{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "is_view": false, "human_description_en": "where chamber = \"Senate\", state = \"CA\" and year = 2025 sorted by date descending", "rows": [["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-ninth-circuit-court-order-returning-control-of-national-guard-to-california/", "Padilla Statement on Ninth Circuit Court Order Returning Control of National Guard to California", "2025-12-31", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) issued the following statement after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted its stay on a federal judge\u2019s order barring the Trump Administration from deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles, ending the federalization of California\u2019s National Guard and returning authority over them to the state:\n\n\u201cToday\u2019s order affirms what we\u2019ve said from the beginning: the Trump Administration\u2019s choice to federalize and deploy National Guard troops in Los Angeles was unlawful. This deployment is reckless, harmful, and an abuse of executive power that has put service members in an impossible position.\n\n\u201cThe fight is not over but I look forward to the remaining service members returning to their families, their jobs, and their primary critical missions as soon as possible.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-126-lawmakers-urge-dhs-to-withdraw-public-charge-proposal-that-would-harm-immigrants-citizen-children-and-public-health/", "Padilla, 126 Lawmakers Urge DHS to Withdraw Public Charge Proposal That Would Harm Immigrants, Citizen Children, and Public Health", "2025-12-23", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, co-led 126 lawmakers, including 16 other Senators and 110 Representatives, in urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to withdraw its proposed public charge rule, warning it would harm U.S. citizen children, immigrant communities, and public health systems nationwide. The letter was co-led by Senators Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), as well as Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Chair Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.-13), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Grace Meng (D-N.Y.-06), Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus Chair Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez (D-N.M.-03), Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.-09), and CHC Vice Chair of Policy Robert Menendez (D-N.J.-08) in the House.\n\n\u201cPublic charge\u201d is a ground of inadmissibility to the United States, under which an immigration officer determines whether an immigrant is likely to become primarily dependent on the government for future assistance. The Trump Administration\u2019s proposal would rescind the clear 2022 public charge regulations and replace them with vague, undefined standards, leading to arbitrary decision-making, fear, and widespread confusion. Past public charge expansions have driven families, including those with U.S. citizen children, away from lawful access to health care, nutrition, and early childhood programs.\n\n\u201cThe proposed public charge rule will lead to mass uncertainty, disparate and arbitrary outcomes for individuals applying for permanent status or admission into our country, and undue harm to U.S. citizens,\u201d wrote the lawmakers.\n\n\u201cThe chilling effects triggered by expansions of public charge interpretation are well-documented and severe. Research following [past public charge restrictions] showed that confusion about eligibility led large numbers of eligible immigrant families \u2014 including U.S. citizen children \u2014 to forego health insurance, nutrition supports, and early childhood programs vital to healthy development,\u201d continued the lawmakers.\n\nThe lawmakers argued that the proposal contradicts Congressional intent, undermines the rule of law, and risks triggering a massive chilling effect that would worsen child health outcomes, increase food insecurity, and shift costs to states and local governments. The members urged DHS to withdraw the proposal in full and maintain the 2022 regulations, which provide clarity, fairness, and consistency for families and adjudicators alike.\n\nPadilla also joined Senate and House immigration leaders in a separate formal regulatory comment to DHS opposing the public charge rule, warning that the proposal unlawfully rewrites longstanding immigration law and would deter immigrant families from accessing basic health, nutrition, and housing assistance they are legally entitled to receive.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Noem and Director Edlow,\n\nAs Members of the United States Congress, we write in strong opposition to the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding \u201cpublic charge,\u201d published in the Federal Register on November 19, 2025.\n\nWe urge the Department to completely withdraw the proposed rule, which would rescind the 2022 public charge regulations without establishing a clear or lawful replacement. The proposed public charge rule will lead to mass uncertainty, disparate and arbitrary outcomes for individuals applying for permanent status or admission into our country, and undue harm to U.S. citizens. The NPRM also defies Congressional intent, seeks to rely on illegal data-sharing from other government agencies, and erodes trust in our legal immigration system. Our immigration laws function only when families, adjudicators, and service providers can rely on transparent standards grounded in statute.\n\nBy discarding the existing regulations and signaling that future, undefined \u201cpolicy and interpretive tools\u201d will guide public charge decisions, DHS creates immediate and widespread uncertainty for immigrants who have followed every requirement of the law. Families seeking adjustment of status \u2014 including refugees, survivors of domestic violence or trafficking, children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned, and others whom Congress has long exempted from punitive public charge treatment \u2014 cannot navigate a system where the rules shift without warning and where past, lawful conduct that the federal government had stated was permissible could be reinterpreted as a negative factor. To be very clear, the proposed rule will trigger a massive chilling effect, driving eligible families away from essential assistance in health care, nutrition, childcare, and education, with the heaviest harm falling on U.S. citizen children.\n\nCongress has repeatedly affirmed that public charge must be administered with clarity, fairness, and fidelity to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) not through shifting sub-regulatory tools that create fear and confusion. If DHS believes further policy changes are necessary, those changes must be forward-looking, transparent, and subject to full public notice and comment. Families should never be penalized for accessing programs that the federal government has long stated would carry no immigration consequences.\n\nFor these reasons, we urge DHS to withdraw this NPRM and maintain the 2022 public charge regulations, which reflect longstanding law, congressional intent, and the stable framework that immigrant families and communities need in order to thrive.\n\nI. By withdrawing the 2022 regulations and leaving no clear replacement, the proposed rule seeks to circumvent public and congressional input, creates mass uncertainty, and will lead to discriminatory and uneven application of our laws.\n\nThe proposed rule would rescind the 2022 public charge regulations currently codified in 8 CFR 212.20\u2013212.23 and related provisions in 8 CFR Parts 103, 213, and 245, without replacing them with a binding regulatory standard. Instead, DHS indicates that it will rely on the future issuance of \u201cpolicy and interpretive tools\u201d to guide public charge determinations. Deferring critical substantive policymaking to later sub-regulatory guidance \u2014 outside of notice-and-comment procedures \u2014 violates the Administrative Procedure Act\u2019s (APA) requirement that agencies provide the public with meaningful opportunity to evaluate and comment on the agency\u2019s actual policy. Regulations of this significance cannot lawfully be implemented through internal guidance that bypasses both public scrutiny and congressional oversight.\n\nThe INA, 8 U.S.C. \u00a7 1182(a)(4), requires public charge assessments to be made based on a totality of the circumstances, considering specific statutory factors including age, health, family status, assets, resources, financial status, education, and skills. The 2022 rule provided a clear and administrable framework consistent with congressional intent and more than a century of agency practice, including the codification of definitions for \u201clikely to become a public charge\u201d and \u201creceipt of public benefits.\u201d Removing these definitions invites arbitrary decision-making and creates significant risk that adjudicators will rely on factors that Congress has not authorized, contrary to both INA \u00a7 212(a)(4) and long-established precedent. DHS\u2019s stated interest in removing \u201climitations\u201d on the types of public resources considered underscores the agency\u2019s intent to expand adjudicator discretion well beyond statutory bounds.\n\nRecent reporting on new guidance issued by the Department of State (DOS) demonstrates the harms already resulting from unbounded discretion in public charge adjudications. Without transparent regulations, DOS has reportedly issued internal guidance directing consular officers to speculate about future health care costs, employability, English proficiency, financial sufficiency, and even the health and perceived economic burden of family members without making this guidance public or seeking input from Congress. Officers are instructed to assess access to employer-sponsored insurance decades into the future and may disregard otherwise valid affidavits of support. These instructions contradict statutory requirements and introduce subjective and inconsistent decision-making into visa adjudications. The NPRM implies DHS will replicate this discretionary approach across USCIS adjudications, creating a patchwork of unpredictable outcomes for similarly situated applicants based solely on assigned adjudicator or processing location.\n\nFinally, the proposed rule\u2019s lack of clear standards will create profound uncertainty for immigrants, state and local governments, legal service providers, and Members of Congress constituent services. Families will be confused about how DHS intends to apply public charge law, community organizations will lack reliable information to provide lawful advice, and congressional offices will face new barriers in assisting vulnerable constituents with federal agencies. Because the proposed rule eliminates all certainty and predictability for those who anticipate applying for a green card and are not exempt from a public charge determination, it damages the ability of Members of Congress to provide actionable information when approached by constituents. Instead, the proposed rule would lead to a chaotic and inconsistent immigration system that congressional offices and their constituents will be unable to predictably navigate. This is particularly concerning because Congress\u2014not the Executive Branch\u2014retains the authority to make key decisions about the conditions under which noncitizens may access federal safety-net programs. Without clear regulatory direction, DHS and DOS would effectively assume policymaking authority that resides with Congress.\n\nFor these reasons, rescinding the 2022 rule without simultaneously proposing a fully developed and transparent replacement is unreasonable, violates core APA requirements, and guarantees discriminatory and uneven application of immigration law across agencies and jurisdictions.\n\nII. The proposed rule contradicts long-standing practice and law, congressional intent, and seeks to rely on illegal data-sharing from other government agencies.\n\nFor more than a century, the meaning of \u201cpublic charge\u201d under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) has been consistently interpreted to refer to a person likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, demonstrated through reliance on cash assistance for income maintenance or long-term institutionalization at government expense. This understanding is reflected in longstanding agency practice, judicial precedent, and the 1999 Interim Field Guidance, which Congress has repeatedly left undisturbed. See 64 Fed. Reg. 28689 (May 26, 1999). The 2022 DHS regulations formally adopted this longstanding interpretation in 8 CFR 212.21\u2013212.23, creating clear and consistent rules that aligned with congressional intent under INA \u00a7 212(a)(4).\n\nThe NPRM departs sharply from this settled framework and disregards Congress\u2019s deliberate decisions in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). When Congress amended the public charge inadmissibility ground in IIRIRA, it enumerated the five statutory factors\u2014age, health, family status, assets/resources/financial status, and education/skills\u2014yet significantly chose not to list or incorporate any specific public benefit programs into the statute. At the same time, in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), Congress imposed detailed restrictions on eligibility for federal benefits but did not tie eligibility for or use of those benefits to public charge. Congress clearly understood how to specify benefit programs when it wished to do so. The omission in INA \u00a7 212(a)(4) reflects a deliberate legislative choice not to equate temporary use of safety-net programs with future dependency. Courts addressing the 2019 final rule implemented by the first Trump administration recognized this; as the Second Circuit explained, \u201cHad Congress thought that any benefits use was incompatible with self-sufficiency, it could have said so\u2026 but it did not.\u201d New York v. DHS, 969 F.3d 42, 77 (2d Cir. 2020).\n\nThe proposal\u2019s removal of the definitions in 8 CFR 212.21\u2014including what constitutes \u201cpublic charge,\u201d \u201cpublic cash assistance for income maintenance,\u201d and \u201creceipt of public benefits\u201d\u2014signals DHS\u2019s intent to authorize officers to consider benefits well beyond those Congress has ever permitted. This contradicts 140 years of consistent interpretation and decades of administrative practice aimed at providing clarity, limiting confusion, and preventing unnecessary public health harms. In 1999, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) explained that confusion about public charge and benefits eligibility was producing \u201csignificant, negative public health consequences,\u201d and issued systemwide guidance precisely to prevent the chilling effects that DHS now proposes to recreate. Eliminating the 2022 rule\u2019s clear standards revives those same risks without any statutory basis.\n\nThe proposed rule contains no assurance that adjudicators will refrain from considering benefits received during periods when the federal government expressly stated that such benefits had no immigration consequences. This omission breaks sharply from the approach taken even in the 2019 rulemaking, where DHS stated explicitly that benefits used before the effective date \u201cwould not be considered\u2026 because SNAP was not considered in public charge inadmissibility determinations under the 1999 Interim Field Guidance.\u201d 84 Fed. Reg. 41292, 41573 (Aug. 14, 2019). Removing decades-old expectations without transition guidance or prospective limitations is an arbitrary and capricious decision, given that families have built their health, nutrition, and economic decisions around clear federal assurances that these programs are safe to use while they work toward self-sufficiency. In fact, DHS acknowledges in the NPRM that \u201cthe regulated public may be relying on aspects of the regulatory scheme in the 2022 Final Rule,\u201d which substantively aligns with the 1999 guidance.\n\nFinally, the proposed rule also raises serious concerns that DHS may rely on inter-agency data-sharing, including with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), to obtain information about public benefit use or household financial circumstances. Congress has been unequivocal: IRS data is protected by strict confidentiality rules under 26 U.S.C. \u00a7 6103, and executive agencies cannot repurpose tax information for immigration enforcement or adjudications. Many of the undersigned Members of the Congress have a documented history of challenging such illegal data-sharing schemes.\n\nIf DHS intends to base public charge determinations on tax data, state benefit records, or other protected sources, such a system would directly violate federal privacy law, exceed statutory authority, and contradict repeated congressional directives. The NPRM\u2019s ambiguity on this issue is unacceptable. Agencies cannot expand their statutory reach through backdoor data-sharing arrangements that Congress has expressly forbidden. Any implication that DHS will access IRS or other sensitive data to determine eligibility for immigration benefits must be explicitly rejected, and the Department must clearly affirm that it will not use protected data sources\u2014directly or indirectly\u2014in any public charge determination.\n\nIII. The proposed rule will create a massive chilling effect with undue harm to American communities, U.S. citizens, and especially children; and it will erode faith in our legal immigration system.\n\nThe chilling effects triggered by expansions of public charge interpretation are well-documented and severe. Research following the 1996 PRWORA and IIRIRA laws showed that confusion about eligibility led large numbers of eligible immigrant families \u2014 including U.S. citizen children \u2014 to forego health insurance, nutrition supports, and early childhood programs vital to healthy development. Federal and academic studies following welfare reform found that confusion and fear led to significant declines in Medicaid participation among otherwise eligible immigrant families and their U.S.-citizen children, with researchers warning that rising uninsurance among these children would worsen health outcomes and increase uncompensated care burdens on safety-net providers.\n\nUnder the 2019 Trump public charge rule, similar harm reemerged rapidly. Even though many programs were not included in the rule, nearly half (46%) of immigrants in low-income families reported that they or a family member avoided applying for or disenrolled from public benefits due to immigration concerns.\n\nThat chilling effect extended far beyond the rule\u2019s legal scope, including participation in Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, Head Start, and school meal programs. The consequences were borne disproportionately by U.S. citizen children, who lost access to preventive medical care, early childhood education, and essential nutrition \u2014 evidence that fear-driven policy harms American families and public health systems.\n\nThe proposed rule will predictably magnify these harms. DHS itself acknowledges that the rule would reduce government spending on benefits by more than $9 billion per year \u2014 a drastic impact that cannot be explained by changes in eligibility since very few immigrants who lack permanent status qualify for the programs implicated. As experts have pointed out, those cost reductions will instead come from reduced use by eligible U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, including children. The rule\u2019s elimination of key standards \u2014 such as the express exclusion of family members\u2019 benefit use and clear definitions of \u201creceipt of public benefits\u201d \u2014 will create widespread fear that parents\u2019 lawful use of critical support for their children will threaten their ability to obtain permanent residence.\n\nThat chilling effect will be the most acute among children. Nearly one in four children in the United States lives in a family with an immigrant parent. Many of these children are U.S. citizens who rely on Medicaid or CHIP for healthcare, WIC and school meals for nutrition, and Head Start and childcare subsidies for early learning and economic stability. When parents are forced to choose between enrolling their child in life-saving healthcare or preserving their own chance to stay with their family, the result is poorer child health, delayed development, reduced educational attainment, and heightened food insecurity \u2014 all harms Congress has repeatedly acted to prevent.\n\nUncertainty about how DHS will treat past or current benefit use will also impair state and local governments\u2019 ability to meet public health and safety goals. Officials have relied on the clarity provided by the 2022 rule to design outreach campaigns, create eligibility worker training, and expand coverage initiatives for low-income families. If immigrants become afraid to use medical care or food assistance, the resulting rise in communicable disease risk, emergency care usage, and poverty will burden local budgets and undermine federal investments in preventive services.\n\nFinally, the chilling effect of this rule must be understood in the context of the broader campaign of threats against legal immigration being carried out by the current Administration. Immigrants already face pervasive uncertainty regarding visa issuance, humanitarian pathways, family reunification, and agency backlogs. The proposed rule would dramatically expand that uncertainty to include basic life decisions about children\u2019s health, nutrition, and early education. When federal agencies send the message \u2014 explicitly or implicitly \u2014 that families must avoid lawful programs or face immigration penalties, the result is a collapse in trust in the legal immigration system itself.\n\nFor these reasons, DHS\u2019s proposal would deter eligible families from accessing essential services, directly harm U.S. citizen children, shift costs to state and local governments, and erode confidence in lawful immigration pathways. Congress cannot tolerate a regulatory change that so clearly and predictably undermines public health, child well-being, and the credibility of federal law.\n\nIV. Conclusion\n\nFor the reasons detailed above, we urge the Department to withdraw this proposed rule in its entirety and maintain the 2022 public charge regulations currently in effect. The existing framework reflects longstanding congressional intent, ensures consistent and lawful adjudications, and provides immigrant families with the clarity required to make informed decisions about their health, stability, and future in the United States.\n\nIf DHS determines that further regulatory changes are necessary, those changes must be prospective only, must undergo full public notice-and-comment review, and must include explicit instructions that adjudicators may not penalize individuals for the lawful use of benefits during a period when federal policy assured them it was safe to do so. The Department must also ensure that any sub-regulatory guidance with practical adjudicatory effect is made public and subject to meaningful oversight.\n\nCongress will continue to uphold its responsibility to ensure that our immigration system operates with fairness, transparency, and fidelity to the rule of law. We stand ready to work with the Department to protect immigrant families, strengthen pathways to lawful status, and maintain the integrity of the public charge ground as Congress intended.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-colleagues-demand-trump-administration-pause-discriminatory-national-park-entry-fees/", "Padilla, Colleagues Demand Trump Administration Pause Discriminatory National Park Entry Fees", "2025-12-23", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senators express concerns over January 1 implementation \u2014 without proper notice \u2014 of $250 America the Beautiful non-resident annual passes and $100 non-resident fee for highly visited national parks, including Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) led four Senators in calling on Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to pause the implementation of the Administration\u2019s expensive new national park entry fees and annual passes for non-residents, which are slated to take effect on January 1, 2026. The Senators emphasized that these new passes and fees were not properly noticed in accordance with the law, will slow park entry, and will further limit international visitation.\n\nIn late November, Interior announced a new fee structure for access to public lands. Beginning next year, the annual pass will cost $80 for U.S. citizens and residents and $250 for non-residents, the first time the United States has required proof of residency to access public lands. Non-residents age 16 and up who don\u2019t have an annual pass will be forced to pay a $100 per person fee to enter 11 of the country\u2019s most visited national parks \u2014 including Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks \u2014 in addition to the standard entrance fee.\n\n\u201cAmerica\u2019s national parks serve as destinations for visitors both domestically and internationally to experience our country\u2019s natural beauty, cultural heritage, and history,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cWhile we understand that entrance and recreation fees are vital to enhancing the visitor experience, we want to ensure all feel welcome to enjoy all national treasures. Since these new fees are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026, we strongly believe these fees are being implemented too quickly, without public input, and will be a barrier for both residents and non-residents alike.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe request that you stop implementation of the new non-resident passes and fees until the public has an opportunity to weigh in, impacts to visitation are studied, and clarity on implementation is provided to Congress, NPS employees, and impacted stakeholders,\u201d continued the Senators.\n\nThe National Park Service (NPS) is permitted to collect and retain entrance and recreation fees under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. These fees play an important role in making sure these parks can provide a positive visitor experience for citizens and non-residents alike. However, the law requires the Secretary of the Interior to allow the public the chance weigh in on the development of or changes to recreation fees, and it mandates advanced notice to impacted communities in local publications. The Senators criticized the Administration for failing to provide this legally required opportunity for public input.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, the letter was also signed by Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nPadilla and his colleagues also warned that this plan would further strain the understaffed NPS workforce, as the Trump Administration has cut 24% of permanent NPS employees since January, including positions like fee collectors and information technology specialists. These staffing shortages will likely further compound entry delays, especially at the highly visited parks charging an extra $100 for non-residents.\n\nWith overseas visitation to national parks already down over 3% (and down 25% for visitors from Canada), the Senators expressed concerns that these numbers could fall even further with the steep price of non-resident passes, hurting the American economy.\n\nThe Senators also pushed for answers regarding how Park Service staff would implement this fee structure \u2014 including how the Park Service would identify who is subject to these new fees and how non-resident information would be collected or potentially stored \u2014 why public notice was not provided, and what analyses were done to understand impacts to visitation, to gateway communities, and to the recreation industry.\n\nEarlier this year, Senator Padilla and his colleagues urged Secretary Burgum to immediately resolve looming staffing shortages at the NPS following President Trump\u2019s hiring freeze, cancellation of thousands of job offers for seasonal NPS employees, and buyout offers made without clear legal authority. He also pushed Secretary Burgum to allow Yosemite to implement its preferred reservation system, while underscoring the threat that the Trump Administration\u2019s reckless NPS staff cuts posed to a successful summer season. In May, Padilla introduced the RESERVE Federal Land Act to expand access to public lands, improve the visitor reservation process, and enhance transparency in how fees are collected for federal lands and national parks.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Burgum,\n\nWe write to express our concern about the new $250 America the Beautiful Non-Resident Annual Passes and the additional $100 non-resident fee for 11 highly visited parks. America\u2019s national parks serve as destinations for visitors both domestically and internationally to experience our country\u2019s natural beauty, cultural heritage, and history. While we understand that entrance and recreation fees are vital to enhancing the visitor experience, we want to ensure all feel welcome to enjoy all national treasures. Since these new fees are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026, we strongly believe these fees are being implemented too quickly, without public input, and will be a barrier for both residents and non-residents alike.\n\nThe Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act allows most of the federal land management agencies, including the National Park Service (NPS), to collect and retain entrance and recreation fees. The law states the \u201cSecretary shall provide the public with opportunities to participate in the development of or changing of a recreation fee.\u201d It also requires advanced notice to impacted communities, specifically requiring the Secretary to \u201cpublish notice of a new recreation fee or a change to an existing recreation fee established under this chapter in local newspapers and publications located near the site at which the recreation fee would be established or changed.\u201d To our knowledge, there was no opportunity for the public to participate in the development of these new fees.\n\nWe are also concerned about the impact this plan would have on the already understaffed NPS workforce. The NPS permanent workforce has been reduced by 24% since January, with lost positions that would be important in helping implement these new fees, including fee collectors and IT specialists. Further, the additional requirements to check each visitors\u2019 residency will very likely slow entry into the parks, particularly the highly visited parks identified to charge $100 per person in addition to regular entry fees.\n\nFinally, we are concerned about what these fees will mean for international visitation. According to the International Inbound Travel Association, overseas visitation is down more than 3% and Canadian visitation is down 25%. International visitors spent $254 billion in the United States in 2024 and national parks are often part of their itinerary.\n\nTherefore, we request that you stop implementation of the new non-resident passes and fees until the public has an opportunity to weigh in, impacts to visitation are studied, and clarity on implementation is provided to Congress, NPS employees, and impacted stakeholders.\n\nWe also request answers to the following questions:\n\nThe Federal Land Recreation Enhancement Act requires public participation in the development of new national park fees. Can you explain why the public was not involved?\n\nDid the Department publish notice of the new recreation fees in local newspapers or publications located near the 11 highly visited parks, as is required by the Federal Land Recreation Enhancement Act? If no, why not?\n\nHow does the Department plan to implement the new fees, particularly the additional $100 in 11 highly visited parks, with severely reduced permanent staff levels? What guidance has been provided to NPS staff required to collect these fees? Please provide any guidance or training materials associated with this fee change.