• Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) was one of a group of Senate Democrats who urged Senate Appropriators in a letter to decrease funding for President Donald Trump’s deportation force and detention beds in the 2018 fiscal year budget. “President Trump’s budget makes massive cuts to domestic programs that support all Americans, including critical DHS grant dollars that help guard against terrorism and keep communities safe, while asking for $2.8 billion in new discretionary spending to implement his immigration executive orders,” the letter states. “The budget includes a $1.5 billion increase to detain and remove immigrants, $362 million to hire and train additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents, and a $1.6 billion down payment on an unnecessary border wall. The budget also seeks to dramatically expand the power of the federal government to conscript state and local law enforcement into carrying out immigration enforcement activities. This harmful proposal would make communities less safe by diverting limited resources from addressing true public safety threats and erode trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities.” Harris signed the letter as a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Other signing senators included Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mich.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
• California’s 24th District Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) released a statement on June 22 after Senate Republicans issued their new health care bill. Carbajal chastised Republicans for writing the bill without public input. “The Senate finally released their backroom deal today, which leaves millions without access to health care coverage and increases out-of-pocket and premium costs—all in order to fund large tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. This legislation callously allows insurance companies to discriminate against those with pre-existing conditions, inevitably pricing many out of the insurance market,” Carbajal said in the statement. He continued to criticize cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. “The bottom line is this legislation shamefully forces working- and middle-class families to pay significantly more for less coverage. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to summon the courage to reject this disastrous health care repeal.”
• California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) saw her bill that would extend a program that encourages healthy eating and exercise in California’s after-school programs pass the Assembly Education Committee with a bipartisan vote of 6-0. The bill now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee for approval. The bill, SB 55, would extend the Distinguished After School Health (DASH) Recognition Program through 2023. The program began in 2014 when Gov. Jerry Brown signed Jackson’s Senate Bill 949, and ensures that after-school programs commit to providing 30 to 60 minutes of daily physical activity, limit TV and computer time, and provide healthy foods and drinks. “DASH is about recognizing those after-school programs that are making the voluntary yet vitally important effort to make children’s health a priority,” Jackson said in a release. “Good eating and exercise habits, when established early, help prevent childhood obesity and help lead to a lifetime to good health.”
• California State Assemblymember Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) honored U.S. veteran and recent University of California, Santa Barbara, graduate Max Peck as the 2017 Veteran of the Year for the state’s 37th Assembly District on June 21. Peck served in Afghanistan after he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 2010. He received a Marine Corps Achievement Medal for “exemplary performance during combat operations,” according to a release from Limón’s office. “Max braved improvised explosive devices and enemy fire to provide security for the Afghan people living under the terror of the Taliban, then came back home with a mission to improve the lives of student veterans,” Limón said in the release. “Now Max is an active leader in the student veteran community and serves on student veteran organizations.”
