• U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) and a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers urged NASA Administrator Bill Nelson to reverse unilateral funding cuts to the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, which would result in the loss of hundreds of California jobs, prevent the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from making its 2030 launch window, and lead to the cancellation of billions of dollars in contracts supporting American businesses, according to a Nov. 22 statement from Padilla’s office. A letter written by the legislators follows a request Padilla led last month urging Senate appropriations leadership to include at least $822 million for NASA to keep the MSR mission on schedule to launch by 2030. “We write to express our strongest opposition to NASA’s recent unilateral and unprecedented decision to prematurely move forward with funding cuts to the MSR mission before Congress finalized its Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations process. This shortsighted and misguided decision by NASA will cost hundreds of jobs and a decade of lost science, and it flies in the face of congressional authority,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “The 2023 Planetary Sciences Decadal Survey identified the completion of MSR as NASA’s highest scientific priority. Therefore, we are mystified by NASA’s rash decision to suggest at this stage of the appropriations process that any cuts would be necessary.”
• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) joined officials from the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health to encourage Central Coast residents to take advantage of the open enrollment period for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace, which is open now through Jan. 31, 2024, according to a Nov. 21 statement from Carbajal’s office. In 2023, 41,000 residents in California’s 24th Congressional District covering all of Santa Barbara County and portions of San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties were enrolled in a Covered California plan. Carbajal highlighted his work on health care affordability legislation, saying it saved the average Central Coast resident more than $1,000 on premiums through the Covered California marketplace this year. “This year marks the 10th year that ACA plans have been available since the law was created by President [Barack] Obama and Democrats in Congress—and I am proud to share that coverage through this marketplace has never been more affordable, thanks to the work my colleagues and I have been doing in Congress,” Carbajal said in the statement. “We passed laws that boosted and extended subsidies that have lowered premiums for middle-class families and working-class families—part of our goal of ensuring that every American has access to affordable, quality health care.”
• Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the California Highway Patrol (CHP) is increasing statewide efforts to combat organized retail crime as the annual holiday shopping season begins, according to a Nov. 22 statement from Newsom’s office. As part of the governor’s Real Public Safety Plan, the CHP is increasing its law enforcement presence in key retail districts across California, and its Organized Retail Crime Task Force is increasing enrollment efforts through proactive and confidential law enforcement operations with allied agencies through the holidays to help keep shoppers, merchants, and retail districts safe. “When criminals run out of stores with stolen goods, they need to be arrested and escorted directly into jail cells,” Newsom said in the statement. “Leveraging hundreds of millions of dollars in law enforcement investments, the California Highway Patrol—working with allied agencies—is increasing enforcement efforts and conducting and supporting covert and confidential takedowns to stop these criminals in their tracks during the holiday season, and year-round.”