\n\nHow is NPS defining the terms \u201cresident,\u201d \u201cresidency,\u201d and \u201cnon-resident\u201d? How do individuals prove citizenship or residency when purchasing a pass online, and will any personal information be stored in any way for the Department or any other agencies to access?\n\nHow do individuals prove residency when purchasing a pass in-person, and which documents will be accepted? Will any personal information be stored through this process?\n\nWhat is the process for checking a carload of visitors to a national park for their residency? Will the driver be the only one required to show proof of residency, or will every visitor be required to provide identification?\n\nWhat if an individual fails to bring an acceptable form of identification?\n\nSeveral popular national park sites already have issues with long entrance lines. What measures are being put in place by the Department to ensure the process is seamless and efficient for both residents and non-residents?\n\nWhat analyses were conducted by the Department to understand the impacts to visitation at our parks, as well as the economic impacts to gateway communities and the recreation industry, by implementing these new fees?\n\nThank you in advance for addressing these important questions and stopping the implementation of these new fees until we get clarity on these issues.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-urge-trump-administration-to-reverse-devastating-cuts-to-federal-weather-forecasting-and-snowpack-monitoring-services/", "Padilla, Schiff Urge Trump Administration to Reverse Devastating Cuts to Federal Weather Forecasting and Snowpack Monitoring Services", "2025-12-22", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) pushed the Trump Administration to reverse its shortsighted staff cuts and harmful reductions to critical weather forecasting services and snowpack surveys at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). With an atmospheric river bearing down on California through Christmas, which has already caused severe flooding in Redding, the Senators raised the alarm that these dangerous cuts will restrict California\u2019s preparation for dangerous storms and floods \u2014 threatening public safety, property, and agriculture \u2014 while damaging the state\u2019s water supply.\n\nDue to the Trump Administration\u2019s mass staff firings and other staff reductions, River Forecasting Centers have been forced to consolidate duties and shift roles away from consistent monitoring in specific local areas to more general ones. These unprecedented staffing cuts have also led to reduced overnight operations, less frequent collection of comprehensive data, and delays in severe weather warnings, while straining California\u2019s state-federal partnerships that are necessary for forecasting, snowpack monitoring, and snow surveys. Padilla and Schiff warned that California National Weather Service (NWS) scientists are now simultaneously monitoring multiple flood-prone regions outside their normal coverage areas due to these cuts, which could limit critical written forecasts.\n\n\u201cWe are gravely concerned that diminished services within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture pose unnecessary risks to California lives and property and harm the state\u2019s ability to prepare for dangerous storms and floods and to provide essential water,\u201d wrote the California Senators. \u201cWe write to ask you to reconsider these reductions for the safety and well-being of Californians, and the many Americans that depend on timely weather and water services and forecasting.\u201d\n\nThe relentless rainfall from the atmospheric river currently hitting California shows how dangerous it is to weaken these warning systems. The staff cuts at the California-Nevada River Forecast Center and other weather forecast offices in California hinder their ability to provide flood risk warnings, impairing timely evacuation orders and emergency resource positioning.\n\nThe Senators stressed that cuts to NWS\u2019 forecasting services could also impact airplanes and ships that depend on storm prediction, as well as farmers\u2019 planting and harvesting decisions, which depend on seasonal forecasts. Additionally, the Senators voiced serious concerns that these cuts will limit California\u2019s ability to accurately conduct snow surveys to properly manage the state\u2019s water supply. They warned that this forecasting gap will further impact the state\u2019s nationally leading agriculture industry, while undermining drought preparation.\n\n\u201cStaff cuts and regional consolidation of duties away from these important actions will severely impact the ability to perform snow surveys in as many as one third of the State\u2019s watersheds, leaving a fundamental gap in the data needed for supply forecasting,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cLacking this data not only severely undercuts the State\u2019s ability to properly plan and manage the water resources for Southern California, the Bay Area, and the Central Valley\u2019s agricultural industry, it also debilitates our ability to prepare for the critical needs of communities in years of drought.\u201d\n\nDuring an active fire season this summer, Senators Padilla and Schiff demanded that the Trump Administration reverse the staffing cuts at California NWS offices, which jeopardize critical weather services that people rely on during disasters. Padilla also introduced the Improving Atmospheric River Forecasts Act, bipartisan legislation that would reduce flood risks and bolster emergency preparedness by improving atmospheric river forecasting to more precisely predict the timing and location of these storms.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Rollins and Secretary Lutnick,\n\nWe are gravely concerned that diminished services within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture pose unnecessary risks to California lives and property and harm the state\u2019s ability to prepare for dangerous storms and floods and to provide essential water. We write to ask you to reconsider these reductions for the safety and well-being of Californians, and the many Americans that depend on timely weather and water services and forecasting.\n\nFor decades, the State of California and the federal government have worked in partnership to produce forecasts and collect water supply data essential to California\u2019s capacity to protect people and property from dangerous flooding. However, in recent months, unprecedented staffing cuts at your agencies have strained this vital partnership and greatly diminished the joint state-federal responsibility to perform essential forecasting functions and conduct snowpack monitoring and a significant amount of snow surveys as planned.\n\nThere have been several reports about the continued impacts and dangers of staffing shortages, including reduced overnight operations, less frequent collection of comprehensive data, and delays in severe weather warnings. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle further highlighted that weather service scientists in California are currently having to simultaneously monitor multiple flood-prone areas beyond their usually assigned regions due to vacancies. This could force staff to cut back on the frequency of written forecasts, which are typically issued every six hours during winter storms.\n\nCuts to National Weather Service operations within NOAA pose considerable risks. Staffing cuts to the Weather Service\u2019s observations and forecasting capabilities could have ramifications for airplanes that can\u2019t fly without accurate weather observations and forecasts, and ships that rely on storm forecasts to avoid dangerous high seas. Farmers also rely on seasonal forecasts to plant and harvest. Additionally, staffing reductions at the California-Nevada River Forecast Center (CNRFC) and weather forecast offices in California could pose serious threats to public safety. River forecast center employees save lives by providing advanced warning of flood risks, which is essential information used by emergency managers to issue timely evacuations and position emergency resources in advance of disaster.\n\nAdditionally, federal agency staffing reductions will impact the State\u2019s ability to conduct all of the snow surveys needed this winter to accurately forecast the State\u2019s water supply. The State has a long history of collaboration with federal, state, and local agencies to collect key snow data that is essential to forecast California\u2019s water supply each year. Historically, the United States Forest Service, National Park Service, and Natural Resources Conservation Service have participated in the data collection. Staff cuts and regional consolidation of duties away from these important actions will severely impact the ability to perform snow surveys in as many as one third of the State\u2019s watersheds, leaving a fundamental gap in the data needed for supply forecasting. Lacking this data not only severely undercuts the State\u2019s ability to properly plan and manage the water resources for Southern California, the Bay Area, and the Central Valley\u2019s agricultural industry, it also debilitates our ability to prepare for the critical needs of communities in years of drought.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-cortez-masto-schatz-lead-21-senators-in-condemning-the-trump-administrations-unlawful-attacks-on-english-language-learners-education/", "Padilla, Cortez Masto, Schatz Lead 21 Senators in Condemning the Trump Administration\u2019s Unlawful Attacks on English Language Learners\u2019 Education", "2025-12-19", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senators on the transfer of the Office of English Language Acquisition away from the Education Department: \u201cThis will not improve student outcomes. It will only make it harder for states, school districts, and educators to meet the diverse needs of English learners.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) led 21 Senators in expressing their alarm at the Trump Administration\u2019s attacks against English Language Learners (ELLs). In their letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Senators condemned the Administration\u2019s unlawful transfer of the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) from the Department of Education to the Department of Labor and demanded the Trump Administration restore longstanding guidance to support ELLs.\n\nThe Department of Education Organization Act that established OELA makes clear that its director must report directly to the Secretary of Education. The lawmakers emphasized that OELA is charged with helping ELLs achieve English proficiency and academic success, and the Administration\u2019s unlawful transfer of the Office to the Labor Department \u2014 which lacks the necessary expertise, staff, and capacity \u2014 would create extreme bureaucratic challenges. This move will severely harm states, school districts, and educators alike.\n\nThe Senators also made clear that the rescission of longstanding ELL guidance creates confusion among education providers and leaves them vulnerable to litigation for non-compliance with federal laws. This critical guidance, established in 2015, previously outlined how educational institutions can comply with federal laws requiring that ELL students have equal access to schools\u2019 programs and services.\n\n\u201cWe are outraged by the continued attacks the Trump Administration has undertaken on English learners, including the recent scattering of some of the Department of Education\u2019s core responsibilities across several agencies that lack the expertise, staff, and capacity to protect student rights or support student learning,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cEven as your Departments take away tools for educators to better serve English learners, the law is clear: all students acquiring English as a second language have the right to an education.\u201d\n\n\u201cEvery child deserves access to a quality education and an opportunity to succeed, regardless of what language they speak at home. By limiting support for English learners and their families, the Trump Administration has put students, states, and our nation at a disadvantage,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cWe demand you immediately reinstate the 2015 guidance, reestablish a strong OELA within the Department of Education, and continue consistent research, funding, staffing, and other support for English learners. States, school districts, and schools must comply with all applicable statutes and Supreme Court case law, and it is imperative that they continue to have this critical, practical guidance in place to ensure that the five million English learners receive access to the same high-quality education as all students.\u201d\n\nIn 2015, the Department of Education and Department of Justice (DOJ) established the ELL guidance, detailing the steps that state educational agencies can take to comply with Title VI\u2019s application to English learners. This guidance outlined how to identify English learners, staff and support an English language program, and provide meaningful access to curricular and extracurricular programs. Education experts and advocates have sounded the alarm on the rescission of this guidance, warning it may lead to potential cases of discrimination against English learners in schools.\n\nThis rescission and the scattering of some of the Department of Education\u2019s core responsibilities compound the Administration\u2019s unprecedented attacks on the Education Department, including its decision to revoke schools as a \u201cprotected area\u201d from immigration enforcement, firing almost all OELA employees dedicated to ELLs, and withholding federal dollars supporting ELLs.\n\nAcross the United States, over 5 million schoolchildren \u2014 one in 10 students at K-12 public schools \u2014 are considered English learners, the majority of whom are U.S. citizens. In California, over 1 million learners have this designation.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Cortez Masto, and Schatz, the letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading advocate opposing the Trump Administration\u2019s continued assault on the Education Department. Earlier this month, he joined 35 of his Senate colleagues in slamming the Department of Education\u2019s recent announcement that it signed interagency agreements to illegally outsource core Department functions that students and their families rely on and calling on Secretary McMahon to reverse these latest steps to dismantle the Department of Education. In July, Padilla and Schiff blasted the Administration\u2019s decision to illegally withhold over $6 billion in Congressionally appropriated education funds, including approximately $928 million from California. Earlier this year, Padilla joined 37 Democratic colleagues in expressing outrage at the Administration\u2019s reckless and illegal firing of half of the workforce at the Education Department. Last month, Senators Padilla, chair of the Senate Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Caucus, and Schiff, along with U.S. Representatives Jim Costa (D-Calif.-21), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), and Derek Tran (D-Calif.-45), led 34 members of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation in strongly opposing the Education Department\u2019s decision to rescind $350 million in funding from Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs).\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary McMahon and Attorney General Bondi:\n\nWe write to express grave concern over the transfer of the Office of English Language Acquisition to the U.S. Department of Labor as well as the rescission of the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s and U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s joint 2015 Dear Colleague Letter: English Learner Students and Limited English Proficient Parents (\u201c2015 guidance\u201d). We are outraged by the continued attacks the Trump Administration has undertaken on English learners, including the recent scattering of some of the Department of Education\u2019s core responsibilities across several agencies that lack the expertise, staff, and capacity to protect student rights or support student learning. Even as your Departments take away tools for educators to better serve English learners, the law is clear: all students acquiring English as a second language have the right to an education.\n\nToday, there are more than five million English learner students across the country\u2014one in ten of all K-12 public school students\u2014of which the vast majority are U.S. citizens. These students attend school in city, suburban, and rural classrooms in every state. English learners, as with all public school students, have the legal and moral right to access a meaningful, rigorous, and high-quality education. Under the landmark 1974 Supreme Court case Lau v. Nichols, the court held that schools must take steps to address language barriers to ensure English learners are able to meaningfully access their education. Funding, resources, technical assistance, research, and guidance from the federal government enable our states and schools to ensure that English learners have access to pathways towards graduation, higher education, and the workforce\u2014contributing positively to the economy and fabric of the United States.\n\nSection 216 of the Department of Education Organization Act requires the establishment of the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), whose Director \u201cshall report directly to the Secretary [of Education]\u201d (20 U.S.C. 3420). OELA is charged not only with supporting implementation of title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, but also with providing national leadership so that English learners and immigrant students attain English proficiency and academic success. At the beginning of the year, the Administration fired all but one employee in this office and withheld federal dollars intended for English learners, which Congress had already appropriated. Although the funds were eventually released to states, President Trump\u2019s budget calls for cutting this funding for the 2026-27 school year.\n\nFurthermore, the Administration\u2019s November 18 announcement to transfer OELA\u2019s responsibilities to the Department of Labor is unlawful and would constrain English learner programs with excessive bureaucratic hurdles. This will not improve student outcomes. It will only make it harder for states, school districts, and educators to meet the diverse needs of English learners.\n\nThe negative impacts of these actions are also exacerbated by the Administration\u2019s rescission of the 2015 guidance, which provided critical and legally grounded direction for states, school districts, and schools on how to comply with federal laws and legal precedents that address the education of English learners. The decision to rescind this guidance has created uncertainty about educational agencies\u2019 legal obligations to English learners and their families, and it sends a dangerous and misleading signal that enforcing the civil rights of the more than five million English learners is optional.\n\nDespite your agency\u2019s rescission of the 2015 guidance and efforts to dismantle OELA, federal laws and Supreme Court decisions remain in full force and bind all states, school districts, and schools to fulfill their responsibilities to English learners. Rescinding the guidance creates confusion among these states and school districts, as they no longer have clear, practical direction. The 2015 guidance provided useful, actionable information for how they might meet their obligations to English learners and their families. It did not create new legal obligations.\n\nThe decision to rescind the 2015 guidance contradicts the Administration\u2019s stated priorities. The Administration asserts that it seeks to empower parents and advance parental rights, yet it stripped resources that helped schools meaningfully communicate with Limited English Proficient parents about education services, report cards, and parent-teacher conferences. Further, the Administration aims to refocus education on learning in math, reading, science, and history, but it rescinded guidance that helped schools establish sound instructional programs and ensured their effectiveness in increasing English proficiency and academic achievement.\n\nEvery child deserves access to a quality education and an opportunity to succeed, regardless of what language they speak at home. By limiting support for English learners and their families, the Trump Administration has put students, states, and our nation at a disadvantage. We demand you immediately reinstate the 2015 guidance, reestablish a strong OELA within the Department of Education, and continue consistent research, funding, staffing, and other support for English learners. States, school districts, and schools must comply with all applicable statutes and Supreme Court case law, and it is imperative that they continue to have this critical, practical guidance in place to ensure that the five million English learners receive access to the same high-quality education as all students.\n\nWe respectfully request a written response to this letter within 30 days.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-trump-administrations-unconscionable-targeting-of-minority-serving-institutions/", "Padilla Statement on Trump Administration\u2019s Unconscionable Targeting of Minority-Serving Institutions", "2025-12-19", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), chair of the Senate Congressional Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Caucus, issued the following statement after the Department of Justice\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel released an opinion attempting to dismantle Minority-Serving Institutions:\n\n\u201cToday\u2019s baseless opinion from the Justice Department is wrong, plain and simple. Donald Trump and his Administration are once again attacking the institutions that expand opportunity for millions of aspiring students of all backgrounds. The opinion ignores federal law, including Congress\u2019 bipartisan support for our nation\u2019s Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Minority-Serving Institutions, including more than 100 MSIs in California alone.\n\n\u201cEvery student deserves access to the American Dream. This unconscionable move by this Administration will harm millions of students who deserve better.\u201d\n\nMSIs are Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions (ANNHs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTIs), and/or Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Historically, these programs have been authorized on a bipartisan basis in law.\n\nAll MSIs, including HSIs, are accredited, degree-granting, public or private nonprofit institutions of higher education that serve millions of students across the country. More than 800 colleges and universities are MSIs in the U.S., and no court of law has yet issued an opinion finding these programs unconstitutional. As chair of the Senate HSI Caucus, Senator Padilla has led the fight opposing the Trump Administration\u2019s attacks against MSIs. Senator Padilla has led multiple letters stronglyopposing the Education Department\u2019s decision to rescind $350 million in funding from Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). In September, Padilla and U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas-20), co-chair of the House HSI Caucus, issued a statement slamming this decision. Additionally, Padilla and Castro previously condemned the Trump Administration\u2019s letter declaring that they will no longer defend the $350 million HSI annual grant program in court, effectively ending the program.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/energy-departments-watchdog-agrees-to-padilla-schiff-lofgren-request-for-independent-audit-of-canceled-grants-for-70-california-projects/", "Energy Department\u2019s Watchdog Agrees to Padilla-Schiff-Lofgren Request for Independent Audit of Canceled Grants for 70+ California Projects", "2025-12-18", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Padilla, Schiff, Lofgren and 26 members of the California congressional delegation asked the Department of Energy Inspector General to review the cancellation of $3.3 billion in federal funding for California projects, including the ARCHES Hydrogen Hub, earlier this year\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18) announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Inspector General (OIG) agreed to their request to launch an independent investigation into the unlawful termination of $7.6 billion in grants to California and other states targeted for their perceived lack of support for President Trump.\n\nPadilla, Schiff, and Lofgren led 26 members of the California Congressional delegation in a request for the audit in October, following Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought\u2019s post announcing the cancellation of 79 grants for California, totaling $2.1 billion, as well as $1.2 billion in future funding that Padilla secured for the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) hydrogen hub as part of 321 terminated projects nationwide.\n\nThe cancellation of these funds threatens hundreds of thousands of jobs across energy, construction, and manufacturing sectors and would cause higher energy costs for California residents.\n\n\u201cThe Trump Administration\u2019s unlawful cuts of billions of dollars for California energy projects \u2014 including over $2 billion in Republican-represented districts \u2014 is making Donald Trump\u2019s affordability crisis even worse,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cAfter our calls for a watchdog investigation, I am glad to see the Energy Department\u2019s inspector general taking action to bring transparency and accountability for the Administration\u2019s vengeful hit list. From a backup power generator for a California children\u2019s hospital to bipartisan funding for ARCHES Hydrogen Hub, the Administration must reverse these harmful cuts and work to prevent Americans\u2019 energy costs from skyrocketing even further.\u201d\n\n\u201cDonald Trump and his administration have launched an unlawful campaign of vengeance toward California, and their illegal cancellation of 79 energy grants to California was the latest example. I\u2019m pleased to see that at our request, the Energy Department\u2019s acting Inspector General is opening an investigation into this clear political targeting, which the Trump administration has openly admitted in court was intended to punish blue states,\u201d said Senator Schiff. \u201cThe cancellation of these funds directly threatens California jobs and will drive up energy bills at a time when costs are already out of control and the demand for energy is going up exponentially. I look forward to the Office of Inspector General\u2019s thorough review of this matter and will continue to urge that these critical, congressionally appropriated grants are reinstated.\u201d\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Schiff, and Lofgren, the October request was also signed by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-11) and U.S. Representatives Nanette Barrag\u00e1n (D-Calif.-44), Ami Bera (D-Calif.-06), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.-26), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.-31), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.-30), John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.-42), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-51), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37), Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.-16), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.-07), Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.-15), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.-19), Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50), Luz Rivas (D-Calif.-29), Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.-25), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.-12), Norma Torres (D-Calif.-35), Derek Tran (D-Calif.-45), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52), and George Whitesides (D-Calif.-27).\n\nSenators Padilla and Schiff have strongly opposed the Department of Energy\u2019s recent project cuts. In October, Padilla, Schiff, and Lofgren led 27 Democratic California lawmakers in writing to Budget Director Vought and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to denounce the DOE energy project cuts. Padilla and Schiff also joined 35 Senators in demanding that Secretary Wright and Director Vought restore funding for 223 energy projects in Democratic-led states that the Trump Administration unlawfully canceled. Additionally, The California Senators also blasted the Department\u2019s cancellation of all $1.2 billion Padilla secured in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for California\u2019s ARCHES hydrogen hub. Padilla, Schiff, and Representatives Whitesides and Levin previously led a bipartisan, bicameral delegation of 45 lawmakers in urging DOE to preserve funding for hydrogen production hubs, including ARCHES.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-introduces-bill-to-support-conservation-of-over-1-7-million-acres-of-california-public-lands/", "Padilla Introduces Bill to Protect and Restore Over 1.7 Million Acres of California Public Lands", "2025-12-17", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced the reintroduction of his sweeping public lands package. The Protecting Unique and Beautiful Landscapes by Investing in California (PUBLIC) Lands Act would protect and restore over 1.7 million acres of California\u2019s public lands throughout northwest California, the Central Coast, and Los Angeles County.\n\nThe bill would permanently protect over 900,000 acres of California public lands, including over 550,000 acres of new wilderness and nearly 700 miles of new wild and scenic rivers. It would also promote restoration, fire resilience, and ecological health on another 871,000 acres of forests in areas of high fire risk in Humboldt and Trinity counties. This restoration area would improve water quality, preserve outdoor recreation opportunities, and reduce the threat of wildfires to neighboring communities.\n\nThe bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Representatives Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee, Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), and Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28) are leading companion legislation to the respective parts of the package.\n\n\u201cOur public lands and natural spaces are some of California\u2019s greatest gifts \u2014 from the Northern California Redwoods, to the Carrizo Plain, to the San Gabriel Mountains,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cAs the Trump Administration tries to sell off our state\u2019s precious public lands and waters, we must protect and restore these areas to mitigate wildfire risk, reach California\u2019s conservation goals, protect our natural resources, and ensure generations to come can enjoy access to the outdoors. I was thrilled to see President Biden heed our calls to permanently protect the entire San Gabriel Mountains last year, and I urge my colleagues to pass this package to protect access to green space for millions of Californians.\u201d\n\n\u201cCalifornia is home to many of our nation\u2019s most iconic and scenic natural treasures which are enjoyed by millions each year,\u201d said Senator Schiff. \u201cYet, these public lands are under threat by a Trump Administration which continues to advocate for selling millions of acres across the Golden State to the highest bidder. I\u2019m proud to co-sponsor the PUBLIC Lands Act to protect the natural outdoor spaces we all enjoy, and to advance conservation efforts that improve fire resilience and water quality.