In the News

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal ran through a list of ongoing and upcoming achievements Friday at the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Outlook 2025 lunch: west-east rail, the F-35 fighter jets coming to Westfield, American Rescue Plan Act, the inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law the CHIPS and Science Act.

It’s typical for these types of events.

What’s unusual is what he said next.

“I am not oblivious to the question that is on your minds,” Neal, D-Springfield, told the crowd of more than 400 business and political leaders gathered at the MassMutual Center.

“Is that funding secure?” Neal said not mentioning DOGE, Donald Trump or Elon Musk by name. “Yes, it is.”

Neal, first elected to the House in 1988, backed up his reassurance, citing funds headed to Republican, red-state congressional districts. He pointed to decades of court precedent giving Congress control over the federal budget. He pointed to the Constitution itself.

“Members of Congress don’t serve under presidents of the United States,” he said. “We serve with presidents of the United States.”

The annual outlook luncheon is the chamber’s biggest gathering of the year, an hours-long meet-and-greet lobbying session. This year’s speakers included Rick Klein, vice president and Washington, D.C., bureau chief for ABC News, Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll and Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and Doug Howgate of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

Neal pointed out that of the major local employers at the head table were with him on the dais, two are hospitals: Baystate Health and Mercy Medical Center.

On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan in-house research agency, said that budget cuts called in a framework recently passed by Republicans cannot happen without cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

Those federal funds are crucial not just to Mercy and Baystate, he said

“Where would Holyoke Medical Center be without Medicare and Medicaid? How about Pittsfield and North Adams? How about Harrington Hospital in Southbridge, Massachusetts,” he said.

“Just about everywhere you live in this country, the hospital is the biggest employer. The impact of these proposed cuts would be devastating for our area,” he said.

The city of Springfield is also facing the loss of federal offices but it would lose money awarded for environmental initiatives and for new electric school buses.

Sarno took criticism in 2017 for his welcoming words towards the first Trump administration. Friday, he sounded cautious.

“And again, I’m a common-sense Democrat. I’ll work with anyone who wants to work with me for the betterment of the residents and the business community of Springfield,” Sarno said. “But we have to brace for what occurs with the change of leadership in D.C.”

Eliminating waste is a laudable goal, he said.

“But there is a surgical way to do that, without harming people and harming services as we move forward,” Sarno said. “ Because we are still in the service business.”

Klein, who covered the State House and Boston City Hall for The Boston Globe earlier in his career, discussed Washington in the second Trump era.

Donald Trump didn’t create the current political moment. But in some ways he’s mastered it, Klein said. Take the speech this week to the joint session of Congress.

Trump expected Democrats to wave signs in protest. He knew one would be removed from the hall.

“He knows the power of those images,” Klein said. “He knows that those continue to make the Democrats look small and make him look big.”

Neal engaged in a little political showmanship himself. He brought a small piece of the Berlin Wall out from his suit pocket, saying the U.S., and NATO, helped Europe stand firm against Russian dominance once. He said all those in the room can agree that Russia invaded Ukraine.

“Ukraine did not invade Russia,” Neal said to applause.

Driscoll spoke of the administration’s goals to create housing foster opportunities while maintaining the state’s values.