Political Watch: March 20, 2025

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• U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, led a group of 31 senators demanding a reversal of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s cancellation of food purchase programs across the country, according to a March 17 statement from Schiff’s office. The senators warned that the cancellations would have far-reaching negative effects on families and farmers. In a letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, co-led by Schiff and Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), the lawmakers said the reported $1 billion in canceled purchases by the USDA adds further pain at a time of high food prices and instability within U.S. agricultural markets. “We ask that you reverse the cancellation,” the senators wrote. “We have grave concerns that the cancellation … poses extreme harm to producers and communities in every state across the country. At a time of uncertainty in farm country, farmers need every opportunity to be able to expand market access for their products.” The purchases from American famers fund food for food banks, schools, and child care centers in all 50 states. In California, cancellation of purchases through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) and the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS) puts more than $118 million in food purchases at risk in fiscal year 2025. The letter also stated that LFPA and LFS have benefitted producers and consumers by providing funding for purchases through all 50 states, four territories, and 84 tribal governments. “Through LFPA and LFS, USDA has prioritized the procurement and distribution of healthy, nutritious domestic food. It has also taken an important step toward igniting rural prosperity by expanding and strengthening markets among farmers and rural economies,” according to the letter. “As of December 2024, the programs had supported over 8,000 producers, providing increased marketing opportunities.”

• On March 17, U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California), Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), and Peter Welch (D-Vermont), members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a statement after President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, claiming wartime power to deport noncitizens. “Over the weekend, President Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport noncitizens without due process. This attempt to use an archaic wartime law—not used since World War II—for immigration enforcement is yet another unlawful and brazen power grab,” the senators said in the statement. “Let’s be clear: We are not at war, and immigrants are not invading our country.” The statement further said that it’s up to the courts to determine whether people have broken any laws, not a president “acting alone” and not immigration agents choosing who gets imprisoned or deported. “It’s what our Constitution demands, and it’s the law Trump is bound by no matter how much he tries to mislead the American people otherwise,” the senators stated. “These protections are there to help ensure U.S. citizens aren’t wrongfully deported, or people who haven’t committed a crime aren’t wrongfully punished.” The senators noted that a district court issued a temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration’s use of this wartime law and ordered deportation flights already underway to return to the U.S. “We cannot allow Trump to flout the rules and due process. All of us, including the courts, must continue to hold this administration accountable, and prevent the Trump administration from taking us down a dark and dangerous road.”

This article appears in Mar 20-30, 2025.