\u201d\n\nThe legislation consists of three bills that have been reintroduced in the House of Representatives including:\n\nThe Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation, and Working Forests Act, which is led in the House by Representative Huffman. The bill would permanently protect 484,733 acres of public lands and 479.8 miles of wild and scenic rivers.\n\nThe Central Coast Heritage Protection Act, which is led in the House by Representative Carbajal. The bill would permanently protect 385,842 acres of public lands and 199.3 miles of wild and scenic rivers.\n\nThe San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act, which is led in the House by Representative Judy Chu. The bill would permanently protect 35,335 acres of public lands and 20.2 miles of wild and scenic rivers.\n\nLast year, Padilla and Chu successfully pushed President Biden to expand the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. The expansion was previously included in the PUBLIC Lands Act and the San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act. The proclamation added over 105,000 acres of protected land to the south and west of the previously-designated Monument, which will protect biodiversity, safeguard cultural, Tribal, and scientific history, and increase access to green space for millions of Angelenos.\n\n\u201cCalifornia has some of the most beautiful, iconic landscapes in America. My district is home to old-growth forests, rugged coastlines, and winding rivers that make up the heart and spirit of the North Coast,\u201d said Representative Huffman. \u201cOur public lands don\u2019t belong to any singular person \u2013 we all depend on the ecological, economic, cultural, and mental health benefits they provide. That\u2019s why I met with folks from all across my district to create a bill that meets Northern CA\u2019s diverse land management needs. I\u2019m proud to partner with Senator Padilla on this legislative package that brings all our regions together, charting out a course to be good stewards of California\u2019s treasured spaces so they can endure for generations.\u201d\n\n\u201cFrom the rugged trails of the Los Padres National Forest to the sweeping Carrizo Plain, the Central Coast is home to some of the most pristine public lands in the country. We must act now to permanently protect these landscapes, which sustain local watersheds, provide opportunities for outdoor recreation, and strengthen both our public health and economy,\u201d said Representative Carbajal. \u201cI am grateful to Senator Padilla for including my Central Coast Heritage Protection Act in his bill, ensuring these treasures are safeguarded so future generations can continue to experience the natural beauty that defines our region.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy district is fortunate to be home to the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains right in our backyard. But, as one of the most park-poor regions in the country, increasing access and expanding protections is critical. That\u2019s why I worked for years with community advocates and the Obama Administration to secure the designation of the San Gabriels as a national monument in 2014 \u2014 and why I continued pushing under President Biden to expand the monument\u2019s boundaries last year to better protect these lands and improve access for millions of Angelenos. Still, more work remains to protect the wilderness and rivers of the San Gabriels,\u201d said Representative Chu. \u201cI\u2019m so proud to partner with Senator Padilla on his PUBLIC Lands Act, which includes my San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act, to preserve California\u2019s pristine natural spaces and ensure Californians can continue to access these spaces for generations to come.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe PUBLIC Lands Act safeguards special places that Americans love and want to protect. It ensures these sensitive landscapes, with remarkable cultural and environmental value, are protected for future generations to enjoy. We\u2019re deeply appreciative of Senator Padilla\u2019s leadership to expand outdoor access, conserve California\u2019s natural areas, and ensure meaningful consultation and collaboration with California Native American tribes,\u201d said California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot.\n\nThe PUBLIC Lands Act would protect California\u2019s iconic landscapes, provide critical access to open space for communities, support California\u2019s outdoor recreation economy, and fight the climate crisis. Guided by science and input from local communities, the bill also advances California\u2019s goals of conserving 30% of our lands and waters by 2030.\n\nFor a list of quotes from supporters, click here.\n\nSenator Padilla has spearheaded numerous efforts to create new and expand existing national monuments to protect California\u2019s public lands and advance conservation efforts. Padilla led the charge to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument and S\u00e1tt\u00edtla Highlands National Monument, protecting roughly 850,000 acres of California\u2019s public lands. Last year, Padilla successfully secured the expansion of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument following his introduction of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument Expansion Act to permanently protect both areas. Padilla also led a letter urging President Biden to use his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to expand the monument.\n\nFull text of the PUBLIC Lands Act can be found here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-condemns-trumps-destructive-misuse-of-the-military-opposes-defense-policy-bill/", "WATCH: Padilla Condemns Trump\u2019s Destructive Misuse of the Military, Opposes Defense Policy Bill", "2025-12-17", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) spoke on the Senate floor ahead of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026 (NDAA) vote to call on his Senate colleagues to provide a check on President Trump\u2019s reckless deployment of military force abroad and on U.S. soil. He encouraged Republicans in Congress to exercise their role as a co-equal branch of government to rein in Trump\u2019s harmful foreign policy agenda instead of rubberstamping his conflicts in Latin America and across the globe.\n\nPadilla blasted Trump for destroying decades of bipartisan foreign policy, undermining longstanding alliances like NATO, and cozying up to dictators like Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, and Vladimir Putin. He emphasized that Trump\u2019s National Security Strategy abandons our alliances with democracies in the fight against authoritarianism, while supporting temporary, transactional alliances with countries willing to shower him with praise. As Putin continues his crusade to tear up Ukraine, Padilla warned that Trump\u2019s acquiescence will put even more innocent civilians in harm\u2019s way.\n\nPadilla slammed the unlawful bombing of alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific, despite the fact that Congress has not declared war nor authorized the use of military force in Venezuela or anywhere else in Latin America. Congressional Republicans have failed \u2014 twice \u2014 to pass a War Powers Resolution and assert Congress\u2019 Constitutional authority in response to the boat strikes in the Caribbean. He also criticized the Defense Department\u2019s refusal to release videos of the unlawful \u201cdouble tap\u201d strike against survivors in the Caribbean.\n\nAdditionally, Padilla warned his colleagues that President Trump has repeatedly diverted Department of Defense resources, including over $2 billion, to enact his cruel mass deportation campaign and unlawfully deploy National Guard troops to American cities. Last week, a federal judge barred the Trump Administration from continuing to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles, ruling the deployment was unlawful.\n\nAs Trump tries to use the military to build \u201cunquestioned power\u201d and silence dissent, Padilla called on his Republican colleagues to restore accountability and prevent the Administration from eroding our national security even further. He announced his intent to vote \u2018no\u2019 on the NDAA, urging his colleagues to use this opportunity to stand up to Trump\u2019s abuse of power and deployment of troops against American citizens.\u00ad\n\nKey Excerpts:\n\n\u201cMake no mistake: this year is anything but normal. What we\u2019ve seen just one year into this second Trump Administration is the destruction of eight decades of bipartisan foreign policy consensus and the destruction of post-war alliances that have kept Americans safe for generations. And we\u2019ve seen growing abuses of power meant to enrich Donald Trump and his allies.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf this was solely about stopping drug traffickers, I don\u2019t think there would be disagreement or objection here to a law enforcement-based approach to do exactly that. Of course we want to stop drug trafficking. But the Trump Administration seemingly can\u2019t to decide if it wants to be crime fighters or war mongers \u2014 and they\u2019ve decided to use the United States military to bomb their way through the Caribbean either way.\u201d\n\n\u201cDonald Trump wants unchallenged use of the military to achieve his every whim and every grievance \u2014 even when it means violating our international norms, betraying our allies, and violating the Constitution. How is that going to make us any safer?\u201d\n\n\u201cDonald Trump is politicizing our servicemembers both by word and by deed. He\u2019s diverted military resources away from numerous, numerous critical missions for his chaotic and violent mass deportation campaign. He\u2019s federalized and deployed National Guard troops in American cities \u2014 against our own citizens \u2014 in violation of the law.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis president is trying to corrupt the military for his own personal gain, and to silence all opposition. He is pushing the legal limits of his authority.\u201d\n\n\u201cWith each passing day, Donald Trump continues to use the Department of Defense as an extension of his Administration\u2019s border enforcement apparatus. Republicans have cheered him on the whole way, abdicating their responsibility to this institution, to their constituents, and to their oath of office.\u201d\n\n\u201cColleagues, this is a president doing everything he can to build \u2018unquestioned power\u2019 over our military, and a Republican party that refuses to challenge him. At a time when the Trump Administration is abusing its power, destroying our standing in the world, deploying troops against our own people, the annual defense authorization bill offers an important opportunity. It\u2019s an important opportunity to hold this Administration accountable \u2014 not just out of responsibility to our constituents, but to the Constitution and to this co-equal branch of government.\u201d\n\n\u201c900 billion dollars is a lot to rubberstamp. And I refuse to hand this Administration any more tools to enrich themselves and undermine our national security and our standing in the world.\u201d\n\nVideo of Padilla\u2019s full remarks is available here.\n\nAmid President Trump\u2019s unlawful deployments of troops to American cities over state and local officials\u2019 strong objections, Padilla, Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and the Illinois and Oregon Senators previously voted against Senate passage of the NDAA.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-blumenthal-introduce-bill-to-provide-victims-of-abuse-by-federal-law-enforcement-the-right-to-sue/", "Padilla, Blumenthal Introduce Bill to Provide Victims of Abuse by Federal Law Enforcement the Right to Sue", "2025-12-15", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Amid troubling pattern of violence by ICE and CBP officers, federal law provides no statutory right to sue federal law enforcement for violating constitutional rights\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 As the Trump Administration conducts widespread and indiscriminate immigration enforcement operations in cities across the country, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the Accountability for Federal Law Enforcement Act to allow individuals \u2014 regardless of citizenship \u2014 the right to sue federal law enforcement officers and agencies in civil court for violations of their civil and constitutional rights.\n\nUnder current law, individuals can sue state and local officers for constitutional violations, but there is no comparable statutory right to sue federal officers for doing the same. While the Supreme Court\u2019s landmark decision in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents allowed some lawsuits against federal officers, courts have repeatedly narrowed that ruling, leaving many victims of federal misconduct without meaningful recourse.\n\nFederal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have recently expanded their sweeping enforcement raids into cities like Charlotte, North Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana, continuing a troubling pattern of violence and excessive force seen in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and other American cities. These abuses show how easily federal officers can act with impunity when there are no effective avenues to hold them accountable, eroding public trust and weakening the basic principles of constitutional accountability.\n\n\u201cFor months, ICE and CBP officers have terrorized communities across the country, deploying violent and excessive tactics against immigrants, U.S. citizens, journalists, and bystanders alike with no accountability. These abuses of individuals\u2019 constitutional rights without consequence shatter public trust and stoke fear among hardworking members of our communities,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cBy ensuring every individual, regardless of citizenship, can sue federal law enforcement when their constitutional rights are violated, this bill reaffirms that the rule of law applies equally to all \u2014 including those who enforce it.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn a democracy, the government is accountable to the people. Last week, we heard directly from five American citizens whose constitutional rights were flagrantly violated when they were illegally detained for hours \u2013 sometimes days \u2013 and some of whom were violently assaulted by federal agents. The brave witnesses at our forum represent hundreds, even thousands, more who have been abused and mistreated by federal immigration agents and who deserve their day in court. This legislation is immediately necessary \u2013 to hold officers and agencies accountable for violations of civil rights, and to prevent these kinds of violent abuses in the future,\u201d said Senator Blumenthal.\n\nThe Accountability for Federal Law Enforcement Act is cosponsored by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore).\n\n\u201cFederal officials should not be allowed to violate someone\u2019s constitutional rights with impunity, and one of the best ways to prevent that is to hold accountable the agencies responsible for those officials\u2019 conduct,\u201d said Senator Whitehouse, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee. \u201cOur legislation ensures that individuals targeted by this or any other Administration have access to justice in an honest courtroom.\u201d\n\n\u201cDonald Trump is throwing due process and constitutional rights out the window in his rush to dehumanize and deport immigrants who are living peacefully in the United States. As ICE and CBP follow Trump\u2019s marching orders, people must have the tools needed to stop this administration from carrying out its cruel and inhumane mass deportation agenda. I support restoring due process rights by giving people the right to sue law enforcement agencies for carrying out Trump\u2019s authoritarian fever dream,\u201d said Senator Wyden.\n\n\u201cFederal law enforcement officers, like their state and local counterparts, take an oath to uphold the Constitution and the rights of the people they serve. When they violate that oath, those who have been harmed must be able to seek accountability. Yet decades of judicial precedent have narrowed individuals\u2019 ability to recover monetary damages when federal law enforcement violates their constitutional rights,\u201d said Senator Booker. \u201cThis bill ensures Americans hold federal law enforcement accountable just as they can state and local officers. At a time when federal forces have expanded by the tens of thousands, and incidents of excessive force by federal officers are occurring daily in streets across the country, Americans cannot be barred from seeking justice in the courts. Congress must pass this bill to correct this court-created flaw in the law.\u201d\n\nThe Accountability for Federal Law Enforcement Act would close the loophole in accountability for federal officers by:\n\nCreating a statutory right of action allowing individuals, regardless of citizenship, to seek damages for civil rights violations committed by federal law enforcement officers;\n\nAmending 42 U.S.C. \u00a7 1983 to include federal law enforcement agencies (\u201cpublic employers\u201d) alongside state and local actors;\n\nAllowing suits against federal agencies when their employees violate constitutional rights, regardless of whether an agency policy caused the harm, and waiving sovereign immunity for these claims to ensure victims have access to redress in federal court;\n\nPreserving existing defenses for individual officers, leaving the qualified immunity doctrine unchanged.\n\nThe bill is endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Brennan Center.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda, including against his unprecedented, illegal militarization of Los Angeles and other American cities. In October, Padilla walked out of Senate Republicans\u2019 unserious subcommittee hearing entitled \u201cICE Under Fire: The Radical Left\u2019s Crusade Against Immigration Enforcement,\u201d as the Trump Administration conducts violent immigration enforcement actions across the country. Last week, Padilla denounced the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) unlawful arrests of U.S. citizens during Senator Blumenthal\u2019s bicameral spotlight forum, which included three U.S. citizens from California whom DHS arrested or detained. Additionally, Padilla and Senator Booker recently demanded answers from DHS leadership on the hiring standards and training protocols for newly hired ICE agents. In July, Padilla and Senator Booker introduced the VISIBLE Act to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions.\n\nA one-pager on the bill is available here.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-cornyn-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-establish-a-federal-office-of-fusion/", "Padilla, Cornyn Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Establish a Federal Office of Fusion", "2025-12-15", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced bipartisan legislation to formally establish the Office of Fusion at the Department of Energy (DOE). House Fusion Energy Caucus co-chairs Representatives Don Beyer (D-Va.-08), Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.-23), and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.-03) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.\n\nWith energy costs soaring across the nation, the office would advance fusion energy and accelerate research, development, demonstration, deployment, and market adoption of fusion technologies. In partnership with the private sector, this office would also advance near-term and long-term fusion energy science and technology to meet the growing energy, environmental, and economic demands of the United States.\n\nLast month, DOE released their reorganization plans which included an \u201cOffice of Fusion.\u201d This bipartisan bill would complement these plans, codify the office, and urge DOE to move forward with their plans to ensure that the United States can continue leading the way on fusion energy and eventually reach commercialization.\n\nFusion has been described as the \u201cenergy of the future\u201d with the potential to harness the power of the sun to manufacture near limitless energy for American homes, technology, and the economy. It has the potential to be a nearly limitless and sustainable source electricity that can help meet the demand of tomorrow.\n\n\u201cA clean energy future powered by fusion has the potential to bring nearly unlimited, dependable, and carbon-free electricity across our country, slashing energy costs for millions of Americans,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cCalifornia\u2019s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is leading the industry with repeatable fusion ignition breakthroughs, and Republicans and Democrats agree that now is the time to support further progress to cement the United States\u2019 energy dominance and establish fusion\u2019s market viability. Establishing the Office of Fusion is a bipartisan priority to support advancements in fusion technology to lower Americans\u2019 electric bills and meet the evolving energy needs of our nation.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs energy demand continues to skyrocket, the United States must implement innovative solutions quickly to maintain reliability and safeguard national security,\u201d said Senator Cornyn. \u201cBy establishing the Office of Fusion within the Department of Energy, this legislation would accelerate the deployment of cutting-edge fusion energy as an abundant and reliable power source to help meet surging demand and bolster grid stability.\u201d\n\n\u201cEstablishing an Office of Fusion at the Department of Energy is a critical step toward unlocking one of the most promising clean energy solutions,\u201d said Representative Beyer. \u201cFusion research and development is advancing toward commercialization, and we need a coordinated federal effort dedicated to getting fusion energy on the grid as quickly as possible. An established Office of Fusion would provide the focused leadership and technical expertise necessary, in coordination with the private sector, to accelerate decades of scientific progress, give the United States the momentum it needs to lead the world in fusion energy development and deployment, and finally supply fusion power to the grid.\u201d\n\n\u201cFusion energy represents one of the most promising breakthroughs of our time, with the potential to deliver abundant, reliable, carbon-free power while strengthening America\u2019s economic and national security,\u201d said Representative Obernolte. \u201cBy reestablishing the Office of Fusion at the Department of Energy, this bill accelerates commercialization through public-private partnerships, positions our workforce and supply chains to compete and win against adversaries like China, and ensures the United States remains the global leader in fusion technology. Congress must provide clear direction and a coordinated federal strategy to move fusion from the lab to the grid, and this legislation does exactly that.\u201d\n\n\u201cFusion energy holds enormous promise to deliver clean, reliable, and affordable power while strengthening America\u2019s competitiveness and security,\u201d said Representative Trahan. \u201cFormally establishing an Office of Fusion at the Department of Energy will give this rapidly advancing field the focus and coordination it needs to move from breakthrough science to real-world deployment. With world-class fusion companies and researchers here in Massachusetts and across the country, this bipartisan legislation helps ensure the United States leads the way in bringing fusion from the lab to the grid.\u201d\n\nLast year, Padilla and Cornyn\u2019s Fusion Energy Act was signed into law as part of the Fire Grants and Safety Act. The law streamlines the creation of clear federal regulations to support the development of commercial fusion facilities by codifying the Nuclear Regulatory Commission\u2019s regulatory authority over commercial fusion energy systems.\n\nIn December 2022, California\u2019s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a global leader in fusion technology, became the first lab to achieve fusion ignition \u2014 meaning more energy was released than was needed for the reaction. Ignition has been achieved at least seven times since then. This success proves the viability of fusion energy and the leadership of the United States in the face of heavy investment by China.\n\n\u201cThe restoration of the Office of Fusion, first by the Trump Administration, and now Congress, is the newest powerful signal that fusion is rapidly evolving from its scientific origins to a commercial endeavor that will power the global economy for generations,\u201d said Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems. \u201cI applaud the sponsors of the bill for the vision and leadership in helping to ensure the Department of Energy\u2019s fusion efforts are organized and, ultimately, funded around driving commercial deployment and scaling of fusion power.\u201d\n\n\u201cA dedicated office of fusion at the Department of Energy was a priority for the FIA from the beginning. We thank Senators Padilla and Cornyn for their leadership on the introduction of this bipartisan legislation and look forward to supporting its passage. This bill will codify the DOE\u2019s plan to create an office of fusion. The prioritization of fusion through a dedicated office will advance the path to commercial deployment,\u201d said Andrew Holland, CEO, Fusion Industry Association.\n\nIn 2023, Padilla welcomed DOE\u2019s announcement of $42 million for a program to establish three hubs to advance inertial fusion energy, including $16 million for a hub led by DOE\u2019s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. Additionally, Padilla and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18) pushed President Biden to support the inclusion of over $1 billion in FY24 funding for the Fusion Energy Sciences program within DOE\u2019s Office of Science, consistent with the amount authorized in the CHIPS and Science Act.\n\nA one-pager on the bill is available here.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-rosen-colleagues-push-to-overturn-trump-rule-ending-automatic-work-permit-renewal-for-approved-noncitizens/", "Padilla, Rosen, Colleagues Push to Overturn Trump Rule Ending Automatic Work Permit Renewal for Approved Noncitizens", "2025-12-12", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Work permits allow noncitizens with legal status to work, but long USCIS processing times are placing U.S. employers and workers at risk\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, joined Senator Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and nine Senate colleagues in introducing a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to reverse a recent Trump Administration rule that ends automatic extensions of work permits for noncitizens, making it so that previously-vetted and approved individuals with legal status cannot continue to work while they await approval of their work permit renewals.\n\nU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services\u2019 (USCIS) interim final rule, announced on October 30, ended the automatic extensions for 18 different categories of noncitizens, including those granted refugee status, asylum status, and temporary protected status, as well as spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants. Due to long USCIS processing wait times, people who submitted work permit renewal applications on time will be left without work authorization while they wait for their application to be processed \u2014 sometimes for many months at a time \u2014 risking workers\u2019 ability to legally work, through no fault of their own. If implemented, the rule would impact 87 percent of all pending renewals of employment authorization documents.\n\nPrior to this new Trump rule, if a person living legally in the United States filed their work permit renewal request on time, they would automatically receive a work permit extension to ensure they don\u2019t lose their authorization while USCIS processes their renewal. The Senators\u2019 proposal would reinstate that commonsense policy.\n\n\u201cDonald Trump and Stephen Miller\u2019s campaign to marginalize noncitizens working here legally is disrupting our entire national economy and devastating employers who rely on their contributions,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cThe Administration\u2019s self-defeating rule to deny automatic work permit extensions would force people who have already been vetted to lose their ability to keep working, causing unnecessary strain for immigrants and employers alike. People who have already been screened and authorized to work should be able to keep working, plain and simple.\u201d\n\n\u201cImmigrants who work and contribute to our economy are central to Nevada\u2019s prosperity, and they\u2019re the backbone of the U.S. economy,\u201d said Senator Rosen. \u201cThis unfair rule change by the Trump Administration will cause chaos \u2014 forcing thousands of immigrants with legal authorization to stop working or be fired by their employer. This will hurt our economy and harm thousands of families, so I\u2019m urging my colleagues to join me in overturning this rule.\u201d\n\nIn addition to Padilla, the resolution is cosponsored by Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Angus King (I-Maine), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-warren-garamendi-unveil-report-showing-trump-administration-siphoned-at-least-2-billion-from-military-budget-for-immigration-enforcement/", "Padilla, Schiff, Warren, Garamendi Unveil Report Showing Trump Administration Siphoned At Least $2 Billion From Military Budget for Immigration Enforcement", "2025-12-11", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Pentagon\u2019s requested budget for 2026 indicates the Defense Department plans to spend at least $5 billion more for southern border operations alone\n\nCover Letter to the Pentagon (PDF) | Text of Report (PDF)\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) joined Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08) in releasing a new report detailing the Trump Administration\u2019s diversion of funds and resources from the Department of Defense (DoD) to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to support immigration enforcement, and its impact on readiness and morale.\n\nUnder the second Trump Administration, the U.S. military has become heavily involved in immigration enforcement. The lawmakers\u2019 new report, the first detailed review of the Pentagon\u2019s spending on immigration, found that DoD has committed at least $2 billion to support immigration enforcement through mobilizing and deploying troops to American cities and the Southern border, deporting and transporting immigrants on military aircrafts, detaining individuals on U.S. military installations, and more.\n\nThe report comes after a federal judge\u2019s ruling yesterday barred the Trump Administration from deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles, requiring the Administration to end the federalization of the remaining 100 troops in the area and returning authority over them to California. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer wrote in his ruling that the \u201cdefendants\u2019 argument for a president to hold unchecked power to control state troops would wholly upend the federalism that is at the heart of our system of government,\u201d noting that the Administration\u2019s position would give them a blank check \u201cto create a perpetual police force comprised of state troops, so long as they were first federalized lawfully\u201d that is unreviewable by courts.\n\nSenators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), along with Representatives Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.-06) and Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-51), co-authored the report.