Gavin Newsom faces advocate backlash amid proposed budget cuts
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ADVOCATES FEEL THE BURN ON NEWSOM’S PROPOSED CUTS
Health care and immigrant activists continued to slam Gov. Gavin Newsom after he proposed cuts to funding for Planned Parenthood. He also floated pausing Medi-Cal expansions for more undocumented adults in last week’s revised budget plan, an about-face from the universal coverage campaign promise that helped him first win office in 2018.
Earlier this year, Newsom and the Legislature scrambled to keep Medi-Cal afloat through June as the program faced a $6.2 billion gap. Pausing enrollment would save the state about $5.8 billion by fiscal year 2028-29, according to estimates from his office.
Advocates from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, including chief executive Jodi Hicks, and the Legislative Women’s Caucus rallied outside the Capitol Tuesday morning to express their frustration at budget cuts they anticipate would force the closure of clinics statewide and roll back services ranging from contraception to cancer screenings and HIV testing.
Last week, Newsom proposed moving $500 million of tobacco sales tax revenue, which funds women’s and family health services, into the general fund. He also suggested covering part of the state’s $12 billion deficit by using funds from Prop. 35, which increases reimbursement rates for doctors who treat Medi-Cal patients.
Hicks, normally a reliable ally of the governor, blasted his proposals on social media.
“Happy to go on his Podcast and explain why this devastates women’s health in his state,” she wrote.
Earl Lui, the managing director of the California Wellness Foundation, pointed out that most Californians support universal coverage despite Newsom’s suggestion to pause enrolling more undocumented people in Medi-Cal.
Cal Wellness underwrites funding for health care advocacy groups, and supported the health equity campaign expanding Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented immigrants that went into effect last year.
“Voters know health care works better if everyone is covered,” Liu said in an interview. “Especially in California, where so many people are immigrants.”
Also at the Capitol Tuesday, members from the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence and VALOR rallied for Newsom to maintain state funding for crime victims’ services like rape crisis centers and support hotlines after Trump froze federal funds. Advocates called on Newsom to make sure vulnerable Californians aren’t left behind.
“The federal government has chosen to slash funding from the Victims of Crimes Act or VOCA, leaving survivors with fewer places to turn and fewer hands reaching out when they cry for help,” said Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, D-San Fernando Valley.
“So let’s be clear, these are not just numbers on a spreadsheet. These are people’s lives.”
GAVIN BLAMES THE “BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL”
For his part, Newsom blamed cuts to Planned Parenthood’s funding on the “big, beautiful bill” currently under discussion in Washington, which he said could strip millions of Californians of their state-funded health care.
As of Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump was trying to cajole hard-line Republicans into supporting his centerpiece bill, which the California Department of Health Services estimated in a memo would would kick 3.4 million Californians off of Medi-Cal and cost the state $30 billion in federal funds by instituting work requirements and forcing people to verify their eligibility every six months instead of annually.
It would also penalize California over $4 billion for using state funds to offer non-emergency services for undocumented residents.
“The bill would prohibit Medicaid funding from going to nonprofit providers that offer abortion services — even if those services are limited and legally permitted — and even if the provider also delivers essential reproductive and preventive care like cancer screenings, contraception, and STI testing,” the memo read, calling it a “direct effort to defund Planned Parenthood.”
Newsom also went after the GOP online: “Mike Johnson is hoping you won’t notice what he snuck into his ‘big, beautiful bill’ — the elimination of a 100-year-old tax on gun silencers. How will he pay for it? By slashing healthcare for 10 million Americans.”
GAVIN SAYS CALIFORNIA WILL “WIN THE FIGHT”
As Sacramento seethed over the budget, Newsom appeared on a virtual panel with a handful of liberal influencers and YouTubers to boost his administration’s recent actions against the White House and defend his record.
The governor told content creators Harry Sisson, Jesse Thomas, Brandon “Atrioc” Ewing and Douglas “DougDoug” Wreden that he was confident the Golden State would prevail in its lawsuit to stop Trump’s tariffs and rightsize the economy.
“We’re going to win these lawsuits. We’re going to restore the funding. And that’s an impact,” he said. “So in every one of these instances, we are confident we’re going to win in those areas, we’re going to lose. We’re going to slow down the destruction.”
On homelessness, an issue that his critics love to hammer him on, Newsom said despite boasting an outsized number of the nation’s unhoused, California had made incremental strides, touting his recent call for cities to break up encampments.
“We’re doing everything in our power to be thoughtful about this, to be compassionate, but also to be more assertive than we have in the past,” he said.
BOOKER, HUERTA AT CADEM CON
Via Nicole Nixon
Farmworker rights activist Dolores Huerta will speak at the California Democratic Party’s convention next weekend in Anaheim.
The longtime labor icon co-founded what is now United Farm Workers alongside Cesar Chavez and is beloved among California farmworkers and labor groups. She turned 95 last month.
“Dolores Huerta is a California icon and a trailblazer for justice,” said CADEM Chair Rusty Hicks. “Her lifelong fight for workers’ rights and civil rights continues to inspire our party and our movement. We’re proud to welcome her to the CADEM Convention.”
The convention lineup also includes Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and DNC Vice Chair Malcom Kenyatta.
The CADEM convention takes place May 30-June 1. (Follow Lia and Nicole, who will both be at the convention, for updates!)
PADILLA SLOW-WALKS EPA NOMS
Via David Lightman
Sen. Alex Padilla is holding up Senate confirmation of four Trump administration Environmental Protection Agency nominees until Republicans stop trying to overturn California clean air policies.
The Republican-dominated Senate is expected to vote this week on limiting the state’s ability to implement tougher standards for vehicle emissions. The House has passed the measures.
Padilla, a California Democrat, is using an often-implemented political tactic. One senator can delay a nomination, and Padilla has moved to freeze four: Deputy Administrator nominee David Fotouhi, Chief Financial Officer nominee Catherine Hanson, and Assistant Administrator nominees Jessica Kramer and Aaron Szabo.
They can move forward once the Senate debates and ultimately votes on them, but that’s a timely process that the Senate tries to avoid.
Padilla, the top Democrat on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said in a statement that if Congress rejects California’s clean air mandates, “the consequences will be far-reaching, not only for our clean energy economy, the air our children breathe and for our climate.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Voters deserve to know the truth, what did Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra know, when did they know it, and most importantly, why didn’t either of them speak out? This cover up directly led to a second Donald Trump term — and as a result, all Californians are paying the price.”
— Former Los Angeles Mayor and 2026 gubernatorial contender Antonio Villaraigosa, in response to reporting from Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper about former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.
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