https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/southern Southern California en-US Wed, 04 Jun 2025 16:52:47 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/democrats-trump-threats-trans-student-athlete-policies Samuel Larreal President Donald Trump threatened fines over California’s trans student athlete policies. Wed, 04 Jun 2025 16:52:47 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/democrats-trump-threats-trans-student-athlete-policies California lawmakers said the state should stand up to President Donald Trump after his threat to impose large-scale fines on the state over trans student athletes.

“We can’t bend the knee,” Rep. Ro Khanna told NOTUS. “You have to take it to court if we need to and make sure that we don’t get intimidated. “I think this is part of a government overreach. Trump attacks any state, university, or institution he dislikes.”

A trans high school student won two events over the weekend at a state-wide track and field event, sharing the first-place wins with cisgender competitors. The Trump administration said on Monday that by allowing trans student athletes to participate in sporting activities, the California Interscholastic Federation was allowing discrimination against cisgender athletes.

The Department of Justice accused the federation — a state-wide institution that organizes sporting competitions between school districts — of potentially violating the equal protection clause, and the president threatened fines.

“A Biological Male competed in California Girls State Finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so. As Governor Gavin Newscum fully understands, large scale fines will be imposed!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday.

California lawmakers said that Trump’s attacks are part of a retribution campaign for a state he sees as unfriendly to him politically. They said they stand for LGBTQ+ youth in the state.

“I think California should always be a state that supports all people; we have a long history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community,” Rep. Robert Garcia told NOTUS. “I don’t think that attacking trans youth is the way to go, and I think we should stick to supporting everyone in the state.”

Other Democrats said Trump needs to stop focusing on California policies.

“He’s wading into state issues, and he has larger issues — that he himself created — and that are tanking the economy,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove said. “He needs to get over it, or run for governor.”

Rep. Jimmy Gomez called the whole matter “nonsense”: “People in California didn't care, and it’s just this guy trying to make this into an issue. We will stand for the people who live in our state.”

California Democrats are in a tough spot when it comes to dealing with Trump’s White House. Many in the delegation believe they need to be the tip of the spear when it comes to leading an opposition to Trump’s policies. But the state needs federal funds, including disaster aid, to help the long-term recovery of Southern California after unprecedented wildfires earlier this year.

California freshman Rep. Sam Liccardo said there might not be many alternatives left when it comes to negotiating with Trump.

“I’m not sure there’s much of a relationship to maintain here,” Liccardo said. “The days of thinking that there was going to be a relationship to maintain are in the past.”

On Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom backed the California Interscholastic Federation's recent rule that allows trans female athletes to compete in events but adds a spot for another cisgender female athlete as well.

This is a pivot from when earlier this year, Newsom attracted backlash from the California congressional delegation after saying he completely agreed with right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk on the issue of trans athletes.

“This is all a pretext on Trump’s part to attack our state,” Sen. Adam Schiff told NOTUS. “This just seems to be a deliberate anti-California campaign."

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Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.

This NOTUS story was produced in partnership with San José Spotlight and with NewsWell, home of Times of San Diego and Stocktonia.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/house/democrats-doge-bill-liccardo-min-vindman Samuel Larreal “We need to buttress the Constitution and provide a bulwark against future authoritarian form this administration or any others,” Rep. Sam Liccardo told NOTUS. Thu, 15 May 2025 20:48:01 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/house/democrats-doge-bill-liccardo-min-vindman A trio of freshmen House Democrats introduced a bill on Thursday that would allow individuals to sue the government — and even specific officials like Elon Musk — over decisions that block congressionally approved spending.

California Reps. Sam Liccardo and Dave Min, along with Virginia Rep. Eugene Vindman, introduced the Protect Our Constitution and Communities Act to address cuts from DOGE. It’s meant to be an enforcement mechanism to ensure the executive branch follows laws like the Impoundment Control Act, which limits the president’s ability to block congressionally appropriated funds.

Although the Democrats’ bill is dead-on-arrival in a Republican-controlled Congress, Liccardo said he hopes it can serve as a blueprint for future legislation.

“We need to buttress the Constitution and provide a bulwark against future authoritarian actions from this administration or any others,” Liccardo told NOTUS.

In the past few months, universities, government agencies and other grant recipients across the country have faced sudden freezes on their previously approved funds. DOGE cuts have disproportionately impacted blue states.

If the bill were enacted by Congress, it would allow individuals and institutions to sue over such decisions.

“If DOGE were to decide that any NIH grants that contain the word diversity, should be slashed,” Liccardo said, then an institution or an individual laid off as a result of that project “could bring a lawsuit.”

It's unlikely but Democrats could demand adding some of the language on this bill on a piece of must-pass legislation if the Republican majority can’t find the votes in their conference, Min said.

The bill would also provide a mechanism for lawsuits to take away the qualified immunity from certain government workers so “someone like Elon Musk would be personally liable for the billions of dollars of harm caused by these reckless and half-hazard decisions,” Liccardo said.

Protect Our Constitution and Communities Act would also cover legal spending for individuals suing the government and triple the damage liability if courts found the impoundments were cut in bad faith.

