By Richard Neal | U.S. Congress
In July of 1774, in the wake of the British Parliament’s response to the Boston Tea Party with the enactment of the Intolerable Acts, the citizens of Western and Central Massachusetts turned to local self-government as an act of defiance. They gathered at the courthouse in Springfield, where the MassMutual Center now stands, for a town meeting that would mark our region’s place in the growing movement toward independence.
During the meeting, the townspeople adopted a resolution that read in part, “We assert that we are (entitled) to and ought to forever enjoy all the liberties and immunities of any of his majesty’s subjects … some of the most essential of which are that they shall not be taxed, but with their own consent …”
These ideals would ultimately form the foundation of a nation whose experiment in self-government would change the course of history.
As that experiment continues 250 years later, we celebrate not only the 351 communities across the commonwealth, including the 83 cities and towns in the First Congressional District, and the role they each played in the founding of our republic, but also what that republic represents: the enduring promise of liberty and self-governance, fundamental ideals such as free speech and the right to due process, and a government, comprised of three co-equal branches, that exists to serve the public good.
As I look to the year ahead and the question of what the “next big thing” will be in government, I’m reminded that the next big thing is not something new. Quite the contrary. For the future of our Republic is written in the past.
When I was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, there was a great sense of shared purpose among my fellow members. Regardless of party, we were there to serve as a check on the executive and represent those who had elected us to public office. We wanted to faithfully uphold the principles of our representative democracy, just as those who walked the halls of Congress before us had done.
These are the principles that guided my Democratic colleagues and me when we enacted a slate of legislative achievements that complement those of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. The American Rescue Plan, which invested billions of dollars in our local communities; the Butch Lewis Act, which saved the pensions of more than one million workers, retirees and beneficiaries; the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which delivered the most significant investment in our nation’s infrastructure since President Kennedy was in the Oval Office; the Inflation Reduction Act, which marked our nation’s largest investment to combat climate change; the CHIPS and Science Act, which delivered $53 billion to reinvigorate our supply chain for semiconductors; the No Surprises Act, which established critical safeguards against surprise medical billing, enhancing consumer protections and promoting transparency; SECURE and SECURE 2.0, which strengthened and expanded retirement savings opportunities for millions of Americans; the PACT Act, which marked the largest expansion of veterans benefits in a generation; and the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, which ensured that more than two million public servants, including 130,000 Bay Staters, would be able to retire with dignity after a lifetime of hard work. All of these initiatives were guided by the founding principle that our government exists to serve the public good.
However, this past year has been marked by chaos and uncertainty, leading to the steady erosion of trust in our institutions. Whether it be cuts to health care, nutritional assistance programs, or medical research, attacks on bedrock programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, or the disregard for long-standing democratic norms, like checks and balances and due process, we have witnessed a stark departure from the principles instilled by our Founding Fathers.
However, I firmly believe that if we remind ourselves of the ideals that guided the people of Western and Central Massachusetts in 1774 and shaped our nation’s founding, we can meet the challenges of this moment and renew faith in this unfinished democratic experiment.
We can further advance the cause for universal access to health care, building on the progress we’ve seen since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act and the delivery of health care to an additional 24 million Americans. We can invest in long-term care, ensuring that as medical research continues to extend life expectancy, our elderly can live out their golden years with dignity and security. We can continue our efforts to modernize America’s transportation systems by investing in initiatives like west-east rail, which will connect communities and stimulate economic growth in every corner of the commonwealth. We can protect and strengthen food assistance, delivering America’s bounty from the world’s best farmers to those who need it most. We can improve and expand care for our veterans, honoring their service and the commitment we made to them: You protect us, and we’ll take care of you. And so much more.
At times of great uncertainty, our history offers both guidance and resolve. It tells us that if we recommit to the principles that have sustained our democracy for two and a half centuries, we can meet the challenges of the moment and fulfill our obligations as great stewards of this democratic experiment. We just have to turn to our history for the next big thing.
