 3, 2024, Senator Warren delivered remarks at a Senate hearing in Boston titled, \u201cWhen Health Care Becomes Wealth Care: How Corporate Greed Puts Patient Care and Health Workers at Risk,\u201d which centered on Steward Health Care\u2019s Massachusetts hospitals.\n\nOn April 2 Senators Warren and Ed Markey called out private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management (Cerberus) for its role in creating Steward Health Care\u2019s financial challenges, following Cerberus\u2019s reply to the Massachusetts congressional delegation\u2019s February 2024 probe.\n\nOn February 9, 2024, Senator Warren slammed UnitedHealth Group for leveraging NaviHealth\u2019s unregulated artificial intelligence algorithm to unlawfully deny health care to seniors with severe injuries.\n\nOn March 26, 2024, Senator Warren released a statement about Steward\u2019s plan to sell its physician group Stewardship Health to UnitedHealth Group\u2019s subsidiary Optum.\n\nOn March 26, 2024, Senators Warren and Markey sent a letter to Steward CEO and Chairman Dr. Ralph de la Torre, calling on him to testify at a congressional hearing in Boston.\n\nOn March 8, 2024, Senators Warren and Markey sent a letter to Dr. de la Torre, blasting him for years of financial mismanagement, private equity schemes, and executive profiteering that have led to Steward Health Care\u2019s financial crisis.\n\nOn February 15, 2024, Senators Warren and Markey, along with all nine members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, sent a letter to Cerberus seeking answers from the private equity firm for its role in creating the current financial challenges at Steward hospitals.\n\nOn January 29, 2024, Senator Warren released a statement about Steward\u2019s financial situation and allegations of patient neglect at Steward facilities.\n\nOn January 23, 2024, Senator Warren led the Massachusetts congressional delegation in a letter to the CEO of Steward Health Care pressing the company to brief them on Steward\u2019s financial position, the status of their Massachusetts facilities, and their plans to ensure the communities they serve are not abandoned.\n\nOn August 22, 2023, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), celebrated the U.S. Department of Transportation\u2019s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reversing course and allowing enforcement of Massachusetts\u2019 pro-consumer Right-to-Repair law.\n\nOn June 16, 2023, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to reverse its course after it sent a recent letter to auto manufacturers, advising them not to comply with Massachusetts\u2019 Right to Repair law.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:55:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-blumenthal-urge-hhs-to-take-action-to-protect-wheelchair-users-from-private-equity-abuses"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4514331705868244, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}