• As co-chairs of the California Legislative Central Coast Caucus, Assemblymembers Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara) and Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) and State Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) drafted a joint letter to urge the Trump administration “to stop its expansion of drilling off California’s coast.” The March 27 letter was addressed to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Secretary Matthew Giacona. “We will not stand by while the Trump administration prioritizes oil profits over our communities, coastal economy, and environmental health,” the legislators wrote. “Recently, the Trump administration illegally directed the Sable Offshore Corporation to restart the damaged Refugio pipeline in Santa Barbara County and open our shores to dangerous drilling. This is the very same pipeline that burst in 2015, spilling over 140,000 gallons of crude oil and damaging 150 miles of coastline and 2,200 acres of ocean habitat.” With the pipeline reactivated, “without the necessary permits and safeguards,” California faces the threat of another spill, the letter states. “Moving forward with this process will open the door to increased offshore oil leasing and drilling, directly threatening the health of California’s coastal environment and economy,” the legislators wrote. “Expanding offshore drilling in this region will not only affect the health and wellness of our coastal residents, but it will also be devastating for our economy, which relies on the pristine quality of our natural environment.”
• U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Tim Sheehy (R-Montana), co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate Wildfire Caucus, recently introduced the Support Our Firefighters Act to provide federal wildland firefighters with mandatory rest and recuperation time and ensure they are paid for their work. “Arbitrary pay caps force our firefighters to make an impossible choice: walk off the line or work for free,” Padilla said in an April 2 statement. “Our bipartisan bill would ensure that our federal wildland firefighters, who work around the clock when disaster strikes, are given the rest, recuperation, and compensation they deserve.”
•On April 2, U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) released a statement commenting on the Trump administration’s appointment of Todd Blanche to the role of acting attorney general, following Pam Bondi’s departure. “Her firing does not mitigate the need for her to answer for her conduct as attorney general, and Todd Blanche should expect to receive the same scrutiny,” Schiff stated. “Bondi oversaw an unprecedented weaponization of the Justice Department that brought our nation’s rule of law to its knees. Countless and baseless political investigations, hundreds of career law enforcement professionals purged, a massive cover-up of the Epstein files, and a wholesale effort to turn the department into a criminal law firm representing the person of the president instead of the American people.” Schiff described Bondi as “merely a symptom of Donald Trump’s chronic allergy to our nation’s laws.” Her “sycophancy,” he added, “could not prevent the inevitable defenestration that eventually befalls most Trump loyalists.” U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) also issued a statement about “Bondi’s disastrous tenure as attorney general” coming to an end on April 2. “Under Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice irresponsibly rubber-stamped investigations into Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies, tried to coerce states into surrendering their voter rolls, pushed out career prosecutors and civil servants, and dodged accountability and transparency over the Epstein files. Americans always deserved better than Pam Bondi,” Padilla stated. “Donald Trump may think Bondi’s ouster will help save his failing agenda, but the damage is done. … The consequences of her weaponization of the Justice Department will reverberate for years to come.”
This article appears in April 9 – April 16, 2026.