“The problem is that they are moving fast and breaking things. They are deleting and terminating entire agencies," said Min. "And two months later a court will rule that they can’t fire all these people... but the damage is already done.”

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Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.

This NOTUS story was produced in partnership with San José Spotlight and with NewsWell, home of Times of San Diego and Stocktonia.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/housing/gavin-newsom-homeless-encampments-housing-advocates Amelia Benavides-Colón, Samuel Larreal The governor released a blueprint for ordinances that would help ban homeless encampments. Housing advocates say that could hurt California’s outsized unsheltered population. Tue, 13 May 2025 00:00:13 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/housing/gavin-newsom-homeless-encampments-housing-advocates Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing California municipalities to ban homeless encampments, saying Monday it’s time to take steps that let the public “see results.”

Newsom issued a model ordinance that municipalities can adopt to ban homeless encampments on public property, the latest rightward step the governor has taken on housing issues. Newsom, a prominent Democratic figure and potential 2028 presidential candidate, has spent the last few years trying to stake himself to the right of most of his fellow Democrats on several issues, including this one.

“It’s not human to allow people to live three, four, five years in encampments. It’s not human to allow the status quo to continue,” Newsom told reporters Monday during a press conference where he said the measures he proposed reflect a “deeper sense of clarity” between state and local efforts to address the homelessness crisis in California.

The model ordinance, which includes citations or arrest as possible consequences for those who violate the ban, is not an executive order. Instead, localities would need to implement it themselves. Newsom also announced $3.3 billion to help fund mental health and homelessness solutions.

Last year California voters approved more than $6 billion in funding to build additional mental health facilities and homeless shelters in the state. On Monday, Newsom also called on local governments to streamline their permitting processes to speed up the building of these facilities.

Lawmakers and housing advocates were still trying to understand the governor’s proposal, and some of them expressed alarm at what this could mean for their state’s homeless people. California has an outsized unsheltered population, with nearly 187,000 homeless people across the state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Dennis Oleesky, interim CEO of Los Angeles Mission, a nonprofit faith-based organization focused on homelessness, said Newsom’s model ordinance “leans heavily on enforcement without offering sufficient guarantees that real housing or services will be in place before people are displaced.”

“Yes, the ordinance includes language about offering shelter and services — but we’ve seen that those offers often amount to temporary fixes: a mat on a floor for one night, or a referral to a shelter that’s already full,” Oleesky said in a statement to NOTUS. “There’s no meaningful path to permanence for most people being displaced, and unless that’s addressed, this policy risks being a revolving door of disruption rather than a real solution.” 

Sen. Alex Padilla, who told NOTUS he was just learning about the push to crack down on encampments, said he felt a combination of approaches would be necessary to cut down on homelessness.

“We should be doing everything we can to help get people off the street, but that includes doing everything we can to get people the treatment they need if they’re suffering from a mental illness,” Padilla told NOTUS.

Sen. Adam Schiff, who also said he was just learning of Newsom’s recommendations, told NOTUS that while he doesn’t want to see Democrats “criminalizing homelessness,” he also feels homeless people have a right to a safe environment.

“We first need to make sure that there are beds available in shelters, but if there are available spaces, I think a city has the right to make sure that people can walk down their sidewalk, that businesses can make sure customers can enter their buildings without stepping over people, and we protect against debris that can pose a health and fire risk,” Schiff told NOTUS.

Midnight Mission, the oldest continuously operating homeless outreach organization in Los Angeles, which primarily serves Skid Row, told NOTUS it is “still learning more about Governor Newsom’s new mandate on homeless encampments, we are committed to continuing our work and helping those who need it most.”

“There is still much that remains unclear regarding the full impact of this policy, and we will be closely monitoring developments as they unfold,” Georgia Berkovich, chief communications officer at Midnight Mission, said in an email to NOTUS.

This push is not the first sign of Newsom’s rightward shift on homelessness. The California governor has distributed $3.2 billion to help localities clear encampments since taking office, Newsom said at a press conference last year, and has a history of temporarily withholding funds for not clearing encampments.

Last year, Newsom doubled down his efforts to use his executive power in an effort to radically decrease homeless encampments in California, an effort that has attracted criticism from homeless advocacy groups and some Democratic-run cities like Los Angeles.

Last summer, when the Supreme Court ruled that cities have the right to criminally prosecute people for sleeping in public spaces, Newsom supported the decision. He then issued an executive order mandating every state agency clear homeless encampments on state property.

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Amelia Benavides-Colón and Samuel Larreal are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/education-dei-california-officials Mark Alfred The president wants states to abandon DEI efforts at schools. California officials might resist. Tue, 08 Apr 2025 22:16:57 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/education-dei-california-officials California Democrats in Congress say they don’t want state leaders to cave to the Trump administration’s attempts to attach strings to federal support and its most recent demand to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs at schools — even if that means the state could lose out on millions or billions of dollars in federal funding.

“The whole country loses a lot if we do play ball,” Rep. Sam Liccardo told NOTUS. “We can fight this.”

Last week, the Trump administration threatened to pull education funding for states that continue DEI programs and policies, giving states less than two weeks to comply.

