Political Watch

• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) joined a group of House Democrats asking for answers after five regional Head Start offices were shut down, including the regional office in San Francisco that serves Central Coast residents, his office said in a press release. The closures came after the Department of Health and Human Services […]

• Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) spoke at the 10th annual Association of California School Administrators Mid-State Conference held in San Luis Obispo about growing challenges to public education at the federal level, according to her office. “As a former public school teacher of 21 years, I know firsthand the dedication and resilience it takes […]

• 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 […]

• U.S. Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla (D-California) sent a letter to the Department of the Interior on March 6 asking it to ensure that there are no more cuts to the Bureau of Reclamation, which is set to lose about 100 employees in California. That’s about 10 percent of its regional staff, according […]

• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) joined congressmen from Washington state, Texas, and New Mexico in introducing the Aerial Firefighting Enhancement Act to improve the nation’s aerial firefighting capabilities through expanded use of excess military aircrafts and parts, according to a Feb. 20 press release from Carbajal’s office. The bipartisan legislation would reauthorize military […]

• On Feb. 20, Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara) led a budget subcommittee hearing over federal funding in California. “America’s hub for innovation, entrepreneurship, agriculture, and diversity, California is the fifth largest economy in the world. California subsidizes the rest of the country, contributing $80 billion more in federal tax dollars than we receive back […]

• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) helped introduce legislation that would restore guardrails on federal enforcement activities to protect immigrant communities at sensitive locations, according to a press release from his office. Since 2011, the Department of Homeland Security’s sensitive locations policy prohibited immigration enforcement actions in places that provided vital services such as […]

• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) is spending a lot of time pushing back on the Trump administration’s policy pushes. Since President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January and began signing a flurry of executive orders, Carbajal’s office has put out several press releases about what the congressman is doing and saying about it, […]

• On Jan. 29, one day after President Donald Trump moved to freeze funding for a range of federal programs, the president’s budget office rescinded the order, according to the Associated Press (AP). Trump’s move had prompted “widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country,” AP News reported. Locally, Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) issued […]

• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) responded to the executive actions that President Donald Trump made on his first day in office by calling some of them illegal and unconstitutional. This includes orders to pause funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan […]

• On Jan. 16, Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) called out House Republicans for repeatedly suggesting their interest in obstructing delivery of federal disaster aid to Southern California. “What makes these families different from families we have helped after hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods? To suggest that we should hold hostage the aid we give American […]