Political Watch: May 1, 2025

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• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) announced on April 25 that he and U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) reintroduced two bipartisan bills focused on addressing the effects of climate change on U.S. coastlines, coastal communities, and marine ecosystems. “The climate crisis is hitting our coasts hard—from eroding beaches and stronger storms to declining fisheries. Regions like the Central Coast are already feeling the impact and need federal support to adapt,” Carbajal stated in a press release. “I’m proud to work with Rep. Fitzpatrick to reintroduce two bipartisan bills that will provide coastal states with the tools they need to study and address the threats to our oceans and fisheries.” The Coastal State Climate Preparedness Act would provide grants to coastal states to help them plan and implement strategies to mitigate climate change, prepare for sea level rise, and address other impacts. The bill would enable states to use these grants for climate change adaptation and to protect infrastructure and coastal ecosystems, according to Carbajal’s office. The Ocean Acidification Research Partnership Act would authorize up to $5 million in research grants for studies on the effects of ocean acidification, which impacts U.S. fishing and tourism industries. Worsening ocean acidification threatens billions of dollars in U.S. economic activity and tens of thousands of U.S. jobs, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

• U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) and 41 other senators signed a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. condemning the Trump administration’s attacks on Head Start and demanding a reverse of the mass firing of Head Start staff, Padilla’s office announced in an April 25 statement. The Head Start program currently serves nearly 800,000 children, providing comprehensive services to help children receive health care and insurance, while offering parents job training, education, housing support, and nutrition services. In 2021, California’s Head Start program served more than 82,300 California children—accounting for 10 percent of all children served, according to Padilla’s office. “We write to express our strong opposition to the actions you have taken to directly attack and undermine the federal Head Start program,” the letter to Kennedy stated. “Since Day 1, this administration has taken unacceptable actions to withhold and delay funding, fire Head Start staff, and gut high-quality services for children. Already this year, this administration has withheld almost $1 billion in federal grant funding from Head Start programs, a 37 percent decrease compared to the amount of funding awarded during the same period last year. It is abundantly clear that these actions are part of a broader effort to ultimately eliminate the program altogether, as the administration reportedly plans to do in its fiscal year 2026 budget proposal.” The letter was spearheaded by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP); and Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. “The administration has a legal and moral obligation to disburse Head Start funds to programs and to uphold the program’s promise to provide high-quality early education services to low-income children and families across this country,” the letter states. “There is no justifiable reason for the delay in funding we have seen over the last two months, and you have refused to offer any kind of explanation.”

This article appears in May 1-11, 2025.