• Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara) introduced a bill package in mid-April that aims to improve health care access for Californians. The package includes three separate bills that put new policy mandates on health insurance companies and osteopathic physicians across the state. Assembly Bill 1703, for example, would ensure that all osteopathic physicians serving patients are operating with licenses issued by the state of California. Hart’s office described this bill as a response to a gap in current law that has allowed certain internationally trained osteopaths to see patients without a license. Assembly Bill 1682 would require health insurance companies to cover scalp cooling treatments for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and Assembly Bill 2011 would cement in California law a President Joe Biden-era federal regulation that tightened restrictions on requirements that health insurance companies can place on mental health care, ensuring they do not exceed those placed on physical health care. Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump announced it would not enforce the Biden-era rule and may even rescind it, according to Hart’s office. “At a time when the federal government is rolling back landmark health policies, California ought to step up in new ways to make sure that people of all ages can receive the care they need from trusted health care providers,” Hart said in an April 15 statement. In addition to working on his legislative package, Hart is chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Accountability and Oversight. In this role, he’s led state oversight hearings on the impacts of health care policies posed by the Trump administration. “To pay for the president’s billionaire tax breaks, too many hardworking Californians are having to forgo seeing their doctor, taking necessary medication, or otherwise receiving care,” Hart stated.
• California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin issued a statement on April 26 in response to the attempted shooting by California resident Cole Tomas Allen at the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C. “The attempted assassination of President Trump and mass shooting of other guests at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a terrible act of violence. This violence must stop now,” Rankin stated. “Democrats must end their violent rhetoric; their words have consequences and are causing real harm. … The assassination of Charlie Kirk and the multiple assassination attempts on President Trump’s life prove that violent rhetoric is creating a deadly environment. The California Republican Party stands with President Trump and every victim of political violence.”
• On April 23, U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Adam Schiff (D-California) joined more than 30 other legislators to raise strong concerns about the reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). “The USFS is charged with managing the 193-million-acre National Forest System, … including over 141 million acres of urban forests in our cities and towns,” the legislators wrote in a joint letter to USDA Deputy Secretary Alexander Vaden. “A 2025 survey by the Partnership for Public Service found that the USFS was significantly worse at fulfilling stakeholder needs and providing quality service than a year earlier. The sweeping changes being proposed, potentially impacting more than 6,500 employees … threatens to further erode the agency’s ability to complete its mission.” The legislators added that the reorganization “also jeopardizes the world-class research the USFS produces to improve management of the [National Forest Service], assist public and private forest landowners with insect and disease outbreaks, and spur innovative approaches to managing wildfire.”
This article appears in April 30 – May 7, 2026.