\n\n\u201cDiverting the military from its existing missions and thrusting it into immigration enforcement does not make Americans safer. This multi-billion-dollar political stunt is an overt waste of taxpayer resources and undermines national security, military readiness, and resources for our servicemembers,\u201d wrote the lawmakers.\n\nThe report raised concerns that, in addition to the cost of the DoD immigration efforts, it has resulted in \u201cservicemembers \u2026 being pulled from their homes, families, and civilian jobs for indefinite periods of time to support legally questionable political stunts,\u201d continued the lawmakers.\n\nDespite an unprecedented $170 billion budget allocated to DHS, it\u2019s unclear how much DoD has received in reimbursement for any of its spending on immigration enforcement. Meanwhile, the military is funding these efforts in support of DHS with money allocated for other DoD projects, including updates to barracks, maintenance hangers, and military construction projects in the Pacific. Concerningly, the Pentagon has requested an additional $5 billion for further immigration support in its budget request for 2026.\n\nThe members\u2019 report found that, in 2025, the Pentagon has committed:\n\nAt least $1.3 billion for the deployment of troops and resources to the border;\n\nAt least $258 million to support Trump\u2019s orders to deploy troops to Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and Memphis, along with plans to reassign 600 Judge Advocates (JAGs) as immigration judges;\n\nAt least $420.9 million for detaining immigrants at domestic military installations and overseas bases like Guant\u00e1namo and Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti; and\n\nAt least $40.3 million for military flights to deport and transport noncitizen detainees.\n\nThe deployment of troops for immigration enforcement has also weakened the military\u2019s ability to respond to emergencies. For example, the 101st Airborne Division \u2014 the U.S. Army\u2019s only air assault division \u2014 deployed to the border instead of standing ready for national security missions. Additionally, leading into peak fire season, the California National Guard firefighting unit was \u201cunderstaffed because roughly half its members [were] deployed to Los Angeles.\u201d These deployments may also require units to miss key training exercises necessary to ensure combat readiness, as the Government Accountability Office found occurred during the first Trump Administration.\n\nThe report also slammed the Administration\u2019s failure to adequately inform Congress and the public about the diversion of funds. The coalition directed follow-up questions to Secretary Hegseth about the number of troops currently supporting immigration enforcement, how long military units will be supporting DHS, and whether DHS will reimburse the military.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s militarization of Los Angeles and other American cities, diverting away critical DoD resources. In June, Padilla led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty servicemembers to American cities. In September, Padilla and Schiff filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit brought against President Trump for his misuse of the U.S. military in Los Angeles to suppress peaceful protests. The California Senators also demanded the Department of Defense provide information on operational details related to the ongoing deployment of California National Guard personnel in Los Angeles. Additionally, Padilla introduced bicameral legislation to enhance oversight and accountability of the President\u2019s deployment of the National Guard.\n\nEarlier this year, Senators Padilla and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) called for a review of the exorbitant costs of the Trump Administration\u2019s use of the United States Naval Station Guant\u00e1namo Bay to detain immigrants. In a letter to President Donald Trump, the Senators highlighted the nearly $40 million in taxpayer dollars that was spent in a matter of months for the migration operations mission and called for the President to direct the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (USDS) to investigate this spending. The letter followed an official delegation visit the Senators joined to conduct oversight of the operations at the base in March.\n\nFull text of the report is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-trumps-executive-order-undermining-californias-ai-leadership/", "Padilla Statement on Trump\u2019s Executive Order Undermining California\u2019s AI Leadership", "2025-12-11", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) issued the following statement after President Trump signed an executive order seeking to block or undo all state regulation of the artificial intelligence industry:\n\n\u201cNo place in America knows the promise of artificial intelligence technologies better than California. It\u2019s why we are world leaders in A.I. innovation and industry and why we have been able to work collaboratively to adopt some of the strongest consumer protections in the country. But with today\u2019s executive order, the Trump Administration is attacking state leadership and basic safeguards in one fell swoop.\n\n\u201cTo truly unleash innovation in artificial intelligence, the Trump Administration should instead be bolstering federal agencies, investing in research universities, and growing our talent pipeline \u2014 both American and foreign born.\n\n\u201cThe Trump Administration may refuse to protect consumers or invest in innovation, but make no mistake: California will continue to lead the A.I. revolution.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-california-health-care-leaders-blast-republicans-refusal-to-prevent-californians-health-care-costs-from-soaring/", "WATCH: Padilla, California Health Care Leaders Blast Republicans\u2019 Refusal to Prevent Californians\u2019 Health Care Costs From Soaring", "2025-12-11", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 After Senate Republicans voted against Democrats\u2019 plan to prevent millions of Americans\u2019 health care costs from skyrocketing, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) hosted a virtual press conference to sound the alarm on the looming Republican health care crisis. Padilla was joined by California and national health care leaders to highlight the severe consequences of Republicans\u2019 refusal to pass Democrats\u2019 proposal of a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits before they expire at the end of the year, jeopardizing care for over 1.7 million Californians who rely on these essential subsidies.\n\nAs the Trump Administration\u2019s largest reduction to Medicaid in history and disastrous tariff wars are already raising costs for working families, Republicans\u2019 failure to extend the ACA tax credits will nearly double Californians\u2019 health care premiums on average, pricing 400,000 residents out of their insurance coverage completely next year. Across the country, nearly 22 million Americans rely on these tax credits, and 4 million Americans could lose their health care altogether from their expiration.\n\nJessica Altman, Executive Director of Covered California; Jessica Wilson (Cruz), CEO of National Alliance on Mental Illness; Sandy Reding, a Registered Nurse, President of the California Nurses Association, and Vice President of National Nurses United; and Dr. Rachel Ruiz, Pediatric Gastroenterologist at Santa Clara Medical Center and Valley Physicians Group Chair joined Padilla in warning about the rising costs of Americans\u2019 health care.\n\n\u201cToday, Republicans voted to rip health insurance away from millions of Americans. Three weeks from now, lifesaving Affordable Care Act tax credits will expire, leading to skyrocketing health care costs for over 1.7 million Californians, all because Republicans refused to get serious about health care,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cDemocrats\u2019 position hasn\u2019t changed: we\u2019re fighting to prevent premiums from doubling or even tripling starting in January. But with costs rising on everything from groceries and housing to energy bills and health care, Republicans are forcing Americans to make the impossible decision between coming up short on rent and groceries or skipping out on health care for the year.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Enhanced Premium Tax Credits have made health care coverage attainable for over 24 million Americans, and enrollment has doubled nationally since 2021, so we know the best way to keep health care affordable is to extend these tax credits,\u201d said Covered California Executive Director Jessica Altman. \u201cIn California, premiums would nearly double \u2014 on average \u2014 if Congress does not act. Over 1.7 million Californians need these credits extended by Congress so they can afford health care coverage in 2026, as they run their small businesses, work in the gig economy, or have just retired.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen a family is in crisis, they shouldn\u2019t have to worry about how it will be paid for. Without these tax credits, we\u2019re going to see a ripple effect on families, individuals, and the streets of California. With an ongoing mental health crisis in this country, we cannot let millions of people lose coverage for lifesaving mental health treatment, counseling, and recovery supports,\u201d said Jessica Wilson (Cruz), CEO of NAMI California.\n\n\u201cNurses are extremely concerned that Congress failed to take action to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Twenty million of our patients across the country stand to lose their health care coverage, including 400,000 Californians who will be priced out of their insurance plans if these subsidies are not extended. Congress also needs to immediately reverse the worst of H.R. 1, especially the over $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. Despite the fact that the hospital where I work is in a congressional district that has 67 percent Medicaid recipients, our Republican member of Congress still voted to cut Medicaid in favor of giving tax breaks for the super rich. Nurses know that the only real fix for our broken healthcare system, more broken now than ever, is to pass Medicare for All and ensure all our patients get the healthcare they need when they need it,\u201d said Sandy Reding, RN, President of the California Nurses Association, Vice President of National Nurses United.\n\n\u201cWhen premiums rise, many patients will be forced to drop their coverage and delay care. They won\u2019t, however, drop their chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure. I don\u2019t see this as a political issue,\u201d said Dr. Rachel Ruiz, Pediatric Gastroenterologist at Santa Clara Medical Center and Valley Physicians Group Chair. \u201cFrom my perspective \u2014 in the exam room and at my patient\u2019s bedside \u2014 this is about the stark choice between prevention and catastrophe. Our patients are not a line item on a budget; they are the essential workers, parents, and grandparents who make our community run. The ACA tax credits are preventive medicine for our community. They are a stabilizing force that allows tens of thousands in our county and hundreds of thousands throughout the state to stay connected to their doctors and medications and to remain healthy, without the fear of one illness or one hospitalization bankrupting them. Despite today\u2019s outcome, my colleagues and I will remain steadfast. But without these credits, practicing medicine will feel like working in quicksand and we will be forced to make impossible choices with limited resources.\u201d\n\nAfter Republicans shut down the government for 43 days rather than address Americans\u2019 rising cost of living and health care, Padilla slammed Republicans\u2019 unserious, last-minute proposal that fails to extend the subsidies and increases premiums and deductibles for tens of millions of Americans while promoting junk plans to families across the nation.\n\nSenator Padilla consistently slammed President Trump and Senate Republicans for rejecting Democrats\u2019 bill to avert a government shutdown and protect health care coverage for millions of Americans. Yesterday, he called on Republicans to pass Senate Democrats\u2019 proposal to extend the ACA tax credits for three years before they expire next month. In September, Senator Padilla joined California health care leaders in Los Angeles to call on Congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to protect health care coverage for nearly 2 million California residents and avoid a Republican-caused government shutdown. In July, Padilla blasted Senate Republicans\u2019 passage of their tax bill that will kick 15 million Americans off their health care, shutter rural hospitals across the country, gut critical programs, and explode the debt by over $3.5 trillion.\n\nVideo of the full virtual press conference is available for download here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-calls-on-republicans-to-pass-democratic-proposal-to-keep-health-care-costs-from-skyrocketing-for-millions-of-americans/", "WATCH: Padilla Calls on Republicans to Pass Democratic Proposal to Keep Health Care Costs From Skyrocketing for Millions of Americans", "2025-12-10", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) delivered remarks on the Senate floor, blasting Congressional Republicans for creating a health care crisis in California and across the nation. With just three weeks until the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits expire at the end of the year \u2014 which will cause health care premiums to skyrocket for over 20 million Americans and 1.7 million Californians \u2014 he called on Republicans to pass Senate Democrats\u2019 proposal to extend these credits for three years.\n\nPadilla emphasized that the Trump Administration already made the biggest cuts to Medicaid in history and is inflicting rising housing, energy, and grocery costs on millions of Californians and Americans across the country, all while President Trump calls affordability a \u201ccon job\u201d and a Democratic \u201choax.\u201d After Republicans shut down the government for 43 days rather than extend lifesaving health care subsidies, Padilla warned that Americans may be forced to forgo health insurance. Four million Americans, including 400,000 Californians, may have to give up their health insurance entirely.\n\nAs Padilla underscored, one month after the shutdown, Republicans still have not put forward a serious plan. Republicans\u2019 last-minute plan allows the ACA tax credits to expire while increasing premiums and deductibles for tens of millions of Americans and forcing them to pay thousands in out-of-pocket expenses.\n\nThe overwhelming majority of Americans support extending the ACA tax credits as costs of living balloon and President Trump\u2019s approval rating on the economy craters. With the upcoming vote on a three-year extension of the tax credits, Padilla urged Republicans to protect Americans\u2019 health care and address their affordability crisis.\n\nKey Excerpts\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re here today just about a month after the longest shutdown in American history. You all remember the 43 days that we went without a fully functioning federal government. Let\u2019s remember why that happened. Plain and simple, it was because our Republican colleagues refused to take steps to save health care for millions of Americans.\u201d\n\n\u201cI find it hard to take the word of the Republican majority that they\u2019re committed to addressing health care costs and to expand coverage to more Americans when they just kicked 15 million Americans off their insurance. And so yes, just about a one month after this longest shutdown in American history, we now find ourselves three weeks away from the expiration of the Affordable Care Act tax credits that so many of us are talking about.\u201d\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t let health coverage lapse for millions of Americans. This isn\u2019t a game. We\u2019re three weeks away from the catastrophic spike of cost in health insurance for so many.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe fact of the matter is our Republican colleagues don\u2019t have a serious plan. Look no further to the fact that it\u2019s the 11th hour now, and they\u2019ve put forward a proposal that wouldn\u2019t lower premiums for a single American. In fact, it would make the problem worse.\u201d\n\n\u201cAmericans are demanding that we do something about the cost of health care and the cost of living overall. \u2026 They\u2019re fed up. They\u2019re demanding that their government do something to help them get by, to help them survive in many cases, to address the affordability crunch.\u201d\n\n\u201cI urge everybody to vote \u2018yes,\u2019 and let\u2019s help millions of Americans keep their health care come the new year because we know that a \u2018no\u2019 vote will only rip that care away from millions of families. The choice, the contrast couldn\u2019t be any more clear.\u201d\n\nSenator Padilla consistently slammed President Trump and Senate Republicans for rejecting Democrats\u2019 bill to avert a government shutdown and protect health care coverage for millions of Americans. In September, Senator Padilla joined California health care leaders in Los Angeles to call on Congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to protect health care coverage for nearly 2 million California residents and avoid a Republican-caused government shutdown. In July, Padilla blasted Senate Republicans\u2019 passage of their tax bill that will kick 15 million Americans off their health care, shutter rural hospitals across the country, gut critical programs, and explode the debt by over $3.5 trillion.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-urges-special-counsel-to-complete-hatch-act-investigation-into-trump-administrations-partisan-redistricting-push/", "Padilla Urges Special Counsel to Complete Hatch Act Investigation Into Trump Administration\u2019s Partisan Redistricting Push", "2025-12-09", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Padilla highlights new violations of federal records laws in Republican redistricting pushes, including in Indiana\n\nIndiana State Senator on White House redistricting push: \u201c[T]he underling who reached out to me is trying to influence the election on my dime. \u2026 That\u2019s a violation of the Hatch Act. He\u2019s a federal employee. He works in the White House. But does anyone care about the rules anymore? Not that I can tell.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California\u2019s former Secretary of State, urged the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) to move forward with its investigation into Hatch Act violations committed by senior Trump Administration officials at the White House and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) who have repeatedly pressured states to redistrict for partisan gain. The follow-up letter to his July inquiry calling for a Hatch Act investigation provides new evidence of White House officials violating the Hatch Act by pressuring Republican-states\u2019 legislators and governors\u2019 offices to pass additional partisan gerrymandering for their own partisan benefit, including in Indiana and Texas.\n\nPadilla also highlighted evidence that White House officials are illegally using encrypted, private messaging services like Signal that automatically delete conversations in their partisan redistricting pressure campaign, violating federal records laws, and demanded that the OSC and the White House Counsel take immediate corrective action.\n\nIt is illegal under the Hatch Act for executive branch officials to use their public office to advance partisan political activities, which could include a partisan mid-cycle redistricting effort to advantage a political party. In response to Padilla\u2019s previous letter that outlined Hatch Act violations in Texas and other Republican-led states, the Hatch Act Unit at the OSC confirmed in July they would open a file to address this potential violation. However, despite mounting evidence of additional violations, the OSC has yet to provide an update. Trump previously fired the Senate-confirmed OSC Special Counsel in February.\n\n\u201cThroughout the year, White House senior officials and others in the Trump Administration have been clearly and openly engaged in a political campaign to gain seats for the Republican Party in Congress via a rare and controversial mid-decade redistricting efforts in Texas and many other states,\u201d wrote Senator Padilla. \u201cSuch efforts appear to violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity, including \u2018activity directed at the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cYour offices have a duty to act, not only to ensure that Administration officials follow the law, but to protect these public servants across the country from bearing the brunt of this apparently illegal activity in the current heighted political threat environment,\u201d continued Senator Padilla.\n\nShortly after the OSC confirmed their investigation, President Trump told CNBC on August 5 that \u201cwe are entitled to five more seats,\u201d referring to Republican Congressional districts in Texas. The Administration has also enacted an extreme partisan effort to pressure Indiana state legislators to redraw the Congressional map in favor of Republicans. Since then, at least 11 Indiana Republican elected officials have faced bomb and \u201cswatting\u201d threats. A Republican Indiana State Senator has refused White House staff\u2019s requests to meet, publicly stating that their pressure campaign violates the Hatch Act, saying:\n\n\u201c[T]he underling who reached out to me is trying to influence the election on my dime. That individual works for me. He works for you. He\u2019s on my payroll, he\u2019s on your payroll, and he\u2019s campaigning on company time. That\u2019s a violation of the Hatch Act. He\u2019s a federal employee. He works in the White House. But does anyone care about the rules anymore? Not that I can tell.\u201d\n\nSenator Padilla and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18) are leading the Redistricting Reform Act of 2025 to establish independent redistricting commissions nationwide and neutralize Republican efforts to implement partisan racial gerrymanders before the next census. In July, Padilla convened a Rules and Judiciary Committee Democrats spotlight forum focused on racial gerrymandering and voter suppression. During the forum, he questioned former Attorney General Eric Holder on the Trump Administration\u2019s efforts in Texas and other states to implement mid-decade racial redistricting for partisan political purposes.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Mr. Baldis and Warrington:\n\nOn July 29, 2025, four U.S. Senators wrote to request U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) investigate senior White House and Trump Administration officials for potential violations of the Hatch Act by engaging in partisan political activities while on official duty in the pursuit of mid-decade redistricting in various states across the country. On July 30, OSC confirmed receipt of the letter and informed my staff that they have opened a case file regarding these allegations. Today, I request an update on the status of that investigation and also bring attention to new potential violations of federal records laws associated with this partisan political effort.\n\nSince that letter of July 29, there has been a steady stream of new evidence of ongoing engagement by senior White House staff in partisan political activities related to redistricting. The situation has escalated to such a level that the Office of Special Counsel and the Office of White House Counsel must take immediate action to ensure that senior Trump Administration officials cease this apparently illegal behavior.\n\nOn August 5, 2025, President Trump stated that \u201cwe are entitled to 5 more seats\u201d regarding Republican congressional districts in Texas. Throughout the year, White House senior officials and others in the Trump Administration have been clearly and openly engaged in a political campaign to gain seats for the Republican Party in Congress via a rare and controversial mid-decade redistricting efforts in Texas and many other states. Such efforts appear to violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity, including \u201cactivity directed at the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group.\u201d\n\nIn Texas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation responded to partisan requests and involved itself in mid-decade redistricting by participating in searching for Texas legislators who were not attending state legislative proceedings. In Indiana, the Administration is currently engaging in an extreme political pressure campaign targeting state legislators, which is associated with a rash of bomb and \u201cswatting\u201d threats against state elected officials.\n\nThe situation in Indiana is urgent and the credibility of the OSC is at stake. One state senator is publicly refusing to meet with White House staff because he understands that the effort is a violation of the Hatch Act. The State Senator stated:\n\n\u201cI refused (the invitation), but the underling who reached out to me is trying to influence the election on my dime. That individual works for me. He works for you. He\u2019s on my payroll, he\u2019s on your payroll, and he\u2019s campaigning on company time. That\u2019s a violation of the Hatch Act. He\u2019s a federal employee. He works in the White House. But does anyone care about the rules anymore? Not that I can tell.\u201d\n\nThis state legislator said he would have reported the alleged violation to federal authorities if he thought that there \u201cwas anyone of integrity in Washington that would follow through on my accusation.\u201d Your offices have a duty to act, not only to ensure that Administration officials follow the law, but to protect these public servants across the country from bearing the brunt of this apparently illegal activity in the current heighted political threat environment.\n\nIn February, President Trump fired the last Director of the Office of Special Counsel, despite him being confirmed by the Senate in 2024 to serve a 5-year term to lead this independent office in a non-partisan way. In June, President Trump nominated Paul Ingrassia, an unfit and unqualified political loyalist, to that position. The Senate rejected that attempt on a bipartisan basis, highlighting the importance of this office\u2019s mission and its independence. OSC should heed this message and act to ensure senior Trump officials follow the Hatch Act.\n\nIn addition, strong evidence shows that White House staff are engaging in these apparently unlawful partisan activities using official communications in violation of federal records laws. A Texas Republican political operative provided sworn testimony in federal court that the White House staff communicated about redistricting with state officials via the encrypted messaging application Signal, which can be set to automatically delete messages. A failure to preserve federal records and a failure to report the unlawful destruction of these records to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) are serious violations of law.\n\nIt is likely that Trump Administration staff are replicating these unlawful political activities, using unlawful means of communication, in many other states across the country, including Missouri, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Kansas and more. OSC and White House leadership should not tolerate or encourage repeated, blatant violations of the Hatch Act and federal records laws in pursuit of this unprecedented mid-decade redistricting campaign.\n\nThank you for your attention to these potential violations of federal law in pursuit of partisan mid-decade redistricting. Please respond by December 15, 2025, with an update on OSC\u2019s investigation and any corrective action that the White House is taking regarding the Hatch Act and the Presidential Records Act.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-condemns-trump-dhs-unconstitutional-arrests-of-u-s-citizens/", "WATCH: Padilla Condemns Trump DHS\u2019 Unconstitutional Arrests of U.S. Citizens", "2025-12-09", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, joined a bicameral spotlight forum to denounce the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) unlawful arrests of U.S. citizens. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-Calif.-42), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, convened the forum to receive testimony from five of these American citizens, including three Californians, whom DHS agents have violently arrested and detained.\n\nDHS continues to lie about its treatment of American citizens. In October, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem falsely claimed, \u201c[t]here\u2019s no American citizens that have been arrested or detained,\u201d and the account @DHSgov posted just last week, \u201cICE does NOT arrest or deport U.S. citizens.\u201d On the contrary, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in California and across the country have repeatedly arrested and detained American citizens, including veterans, at times using violent physical force.\n\nPadilla emphasized that the Trump Administration\u2019s militarization of American cities, starting with Los Angeles, to conduct indiscriminate immigration enforcement was the test case for President Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign across the country. ICE and CBP agents have repeatedly violated due process rights and profiled individuals \u2014 including U.S. citizens \u2014 who they claim \u201clook like\u201d noncitizen enforcement targets.\n\nPadilla asked all five U.S. citizens at the spotlight forum what they would say if President Trump, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, or other Trump Administration officials were in front of them. He heard emotional pleas from California witnesses to stop scapegoating immigrants and racially profiling American citizens. The witnesses included:\n\nJavier Ramirez (California): Mr. Ramirez was violently assaulted by DHS agents and held for four days, where he was denied adequate treatment for diabetes, leading to severe complications.\n\nGeorge Retes (California): Mr. Retes is a U.S. Army veteran who was violently arrested and detained during a raid at his job site in Southern California and detained for three days, during which he was refused the ability to contact his family and missed his daughter\u2019s birthday.\n\nAndrea Velez (California): Ms. Velez was on her way to work in downtown Los Angeles when she got caught up in an immigration raid and was falsely charged with assaulting an officer, a charge that was later dropped.\n\nWilmer Chavarria (Vermont): Mr. Chavarria, a school superintendent, was detained after returning to the United States from visiting family overseas, interrogated for hours, and even faced demands to search his personal and school district devices, which contained sensitive information about students and faculty.\n\nDayanne Figueroa (Illinois): Ms. Figueroa was sideswiped while driving to work and then violently pulled from her car by DHS agents who pointed guns at her; while detained for hours, she suffered internal trauma, having recently undergone two kidney surgeries weeks before the incident, as well as injuries to her wrists from being handcuffed.\n\nPadilla also heard from Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council, about how the Trump Administration\u2019s diversion of resources to immigration enforcement makes all Americans less safe.\n\nKey Excerpts:\n\nPADILLA: If you had the Administration up here, if you had Donald Trump, if you had the Secretary of Homeland Security, if you had other officials from the Trump Administration up here, what would you tell them?