The administration instructed state education officials to sign on to a letter that certifies they have met the administration’s requirements to eliminate programs tied to diversity, equity and inclusion, or face a reduction of Title I funds that support schools with a large number of low-income students. The administration policy goes so far as to disallow special graduation ceremonies for Black or Hispanic students, as is common at University of California campuses and others in the state.

Instead, California state education officials appear poised to resist. They have questioned the administration’s authority to retaliate should California decline to sign on, The Los Angeles Times reported. If it does, the refusal would be the latest in a litany of actions the state has taken as part of its broad resistance to President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal government.

California has already filed a dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration, most recently on Tuesday when it sued over an executive order that demanded several agencies “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” Among them were the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Minority Business Development Agency. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom urged countries to exempt California from retaliatory tariffs to the sweeping levies imposed by Trump.

“The governor is appropriately standing up for the state,” Rep. Eric Swalwell said. “Federally, we are a donor state, not a taker state. It’d be foolish to try and punish California because you’re just punishing every American who benefits from our productivity.”

Some other states have been similarly resistant to Trump’s pressure campaign. New York state leaders flatly said they would not eliminate DEI programs from schools, arguing that they do not violate federal law. And Democratic mayors have defended so-called “sanctuary” policies that protect undocumented populations.

But the Trump administration has already seen success in its attempts to strong-arm concessions, particularly from law firms and universities.

Trump terminated hundreds of millions of dollars worth of grants to Columbia University — including millions for Alzheimer’s and cancer research. The campus acquiesced to Trump’s demands that it crack down on student protest groups and ban masks, among other concessions.

California Democrats, however, said they have no intention of caving to the president.

“I think it’s terrible public policy, and I think it's terrible public service,” Rep. Mike Thompson said. “I don’t think you just arbitrarily cut grants and pull funding because they’re upset with somebody or something — it’s not a good way to run the government.”

Thompson said federal lawmakers and constituents ought to keep pressuring the administration to change course.

“We need to highlight those, speak out, bring it to the attention of the administration and to the public,” Thompson said. He noted he has seen “a couple of successes” reinstating grants terminated by the administration.

DOGE has made broad cuts to programs and personnel across California, which is home to more federal workers than any other.

The Department of Health and Human Services, at Trump’s direction, stripped hundreds of millions of dollars in promised funding for research projects across University of California campuses, per a list of terminated funds obtained by NOTUS.

The department also reversed course on over half a billion dollars worth of public health funding for California, along with additional cuts to the state’s mental health and substance abuse centers.

Several lawmakers pointed to the fact that California sends more money to the federal government than it receives.

“We would hope that President Trump recognizes that we send more tax dollars to the rest of the country than we get back,” Rep. Ami Bera said. “We’ll use legal remedies, we’ll look at options as to whether we could keep more tax revenue in the state, but we’re in unprecedented circumstances.”

Lawmakers pointed to the courts as the best venue to combat Trump’s moves.

“A lot of what he’s doing is illegal, and the courts are dealing with those issues,” Rep. Salud Carbajal said. “I’m confident that a lot of those actions will be thrown out, and it’s just ridiculous what he’s doing.”

Rep. Ro Khanna told NOTUS that California ought not to give in to Trump’s demand, even with the threat of decreased funding.

“We have to stand for principle, we need to not compromise on the Constitution or on our values and continue to fight to make sure we get California the funding it needs.”

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Mark Alfred is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy/doge-cuts-blue-districts Mark Alfred It’s not even close. Tue, 01 Apr 2025 09:30:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/policy/doge-cuts-blue-districts Democrats are disproportionately feeling the brunt of DOGE’s slashing of federally awarded contracts. Only around 12% of the U.S.-based contracts cut by DOGE are for work in Republican districts, NOTUS found.

And unlike their Republican counterparts, Democratic lawmakers don’t have a line to Elon Musk to get their districts’ work off the chopping block.

NOTUS analyzed the roughly 7,200 “terminated” contracts DOGE lists on its site. About half account for the effective shuttering of U.S. Agency for International Development and are primarily in or around D.C., but the cancellations spread all across the country, carrying a collective price tag of billions of dollars.

The overwhelming majority of those cuts are for contracts in blue districts, Federal Procurement Data System records show. Of over 1,500 contracts outside the D.C. area that DOGE counted as yielding savings, about 1,285 terminated contracts were for work primarily undertaken in districts represented by Democrats, while just 280 contracts were cut in districts represented by Republicans

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To Democrats’ chagrin, the administration isn’t listening to their complaints like it does — at least sometimes — for Republicans.

“We’ve written a number of letters,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren said. “They never get answered.”

Though DOGE’s data is imperfect, it demonstrates how much harder Democratic-led districts are being hit by the Trump administration’s cuts. That includes canceled future and ongoing projects: DOGE claims roughly $3.7 billion in total savings from canceled contracts in blue districts outside D.C. and $1 billion in red ones. (NOTUS did not include $1.9 billion in claimed “savings” for a contract tied to a blue district in northern Virginia that, despite being listed as a DOGE saving, was actually canceled under the Biden administration, The New York Times found.)

