• State Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) recently appointed state Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) to chair the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee for the remainder of the 2025-26 legislative session. “Sen. Laird brings deep experience, sound judgment, and a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility to the Budget Committee,” Limón said in a statement. “His previous service as chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, along with his long-standing focus on education, the environment, and working families, will be invaluable as we work to deliver a budget that reflects California’s values and meets the moment.” In his new role as chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, Laird will help guide funding decisions impacting education, health care, infrastructure, environmental protection, and essential public services, according to Limón’s office. The committee is responsible for shaping California’s annual state budget. “Having previously chaired the Assembly Budget Committee, I understand the seriousness of this responsibility and know there will be difficult times ahead,” Laird said in a statement. “I look forward to listening to the priorities of my colleagues to shape thoughtful decisions that balance fiscal responsibility with the real needs of Californians.”
•U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) and other members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property recently urged U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to hold a briefing no later than Jan. 9 that addresses their opposition to new patent tax under consideration. The proposal would require patent holders to pay between 1 and 5 percent of their invention’s overall value to file for a patent. “Currently, inventors are charged flat fees, typically no higher than $10,000. A fee of between 1 and 5 percent of a patent’s value could cost individual inventors millions of dollars and transform the existing flat filing fee structure into a speculative and prohibitive bar to innovation for start-ups and other small-to-mid-size businesses,” the senators wrote in a letter addressed to Lutnick and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John A. Squires. Along with Schiff, U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Peter Welch (D-Vermont) signed the letter.
• In a Dec. 31 statement, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) weighed in on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to lift its stay on a federal judge’s order barring the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles. “Today’s order affirms what we’ve said from the beginning: the Trump administration’s choice to federalize and deploy National Guard troops in Los Angeles was unlawful,” Padilla stated on Dec. 31. “This deployment is reckless, harmful, and an abuse of executive power that has put service members in an impossible position.” Gov. Gavin Newsom also issued a statement in response to the court decision, which he described as returning the California National Guard to state command and control, and “conclusively ending their deployment in an American city, against American citizens.” He also called the federalization of the California National Guard illegal. “The president deployed these brave men and women against their own communities and without regard for the constitution and federal law,” Newsom stated. “We welcome our California National Guard servicemembers back to state service, where they can continue to serve and protect the people of California—long delayed due to Trump’s political theater. … I direct California National Guard leadership to work expeditiously to return state service members home to be with their families as soon as possible following their demobilization from federal service.”
This article appears in January 8 – January 15, 2026.