\n\nWILMER CHAVARRIA: I would say that we\u2019ve seen this before. We see it right through you. We\u2019ve seen leaders dehumanize entire communities, entire races, entire peoples. And we know why you dehumanize us. And I will say, we will come out of this, and we will come out of it stronger.\n\nJAVIER RAMIREZ: They should be ashamed of themselves. I don\u2019t want to raise my kids in an America where they have to be careful, you know, just by being their skin color.\n\nPADILLA: Mr. Melnick, I know you come to this conversation from a different perspective given your role and expertise. Let me ask you a different question. \u2026 The argument from the Administration is that they\u2019re going after the worst of the worst. We see in reality that that\u2019s far from the case. The fear and intimidation they\u2019ve stoked in so many communities across the country is clear in my mind. Has this mass deportation agenda made any community or country safer?\n\nMELNICK: There\u2019s no evidence that this is making us more safe. In fact, it\u2019s the other way around. I testified in front of Congress on this issue before. By diverting resources away from child exploitation, by turning ICE Homeland Security Investigations into just one other arm of ICE\u2019s enforcement and removal operations, they are making us less safe. They are taking counterterrorism operatives and telling them to go out on the street and arrest migrants. They\u2019re taking people whose job it is to investigate pedophiles preying on children, and telling those officers to go round up dishwashers instead. And that doesn\u2019t make us safer.\n\nVideo of Padilla\u2019s remarks and questioning is available here.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda. He has denounced the Trump Administration\u2019s stops, arrests, detentions, and deportations of U.S. citizens and pressed Secretary Noem on the wrongful targeting of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. In July, Padilla joined a Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee hearing to set the record straight on President Trump and Stephen Miller\u2019s cruel mass deportation campaign, blasting the Administration for intentionally stoking fear and scapegoating immigrants. In September, Padilla joined 60 of his Senate and House colleagues in opening a new investigation into the Trump Administration\u2019s arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen service members, veterans, and military families.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-pushes-for-passage-of-bipartisan-bill-to-compensate-artists-for-radio-broadcasts/", "WATCH: Padilla Pushes for Passage of Bipartisan Bill to Compensate Artists for Radio Broadcasts", "2025-12-09", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property hearing on his bipartisan American Music Fairness Act to ensure artists and music creators are paid for the use of their songs on AM/FM radio. The legislation, co-led by Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), would bring corporate radio broadcasters in line with all other music streaming platforms, which already pay artists for their music.\n\nPadilla questioned witnesses including Kiss frontman Gene Simmons on the need to compensate artists for their individual creations as a crucial matter of fairness, especially with the costs of living rising across the country. He heard from Simmons about the importance of following the American tradition that if you work hard, you get paid for that work.\n\nPadilla also heard from Michael Huppe, President & CEO at SoundExchange, about the benefits that artists, record labels, studio producers, background musicians, background vocalists, and engineers would receive from these royalties.\n\nThe United States is the only democratic country in the world in which artists are not compensated for the use of their music on AM/FM radio. By requiring broadcast radio corporations to pay performance royalties to creators for AM/FM radio plays, the American Music Fairness Act would close an antiquated loophole that has allowed corporate broadcasters to forgo compensating artists for the use of their music for decades.\n\nPadilla emphasized that the bill does not diminish his strong support for local radio, which plays an essential role from facilitating emergency responses to uplifting local culture and news. In recognition of the important role of locally owned radio stations in communities across the United States, the American Music Fairness Act also includes strong protections and exemptions for small, college, and non-commercial stations.\n\nKey Excerpts\n\nPADILLA: I think there\u2019s a misperception in the general public that most artists, if they kind of recognize the name, they must have made it, they\u2019re all on top of Mount Olympus. But that\u2019s not the case. So what I want to hear from you is to kind of reflect back to the earlier stages of your career. What would these type of royalty payments mean for emerging artists who are trying to build their careers?\n\nGENE SIMMONS: Every little bit helps. At the outset, I understand that a brand-new artist isn\u2019t necessarily going to help a radio station get to a point. But perhaps, I scratch your back, when they get bigger, they\u2019ll be more appreciative of WXRP or whatever that\u2019s called and say, you were there for me then. \u2026 It\u2019s about relationships. But if you work hard, the American way is you must get paid. You cannot verbally or otherwise ethically, morally, and perhaps, once this bill is passed, legally validate the notion that somebody who works hard is going to get nothing, while a corporate entity, well-meaning though it may be, is receiving $14 billion just this last year.\n\nPADILLA: We\u2019ve focused on radio station owners, the broadcasters, we\u2019ve focused on artists, are there other folks in the industry who stand to benefit from this bill, as Mr. Simmons says, not if but when it is passed and signed into law? Do producers get impacted one way or the other, engineers, other behind-the-scenes folks?\n\nMICHAEL HUPPE: The answer, Senator, is yes, this impacts the entire recorded side of the business. Many people participate in the creation of a recording. It\u2019s a huge part, it\u2019s a huge investment for the industry. It\u2019s what we all listen to when we turn on the radio. It\u2019s artists and record labels, studio producers, background musicians, background vocalists, engineers. It\u2019s a very hard job to bring a successful recording to the world. And all of those folks would benefit from this bill.\n\nThe American Music Fairness Act is endorsed by the Recording Academy, SAG-AFTRA, the American Association of Independent Music, the MusicFirst Coalition, the Recording Industry Association of America, SoundExchange, and the American Federation of Musicians.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-lummis-wyden-sheehy-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-extend-tax-relief-for-wildfire-victims/", "Padilla, Lummis, Wyden, Sheehy Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Extend Tax Relief for Wildfire Victims", "2025-12-05", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) introduced the Protect Innocent Victims of Taxation After Fire Extension Act to permanently ensure wildfire survivors are not taxed on compensation they receive for losses and damages suffered during a fire.\n\nThis bipartisan legislation would extend and make permanent Padilla and Lummis\u2019 bill signed into law last year, which excluded wildfire-related settlement payments from federal income tax calculations. This includes payments that cover living expenses, lost wages, or compensation for injury, death, or emotional distress. The bill was signed into law as part of the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, which ensured taxes paid on payments made from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Fire Victim Trust for three major California fires in 2015, 2017, and 2018 were refunded and not taxed.\n\nHowever, this exclusion, which received unanimous support in the Senate, is set to expire at the end of the 2025 calendar year. Failure to extend this provision means any wildfire-related settlement payments beginning in 2026 will again be subject to federal income tax obligations. With utility-caused fires on the rise, more and more states have qualifying settlements or active litigation, including again in California with the Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County. This bill would allow wildfire survivors to put the full amount of their settlement money toward recovering from devastating losses.\n\n\u201cWhen a fire survivor is wading through the ashes of their former home, and thinking about how to rebuild their life, the last thing they should have to worry about is how they\u2019re going to afford to pay taxes on any settlement they receive,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cLast year, we finally fixed our outdated tax code to make sure that individuals, families, and entire communities who have suffered from utility-caused wildfires aren\u2019t taxed on the compensation they need to recover. But with this important provision set to expire at the end of the year, and with devastating wildfires on the rise, we must make this commonsense, bipartisan solution permanent to protect Americans during one of the most difficult times in their lives.\u201d\n\n\u201cWyoming is not immune to the devastation that wildfires cause. In the aftermath of these disasters, the damage is catastrophic, and the families and communities affected should be able to focus on healing and rebuilding, not on setting aside part of their insurance to cover taxes,\u201d said Senator Lummis. \u201cThe Protect Innocent Victims of Taxation After Fire Extension Act ensures every dollar of wildfire insurance is used to help people recover and restore what they\u2019ve lost, not line Washington\u2019s pockets.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen Oregonians are rebuilding their lives after a wildfire, the last thing they need is to get clobbered with a big tax bill on their financial settlements,\u201d said Senator Wyden. \u201cThis is a commonsense way of making sure wildfire survivors can use every settlement dollar they receive to repair their homes and businesses. It\u2019s also a smart way to pump more resources back into devastated communities that need all the help they can get. My colleagues and I are going to fight to get this passed as soon as possible, because making this tax relief permanent is a no-brainer.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn addition to strengthening our wildland firefighting apparatus, we must provide victims of catastrophic wildfire the support they need to rebuild their lives, homes, and communities,\u201d said Senator Sheehy. \u201cNo tax on wildfire disaster settlement compensation is common sense, and I\u2019m proud to deliver much-needed relief with this bill as we continue working to prevent future tragedies with comprehensive wildfire reform.\u201d\n\nAdditionally, the Protect Innocent Victims of Taxation After Fire Extension Act would allow victims to claim the exemption in the year they receive payments rather than to amend prior tax returns for a refund.\n\nRepresentatives Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.-01) and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.-04) are leading similar legislation in the House of Representatives.\n\nThis extension represents a bipartisan and bicameral commitment to ensuring wildfire survivors receive the help they need without facing additional financial barriers. By extending this landmark tax relief, this bill would give individuals the certainty they deserve while they work to recover and rebuild after devastating fires.\n\nLast year, Senator Padilla spoke on the Senate floor following the unanimous passage of the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, which included his Protect Innocent Victims of Taxation After Fire Act. After the bill was signed into law, Padilla, Thompson, and LaMalfa urged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to take immediate actions to implement their bipartisan legislation to provide critical tax relief and get money back into the hands of wildfire survivors.\n\nA one-pager on the bill is available here.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-huffman-lead-california-lawmakers-in-condemning-trumps-plan-to-allow-oil-drilling-along-californias-pristine-coastline/", "Padilla, Huffman Lead California Lawmakers in Condemning Trump\u2019s Plan to Allow Oil Drilling Along California\u2019s Pristine Coastline", "2025-12-04", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "28 California lawmakers to President Trump, Secretary Burgum: \u201cFurther industrialization off our coast will inevitably pollute our beaches, spelling disaster for California\u2019s economy and detrimentally impacting the rest of the country, which relies on California as an economic engine.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02) led 26 members of the California Democratic Congressional delegation in condemning the Trump Administration\u2019s official draft 2027-2032 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program that includes six lease proposals off the coast of Northern, Central, and Southern California. The plan proposes opening vast swaths of previously protected federal waters \u2014 including the California coast \u2014 to new oil and gas drilling for the first time in over 40 years, disregarding bipartisan opposition.\n\nThe Trump Administration\u2019s overwhelmingly unpopular proposal directly targets areas former President Joe Biden withdrew from future leasing in January 2025, when he protected 625 million acres. In their letter to President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the lawmakers stressed that this plan would undermine state laws that prohibit new offshore drilling along its 1,110-mile coastline and ban new leases for oil and gas infrastructure in state waters.\n\n\u201cWe stand united with the overwhelming majority of Californians who fundamentally oppose any proposal that would expand offshore drilling and risk our state\u2019s invaluable, ecologically unique coast,\u201d wrote the lawmakers. \u201cThis proposal, coupled with ongoing efforts to reduce federal staffing and funding for agencies that protect our environment, including for safety and oil spill response, is not only dangerous but outright reckless.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs we have repeatedly seen in California and other parts of the country, offshore drilling is a ticking time bomb,\u201d continued the lawmakers. \u201cAny expansion of offshore drilling in the waters off the coast of California and the spills that would inevitably accompany it would be devastating to the communities we represent.\u201d\n\nThe lawmakers emphasized the devastating impacts new oil and gas leasing would have on California\u2019s environment, military readiness, and diverse coastal economy, threatening the state\u2019s tourism, recreation, fisheries, deepwater port commerce, and defense infrastructure industries. California\u2019s marine economy accounted for $51.3 billion in GDP and $26.7 billion in wages, and pollution off its coast would significantly damage the state\u2019s world-leading economy, hurting the entire country.\n\nCalifornia began efforts to block offshore drilling in 1969 when an oil rig off the coast of Santa Barbara leaked 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean, blanketing beaches with a thick layer of oil and killing thousands of marine mammals and birds. It was the largest oil spill in U.S. history until the Exxon Valdez spill 20 years later. In the past decade, the 2015 Refugio State Beach oil spill and the 2021 Huntington Beach oil spill have further demonstrated the immense risks of offshore drilling expansion.\n\nIn addition to Senator Padilla and Representative Huffman, the letter was also signed by Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-11), and Representatives Nanette Barrag\u00e1n (D-Calif.-44), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.-26), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.-31), Lou Correa (D-Calif.-46), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.-10), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.-30), John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37), Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.-07), Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.-15), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.-19), Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50), Luz Rivas (D-Calif.-29), Brad Sherman (D-Calif.-32), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.-12), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.-14), Mark Takano (D-Calif.-39), Derek Tran (D-Calif.-45), and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52).\n\nSenator Padilla and Representative Huffman have been leading the charge against offshore oil and gas leases. Last month, Padilla and Huffman issued a joint statement and hosted a press call condemning the Trump Administration\u2019s sell-off to Big Oil immediately after it was announced. In October, Padilla and Huffman led over 100 lawmakers in demanding President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum immediately cease any plans to open new offshore oil and gas leases in U.S. federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the Arctic Ocean and northern Bering Sea off of Alaska, and in the Eastern Gulf.\n\nOn Earth Day, Padilla and Huffman, along with Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Representative Frank Pallone (D-N.J.-06), announced a pair of bills to permanently protect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from the dangers of fossil fuel drilling. Padilla and Huffman\u2019s West Coast Ocean Protection Act would permanently prohibit new oil and gas leases for offshore drilling off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington. In 2021, Senator Padilla joined West Coast Senators in calling on Senate leadership to include the West Coast Ocean Protection Act in the Senate version of the budget reconciliation bill after an estimated 126,000 gallons of oil spilled off the coast of California.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Mr. President and Secretary Burgum:\n\nWe write in strong opposition to the Draft Proposed Program (DPP) for the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program. We specifically want to express our strongest opposition to the inclusion of the Northern California OCS Planning Area, the Central California OCS Planning Area, and the Southern California OCS Planning Area in the DPP for oil and gas leasing disposition.\n\nWe stand united with the overwhelming majority of Californians who fundamentally oppose any proposal that would expand offshore drilling and risk our state\u2019s invaluable, ecologically unique coast. This proposal, coupled with ongoing efforts to reduce federal staffing and funding for agencies that protect our environment, including for safety and oil spill response, is not only dangerous but outright reckless. As we have repeatedly seen in California and other parts of the country, offshore drilling is a ticking time bomb. Any expansion of offshore drilling in the waters off the coast of California and the spills that would inevitably accompany it would be devastating to the communities we represent.\n\nIn April 2025, California officially became the fourth-largest economy in the world, behind only the United States, China, and Germany in global rankings. Our economy is diverse and robust, including sectors such as tourism, recreation, fisheries, deepwater port commerce, and Department of Defense infrastructure. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), California\u2019s marine economy alone accounted for $51.3 billion in GDP and $26.7 billion in wages in 2021. The economic well-being of these sectors is dependent upon a healthy and clean coastline. Further industrialization off our coast will inevitably pollute our beaches, spelling disaster for California\u2019s economy and detrimentally impacting the rest of the country, which relies on California as an economic engine.\n\nCalifornia is all too familiar with the devastating impacts of oil spills. The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill remains the largest in our state\u2019s history\u2014and one of the landmark spills in U.S. history. Immediate damage to birds, intertidal organisms, beaches, and the economy was severe. That experience galvanized Californians and secured an unshakable commitment to protecting our coastline. The more recent 2015 Refugio oil spill and 2021 Huntington Beach oil spill reinforced our strong opposition to any offshore drilling expansion.\n\nOur Congressional delegation, state leaders, and dozens of California municipalities and Tribes have expressed their opposition through resolutions or comment letters, along with state groups and citizens. The bipartisan consensus against expanded offshore drilling has been clear and consistent over five decades. This has resulted in current state laws that include a permanent ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along California\u2019s 1,110-mile coastline and a prohibition on new leases for oil and gas infrastructure in state waters that enable increased oil and gas production from federal waters. As stated in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)\u2019s Request for Information and reinforced by the comments BOEM received from our state, \u201cAs a result of Congressional moratoria, subsequent Presidential actions, and consistent opposition by the States of Washington, Oregon, and California to any activity off their coasts, the Pacific OCS has not been included in any National OCS Program since the 1987\u20131992 Program.\u201d\n\nIn addition to the economic and environmental reasons for not expanding drilling off California\u2019s coasts, our national defense would be better served by keeping additional oil rigs away from our shores. California\u2019s waters and coastline are strategically vital, hosting a significant number of military installations, key logistics routes, and special-use airspace. Allowing oil and gas development, or the risk of spills, in areas where our servicemembers routinely operate would undermine military readiness and pose risks to national security.\n\nFor these reasons and more, we write in strong opposition to the Proposed Program (DPP) for the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program. We specifically want to express our strongest opposition to the inclusion of the Northern California OCS Planning Area, the Central California OCS Planning Area, and the Southern California OCS Planning Area in the DPP for oil and gas leasing disposition. We appreciate your attention to this matter.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-colleagues-call-on-mcmahon-to-reverse-illegal-moves-to-dismantle-the-department-of-education/", "Padilla, Schiff, Colleagues Call on McMahon to Reverse Illegal Moves to Dismantle the Department of Education", "2025-12-04", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) joined 34 of their Senate colleagues in slamming the Department of Education\u2019s recent announcement that it signed interagency agreements (IAAs) to illegally outsource core Department functions that students and their families rely on and calling on Secretary Linda McMahon to reverse these latest steps to dismantle the Department of Education.\n\nThe Senators emphasized that the IAAs are unlawful and jeopardize funding and federal support for tens of millions of students and educators. They also outlined that appropriations law prohibits the transfer of funds to another agency unless expressly authorized in appropriations law (which was not the case for these IAAs). The first IAA signed earlier this year between the Education and Labor Departments that focused on career and technical education and adult education has faced major difficulties, such as funding delays, confusion, and increased bureaucratic delays.\n\nThe lawmakers also detailed how the departmental responsibilities McMahon is now seeking to spin off to other agencies will risk support, funding, and oversight that U.S. laws provide to students and families across America. These agencies lack the expertise, capacity, and legal mandate to successfully administer key programs.\n\n\u201cThe actions you announced on November 18th to continue hollowing out the U.S. Department of Education are outrageous, illegal, and will jeopardize the funding and support that tens of millions of students, teachers, and families across the country rely on,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cYour brazen attempt to dismantle the Department by transferring to other federal agencies complex and foundational responsibilities that Congress specifically charged to the Department \u2014 including more than half of all federal funds for elementary and secondary education programs and billions in higher education funding \u2014 will undermine public education.\u201d\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s be very clear: You are choosing to create even more bureaucracy that states, school districts, and educational institutions across America will have to expend time and resources navigating at the expense of students and families,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cWe urge you to immediately reverse course and to focus your time and attention on actions that actually help states, school districts and educational institutions improve educational outcomes and support for students.\u201d\n\nThe letter was led by Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). In addition to Padilla and Schiff, the letter was also signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nThe Senators made clear that, as McMahon has previously acknowledged, dismantling the Department would require an act of Congress, which has not been proposed \u2014 or even seriously pursued \u2014 by the Administration. They pushed Secretary McMahon to fulfill her constitutional duties to work with Congress to improve public education and reiterated that education appropriations have been authorized on a bipartisan basis for decades.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading advocate opposing the Trump Administration\u2019s continued assault on the Education Department. In July, Padilla and Schiff slammed the Administration\u2019s decision to illegally withhold over $6 billion in Congressionally appropriated education funds, including approximately $928 million from California. Earlier this year, Padilla joined 37 Democratic colleagues in expressing outrage at the Administration\u2019s reckless and illegal firing of half of the workforce at the Education Department. Last month, Senators Padilla, chair of the Senate Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Caucus, and Schiff, along with U.S. Representatives Jim Costa (D-Calif.-21), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), and Derek Tran (D-Calif.-45), led 34 members of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation in strongly opposing the Education Department\u2019s decision to rescind $350 million in funding from Minority-Serving Institutions.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary McMahon:\n\nThe actions you announced on November 18 to continue hollowing out the U.S. Department of Education (\u201cthe Department\u201d) are outrageous, illegal, and will jeopardize the funding and support that tens of millions of students, teachers, and families across the country rely on. Your brazen attempt to dismantle the Department by transferring to other federal agencies complex and foundational responsibilities that Congress specifically charged to the Department\u2014including more than half of all federal funds for elementary and secondary education programs and billions in higher education funding\u2014will undermine public education. This is the latest example of this administration\u2019s complete lack of regard for our laws and its failure to provide the certainty, clarity, and stability that students and schools deserve when it comes to the federal government\u2019s approach and commitment to properly implementing federal education laws and appropriations.\n\nLet\u2019s be very clear: You are choosing to create even more bureaucracy that states, school districts, and educational institutions across America will have to expend time and resources navigating at the expense of students and families. We urge you to immediately reverse course and to focus your time and attention on actions that actually help states, school districts and educational institutions improve educational outcomes and support for students. We expect you to work with Congress to pursue any ideas to streamline programs and improve public education, as the law and the Constitution require, and you have yourself stated you would do in your confirmation hearing.\n\nThe Department of Education is the only federal agency whose sole mission is to help children learn and improve their educational outcomes. The Department delivers much-needed federal funding and enforces basic educational guardrails and civil rights protections so that every child can get the quality public education that they are entitled to under the law, no matter who they are or where they live. Congress has unambiguously authorized dozens of education programs to be administered by the Department through numerous laws and has clearly appropriated funding on a bipartisan basis for decades to the Department to carry out those programs. Appropriations law prohibits the transfer of funds to another federal agency unless expressly authorized in appropriations law, which it has not done in this case. When Congress wants another agency to administer a program or function, it has expressly said so\u2014and in some cases, it has provided authority to transfer funds to allow this to happen. By contrast, Congress has not expressly authorized any other agency to administer the programs established under the previously mentioned laws, nor has it provided the authority for the Department to transfer these programs and associated funding to another agency.\n\nThe November 18 announcement outlines six interagency agreements (IAAs) with the Departments of Labor, Interior, Health and Human Services, and State to transfer major responsibilities out of the Department of Education. The authorities cited in the IAAs do not enable the Department to do an end-run around the relevant authorizing and appropriating statutes. For example, the Department cites the Economy Act to justify its use of the IAA framework. While the Economy Act is routinely used by other federal agencies to enter into IAAs for the procurement of discrete goods and services that a particular agency might have expertise in and authority to provide, such as DOJ\u2019s fingerprinting authority, this authority was never contemplated to allow the transfer of major program functions or entire offices to another agency with the express stated purpose of eventually dismantling the agency or putting the Secretary \u201cout of a job.\u201d Federal resources outlining the purpose of the Economy Act make this clear. This view is further affirmed by the Department\u2019s inability to cite a single instance of using this statute or any others in a similar way prior to this year.\n\nYou have expressed your interest in working with Congress on these issues, but these IAAs were developed in secret without outside input. The fiscal year 2026 budget request for the Department makes no reference to administering these programs at other agencies and the fiscal year 2026 budget request for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), for example, makes no reference to administering them either. The Secretaries of Labor, Interior, State, and HHS have similarly never testified to Congress on how they would carry out and administer these critical education programs.