Washington – California and self-proclaimed liberal resistance to President Trump-Hat's policy for a long time had had an oversized voice in the nation's politics.
But now that when the Republican is back in the White House, many of the Democrats of the State are prepared for another fight in the congress – to ensure a robust forest fire financing, to secure the policy of the former president Biden and the broader social and tax ambitions In the depths of the country's depths, polarized capital.
“It is becoming more difficult, but it is still feasible and necessary,” said senator Alex Padilla and noticed that one of his first important non-partisan laws, after he had come to Senate four years ago, with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) An attempt that ultimately delivered billions of dollars to federal financing should work together to repair the country's electrical network after ice storms in Texas had decimated. Padilla said he had his experience after led a state legislative committee for energy.
“I was able to speak with some of these problems knowledgeable and we made progress, right? So that was the role model for a number of things I recorded, ”said Padilla in his Senate office in the early this month. “Admittedly, the service can be helpful. I think what is more important, it comes back to relationships and knowledge. “
Nevertheless, the resident of the Porter Ranch admits that he has concerns about the coming years.
“My greatest frustration is how many of my republican colleagues said the right behind closed doors about 'dreamer' and farm workers and others, but were not ready to say it publicly,” said Padilla and added that he was, That he is that he was encouraged and yet skeptical about Trump's recent statements about young people who were brought into the country without legal approval. “I have to be open because I owe the 'dreamer' and owe my voters to my voters, so I will never give up.”
Padilla was appointed to the Senate after Kamala Harris was voted Vice President in 2020. At only four years in office, he is a symbol of the declining influence on the state in the country's capital.
California kept in both chambers of the congress for decades. Then Senator Barbara Boxer died in retirement and senator Dianne Feinstein. The democrat Nancy Pelosi from San Francisco and the Republican Kevin McCarthy from Bakersfield are no longer a speaker.
With 52 House members, California still has the largest state delegation, including 43 Democrats, which have to be firmly over the ideals of voters when many of them decide on Trump's policy on topics such as immigration and reproductive rights.
MP Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) condemned the step of the Trump government to eliminate citizenship as “unconstitutional”, and mocked the decision of the President to conclude initiatives of diversity, justice and inclusion in the Federal Government.
He applauded California Atty. General Rob Bonta, a democrat that has taken on a role in the front and in the middle to devote himself against the immigration policy of the Trump government. Khanna also recognized his limits for the containment of the political goals of the Trump government in the congress.
The California Congress delegation must “be as loud as possible and uncover what is going on in these topics and to tell the stories about what is going on so that people know how extreme these ideas are,” said Khanna.
Much of the California delegation was consumed by the forest fires and the disaster reaction in Los Angeles. Together with the newly elected MP George Whitesides (D-Agua Dulce), Khanna plan to introduce laws that would make it a federal crime to commit fire materials or prey in wild fire. Padilla recently introduced a package with invoices that would increase the payment for the Federation of Fund from Wildland and create affordable apartments from temporary disaster accommodation.
Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego), Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood) and Whitesides presented laws before development on Friday to optimize and coordinate bureaucracy in the federal disaster reaction is. At the moment, more than 30 federal authorities are involved, which leads to fragmentation and delays that Jacobs saw first -hand last year after devastating floods in San Diego caused damage of 90 million US dollars.
“After this catastrophe, I heard of so many voters who didn't know where to turn. They confronted slow answers from federal authorities, ”said Jacobs. “You finally got help, but it was too little, too late.”
Other California legislators have submitted A number of bills to tackle the catastrophe.
Disaster aid is also hung in Washington's policy. Together with her democratic colleagues from California, Rivas, to whose district the areas in the Hurst fire, was pronounced that every federal forest fire aid should not go hand in hand, as the spokesman for House Mike Johnson (R-La.) And Trump suggested , and have proposed Trump. Trump said that the fires in Southern California have made other parts of his political agenda “easier”, even though he said on Friday during a visit to the region: “We have to work together to really do this.”
“The Republicans try to use this to get something else that has nothing to do with the reaction to this catastrophe,” said Rivas. “And so we are all uniform and make sure that this does not happen.”
Many of the elected Democrats of California in Washington, who are now dealing with the deeply polarized congress, spent a large part of their political career dominated in democrats such as the state legislator.
MP Dave Min (D-IRVINE) still gets used to his transition from part of a super majority in the Senate to the minority party in the house after winning the Orange County seat, the Katie Porter for the US Senate.
“I didn't think about a universe in which I won and we were not a majority,” said Min.
The California representatives of Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands) and Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) have the chair of the House Democratic Caucus and the deputy chairman. But without California squad of democratic heavyweights, the representatives of the state are fighting for influence. The Republicans also have power in every congress committee.
“Something that dominates our Caucus discussions, my conversations with democratic colleagues, especially with newcomers – what can we do in this environment?” Min said. “You know because I can't present any bills that will go somewhere.”
Even if his legislation shot little success, Min said that he would continue to drive his news – as a recent change, he gave the Federal Aid for the California forest fire reaction.
While he got used to the long days and the strenuous travel pace between California and Washington, said Min that he had his Republican colleagues switching. He said he was already friends with several new members in Williamsburg, VA.
“I know that there are good people on this side of the Ganges. They are under great pressure to coordinate with Maga Donald Trump's agenda, ”he said. “But at some point there is hope that if we continue to be the conscious conscience of the congress, some of them may be off.”
Others are more used to Washington's polarization.
The Senator of California, Adam Schiff, who took up his office in December, is optimistic that the Senate will be more collegial and that is similar what the house was in front of the Trump era. He noticed that as a representative from Burank, he had a close relationship with Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) because both districts had major and science interests.
“The Houston Space Center was part of its history. I had jpl. We were so inseparable when it came to NASA and space financing and priorities, ”said Schiff. “We didn't talk about abortion, we didn't talk about weapons, we didn't talk about the things that share us, we focused on what we have in common. … and my meaning is, after I was in the Senate for a month, that the possibility of forming this type of partnerships is far more common here. “
Nevertheless, the elected guides recognized the uncertainty.
“I'm encouraged,” said Padilla. “But we only understand the dynamics of this new congress, the majorities in the house and the Senate and the incoming president Trump.”