California Gov. Gavin Newsom had a simple message for congressional Democrats from his state on Wednesday: We need to make the most of the time we have left before Donald Trump takes office.
Trump heads back to the White House in 68 days, and Democrats will control the Senate for about 50 more days. Newsom emphasized that time is of the essence for securing waivers on certain standards so that California can continue setting higher environmental guidelines on issues like water and air.
During an hour-long meeting with California Democrats on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Newsom told the California delegation that he planned to pressure President Joe Biden to approve certain federal waiver extensions in his remaining time as president, reasoning that it’d be harder for Trump to remove the state’s standards if they were already in place.
Although Newsom declined to get into specifics while speaking with reporters after the meeting, he said the waivers would be on “health care, the environment and, notably, on behavioral health.”
Trending
For decades, California has subjected itself to more rigorous standards on issues like the environment — and Trump has suggested he would like to remove those higher standards. Or perhaps place conditions on them.
“I was with an American president yesterday at the Oval Office,” Newsom said. “And I was with an American president last week when I got a phone call from him saying he wanted to support our efforts on disaster recovery in Ventura, California, that was suffering from a major wildfire.”
“There were no conditions,” Newsom added. “He didn’t ask me to change policy on water in order to support the American people in my home state.”
But Newsom said that’s not “the state of mind of Donald Trump.”
“I guess that’s what people voted for,” he said.
Still, Newsom said he’s decided to stand his ground against the incoming Trump administration. “A lot of folks will be hurt if we don’t push back,” he said. “And so we’re gonna be firm.”
According to Rep. Sara Jacobs, Newsom spent considerable time in the meeting on the environment. “We all need to work together to make sure we protect the progress that we’ve made in California, especially around clean air and the environment,” Jacobs said.
Rep. Linda Sanchez said Democrats just went over their “priorities for the upcoming year.”
Newsom and Democrats also discussed the Republican “playbook,” which he said included elements of Project 2025 and defunding federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In the wake of Trump’s victory, Newsom has already asked the California Legislature to declare a special legislative session to counter Trump’s policy goals in California.
“We’re gonna move aggressively to be proactive and not reactive to the incoming Trump administration,” Newsom said Wednesday.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the meeting was “a very positive message.”
Despite Republicans looking like they’ll have unified control of government in Washington — the Senate and White House are clearly under GOP control, and the House could be called for Republicans any minute now with a few key races — Newsom said he wasn’t scheduled to meet with any Republicans in Congress to aid bipartisan negotiations.
“I’m doing everything I can, to do what I can, in a very short period of time,” Newsom said.
—
Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
Author