\n\nSince you were nominated to lead the Department, you have routinely misled the public about the level of involvement the Department has long had in the day-to-day management of schools\u2014inaccurately suggesting that the Department was depriving states and families from making choices about their children\u2019s education, shackling teachers with burdensome regulations and paperwork and causing K-12 and college students to experience \u201cdrudgery caused by administrative burdens.\u201d On the basis of these false assertions, you have strangely claimed that we need to \u201cReturn Education to the States.\u201d In fact, states and local communities have\u2014since the founding of our republic\u2014had the primary responsibility for educating our students and the establishment of the Department in 1979 did nothing to change that fact. In fact, there are numerous federal laws that prevent the Department from being involved in the day-to-day decision making in schools and colleges as it relates to curriculum, teaching, and programs.\n\nUntil your arrival at the Department, its role has been to provide funding, support, and oversight as authorized by federal education laws to ensure students from all walks of life and in every part of the country can get a high-quality public education. The Department\u2019s programs ensure that parents get timely, accessible information about how their kids\u2019 schools are doing. They ensure students with disabilities\u2019 rights are enforced, so that they can get the education they are entitled to. The Department administers programs to help under-resourced rural school districts and allocates Impact Aid for more than 1,000 school districts with a reduced revenue base or increased costs due to a federal presence, such as a military base. It also administers programs to help first-generation and low-income students pursue and succeed in college. These are just a select few examples of the indispensable supporting role that the federal government\u2014and the Department, in particular\u2014plays in advancing educational outcomes for students.\n\nTo justify these new IAA\u2019s, you say federal funding will keep flowing to states, school districts, and colleges. But we have already seen funding held up and seriously delayed because of this administration\u2019s chaotic changes\u2014and its extreme policies\u2014and the moves you announced last week are certain to further jeopardize these funds.\n\nYou claim these actions will improve student achievement, yet your actions will significantly weaken federal monitoring of states\u2019 K-12 accountability and school improvement systems. Before Congress mandated that states develop these systems with key guardrails in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, several states had weak or no school improvement systems, which allowed vulnerable students to slip through the cracks. As part of ESEA and subsequent appropriations directives, Congress has charged OESE with improving state compliance in state and local school report cards requirements, school improvement, and more. But without the staff expertise from OESE, it is likely that DOL will be ineffective in holding states accountable for improving student outcomes.\n\nThe Department also provides deep policy expertise to ensure programs support improved student outcomes, such as through expert guidance to colleges and universities to improve college access, retention, and completion through programs like TRIO, GEAR UP, the Postsecondary Student Success Grant Program, and others. Now, DOL, who lacks the necessary expertise, is tasked with managing these programs and students will suffer as a result.\n\nDOL has no prior experience in administering education programs at this scale and complexity and will need to develop the capacity and processes to allot billions of dollars in funding to state and local educational agencies. States will also have to make changes to receive any funds distributed through DOL\u2019s grant system while continuing to draw down prior year grant funding in the Department\u2019s system. Your IAA also seems to suggest the Department will still retain some authorities over Title I-A, which means that states will now have to work with two federal agencies when they need help navigating this complex and absolutely critical program. These changes solve exactly zero problems but manage to create an onslaught of new ones. We are very concerned that these changes will mean funds our constituents rely on will not continue to flow as intended under federal education laws.\n\nIn addition to its scope and complexity, the Title I-A program primarily funds instruction and activities in elementary schools. We do not believe kindergartners or other elementary school students should be the focus of efforts to integrate workforce programming and education activities, activities that are better suited to older students. Instead of improving students\u2019 readiness for the workforce, the move of Title I-A to DOL is much more likely to deprive states and school districts of the technical assistance and support they need to effectively implement federal education funding in their schools and provide high-quality educational opportunities to all students.\n\nDOL already has a comprehensive workload to support the nation\u2019s workers and workforce programs. It is authorized and funded to administer workforce training and enforce worker protection programs for which Congress appropriates $13.5 billion in discretionary funding annually, including for roughly a dozen workforce training grant programs totaling approximately $4 billion in annual funding. In addition to lacking the subject area expertise needed to administer the Department\u2019s programs, DOL does not have the grant administration capacity to take on the work outlined in the IAA; the approximately $30 billion in the Department\u2019s funding across approximately 50 discrete formula and competitive education grant programs that you seek to transfer now to DOL dwarf its current grant administration and oversight work. Transferring basic and significant responsibilities for administering education programs to DOL creates very significant risks of delays in funding and other administrative challenges for states, school districts, institutions of higher education, and other organizations through Impact Aid, rural education programs, afterschool programs, TRIO, and foundational education formula grant programs that tens of thousands of schools count on to help provide a quality education to millions of students.\n\nUnfortunately, we have already seen negative consequences for states, schools, colleges, and students as these IAAs roll out: the first IAA inked earlier this year between the Department and DOL on career and technical education and adult education has been plagued with serious challenges\u2014and it is but a small fraction of what is now being transferred to DOL. In fact, as your own staff reportedly concluded in its analysis after this transfer, \u201cThe size and scope of OCTAE\u2019s programs are miniscule [sic] compared to other [Education Principal Operating Components] and programs\u2026Larger formula grants and competitive grants are going to be much more difficult to migrate.\u201d States and districts faced delays in accessing their Perkins CTE funding, and advocates report delays in guidance and training issued by DOL. Moreover, a CTE expert recently testified before the House of Representatives, \u201cAt a time of scarce resources, it\u2019s hard to understand why the Department is paying Labor to do work that it can do for itself.\u201d The fiscal year 2025 funding level for Perkins CTE and adult education was $2.18 billion, whereas the other programs DOL will now be responsible for are funded at roughly $30 billion. If the administrative costs balloon under these new IAAs as the administrative costs under the CTE IAA have, not only will these IAAs be terrible for students, their families, and educators, they will also be a catastrophic waste of time and money for the American taxpayer.\n\nThe Department has provided no substantive detail or even basic information about how the significant changes envisioned by these IAAs would be implemented. The other federal agencies that will suddenly have significant responsibilities in administering billions in education funding\u2014have provided no information about their roles or their capacity to carry out these programs and activities. The plan seems clear\u2014to jam these changes through for a talking point, whatever the consequences may be for states, school districts, schools, students, and families.\n\nWe once again demand that you reverse these detrimental plans and refocus your efforts on supporting state and local efforts by properly implementing federal laws intended to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for all students, especially those who count on the Department doing its job most.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-joins-durbin-to-introduce-the-dream-act-to-provide-permanent-protections-for-dreamers/", "WATCH: Padilla Joins Durbin to Introduce the Dream Act to Provide Permanent Protections for Dreamers", "2025-12-04", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, joined U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in introducing the Dream Act of 2025. The legislation would allow noncitizens without lawful status who were brought to the United States as children and meet certain education, military service, or work requirements to earn lawful permanent residence and a pathway to citizenship. Padilla, Durbin, and U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) hosted a press conference today alongside Dreamers, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, and immigration experts to call on Congress to pass a pathway to citizenship for the young people who contribute so much to our country and are facing the Trump Administration\u2019s unprecedented attacks.\n\nThese young people, known as Dreamers, have lived in America since they were children, built their lives here, and are American in every way except for their immigration status. However, under current law there is often no chance for them to ever become citizens and fulfill their potential. Today\u2019s event was organized in collaboration with the Home Is Here coalition, including FWD.us, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), United We Dream, and partner organizations.\n\n\u201cFor decades, gridlock and partisan politics have forced Dreamers to live in limbo. And under the Trump Administration, they now have to fear being swept up in Trump\u2019s cruel mass deportation campaign at any moment,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cDreamers are our friends, neighbors, and loved ones who are proud to call America the only home they\u2019ve ever known and fuel our economy. Senator Durbin has fought tirelessly for nearly 25 years to pass the Dream Act, and I\u2019m honored to join him in calling on Congress to finally provide a pathway to citizenship for the Dreamers who contribute so much to our country.\u201d\n\n\u201cI first introduced the Dream Act 24 years ago, and over those years I\u2019ve met hundreds of amazing young men and women\u2014Dreamers\u2014who are American in every sense of the word except on paper. They are teachers, nurses, doctors, and small business owners throughout our communities and in all 50 states. But because DACA hangs by a thread in the courts, and many are not covered by DACA, they live each day in fear of deportation. It is clear that only Congress can give them the stability they crave and deserve,\u201d said Senator Durbin. \u201cThis is a matter of simple American fairness and justice. To the Dreamers who have been with me in this fight: I promise to do everything in my power to fight for you and your future every day. And to Senator Murkowski, I want to thank you for your longtime support of Dreamers and your partnership in this important bipartisan effort.\u201d\n\nThe Dream Act of 2025 would allow these young people to earn lawful permanent residence and eventually American citizenship if they:\n\nCame to the U.S. as children and are without lawful status;\n\nGraduate from high school or obtain a GED;\n\nPursue higher education, work lawfully for at least three years, or serve in the military;\n\nPass security and law enforcement background checks and pay a reasonable application fee;\n\nDemonstrate proficiency in the English language and a knowledge of United States history; and\n\nHave not committed a felony or other serious crimes and do not pose a threat to our country.\n\nDurbin has introduced the Dream Act every Congress since 2001 to give young immigrants the chance to earn U.S. citizenship. Nearly 2 million Dreamers live in our country today, and as of September 2024, roughly 530,000 people had active DACA status.\n\nSenator Padilla is a leading voice in Congress for providing long-term undocumented immigrants with pathways to citizenship or permanent legal residence. In September, Senators Padilla, Durbin, and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) led 38 Senate Democrats in pressing U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on the Trump Administration\u2019s wrongful targeting of DACA recipients in its cruel mass deportation scheme. Padilla previously introduced legislation to expand a pathway to lawful permanent residency for millions of long-term U.S. residents, including Dreamers. As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and mass deportation assaults intensified in Los Angeles, Padilla marked the 13th anniversary of the DACA policy by urging Congress to take immediate action to deliver permanent protections for millions of families, parents, and individuals who are increasingly at risk amid President Trump\u2019s mass deportation agenda.\n\nVideo of Senator Padilla\u2019s remarks at today\u2019s press conference is available here and can be downloaded here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-mullin-bill-strengthening-cybersecurity-for-the-988-suicide-crisis-lifeline-signed-into-law/", "Padilla, Mullin Bill Strengthening Cybersecurity for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Signed Into Law", "2025-12-02", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), co-founder of the Senate Mental Health Caucus, announced that his bipartisan legislation to strengthen the cybersecurity protocols for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline was signed into law. The 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act became law as part of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act, which reauthorizes key public health programs focused on prevention, treatment, and recovery for patients with substance use disorder.\n\nThe bill comes in response to previous outages that resulted in a day-long 988 Lifeline outage for those in crisis. Padilla led the bipartisan legislation alongside U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.).\n\n\u201cPeople calling the 988 Lifeline shouldn\u2019t be met with disruptions or service outages when struggling with life-threatening mental health issues,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cWith our bipartisan bill becoming law, we can better identify and prevent cyberattacks so people in crisis have access to the Lifeline whenever they need it. I will keep working across the aisle to tear down the stigma surrounding mental health and provide lifesaving support for people suffering in silence.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m grateful to President Trump for his continued support in our critical efforts to strengthen cybersecurity measures for the 988 Lifeline. Suicide is a heartbreaking tragedy, and every life lost is one too many. This bill will keep the lifeline secure to ensure that those experiencing a mental health crisis have access to the resources and support they need when they need it most,\u201d said Senator Mullin. \u201cThough our bill crossed the finish line today, our fight against suicide and the mission to increase awareness, continues.\u201d\n\nSince its launch in July of 2022, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has been contacted over 16.5 million times. The Lifeline\u2019s services are critically important and must stay secure. The cyberattack on the 988 Lifeline in December of 2022 exposed vulnerabilities in the system where individuals who tried to call the suicide prevention hotline were instead greeted with a recorded message informing them of the service outage.\n\nSpecifically, Padilla and Mullin\u2019s 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act will increase coordination with the Chief Information Security Officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to better protect the 988 Lifeline from cybersecurity attacks and to eliminate known vulnerabilities. The Lifeline\u2019s network administrator will also be required to notify the government of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents within 24 hours of discovery. Lastly, the Government Accountability Office will be required to conduct a study evaluating cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities in the 988 system.\n\nThe 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act is supported by the following groups: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Psychiatric Association, Crisis Text Line, Inseparable, Mental Health America, Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, National Alliance on Mental Illness, The Jed Foundation, and Vibrant Emotional Health.\n\nLast year, Padilla applauded the Federal Communications Commission\u2019s adoption of his bipartisan Local 9-8-8 Response Act of 2023, making critical improvements to the 988 Lifeline to help callers access localized, lifesaving behavioral health resources.\n\nAny person in crisis and in need of help can dial 9-8-8 to reach free and confidential professional support 24/7 or can visit 988lifeline.org/chat/ to start a free and confidential conversation. Click here to learn more about the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-davids-lead-88-lawmakers-in-urging-protection-of-electric-vehicle-investments-in-bipartisan-surface-transportation-negotiations/", "Padilla, Davids Lead 88 Lawmakers in Urging Protection of Electric Vehicle Investments in Bipartisan Surface Transportation Negotiations", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Representative Sharice Davids (D-Kan.-03) led 88 lawmakers in pushing Senate Environment and Public Works and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leadership to protect electric vehicle (EV) investments while reauthorizing bipartisan surface transportation legislation.\n\nThe lawmakers reaffirmed their commitment to supporting a similar bipartisan surface transportation process to the historic passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, but they stressed that the reauthorization cannot truly be bipartisan if it furthers the Administration\u2019s attacks on electric vehicles. Since taking office, the Trump Administration has sought to dismantle federal EV programs, including freezing the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program and rolling back other Congressionally authorized initiatives.\n\nThe lawmakers emphasized that bipartisan programs like NEVI, the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) discretionary grant program, the Carbon Reduction Program, the Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities (RTEPF) program, and the Low or No Emission Grant Program (Low No) expand consumer choice, create American jobs, lower costs, and strengthen U.S. competitiveness. They warned that undermining EV programs puts significant economic and workforce gains at risk, while undermining long-term planning and ceding progress on EVs to China.\n\n\u201cThe Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) represented a historic investment in strengthening and building out our national infrastructure. We have a unique opportunity to not only reauthorize this foundation but bolster many of the highly popular and effective transportation programs authorized by the IIJA,\u201d wrote the lawmakers. \u201cAttempts to eliminate investments in cleaner transportation run counter to the cooperative spirit this process depends on. While we understand that reforms may be necessary and that legislating inherently requires compromise, we urge you to ensure that this reauthorization process does not take a partisan tenor replete with extraordinary attempts to undercut zero-emission technologies, investments, and American innovation.\u201d\n\n\u201cEliminating dedicated investments in EV and alternative fueling technologies would represent a departure from the bipartisan cooperation that has always driven surface transportation legislation,\u201d concluded the lawmakers. \u201cWe remain committed to advancing American transportation innovation, safety, and excellence, and we hope the reauthorization process will maintain that same spirit of partnership.\u201d\n\nMore than $200 billion has been invested in domestic EV manufacturing capacity since 2022, expected to create over 160,000 jobs across the country in charging manufacturing alone. These investments have been made on a bipartisan basis: 22 of the 25 Congressional districts with the greatest share of EV manufacturing capacity investment are represented by Republicans. In California, the zero-emission vehicle industry supports over 70,000 jobs across more than 360 companies.\n\nIn addition to Padilla and Davids, the letter was also signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), as well as Representatives Gabe Amo (D-R.I.-01), Becca Balint (D-Vt.-AL), Nanette Barrag\u00e1n (D-Calif.-44), Ami Bera (D-Calif.-06), Don Beyer (D-Va.-08), Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.-02), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.-26), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), Andr\u00e9 Carson (D-Ind.-07), Sean Casten (D-Ill.-06), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.-14), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.-05), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.-09), Jim Costa (D-Calif.-21), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.-04), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.-01), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.-01), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.-17), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.-10), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas-37), Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.-03), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.-03), Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.-04), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.-30), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.-10), John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08), Jes\u00fas \u201cChuy\u201d Garc\u00eda (D-Ill.-04), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.-42), Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.-10), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.-02), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.-05), Val Hoyle (D-Ore.-04), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.-01), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-51), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), Henry \u201cHank\u201d Johnson (D-Ga.-04), Greg Landsman (D-Ohio-01), Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.-02), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.-07), Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.-15), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.-12), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.-AL), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.-05), Chris Pappas (D-N.H.-01), Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01), Nellie Pou (D-N.J.-09), Deborah Ross (D-N.C.-02), Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.-03), Kim Schrier (D-Wash.-08), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.-12), Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.-17), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.-14), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.-13), Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.-02), Dina Titus (D-Nev.-01), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.-20), Derek Tran (D-Calif.-45), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.-12), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.-05), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.-24).\n\nCALSTART and the Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) expressed their strong support of the lawmakers\u2019 letter.\n\n\u201cThe Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act delivered transformative investments to accelerate the low- and no-emission vehicle industry. These investments have created jobs, improved public health, and strengthened the global competitiveness of the U.S. transportation sector as advanced vehicle technologies rapidly grow worldwide,\u201d said CALSTART Head of Policy, Trisha DelloIacono. \u201cWe applaud the congressional leaders who signed this letter and who recognize the need to build on the progress initiated in 2021. These members understand that continued investment in a diverse mix of fueling and vehicle technologies is essential to maintaining \u2013 and expanding \u2013 America\u2019s share of the global transportation market. CALSTART looks forward to working with Congress as this legislation advances and to ensuring members understand the importance of including electrification funding in the next infrastructure package.\u201d\n\n\u201cNegotiations for the surface reauthorization bill have a long history of bipartisan collaboration that has resulted in many popular programs and initiatives to modernize and advance transportation in the United States,\u201d said Albert Gore, Executive Director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association. \u201cThis has included creating an investment-friendly environment that has resulted in billions of dollars worth of investment in our nation\u2019s EV and battery supply chains that are expected to create more than 160,000 new manufacturing jobs. It has also included investments in our nation\u2019s infrastructure to expand the charging network and help millions of drivers choose electric transportation. As members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure move forward with negotiations for the upcoming bill to reauthorize surface transportation programs, we appreciate this letter highlighting the importance of continued public policy to support ongoing investment in the U.S. and the drivers that are choosing alternative drivetrains.\u201d\n\nEarlier this year, Senator Padilla joined all Democratic members of the Committee in demanding answers from Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy about the abrupt cutoff of funds for the NEVI Formula Program, illegally jeopardizing $384 million for critical zero-emission vehicle infrastructure along California\u2019s highways.\n\nSenator Padilla has consistently fought to reduce emissions across the transportation and freight sectors. Last year, Padilla successfully pushed the Biden Administration to launch a National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy to guide the national deployment of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty freight transportation vehicle (ZE-MHDV) charging and fueling infrastructure, which followed his efforts to call on the Joint Office to prioritize the deployment of ZE-MHDV as part of its core mission. Since 2024, Senator Padilla has announced over $440 million for zero-emission vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure from the CFI grant program. In 2023, Padilla, Senator Booker, and Representative Barrag\u00e1n introduced the bicameral EVs for All Act, legislation that would increase access to zero-emission vehicles for residents of public housing across the nation.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Chair Capito, Ranking Member Whitehouse, Chairman Graves and Ranking Member Larsen,\n\nAs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee develop the surface transportation reauthorization bill, we write to reaffirm our commitment to the bipartisan collaboration these committees are known for. At the same time, we want to make clear that a reauthorization bill that undermines critical investments in zero-emission vehicles and associated charging and fueling infrastructure would not meet the standard of bipartisan cooperation that has always driven surface transportation legislation. This process should begin with upholding the agreements made in the last authorization bill and safeguard congressionally authorized and appropriated funding from rescission, reprogramming, or impoundment \u2013 particularly when it comes to vehicle electrification programs.\n\nThe Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) represented a historic investment in strengthening and building out our national infrastructure. We have a unique opportunity to not only reauthorize this foundation but bolster many of the highly popular and effective transportation programs authorized by the IIJA. Attempts to eliminate investments in cleaner transportation run counter to the cooperative spirit this process depends on. While we understand that reforms may be necessary and that legislating inherently requires compromise, we urge you to ensure that this reauthorization process does not take a partisan tenor replete with extraordinary attempts to undercut zero-emission technologies, investments, and American innovation.\n\nPrograms like the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) discretionary grant program, the Carbon Reduction Program, the Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities (RTEPF), and the Low or No Emission Grant Program (Low No) were the product of bipartisan negotiation. They expand consumer choice, reduce costs, and strengthen U.S. leadership in transportation technology. None of these programs or the projects they fund constitute a mandate. In fact, programs like NEVI and CFI provide the roadway infrastructure needed to refuel or recharge advanced vehicles, enabling consumers to choose vehicles that best meet their needs without being constrained by range anxiety or refueling gaps. The CFI program in particular supports refueling infrastructure for a range of technologies, including hydrogen, electric, natural gas, and propane. Eliminating or repurposing funding for these programs would undercut the multi-year bipartisan surface reauthorization process, which is essential to giving states and localities the stability they need to plan long-term infrastructure projects. That stability is lost when Congress cedes its constitutional powers to the Executive Branch.\n\nFederal investments in electric vehicles (EVs) have also created well-paying American manufacturing, construction, and maintenance jobs, reinforced by the existing strong Build America, Buy America requirements. Since 2022, more than $200 billion has been invested in domestic EV manufacturing capacity. Notably, 22 of the 25 congressional districts with the greatest share of this investment are represented by Republicans. These projects are expected to create over 160,000 jobs in charging manufacturing alone. Stripping financial support for the infrastructure that sustains these industries jeopardizes both the success of these investments and the economic mobility of our constituents. Moreover, abandoning these commitments cedes the industries of the future to China and undermines American competitiveness in the global economy.\n\nWe urge your committees to approach surface transportation negotiations collaboratively, incorporating and standing by key priorities from both sides of the aisle. However, eliminating dedicated investments in EV and alternative fueling technologies would represent a departure from the bipartisan cooperation that has always driven surface transportation legislation. We remain committed to advancing American transportation innovation, safety, and excellence, and we hope the reauthorization process will maintain that same spirit of partnership.