DOGE this month also obscured its cuts to USAID, replacing details about what was terminated with the line, “Unavailable for legal reasons,” on its site.

DOGE’s method for calculating savings complicates the effort to determine exactly how much each district is saving. DOGE subtracts the amount already listed as spent from a contract’s total potential value. That potential value, however, is not a guaranteed spending amount and can lead to an overstating of claimed savings by DOGE.

“You can’t believe anything DOGE says,” Rep. Jamie Raskin told NOTUS.

Contracted work in D.C. itself makes up billions of dollars worth of DOGE cuts, and the surrounding metro area has also been hit hard. Districts in Maryland and Virginia are home to hundreds of thousands of federal workers and government contractors who are contending with local contract terminations.

Districts like the one Raskin represents in Maryland have been the most impacted given their proximity to D.C. and the sheer volume of federal work their districts’ economies rely on. DOGE lists over 140 contracts for work tied to Raskin’s district as canceled.

“The money that we have appropriated in Congress is all part of federal laws, and the president has the obligation to spend the money that we’ve appropriated for particular purposes,” Raskin said. “You can’t take money away from the State Department or the Defense Department or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or [US]AID as president because you don’t like it.”

Rep. Gerry Connolly said his Virginia district is already feeling the ramifications of DOGE’s cancellations. A quarter of his district’s economy is tied to defense spending, Connolly said.

“It’s created enormous angst and consternation and unemployment,” Connolly said. “It’s devastating for families, and it’s threatening to devastate a lot of industry that serves government. I have a large number of not only federal employees but federal contractors, so they’re affected as well.”

The rapid pace with which DOGE lists, then unlists, hugely expensive contracts also throws a wrench into lawmakers’ efforts to track what is canceled or not. DOGE adds and deletes federal contracts from its terminations list by the hundreds on a day-to-day basis.

Just this weekend, DOGE appeared to reverse course on the termination of a contract worth over a quarter-billion dollars tied to Connolly’s district, quietly removing it from its list. The Department of Energy contract with Guidehouse provided millions for the company to determine how energy efficiency standards will affect the costs of hundreds of everyday appliances.

Between Sunday and Monday alone, DOGE removed over 200 contracts with a combined claimed savings of over half a billion dollars from its site. A General Services Administration spokesperson said the agency “cannot comment on information provided by DOGE.”

“There’s all kinds of issues,” Virginia Democratic Rep. Eugene Vindman told NOTUS. “I spoke to Lutheran health services that have had their contracts canceled … contracts that are sort of frozen. Municipalities are not obligating funds because they don’t know if they’re going to get paid back.”

Republicans have touted instances where potentially devastating cuts in their districts have been avoided after raising their issues directly with Musk.

GOP Rep. David Valadao, who said he’s made phone calls to the Trump administration to address DOGE-related issues, said his colleagues across the aisle should do the same.

“They have a way to do it,” Valadao told NOTUS. “They should call the administration.”

But Democrats said they don’t have many options. Vindman told NOTUS he’s sent “numerous letters to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, USDA and numerous other departments and agencies” and hasn’t received any response.

“There’s nothing like that for Democrats,” Rep. Ro Khanna told NOTUS. “We don’t have any system like that, really.”

Democrats largely have their hands tied and are reliant on the courts and public opinion to get the White House to back off.

“We in Congress in the minority can do as much with legislation and investigation as possible,” Rep. Jimmy Panetta told NOTUS. “The problem is those bills won’t get up for a vote, and those letters demanding investigations or resolutions and inquiries won’t get answered.”

“We got to make sure that our constituents understand this, and that those constituents hold other constituents of members in those districts who are supporting these types of policies, hold them accountable,” Panetta said. “That’s basically the game plan.”

And Raskin offered an alternative to DOGE’s cuts in his district: “An easy way to save $39 billion would be for Elon Musk to give up all of his sweetheart contract government monies he’s taking.”

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Mark Alfred is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/doge-cuts-california Mark Alfred “I have seen a lot of devastation, and it seems like they’re just getting started,” Rep. Jared Huffman told NOTUS. Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:17:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/doge-cuts-california California is being hit particularly hard by Department of Government Efficiency cuts.

It is home to more federal workers than any other state, many of them with the Department of Veterans Affairs, whose workforce is being slashed by thousands nationwide. Its national parks and reserves are facing staffing cuts, while its universities stand to lose millions in grants that support medical research.

Democratic lawmakers in Washington are incensed. But the effort is largely being cheered on by the state’s Republicans, even as some feel a sharp blowback in constituent town halls and make appeals to the Trump administration to undo some changes.

“Oh, there’s people concerned,” Rep. Doug LaMalfa told NOTUS. “Some just want to come in town halls and scream, others have more genuine concerns about ‘what’s this going to mean for particular staffing that is needed [for] people that have to get permits to do this or that.’ They’re concerned, ‘Will the people be there to do that?’ To carry out the other things that need to be done, forestry, agriculture.”

Rep. David Valadao, a swing-district Republican, said he has been working to raise any issues stemming from DOGE-related cuts with the Trump administration.

