Gavin Newsom heads to Washington to ask for last-minute help from Biden administration
Gov. Gavin Newsom will visit Washington this week to help figure out ways to combat California programs and funding that could be in jeopardy under a Trump administration.
Newsom plans to have “a series of meetings with the Biden-Harris administration and the California congressional delegation,” his office said Monday.
Newsom and President-elect Donald Trump have been at odds over a host of initiatives important to California, notably disaster funding levels, health care policy and environmental standards.
Particularly crucial will be what policies the Biden administration, which leaves office January 20, and the current Congress can enact in the next few weeks. Democrats now control the Senate, but Republicans will run the chamber starting in January.
The GOP now controls the House and while it’s unclear who will have a majority next year, Republicans appear likely to retain control.
Newsom has moved quickly to protect his heavily Democratic state, a state that’s been a favorite target for Trump’s rhetoric and, during his first term, some of his policies.. He said Wednesday he would “seek to work with the incoming president.”
But Trump, who lost big in California, wrote on his Truth Social site, “Governor Gavin Newscum is trying to KILL our Nation’s beautiful California.”
Newsom, he added, “is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election. ”
The governor last week convened a special session of the Legislature, to ask the Democratic-controlled Assembly and Senate to boost the state’s legal efforts, which are expected to be targeted at protecting reproductive healthcare, climate efforts and immigration policy in the state.
“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we won’t sit idle,” Newsom said announcing the session, which begins December 2. “We are prepared to fight in the courts, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 9:36 AM.
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