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/ranking-members-padilla-durbin-raskin-jayapal-trump-admin-too-cowardly-to-defend-shocking-decision-to-abandon-refugees/", "Ranking Members Padilla, Durbin, Raskin, Jayapal: Trump Admin Too Cowardly to Defend Shocking Decision to Abandon Refugees", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, issued the following statement after Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. refused to meet their legal obligation to consult with Congress on the Administration\u2019s refugee admissions plan \u2014 sending deputies to stage a charade consultation instead:\n\n\u201c51 days after the legal deadline, the Trump Administration today came to Capitol Hill in response to our monthslong demands that they follow the law and consult with Congress on their refugee admissions plan.\n\n\u201cIt is outrageous that Secretaries Noem, Rubio, and Kennedy were too cowardly to come before us and explain their shocking decision to abandon nearly 130,000 vetted, approved refugees facing persecution and violence abroad. Instead, they sent their deputies, in brazen violation of the law which explicitly requires a consultation by \u2018Cabinet-level representatives of the President.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Trump Secretaries ignored their legal obligations to face us because their policy is indefensible. It is impossible to defend leaving desperate families \u2014 men, women, and children who were promised a lifeline \u2014 twisting in the winds of global violence. It is impossible to justify a policy that abandons America\u2019s historic commitment to offering safe harbor to the persecuted. Trump\u2019s team has slashed refugee admissions to the lowest level in our nation\u2019s history and reserved the bulk of the few remaining slots for white South African Afrikaners. They didn\u2019t show up because their betrayal is unspeakable.\n\n\u201cThe U.S. Refugee Resettlement program has always been a bipartisan matter of pride for our country, and a critically important tool in our toolbox for achieving multiple goals that are critically important to American interests. The destruction of the program will hurt our humanitarian and diplomacy efforts for decades to come.\n\n\u201cAfter months of evasion, diversion, and invoking the Republican shutdown as an alibi, the Administration thought they\u2019d pacify us with more disrespect for the law. They were sorely mistaken.\n\n\u201cThe Secretaries couldn\u2019t be bothered to come to Congress today, but they should at least learn the route: they\u2019ll be spending plenty of time here when Democrats retake the gavel.\u201d\n\nLast month, Padilla, Durbin, Raskin, and Jayapal slammed the Trump Administration\u2019s decision to slash refugee admissions to 7,500 \u2014 almost entirely limited to white Afrikaners from South Africa \u2014 without the legally required consultation with Congress. In September, the lawmakers blasted the Trump Administration\u2019s blatant violation of federal law in refusing to consult Congress on refugee admissions.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-passes-padilla-schiff-resolution-congratulating-los-angeles-dodgers-on-back-to-back-world-series-championships/", "Senate Passes Padilla, Schiff Resolution Congratulating Los Angeles Dodgers on Back-to-Back World Series Championships", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) announced that the Senate unanimously passed their resolution congratulating the Los Angeles Dodgers on their World Series victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, their second straight championship and third in the past six years. The resolution applauds the Dodgers\u2019 historic championship run, becoming the first team in 25 years to earn back-to-back World Series titles.\n\nThe resolution celebrates the dedication and teamwork of the entire Dodgers roster and staff who made their comeback Game 7 World Series victory possible. It specifically highlights the contributions of World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Yoshinobu Yamamoto, National League Championship Series MVP Shohei Ohtani, Game 7 heroes Will Smith and Miguel Rojas, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.\n\n\u201cIn a season defined by grit, the Dodgers closed out a historic championship run with an instant Game 7 classic that will echo through baseball forever,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cFrom global superstars like Shohei and Yamamoto to unsung heroes like Miggy Ro and Will Klein, every single player played a pivotal role in cementing a Dodgers dynasty to keep Los Angeles atop the baseball world. Congratulations to Dave Roberts and the entire Dodgers organization on earning their third title in six years and giving Angelenos a lifetime of memories to cherish.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor the second year in a row, the Dodgers are World Champions, and in this year\u2019s World Series, the Boys in the Blue fought hard and proved their championship mettle. Thank you to the players, coaches, and staff for a season we\u2019ll never forget and for pouring your hearts and soul into the game. The Dodgers have once again given Angelenos countless memories to celebrate, and with this resolution, we honor their tremendous accomplishments,\u201d said Senator Schiff.\n\nThe Dodgers\u2019 victory in Game 7 of the World Series marked the ninth World Series championship for the Dodgers franchise and their eighth title since moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958. The team won their 12th National League West Division title in the last 13 seasons before defeating the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays en route to their World Series title.\n\nFull text of the resolution is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-booker-call-on-dhs-to-provide-information-on-hiring-standards-and-training-protocols-for-newly-hired-ice-agents/", "Padilla, Booker Call on DHS to Provide Information on Hiring Standards and Training Protocols for Newly Hired ICE Agents", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, demanded answers from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leadership on the hiring standards and training protocols for newly hired ICE agents. The Senators argued that by significantly lowering hiring and training standards for new federal agents, the Administration has already compromised the integrity, professionalism, or operational readiness of the federal immigration law enforcement workforce.\n\nIn their letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott, the Senators pushed for answers on DHS\u2019 changes to its hiring and training policies to rebuild the public\u2019s trust and ensure integrity in law enforcement.\n\n\u201cThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bears full responsibility for ensuring that every individual placed in a position of federal authority has undergone thorough vetting, comprehensive training, and is subject to robust oversight. The authority to detain and use force, including, in extreme circumstances, deadly force, is not a game, and it is not a performance,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cDeploying personnel who lack the qualifications and training long required of federal officers all but guarantees breaches of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory obligations, threatens public safety and civil rights, endangers officers, risks repeating historical abuses of federal power, and undermines the legitimacy of law enforcement and democracy.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn addition to lowering hiring standards, public reports of misconduct among current officers call into question the Department\u2019s ability to adequately train thousands of new hires on an accelerated timeline. American citizens and noncitizens alike are already experiencing the consequences of DHS\u2019s undermining of accountability and failure to maintain even basic professional standards,\u201d continued the Senators.\n\nReporting last month indicated that ICE dismissed more than 200 newly hired recruits after they failed to meet even the newly lowered hiring requirements. Many of these issues arose during training after many of the recruits admitted that they had not been fingerprinted or drug tested. This revelation raises concerns that other recruits already on the job were not properly vetted, threatening public safety.\n\nSenators Booker and Padilla demanded answers to a series of questions regarding the Department\u2019s vetting, training, and supervision protocols for all current, newly hired, and reassigned personnel so that Congress can assess whether DHS is meeting its constitutional obligations.\n\n\u201cDHS has a duty to ensure that all officers \u2014 both new and currently in service \u2014 are properly trained, effectively supervised, and held accountable for their actions. In only months, DHS\u2019s failure to meet its obligations has tarnished the reputation of federal law enforcement, endangered and victimized the public, and eroded public trust in the rule of law. This is unacceptable, and DHS must act swiftly to correct these failures, uphold the rule of law, and respect the Constitutional rights of all people in America,\u201d concluded the Senators.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda, including against his unprecedented, illegal militarization of Los Angeles and other American cities. Yesterday, Padilla walked out of Senate Republicans\u2019 unserious subcommittee hearing entitled \u201cICE Under Fire: The Radical Left\u2019s Crusade Against Immigration Enforcement,\u201d in protest of the Trump Administration\u2019s violent immigration enforcement actions across the country. In July, Padilla and Senator Booker introduced the VISIBLE Act to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Noem, Acting Director Lyons, and Commissioner Scott,\n\nWe write regarding the surge in hiring of thousands of new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers by the end of 2025. Given the magnitude and pace of this expansion of federal law enforcement forces, we are seeking information on the hiring standards and training protocols in place to ensure that this rapid expansion does not compromise the integrity, professionalism, or readiness of the federal immigration law enforcement workforce. Of particular concern is the potential deployment of inadequately trained or insufficiently vetted enforcement officers in cities across the country.\n\nThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bears full responsibility for ensuring that every individual placed in a position of federal authority has undergone thorough vetting, comprehensive training, and is subject to robust oversight. The authority to detain and use force, including, in extreme circumstances, deadly force, is not a game, and it is not a performance.\n\nDeploying personnel who lack the qualifications and training long required of federal officers all but guarantees breaches of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory obligations, threatens public safety and civil rights, endangers officers, risks repeating historical abuses of federal power, and undermines the legitimacy of law enforcement and democracy.\n\nFor decades, federal law enforcement officers have been held to the highest eligibility standards, often exceeding those of state and local agencies, and have undergone a stringent vetting process. Once hired, they have received extensive training to ensure they meet baseline performance standards required for law enforcement. By all accounts, since the beginning of this year, DHS, ICE, and CBP have dropped the eligibility criteria and training requirements to dangerously low levels, creating the potential for a poorly trained force consisting of thousands of new officers, deployed in communities across America, with the legal authority to use deadly force. Last month, reports indicated that more than 200 newly hired recruits were dismissed after failing to meet ICE\u2019s own hiring requirements. Many of the issues surfaced during training only after the recruits admitted during training that they had not been fingerprinted or drug tested, raising the alarming possibility that individuals who did not disclose such lapses may already be on the job. This amounts to government malpractice that endangers public safety.\n\nSince January, the Administration has significantly expanded ICE and CBP operations, deploying officers to communities nationwide to locate and deport noncitizens. More than 70 percent of detained noncitizens have no criminal record, and many were actively engaged in the process to legalize their status. ICE and CBP personnel have been further supplemented by agents diverted from other federal agencies that do not conduct immigration enforcement. However, the Administration\u2019s quota of 3,000 arrests per day \u2013 in addition to fueling indiscriminate arrests of immigrants \u2013 has created a demand for thousands more officers. To fulfill this \u201cmission,\u201d ICE has received $170.1 billion for immigration enforcement and the hiring of 10,000 officers under the Republican spending bill deceptively titled the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act,\u201d making it the highest funded federal law enforcement agency in history. This infusion of funds has seemingly triggered a hiring frenzy that raises serious concerns about DHS\u2019s recruitment standards and training protocols. In August, Secretary Noem announced that ICE planned to end all age restrictions by changing the minimum age for ICE agents from 21 years old to just 18 years old, a move widely criticized as reckless and politically motivated.\n\nIn addition to lowering hiring standards, public reports of misconduct among current officers call into question the Department\u2019s ability to adequately train thousands of new hires on an accelerated timeline. American citizens and noncitizens alike are already experiencing the consequences of DHS\u2019s undermining of accountability and failure to maintain even basic professional standards. In September, an ICE officer violently threw a woman to the ground at a New York immigration court. Although he was placed on administrative leave pending investigation, he was back in the field within days and faced no disciplinary action. Just weeks later, ICE officers grabbed and shoved journalists reporting from a hallway outside a New York City immigration court, hospitalizing one of the journalists. Poor training has also jeopardized federal law enforcement officers. In October, an ICE officer discharged their firearm, injuring two people including a United States Marshal. These incidents reveal systemic deficiencies that necessitate immediate and comprehensive review and reform to prevent endangering the public. They also raise questions about the effectiveness of supervisory structure, training of supervisors themselves, and the robustness of accountability systems to address misconduct. It is imperative to ensure that officers, particularly those hired under diminishing standards, are not granted unchecked authority to use unnecessary and excessive force or physical aggression.\n\nRather than prioritizing comprehensive training and effective supervision, the Department reportedly is cutting corners and loosening its training requirements. In August, ICE ended its five-week mandatory in-person Spanish language course in favor of unspecified translation technologies. On August 8, Secretary Noem suggested DHS plans to open new training centers in cities across the country to meet the demand created by the unprecedented influx of new recruits that cannot, despite DHS\u2019s claims to the contrary, be met by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. ICE leadership has also suggested that the agency is exploring additional ways to streamline training in its rush to deploy new recruits into the field. Alarmingly, while ICE officers previously received nearly five months of training, reports indicate they now receive just 47 days, a number chosen for its symbolic connection to President Trump being the 47th President, not any legitimate law enforcement metric to assess. This failure to adequately train officers strongly suggests that the Department is demonstrating deliberate indifference to the rights and safety of the individuals with whom ICE officers interact.\n\nThe credibility of ICE and CBP as law enforcement agencies depends on the quality and professionalism of their officers. Strong recruitment standards and rigorous training are essential not only to prepare officers for the challenges of the job but also to foster public confidence in the agency\u2019s mission. We urge your agencies to commit to the highest possible standards for all officers, both newly hired and already in the field, and particularly for officer recruitment and training. Accordingly, we request detailed responses to the questions below regarding the Department\u2019s vetting, training, and supervision protocols for all newly hired or reassigned personnel within 14 days, so that Congress can assess whether DHS is meeting its constitutional obligations. For each question, please provide information for recruit training and in-service training.\n\n1. What specific changes have been made to the eligibility requirements for new ICE and CBP officers, and what is the rationale for those changes?\n\n2. Have minimum educational or prior law enforcement experience requirements been altered, and if so, how? What is the rationale for those changes?\n\n3. Have drug testing standards been modified, and if so, how? What is the rationale for those changes?\n\n4. Have ICE or CBP changed the social media screening practices for applicants? Do social media screening practices include looking for and excluding applicants who hold any extremist views? Please describe the screening process and factors that may disqualify an applicant.\n\n5. What modifications have been made to the training curriculum, and how do they differ from prior standards? Please specify the topics covered, changes to the training modules, including method of delivery, and the total duration of the training prior to and after the hiring surge.\n\n6. What on-the-job training with a field officer did new recruits receive prior to the hiring surge? Under the hiring surge, do new recruits still receive this training?\n\n7. What training or other resources have replaced the formerly mandatory five-week Spanish language course to ensure effective communication between officers and individuals who speak Spanish?\n\n8. Please describe the existing training program for any ICE contractors who directly interact with detained people. Include details on the topics covered, training modules, including method of delivery, and the total duration of the training.\n\n9. Are there proposals to streamline the training for these contractors? If so, please describe those proposals and provide the rationale for the changes proposed.\n\n10. What specific changes have been made to metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of ICE and CBP officer training, and what is the rationale for these changes?\n\n11. How will you ensure that any recent changes to performance and training metrics do not compromise officer preparedness or public safety?\n\n12. What training do ICE and CBP provide to employees from other federal agencies reassigned to immigration enforcement operations? When are these employees required to complete such training? Include details on the topics covered, training modules, including method of delivery, and the total duration of the training.\n\n13. For each of the following topics, (i) confirm whether officers from other federal law enforcement agencies assigned or reassigned to immigration enforcement receive training related to that topic; (ii) provide the number of hours of required training; and (iii) identify the platform on which these trainings will be delivered (e.g., classroom, scenario-based, virtual):\n\n1. Constitutional law\n\n2. Immigration law\n\n3. Criminal law\n\n4. Investigations\n\n5. Witness interviews\n\n6. Interactions with youth\n\n7. Report writing\n\n8. First aid and safety training\n\n9. Crisis intervention\n\n10. Firearms\n\n11. Use of force\n\n12. Deescalation\n\n13. First amendment protected activity\n\n14. Stops, searches, and arrests\n\n15. Misconduct reporting\n\nThis Administration has been actively flaunting an aggressive, militarized approach to immigration enforcement, sending the message that it can use federal force against communities with impunity. At the center of this effort are thousands of officers who appear to lack the professionalism, tactical skill, and judgment required of federal law enforcement, yet have been given broad authority to operate unchecked, while the Department ramps up recruitment and hiring of an unprecedented number of new officers. DHS has a duty to ensure that all officers \u2013 both new and currently in service \u2013are properly trained, effectively supervised, and held accountable for their actions. In only months, DHS\u2019s failure to meet its obligations has tarnished the reputation of federal law enforcement, endangered and victimized the public, and eroded public trust in the rule of law. This is unacceptable, and DHS must act swiftly to correct these failures, uphold the rule of law, and respect the Constitutional rights of all people in America.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-huffman-denounce-trump-administrations-plan-to-sell-off-californias-pristine-coastline/", "Padilla, Huffman Denounce Trump Administration\u2019s Plan to Sell Off California\u2019s Pristine Coastline", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Draft proposal seeks six California lease sales despite clear legal limits and decades of bipartisan coastal protections\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02) released the following statement condemning the Trump Administration\u2019s draft 2027-2032 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. The plan proposes opening vast swaths of previously protected federal waters \u2014 including the California coast \u2014 to new oil and gas drilling for the first time in over 40 years.\n\n\u201cWith this draft plan, Donald Trump and his Administration are trying to destroy one of the most valuable, most protected coastlines in the world and hand it over to the fossil fuel industry.\n\n\u201cThey didn\u2019t listen to Californians. They didn\u2019t listen to communities up and down the West Coast. Instead, Trump wants to take a wrecking ball to our communities while trampling over anyone who stands between him and what billionaires demand.\n\n\u201cThese lease areas are not only irreplaceable, but allowing drilling in these areas would undermine military readiness and pose risks to national security. But Trump doesn\u2019t care. Californians remember every spill, every dead dolphin and sea otter, every fishing season wrecked by contamination. We built stronger, cleaner, more resilient coastal communities \u2014 and a burgeoning $1.7 trillion coastal economy \u2014 in spite of all that. And we\u2019re not going to stand by and watch it get destroyed by Trump\u2019s oil and gas pet projects.\n\n\u201cThis plan targets California and the whole West Coast because they think we will roll over. They are wrong. We\u2019re going to fight this with everything we have.\u201d\n\nThe Trump Administration\u2019s draft 2027 to 2032 Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing plan released on November 20 marks the most aggressive push in decades to open all of the California coast to oil and gas drilling.\n\nThe proposal includes six lease sales off California between 2027 and 2030, the first attempt to drill in these waters in more than 40 years. This move directly targets areas President Biden withdrew from future leasing in January 2025, when he protected 625 million acres in the Pacific, Atlantic, Eastern Gulf, and Arctic. Trump tried to wipe out those protections on his first day back in office, repeating the same maneuver a federal court rejected in 2017 when he attempted to undo President Obama\u2019s Arctic and Atlantic withdrawals.\n\nSenator Padilla and Representative Huffman have been leading the charge against offshore oil and gas leases. Last month, Padilla and Huffman led over 100 lawmakers in demanding President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum immediately cease any plans to open new offshore oil and gas leases in U.S. federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the Arctic Ocean and northern Bering Sea off of Alaska, and in the Eastern Gulf.\n\nOn Earth Day, Padilla and Huffman, along with Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Representative Frank Pallone (D-N.J.-06), announced a pair of bills to permanently protect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from the dangers of fossil fuel drilling. Padilla and Huffman\u2019s West Coast Ocean Protection Act would permanently prohibit new oil and gas leases for offshore drilling off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington. In 2021, Senator Padilla joined West Coast Senators in calling on Senate leadership to include the West Coast Ocean Protection Act in the Senate version of the budget reconciliation bill after an estimated 126,000 gallons of oil spilled off the coast of California.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-joins-bill-to-repeal-senate-republicans-cash-grab-in-government-funding-bill/", "Padilla Joins Bill to Repeal Senate Republicans\u2019 Cash Grab in Government Funding Bill", "2025-11-19", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, joined Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and 25 other Senate colleagues in introducing the Anti-Cash Grab Act, legislation that would repeal a provision \u2014 quietly added into the Senate government funding bill at the last minute by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) \u2014 that allows certain Senate Republicans to sue to collect taxpayer funds from the Department of Justice (DOJ). This secretive provision could enable some Senators to sue to collect $500,000 for each instance in which DOJ acquired their phone records during lawful investigations.\n\nThese provisions will specifically benefit eight Republican Senators, each of whom could collect at least $1 million in taxpayer money.\n\n\u201cAs Americans across the country struggled to feed their families and saw their health care costs skyrocket, Senate Republicans were trying to line their pockets with taxpayer funds,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cPresident Trump and his allies are turning the Justice Department into their personal ATM while turning a blind eye to working families. We cannot allow these Senate Republicans to carry out their cash grab behind closed doors.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhile Democrats were fighting to make health care more affordable and help working families put food on the table, Senate Republicans were focused on taxpayer-funded windfalls for themselves. Let\u2019s be crystal clear: negotiating a $500,000 windfall for yourself while refusing to help everyday Americans is wrong and deserves to be called out,\u201d said Senator Heinrich. \u201cOur bill is about accountability, transparency, and fighting for working families. The Senate must take this bill up and pass it now.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhile we were fighting to lower health care costs and keep food on the table for hardworking Americans, Senate Republicans were slipping a taxpayer-funded payout for themselves into the government funding bill,\u201d said Senator Kelly. \u201cIt\u2019s a political cash grab \u2014 plain and simple, and our bill puts an end to it. Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree that ripping off American taxpayers is bad policy.\u201d\n\nSpecifically, the Anti-Cash Grab Act:\n\nRepeals section 213 of division C of the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026.\n\nRemoves a private right of action allowing Senators to retroactively collect $500,000 or more for data that federal investigators legally obtained.\n\nBlocks millions in taxpayer-funded cash kickbacks to Senate Republicans.\n\nThis bill does not preclude making legitimate reforms to notification requirements regarding Senate data in future, separate legislation.\n\nIn addition to Senator Padilla, the Anti-Cash Grab Act is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nA one-pager on the bill is available here.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-walks-out-of-sham-immigration-subcommittee-hearing-on-attacks-by-the-radical-left/", "WATCH: Padilla Walks Out of Sham Immigration Subcommittee Hearing on Attacks by the \u201cRadical Left\u201d", "2025-11-19", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, spoke at Senate Republicans\u2019 subcommittee hearing titled, \u201cICE Under Fire: The Radical Left\u2019s Crusade Against Immigration Enforcement.\u201d Padilla emphasized that violence against law enforcement is never acceptable, but Republicans\u2019 partisan hearing was an outrageous attempt to deflect from the Administration\u2019s consistent excessive use of force and racial profiling during immigration enforcement actions across the country, while parroting the Administration\u2019s unsubstantiated claims to justify President Trump\u2019s mass deportation agenda.\n\nWithout any government witnesses to testify or data to back up the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) claims of a large spike in assaults on its officers and agents, Padilla reiterated that the hearing was \u201cnot a serious attempt to protect law enforcement\u201d or conduct oversight. Padilla has submitted requests to DHS for months to back up their statements of a \u201c500%,\u201d \u201c1,000%,\u201d and now \u201c8,000%\u201d increase in assaults and death threats against their agents and officers, but DHS has refused to provide the underlying data.\n\nAt the same time, Padilla stressed that while DHS claims to be going after \u201cthe worst of the worst\u201d violent criminals, over 70 percent of those currently detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody have no criminal record. Yet ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continue violently abusing their power against individuals, including American citizens and hardworking long-term immigrants, in cities throughout the nation.\n\nVideo of Padilla\u2019s remarks before walking out of the hearing can be seen here and can be downloaded here.\n\nPadilla\u2019s full remarks, as delivered, are available below:\n\nGood afternoon, thank you Mr. Chairman.\n\nLet me first say that violence against law enforcement is never okay.\n\nI speak for all my Democratic colleagues on the committee and the Senate for that matter in saying so. Violence against law enforcement is never okay.\n\nAnd I will continue to emphasize that as we have in the past, we will today, and in the future if for no other reason because many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle suggest and accuse Democrats of believing otherwise.\n\nBut for today\u2019s hearing, let me begin with a very simple question: Why are we here?\n\nAre we here truly to conduct oversight and find ways to actually improve the situation and public safety in our communities? Or are we simply here to throw more fuel on the political fire?\n\nToday\u2019s hearing title tells us all we need to know: \u201cThe Radical Left\u2019s Crusade Against Immigration Enforcement.\u201d\n\nThat doesn\u2019t exactly set the stage for a productive, serious conversation about how we both protect law enforcement officials and improve public safety.\n\nIt\u2019s the title of the next exercise in Republican political theater. That\u2019s really what\u2019s happening here.\n\nSo let me once again say that violence against law enforcement is never okay.\n\nBut I refuse to sit back as this committee attempts to use or condone the use of law enforcement as a shield for abuses of power by this Administration.\n\nIf today\u2019s hearing was indeed a serious effort to protect our law enforcement, we would have government witnesses testifying before us today and fielding our questions as a committee.\n\nBut that\u2019s not the case.