“When [the cuts] initially hit, obviously there’s an impact that caused a little bit of excitement,” Valadao said. “And then we started making phone calls and tried to resolve them as quickly as possible. Some [cuts], I assume, make sense when no one defends them, but for those of ‘em who speak up and make sure the administration knows we have a problem, we got to reverse, or at least try to.”

Some DOGE efforts are already being reversed. In Palo Alto, veterans managing a sprawling veteran health care facility were terminated and then rehired.

But more VA cuts are expected. A plurality of the federal workers in California are employed by the VA, per personnel data from last year.

The VA plans to ultimately terminate 15% of its workforce, according to Secretary Douglas Collins. That amounts to around 80,000 Veterans Affairs workers nationwide.

DOGE and the National Institutes of Health claimed credit for cutting billions in federal funding for university research overhead costs. Rep. Lateefah Simon, who represents Berkeley, said she recently visited the campus’ CRISPR DNA lab, which administrators warned could lose $37 million in federal support. The cuts would threaten research on sickle cell disease, ALS and dementia, she said.

“Sometimes it feels so high and mighty and academic,” Simon said. “My husband died of cancer. He was in the clinical trial. We got two more years of his life because of this trial. My daughter knows her father’s voice. Sick children and their grandparents are going to have lower life expectancies based on these decisions.”

Simon said she’d be supportive of DOGE were it a “surgical and thoughtful” endeavor set on cutting waste and not a “chain saw approach to the safety net of the poorest and sickest Americans.”

“We’re going to have a poorer California, sicker California, at least just California, and it’s real,” Simon said. “This is not politics, this is real. It’s worse than malfeasance, it’s an attack on all that good people have fought for.”

Trump’s freeze on certain federal grants also threatens funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Head Start and the National School Lunch Program, officials from California and other states told a federal judge. California Attorney General Rob Bonta was among the 23 attorneys general to secure a block last week against that funding freeze for the time being.

“DOGE, under Trump’s orders, froze grants to the county health department that addresses the high rates of mother and infant morbidity and mortality in the African American community,” Rep. Raul Ruiz told NOTUS ahead of the injunction. “Therefore, they will make those problems worse.”

Dozens of National Weather Service employees are being laid off across California. And while Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says Forest Service firefighters are not being laid off, some whose work aids fire prevention efforts are being cut.

“Given the fires that we’ve had in Los Angeles, their firing of wildland firefighters, their freezing of grants to do brush clearance and other fire mitigation efforts, they’re encouraging firefighters to quit,” Sen. Adam Schiff told NOTUS.

DOGE is canceling leases for federal offices across the state, including an office in Camarillo that oversees offshore drilling in the Pacific. The Indian Health Service, Forest Service, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, multiple Food and Drug Administration locations and dozens of other offices are also set to see locations shuttered. (The catalog of lease cancellations, however, appears to list some locations closed before Trump took office, along with a Social Security office in Carlsbad that doesn’t seem to exist.)

Last week, the General Service Administration listed 16 properties it intends to put up for sale across the state, including large government buildings across Los Angeles and Sacramento that are home to dozens of federal offices and a courthouse.

“The chaos in various industries, the fallout of all these firings and office closures, the loss of potentially an entire season on fire resilience projects that ought to be happening right now, but they’re not,” Huffman said. “I have seen a lot of devastation, and it seems like they’re just getting started.”

In total, DOGE has claimed credit for canceling over 60 contracts for work primarily undertaken in California, largely by in-state vendors. Of those contracts, over half did not yield any savings, per DOGE’s own estimates. Some canceled contracts, like one between NASA and the California Institute of Technology, appeared dormant and hadn’t paid out any funds in years.

Only five were for work in federal districts represented by Republican lawmakers.

Republicans have been broadly supportive of the efforts and dismissive of detractors. Rep. Darrell Issa, who represents more federal workers than any other California Republican in Congress, declined to take questions for this article but has defended spending cuts.

Rep. Kevin Kiley lauded the mission behind DOGE.

“The effort to modernize government and to eliminate waste, to root out fraud and to rightsize the federal government, I think it’s a positive thing,” Kiley said. “I think everyone realizes that. I think people know that the debt’s unsustainable. So I think that that’s something that has broad support.”

Staffing cuts at Yosemite National Park prompted employees to hang an American flag upside down from the El Capitan summit¬ in protest.

GOP Rep. Tom McClintock, who represents Yosemite, assailed protesting National Park Service workers for “ruining the view” and spreading stories of “visitors stuck in restrooms and fires raging out of control, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.”

The National Park Service cut hundreds of workers across the country, shedding workers at over a dozen California parks from Joshua Tree to Redwood National Park, according to data reviewed by NOTUS.

“The antics of some Yosemite employees dishonor the silent majority at the park who were genuinely devoted to public service,” McClintock said in a floor speech last week.

Democrats don’t intend on letting their Republican colleagues off easy. Rep. Robert Garcia is making a show of his disdain for DOGE as a member of the namesake Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Subcommittee. And Rep. Ro Khanna is preparing to visit three areas of California represented by Republicans in Congress to speak out against layoffs and funding freezes.

“We’ve seen veterans be fired, and that’s been very, very disheartening and concerning,” Khanna said. “We’ve seen NIH cuts, and that is hurting our cancer research and labs at universities.”

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Mark Alfred is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/katie-porter-governor-kamala-harris Samuel Larreal, Mark Alfred Lawmakers want to see if Kamala Harris jumps in California’s governor race before throwing their support to anyone else. Tue, 11 Mar 2025 21:34:44 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/katie-porter-governor-kamala-harris Katie Porter, the whiteboard-wielding former member of Congress, announced on Tuesday her bid for California governor to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Her former House colleagues appeared far more interested in whatever Kamala Harris decides to do.

“I think I’ll sit on the sidelines for a while,” Rep. Ami Bera told NOTUS. “It’s still a long way off, so we’ll figure it out later.”

“I don’t know what to make of it,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren said. “There’s a cast of thousands running, and I’m friends with many of them.”

“I think the major issue is what Vice President Harris does; it’s sort of irrelevant until the vice president makes a decision,” Rep. Ro Khanna said, adding that he was not taking a look at the seat himself.

Porter is the most prominent Democrat to join the governor’s race to date. Her bid also comes with a serious caveat: A spokesperson for Porter told The New York Times she would end her campaign should Harris run.

Last year, Porter came third in the race to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein, losing the seat to Sen. Adam Schiff and garnering less support than Republican Steve Garvey in the state’s primary.

For even Porter’s close allies, Harris has functionally frozen the endorsement field.

Rep. Dave Min, who endorsed Porter for Senate before winning the House seat she vacated, said he was sure she would excel at the job but left it at that.

“She would make a tremendous governor if she’s elected,” Min told NOTUS. “I think that’s what I have to say at this point.”

Rep. Robert Garcia was the only member of California’s congressional delegation to endorse Porter for Senate. He’s not racing out the gates now to back her for governor.

“Obviously Katie’s fantastic,” Garcia said. “Great member. She was a great person in Congress who always fought for the right thing, so I wish her well.”

He’s primarily focused elsewhere: “The big question in California is around the vice president, of course, so I think a lot of folks are waiting to see what that decision is, including Representative Porter,” Garcia said.

“I think she’s probably the only one that can clear the field pretty quickly, but you never know for sure,” Rep. Salud Carbajal said of Harris.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez echoed the sentiment.

“Everybody is waiting for Kamala to see what she’s gonna do. Then we’ll make a decision.” Gomez said. “There’s no reason to declare support for somebody if Kamala Harris jumps in because everybody is gonna fall behind her.”

Harris has said she was seriously considering joining the race, and would wait until the end of the summer to make a decision, Politico reported.

According to recent polling, 57% of likely primary voters in California have said they would support Harris if she decided to run for governor. Only 9% of those voters say they would support Porter for a governor’s seat.

Porter’s campaign announcement followed some of the same themes of her time as a representative: putting a stop to Trump’s agenda in California and supporting families and small businesses from corporate interests.

“As governor, I won’t ever back down when Trump hurts Californians,” Porter said in a campaign announcement video posted on X.

Until now, only state-level Democrats had joined the race to replace Newsom: Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, California Democratic Party Vice Chair Betty Yee and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa all announced their candidacies.

Rep. Scott Peters said he supports fellow San Diegan Toni Atkins: “Most qualified person for governor.”

Most other California Democrats are keeping their powder dry.

“It’s a very crowded field, and I have a lot of friends running. We’ll see what the vice president does,” Bera said. He left some light praise for Porter.

“I mean, she’ll be a competitive candidate.”

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Samuel Larreal and Mark Alfred are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/gavin-newsom-trans-athletes Mark Alfred, Samuel Larreal “It is critical that Democrats remain committed to our values,” the Congressional Equality Caucus chair told NOTUS. Thu, 06 Mar 2025 20:26:46 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/gavin-newsom-trans-athletes California Democrats on Thursday distanced themselves from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent comments on transgender athletes, saying they are committed to protecting equality even as their state’s leader sides with a prominent right-wing figure on inclusion in sports.

Newsom said on his new podcast that he “completely agrees” with guest Charlie Kirk that transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete against cisgender women and girls as a matter of “fairness.”

California Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said in response that trans people must be protected.

“Over the past two months, the Trump Administration has been weaponizing the federal government to strip trans people of the freedom to live as their authentic selves,” Takano told NOTUS in a statement. “Especially at this time, it is critical that Democrats remain committed to our values.”

“That includes standing with the trans community, especially trans children who are being vilified by Trump and his allies as part of their campaign to deny trans people all of their rights,” Takano continued.

Newsom made his comments on trans athletes on the first episode of “This Is Gavin Newsom,” a podcast where he talks with guests, including conservative influencers. The remarks reflect a split among Democrats on how prominently and to what extent they ought to fight Republican efforts to restrict transgender people’s access to care and activities.

Thus far, Democrats in Washington have largely voted against efforts to keep trans student athletes out of teams that reflect their gender identity. In January, only two Democratic House members joined Republicans on a bill that would bar trans athletes from competing in girls’ sports. Earlier this week, Democrats blocked similar legislation in the Senate.

Newsom’s comments to Kirk, a prominent right-wing figure, showed he’s taking a different tack as he seeks a bigger national platform.

“It is an issue of fairness; it’s deeply unfair,” Newsom said on the first episode of “This Is Gavin Newsom.” He added that “the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with, as well. Both things I can hold in my hand.”

While President Donald Trump and Republicans have made trans athletes a major talking point and policy effort, the number of trans athletes is small: The NCAA president said he knows of fewer than 10 trans athletes across all of college sports.

California Rep. Scott Peters told NOTUS he wants all kids to get the chance to play sports

“The thing I’m concerned about is, kids should just be able to play sports, young kids, and there’s gotta be ways to figure out how to include everybody,” Peters said.

Rep. Ro Khanna called for “Democrats to stand for the dignity of the trans community, the immigrant community, & the most vulnerable” in a post responding to a California assembly member Alex Lee, who condemned Newsom’s comments.

Other Democrats brushed off questions on Newsom’s remarks. Rep. Robert Garcia said he had not seen the exact quotes.

Some Republicans welcomed Newsom’s comments. California Rep. Kevin Kiley, who ran against Newsom during the 2021 recall effort, said the view the governor shared was “common sense” and challenged him to act.

“So, he’s on our side,” Kiley told NOTUS.

“If Newsom is serious, he should immediately issue an Executive Order to protect women’s sports and ask the Legislature for a bill to codify in law that men shall never compete in women’s sports in California again,” Kiley said on social media. “Otherwise, this is just posturing.”

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Mark Alfred and Samuel Larreal are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.

This NOTUS story was produced in partnership with San José Spotlight and with NewsWell, home of Times of San Diego and Stocktonia.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/democrats-left-trump-speech-disgusted-federal-cuts Samuel Larreal, Mark Alfred Meanwhile, Rep. Zoe Lofgren read a newspaper for much of Trump’s joint address. Wed, 05 Mar 2025 05:44:30 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/democrats-left-trump-speech-disgusted-federal-cuts “It was horrible and disgusting.”

“My blood’s boiling right now.”

“He clearly wants to divide America.”

That’s Reps. Sara Jacobs, Dave Min and Mark Takano, respectively, on Donald Trump’s sprawling and unapologetic Tuesday night joint address to Congress. The president doubled down on everything from steep tariffs on American allies to the upheaval caused by his Department of Government Efficiency — and along the way earned dismal reviews from California’s Democratic lawmakers, several of whom left not long into the speech.

“He didn’t say a single thing that Democrats felt obliged to stand and clap for,” Rep. Brad Sherman told NOTUS.

“This is by far the most partisan speech — this is my 29th,” Sherman said. “In every one of those other speeches from Democrats and Republicans, there were lines where both sides of the aisle would stand and clap.”

Jacobs and other Democrats took aim at Trump’s economic message.

“He started with ‘America’s back,’ but how can America be back when he's literally picking fights with our closest allies and partners, when we're firing the very people who would be addressing avian flu to bring egg prices down?” Jacobs said.

Jacobs urged her constituents not to believe Trump on his vow to lower prices, citing the burden tariffs could impose on American consumers.

“Whether it’s the tariffs that are gonna increase groceries, increase gas somewhere between six and 20 cents, gonna increase the cost of all of the materials that we need to build more housing — which we desperately need in San Diego — or whether it’s the anti-immigrant border policies that we in San Diego know aren’t working because we actually live at the border.”

Min echoed her concerns.

“What I really didn’t hear was any economic message at the end of the day, other than a few lies about how well the economy is doing,” Min said.

Several Democrats left early. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove left partway through Trump’s address with a group of progressives after Rep. Maxwell Frost was booted from the chamber for wearing a sweater reading “No King Lives Here.”

“There’s only so much bullshit a person can tolerate,” Kamlager-Dove said on social media. Steven Cheung, the White House’s communications director, shot back that the congresswoman was “as relevant as a used Zyn pouch.”

Reps. Norma Torres, Eric Swalwell and others departed minutes later. Meanwhile, Rep. Zoe Lofgren sat reading a newspaper for much of Trump’s speech, before also walking out. (Lofgren returned soon after and stayed for the remainder of the address, a staffer said.)

“He’s not changed from the hot-button issues that he pressed in the campaign,” Takano said.

Democrats from California brought guests, including fired federal workers and those who would be affected by potential cuts to Medicaid. Both Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Mark DeSaulnier invited mothers whose children contend with disabilities and rely on Medicaid.

Pelosi, who famously ripped up a copy of Trump’s State of the Union speech the last time he addressed Congress, cast the president’s speech as “manifesto of mistruths.”

“All across America, people are feeling the pain of President Trump’s policies at their kitchen tables,” Pelosi said in a statement. “It is clear that President Trump does not care about the pain of the American people — but he should fear their power.”

Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff brought a Los Angeles fire captain and a 25-year federal firefighter, respectively. Padilla told NOTUS he found Trump’s speech “horrible.”

And Reps. Sam Liccardo and Takano both brought veterans who were recently laid off by Trump’s cost-cutting measures.

Liccardo brought Daniel Sandecki, a disabled combat veteran who served as the emergency manager for the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto health care system, which provides care to over 67,000 veterans. Sandecki was terminated from his post last month as part of DOGE’s headcount reductions.

“I wanted Donald Trump to see the face of someone who suffered the impacts from his policies,” Liccardo said.

But less than two hours after Sandecki was announced as Liccardo’s guest, he was notified by his local human resources that the Office of Personnel Management had rescinded his termination, Sandecki said.

“I basically obtained my dream job after working about 15 years to build the training experience knowledge, know how to be able to be competitive for this position,” Sandecki said. “There’s a misconception about government employees that they’re low skilled or underdeveloped. I’m here to dispel that myth.”

Takano’s guest, David Pasquino, was an IT recruiting manager for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“This president has fired more veterans than any other president in history,” Takano said. “I can only take this as a huge betrayal of the Honoring Our PACT Act, which was the largest expansion of veterans benefits since the Vietnam War.”

As Democrats blasted Trump’s speech, Republicans took it as an opportunity to get valuable face time with the president.

“He took all the gloves off when he really rocked it, man,” Rep. Doug LaMalfa told NOTUS. “He covered all the right stuff. You saw the amount of times they jumped out of the seat.”

LaMalfa, known for hanging around after presidential addresses to speak with presidents of both parties, briefly pulled Trump aside as the president made his way out of the chamber to ask for his help with a water deal.

“I talked to him about actually a local issue I need his help on in Northern California — it’s a water deal,” LaMalfa said.

After hearing his request on the floor of the House, Trump told LaMalfa: “I’ll do it.”

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Samuel Larreal and Mark Alfred are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.

This story has been updated to include a comment from Rep. Zoe Lofgren's office.]]> https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/fix-our-forests-act-senate-democrats Samuel Larreal “The overwhelming sentiment is that it is drafted nefariously,” a Democratic Senate aide said about parts of the Fix Our Forests Act. Wed, 26 Feb 2025 10:30:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/california/fix-our-forests-act-senate-democrats Congress is working on a bill that would change the way the government tries to combat forest fires. But in some of the states hit hardest by wildfires, Democrats are split on whether to support it.

The Fix Our Forests Act, which passed the House last month, is intended to update wildfire prevention measures in federal lands while easing environmental protections. Among other proposals, it would streamline the process of cleaning dead trees and other fire-prone vegetation in federal lands — a favorite talking point of President Donald Trump.

In the House, 64 Democrats voted in favor of the bill and 141 of them opposed it. Of those who voted, California’s Democratic House members were split 24 in favor and 15 against it.

The Senate is shaping up to be similarly divided.

“With some changes to the House version, there’s a lot of good that can be done with overwhelming bipartisan support,” Sen. Alex Padilla said.

Fellow California Sen. Adam Schiff voted against a prior version of the bill in 2024 as a House member. He didn’t say whether he’d support it this time: “I would need to look at it again,” he told NOTUS.

Proponents of the Fix Our Forests Act say it will allow authorities to better adapt to the worsening wildfires caused by climate change. It would create additional resources to track wildfires and gather data about on-the-ground conditions.

But the bill includes measures that Senate Democrats disagree with. It would create waivers for the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to study environmental impacts before carrying out actions on federal land. The bill would also reform environmental litigation procedures by making it more difficult to submit environmental lawsuits.

“I think the overwhelming sentiment is that it is drafted nefariously,” a Democratic Senate aide said about this section of the law, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about internal negotiations. While some Democrats agree with limiting the time frame to submit environmental-related lawsuits, this aide told NOTUS that “all of the other provisions in the litigation section specifically are extremely problematic.”

The bill, according to the Democratic aide, would allow the administration to work on projects that courts have ruled against.

The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will hold hearings about this bill “in the next couple weeks,” Sen. Michael Bennet told NOTUS.

While Bennet opposes the bill, his fellow Colorado Democrat, Sen. John Hickenlooper, supports it, although he wants amendments to win over fellow Democrats. Hickenlooper told NOTUS that finding compromise so it passes this Congress “is definitely something that’s worth pursuing.”

“We’re trying to find ways to make sure the public sentiment can be expressed and heard, but that we also do what needs to be done in some of these forests, the dangers of fire and other problems that are immediate,” Hickenlooper said.

Democratic aides promoting bill negotiations told NOTUS they are concerned that reservations among Senate Democrats might lead to an extensive amendment process that might further delay needed forest-management reforms.

If Trump gets involved, it could further complicate matters.

The president and GOP representatives have repeatedly said forest management should be a condition for releasing disaster aid to California. While Democrats are open to negotiations, framing the passage of this bill as a condition for federal aid might be a deal-breaker.

A top Democratic advocate for the bill in the House said that wildfire prevention measures are more urgent than ever and urged quick action.

“Communities in the path of the next megafire do not have the luxury of time,” Rep. Scott Peters, told NOTUS in a statement. “Congress needs to take bold, bipartisan action to safeguard communities, ecosystems, and property.”

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Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.

This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and NewsWell, home of Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia. ]]>