\n\nIf today\u2019s hearing was a serious effort, those government witnesses would be providing facts and data behind the numbers that the Department of Homeland Security so often cites to claim an increase in assaults on its officers and agents.\n\nBut even after repeated requests, months and months of request from my office and from others to the Department of Homeland Security to back up their claims of \u2014 is it \u201c500%?\u201d Is it \u201c1,000%?\u201d Now we\u2019re even hearing claims of up to \u201c8,000%\u201d increase in assaults or death threats \u2014 they have refused to provide them.\n\nMr. Chairman, you\u2019re very well aware of this. You and I discussed this last week. And as far as I can tell, they\u2019ve even refused your requests for data and statistics.\n\nWhy am I insisting on this? Why am I making this point?\n\nBecause that data is critical. Not only would it allow us to actually verify their claims, but that data would be critical to informing our policy response.\n\nSo no, today\u2019s hearing is not a serious attempt to protect law enforcement.\n\nIt\u2019s designed to fuel the propaganda machine and encourage even more brutal immigration enforcement operations.\n\nIt\u2019s designed to cover up for the fact that after President Trump pledged to go after the worst of the worst, this we do know from DHS statistics: over 70 percent of those currently detained in ICE custody have no criminal record.\n\nIf they were simply focused on those truly dangerous, violent criminals, there would be no objection, there would be no debate, there would be no discussion. But the reality is far from their claims.\n\nAt the same time, what we are seeing every day is new acts of brutality and misuse of force in communities across the country.\n\nBut my guess is that today, you won\u2019t be hearing about the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s violent take downs of peaceful, hardworking long-term immigrants who don\u2019t have that violent criminal record that the Administration wants you to believe.\n\nAnd I\u2019m not just making this up. There\u2019s case after case, including a deaf DACA recipient who had his hands cuffed and his phone taken away so he couldn\u2019t communicate as he was shoved into the back of a car.\n\nYou won\u2019t hear about the journalists who were threatened and assaulted, one so severely in New York they had to be hospitalized.\n\nYou won\u2019t hear about the clergy being shot in the head with a pepper ball or arrested for attempting to administer the sacrament of communion to the faithful at a detention facility.\n\nAnd you won\u2019t hear about the 170 American citizens \u2014 there\u2019s probably more, but that\u2019s what\u2019s been documented \u2014 caught up in these chaotic immigration raids. American citizens caught up in these raids.\n\nEven as Secretary Noem lies and \u2026 when she says that no American citizens have been detained, every week, we read new reports about another American who\u2019s had their neck kneeled on, their door blown off, or their window smashed, and even a pregnant woman in Florida \u2014 a United States citizen \u2014 who was thrown to the ground during an arrest, and who later miscarried. This is happening every day across the country.\n\nMasked agents have become so emboldened that even a Reagan-appointed federal judge recently wrote, and I\u2019ll quote: \u201cIn all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police \u2026 carrying on in this fashion.\u201d\n\nNow, this Administration ignores the fundamental rights to due process every day as it carries out this authoritarian enforcement agenda, and instead has replaced it with the idea that if you look or talk a certain way, that\u2019s enough for you to be detained or even deported before you have a day in court.\n\nThat\u2019s not just morally wrong; it\u2019s an attack on our fundamental liberties and the rule of law in the United States of America.\n\nBut again, Republicans don\u2019t want to discuss any of this. Why? Out of fear of crossing the President and his outrage machine.\n\nAmericans have had enough.\n\nThey\u2019re sick of masked agents disrespecting daycares, schools, and churches, disappearing loved ones, and intimidating our communities.\n\nAmericans are demanding that we do something.\n\nSo, Mr. Chairman, it\u2019s clear to me that this hearing will not be a serious or constructive conversation.\n\nAnd for that reason, I refuse to give oxygen to the fire of disinformation and propaganda that this hearing was set up to ignite.\n\nAnd I refuse to be part of this charade.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-merkley-schiff-wyden-demand-election-commissioner-correct-dangerous-voting-misinformation-or-resign/", "Padilla, Merkley, Schiff, Wyden Demand Election Commissioner Correct Dangerous Voting Misinformation or Resign", "2025-11-18", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senators to EAC Commissioner McCormick: \u201cIf you do not disavow these comments immediately, we urge you to resign your position to protect the integrity of the Commission and its important nonpartisan work.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) demanded that Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Commissioner Christy McCormick either rescind her dangerous and false statements about noncitizen voting or resign immediately. During a recent panel at the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute, McCormick spread a conspiracy theory that Democrats \u201cneed open borders, they need illegal citizens to increase their votes [\u2026] And this is why they\u2019re fighting so adamantly against us.\u201d\n\nThe EAC\u2019s stated mission is to \u201chelp election officials improve the administration of elections and help Americans participate in the voting process.\u201d However, President Trump has repeatedly tried to weaponize the agency through his illegal anti-voter executive order and other actions beyond Executive Branch authority, including his attempts to require burdensome documentary proof of citizenship, to unilaterally rewrite voting system standards, and to preclude states from counting mail-in ballots according to state law. The Senators condemned McCormick\u2019s abuse of her role on the bipartisan EAC to promote harmful, baseless misinformation that threatens election officials and the security of American elections.\n\n\u201cThis is deeply dangerous to voters, our election system, and more broadly to our democracy,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cEAC Commissioners carry an extra level of responsibility when speaking about election administration, and if you stand by your public statements about widespread voter fraud without any evidence, we urge you to resign immediately.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is completely unacceptable for an individual who was confirmed by the United States Senate to serve on a bipartisan commission with this mission to make inflammatory, false, and partisan claims of voter fraud conspiracy theories,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cThis rhetoric of significant noncitizen voting is used \u2014 without evidence \u2014 to advance false claims around the security of our elections and anyone who willingly espouses it both undermines election officials, sows distrust in our system and is regularly weaponized to further suppress eligible voters.\u201d\n\nContrary to McCormick\u2019s claims, voting by noncitizens is extremely rare and is already a federal crime punishable by up to one year in prison, as eligible voters must attest under penalty of perjury that they are citizens. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, but baseless accusations by President Trump and his allies have real consequences, including increased threats against local election workers.\n\nSenator Padilla has led the charge opposing President Trump\u2019s unlawful attempt at a Presidential power grab through his anti-voter executive order and weaponization of the EAC. Earlier this year, Padilla led 14 Democratic Senators in calling on President Trump to revoke his illegal executive order that would disenfranchise millions of Americans. Additionally, Padilla and U.S. Representative Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.-25) warned officials at the EAC about the dangerous implications for elections following President Trump\u2019s executive order purporting to bring independent regulatory agencies under total control of the White House.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Commissioner McCormick,\n\nWe write to condemn your October 29, 2025, remarks before the America First Policy Institute in which you claimed that Democratic opposition to restrictive voting laws is because \u201cThey need open borders, they need illegal citizens to increase their votes [\u2026] And this is why they\u2019re fighting so adamantly against us.\u201d These comments are indefensible and bring into question whether you are fit to serve as a commissioner on the Election Assistance Commission (EAC).\n\nThis is deeply dangerous to voters, our election system, and more broadly to our democracy. EAC Commissioners carry an extra level of responsibility when speaking about election administration, and if you stand by your public statements about widespread voter fraud without any evidence, we urge you to resign immediately.\n\nThe mission statement of the EAC states that it serves to \u201c[help] election officials improve the administration of elections and helps Americans participate in the voting process.\u201d It is completely unacceptable for an individual who was confirmed by the United States Senate to serve on a bipartisan commission with this mission to make inflammatory, false, and partisan claims of voter fraud conspiracy theories. This rhetoric of significant noncitizen voting is used \u2013 without evidence \u2013 to advance false claims around the security of our elections and anyone who willingly espouses it both undermines election officials, sows distrust in our system and is regularly weaponized to further suppress eligible voters.\n\nAs you know, voting by noncitizens is exceedingly rare, and there are already checks in place to ensure that noncitizens do not register to vote, as eligible voters attest to their citizenship under penalty of perjury and voting for noncitizens in federal elections is a federal crime, punishable by up to one year in prison. While the President and his allies continually repeat such false claims, and denies the outcome of the 2020 election, there is no evidence of significant voter fraud, including fraud involving noncitizen voters.\n\nOur opposition to efforts at the EAC to restrict voter access stems from the President\u2019s illegal attempts to exert authority over elections that the Executive Branch lacks under our constitution. Efforts to modify voter registration procedures to require burdensome documentary proof of citizenship, to direct your Commission to condition federal funds on compliance with registration of ballot counting procedures, to prevent states from counting mail ballots received after Election Day, or to direct voting system standards fall far outside of what the President is able to do and under the Elections Clause, clearly belong to Congress and the States to decide.\n\nAgain, it is unacceptable for an EAC Commissioner to make public statements amplifying partisan election conspiracy theories. If you do not disavow these comments immediately, we urge you to resign your position to protect the integrity of the Commission and its important nonpartisan work.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-announce-nearly-300-million-for-low-emission-california-commuter-buses/", "Padilla, Schiff Announce Nearly $300 Million for Low-Emission California Commuter Buses", "2025-11-18", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) announced that the Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded over $297 million to 24 California projects to help transition to low-emission bus models across the state. The funding comes through the Federal Transit Administration\u2019s (FTA) Low or No Emission (Low-No) grant program and Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities program. Padilla and Schiff supported the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law\u2019s substantial increase in funding for these programs.\n\nThe Low-No program helps transit agencies buy or lease U.S.-made low- or no-emission buses and make critical facility, station, and charging upgrades to facilitate this transition. The Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities program provides federal funding for transit agencies to buy and rehabilitate buses and vans and build and modernize bus facilities. California will receive $267.70 million from the Low-No program and $29.68 million from the Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities program.\n\n\u201cGrowing up in Pacoima, I experienced firsthand the harmful health and environmental impacts communities along busy transit corridors face from poor air quality,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cThis nearly $300 million investment in our transition to low-emission buses will improve public health and promote a cleaner commute for millions of Californians. Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, California commuters are benefiting from a more reliable, modernized, and sustainable transportation system.\u201d\n\n\u201cPutting new, clean air buses on California\u2019s streets will improve commutes, cut pollution, and enhance the quality of life for communities from Alameda to Yuba and all across our state. Even years after its passage, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is continuing to deliver for California,\u201d said Senator Schiff.\n\nRecipients of funding from the Low-No and Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities programs include:\n\nLivermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA) \u2014 $63.95 million for the LAVTA BIG BUS Project\n\nSan Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency \u2014 $39.80 million to procure 40-foot hybrid diesel electric motor coaches to replace an aging fleet\n\nSacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) \u2014 $39.67 million for the Revitalizing Sacramento\u2019s Transit Fleet Project\n\nSanta Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) \u2014 $20.31 million for the Fleet and Facility Modernization Project\n\nNorth County Transit District (NCTD) \u2014 $16.77 million for the Bus Replacement Project to Enhance Safety and Reliability\n\nCity of Fresno \u2014 $16.69 million for the FAX Bus and Bus Facilities Rehabilitation and Replacement Project\n\nCulver City Municipal Bus Lines \u2014 $14.45 million for the Culver City Bus Replacement Project\n\nYuba-Sutter Transit Authority \u2014 $12.71 million for the Next Generation Bus Operations, Maintenance and Administration Facility Project\n\nGolden Empire Transit District \u2014 $11.79 million for Advancing Sustainable Transit\n\nSan Joaquin Regional Transit District (RTD) \u2014 $10.33 million for the RTD\u2019s Low Emission Transition Project and Zero Emission Hydrogen Fuel Cell Station Expansion Project\n\nThe full list of awards for California is available here.\n\nSenator Padilla has championed the transition from diesel-powered buses to zero-emission vehicles, including through his bicameral Clean Commute For Kids Act. Last year, Padilla announced over $233 million for 16 California projects through the Low-No and Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities programs. He previously applauded over $184 million from the Low-No program and the FY 2023 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities program to support the transition to zero- and low-emission buses.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-curtis-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-create-first-ever-respiratory-protection-requirements-for-federal-firefighters/", "Padilla, Schiff, Curtis Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Create First-Ever Respiratory Protection Requirements for Federal Firefighters", "2025-11-17", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Federal firefighters were prohibited from wearing respiratory protections while fighting wildfires, this bill would create the first-of-its-kind standard to change that\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), co-chair of the bipartisan Senate Wildfire Caucus, joined Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and John Curtis (R-Utah.) in introducing the Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act, bipartisan legislation to create the first-ever respiratory protection standards for wildland firefighters.\n\nFor decades, federal firefighters were prohibited from wearing respiratory protection despite a growing body of evidence warning about long-term health risks of wildfire smoke. This bill would ensure the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) take long overdue steps to protect the health of these heroes. This legislation is also cosponsored by Senator Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.).\n\n\u201cWildland firefighters deploy in the most extreme conditions to combat wildfires, preserve vital ecosystems, and save lives. These heroic men and women should not be forced to face long-term illness or premature death due to smoke exposure on the job. Our bill ensures that firefighters are given the critical protective equipment they need to stay healthy during the long, grueling hours on the front lines protecting us all,\u201d said Senator Padilla.\n\n\u201cFirefighters are heroes, and it\u2019s critical that we do everything possible to ensure they\u2019re protected from the health risks associated with wildfires. I am proud to introduce this long-overdue bipartisan bill with my Senate colleagues to minimize the toxic exposures that firefighters face when they\u2019re bravely defending our communities and public lands. I\u2019m going to push for Congress to pass this commonsense proposal,\u201d said Senator Schiff.\n\n\u201cOur wildland firefighters already face some of the most grueling, dangerous conditions imaginable. The least we can do is ensure access to materials that will protect them from the long-term health consequences of breathing toxic smoke. This bill ensures we bring common sense, science, and basic decency to how we equip our firefighters,\u201d said Senator Curtis.\n\nFederal wildland firefighters often work 16-hour shifts in grueling conditions, inhaling toxic smoke. Despite this, federal wildland firefighters were prohibited from wearing respiratory protection despite evidence warning about health risks of wildfire smoke. Studies have shown exposure to wildfire smoke is linked to adverse health impacts, including more than a dozen kinds of cancer. The life expectancy of firefighters is 10 years less than the average adult due to lung damage.\n\nIn September 2025, USFS posted guidance acknowledging for the first time that respiratory protections can protect firefighters against harmful particles in wildfire smoke and reversing a decades-long rule that banned federal wildland firefighters from wearing respiratory protection while performing wildland firefighting activities. The legislation reinforces this action to ensure the agencies develop respiratory protections for firefighters.\n\nThe Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act specifically would:\n\nDirect USFS and DOI to work with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to develop appropriate respiratory protections that take into account the unique needs of wildland firefighters.\n\nDirect USFS and DOI to provide protection to wildland firefighters and require its use when smoke exposure exceeds NIOSH and OSHA exposure limits.\n\nThe bill is endorsed by National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, FireGen Collaborative, and former U.S. Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell.\n\n\u201cWe strongly support this legislation to modernize and standardize respiratory protection for wildland firefighters. As wildfire seasons grow longer and more dangerous, our federal wildland firefighters deserve safety standards that reflect the extreme conditions they face. Equally important is the bill\u2019s mandate to determine appropriate equipment and regularly review and update all relevant PPE standards. This ensures that respiratory protection keeps pace with evolving science, operational demands, and the realities of modern fire behavior. Wildland firefighters risk their lives to protect our communities. Establishing clear exposure parameters and reliable respiratory protection is the least we owe to those who stand between our nation and catastrophic fire,\u201d said Randy Erwin, National President, National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM).\n\n\u201cFireGen Collaborative strongly supports the Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act of 2025. As early career fire personnel, we understand the health disparities we face, and the importance of protecting our health to maintain our longevity and livelihoods. Yet, wildland firefighters face some of the most hazardous working conditions in public service, including chronic exposure to smoke and particulates. This legislation takes a crucial step to ensure that those who protect our communities are protected themselves, with strategies and evidence-based safety standards for protective equipment. We commend Congress for prioritizing the well-being of wildland firefighters and we urge swift passage of this critical measure,\u201d said Ryan Reed, Program Director, FireGeneration Collaborative.\n\nIn the aftermath of the Southern California fires, Padilla introduced the bipartisan Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act to protect wildland firefighter pay and provide long-term workforce stability.\n\nIn 2023, Padilla and a bipartisan group of Senators urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to avoid mass resignations within the wildland firefighter ranks by ensuring the prompt passage of their bipartisan legislation. Padilla and a bipartisan group of Senators also urged the Biden Administration to establish a special pay rate for federal wildland firefighters to prevent staffing shortages and strengthen wildfire response efforts in 2022. Following that request, the Administration announced a temporary pay raise. Padilla and the late Senator Dianne Feinstein previously called on the Administration to increase wildland firefighter pay in 2021.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-republican-spending-proposal-that-fails-to-protect-americans-health-care/", "Padilla Statement on Republican Spending Proposal That Fails to Protect Americans\u2019 Health Care", "2025-11-09", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) issued the following statement after Republicans proposed another continuing resolution that fails to address the health care crisis they created:\n\n\u201cThis does nothing to stop the Republican-made health care crisis. It does nothing to stop premiums from doubling for millions of Americans.\n\n\u201cDemocrats are fighting to make health care more affordable and hold this corrupt and lawless administration accountable.\n\n\u201cWe can\u2019t end this fight now. I will be voting no.\u201d\n\nSenator Padilla has consistently slammed President Trump and Senate Republicans for rejecting Democrats\u2019 bill to avert a government shutdown and protect health care coverage for millions of Americans. In September, Senator Padilla joined California health care leaders in Los Angeles to call on congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to protect health care coverage for nearly 2 million California residents and avoid a Republican-caused government shutdown. In July, Padilla blasted Senate Republicans\u2019 passage of their tax bill that will kick 15 million Americans off their health care, shutter rural hospital across the country, gut critical programs, and explode the debt by over $3.5 trillion.\n\nCalifornians and Americans across the country are facing the largest health insurance premium increases in 15 years and rising costs as a result of President Trump\u2019s chaotic tariffs and catastrophic economic agenda, but Republicans are refusing to extend essential Affordable Care Act tax credits before they expire at the end of the year. These credits helped a record 24 million Americans enroll in Affordable Care Act exchanges this year.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-58-democrats-introduce-bicameral-bill-to-ensure-individuals-in-dhs-custody-can-speak-to-a-lawyer-contact-their-families/", "Padilla, Schiff, 58 Democrats Introduce Bicameral Bill to Ensure Individuals in DHS Custody Can Speak to a Lawyer, Contact Their Families", "2025-11-07", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) joined U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), U.S. Representative Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.-03), and 56 of their Senate and House colleagues in introducing the Restoring Access to Detainees Act, a bill to ensure the Department of Homeland Security allows detained noncitizens to contact legal counsel and their families.\n\nThe bill comes after months of credible reporting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have deprived detained individuals \u2014 including children and longtime legal residents \u2014 of the ability to access a lawyer, sometimes for months at a time. People have also been taken into custody and, in some cases, reportedly transferred to facilities in other countries, without being allowed to contact their families.\n\n\u201cEvery noncitizen should be able to call their family and access legal representation while in detention,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cYet under Donald Trump, ICE and CBP have repeatedly denied detained individuals due process or the ability to talk to a lawyer, even disappearing them to other countries without letting them alert their families. Our bill would restore commonsense, humane protections for noncitizens in detention that were established during the first Trump Administration to ensure the basic dignity of being able to contact legal counsel or their families.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs the Trump administration continues to indiscriminately detain and deport noncitizens without due process, this bill is more important than ever. Families deserve to know where their loved ones are and detained immigrants should be able to access an attorney. I will keep pushing for Congress to pass this legislation,\u201d said Senator Schiff.\n\n\u201cFor months now, Americans have watched the horrific videos of CBP and ICE agents violently snatching people off the street at schools, workplaces, and grocery stores. But what happens after people are taken into custody is equally disturbing,\u201d said Senator Murphy. \u201cDHS has repeatedly refused to allow people to contact their families and lawyers, traumatizing children and families who are left searching for answers when their loved one suddenly misses after-school pickup or just doesn\u2019t come home for dinner. It\u2019s heartless and deeply un-American. This bill protects the basic right of people in this country to call their family \u2013 which often includes American citizens \u2013 when they are taken into custody. DHS has proven time and again they cannot be trusted to follow basic humanitarian principles, and it\u2019s on Congress to step in and hold them accountable.\u201d\n\n\u201cI saw with my own eyes the reality of Trump\u2019s immigration system: a mother and her four U.S. citizen children disappeared and locked in a windowless cell unable to contact a lawyer or their loved ones. The inhumanity was staggering. If we allow this to continue, we will lose who we are,\u201d said Representative Dexter. \u201cI\u2019m proud to join Senator Chris Murphy in defending the simple truth that access to legal counsel and communication with loved ones isn\u2019t a luxury, it is a fundamental human right.\u201d\n\nThe bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas-16), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.-03), Becca Balint (D-Vt.-AL), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.-01), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.-31), Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.-09), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas-30), Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas-07), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.-30), Jesus \u201cChuy\u201d Garc\u00eda (D-Ill.-04), Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.-10), Val Hoyle (D-Ore.-04), Julie Johnson (D-Texas-32), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.-02), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.-02), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.-10), Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.-03), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.-AL), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01), Nellie Pou (D-N.J.-09), Emily Randall (D-Wash.-06), Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.-06), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.-05), Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.-10), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.-12), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii-02), Derek Tran (D-Calif.-45), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.-25), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.-12), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.-05), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.-24).\n\nCivil rights groups including the American Immigration Lawyers Association, National Immigration Law Center, National Immigrant Justice Center, Stop AAPI Hate, and New Haven Legal Assistance Association have endorsed the Restoring Access to Detainees Act.\n\n\u201cNothing is more vital to ensuring a fair day in court than ensuring access to legal counsel for people deprived of their liberty who are trying to understand complex immigration laws. The \u2018Restoring Access to Detainees Act\u2019 is exactly the kind of good government reform that not only makes the immigration system more fair but also improves the courts\u2019 efficiency. The American Immigration Lawyers Association applauds Senator Murphy and his cosponsors for leading the way,\u201d said Gregory Z. Chen, Esq., Senior Director of Government Relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.\n\nSpecifically, the Restoring Access to Detainees Act would ensure noncitizens detained by DHS:\n\nHave the ability to call their families to let them know where they are;\n\nHave an opportunity to speak confidentially with their legal counsel or to find competent legal counsel while in custody;\n\nHave an opportunity to communicate confidentially with existing oversight entities, if applicable; and\n\nHave access to these basic communication needs through the restoration of a program from the first Trump Administration, which established a process for noncitizens to call their families while they are in deportation proceedings.\n\nNotable instances of the Trump Administration cutting off detained individuals from legal counsel include:\n\nMahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old Columbia University graduate and U.S. permanent resident, was arrested without a warrant and transferred across three states \u2014 from New Jersey to New York to Louisiana \u2014 where he spent more than three months in a detention center with limited access to legal counsel.\n\nKilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old from El Salvador living in Maryland, was arrested without a warrant and detained in Texas. Days later, he called his wife to tell her that he was being sent to El Salvador\u2019s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT \u2014 which turned out to be the last time his family heard from him until his return to the United States in June.\n\nJackie Merlos, a 44-year-old mother with a U-deferred visa and her four U.S. citizen children, who were detained for weeks in a windowless cell without access to legal counsel and unable to contact family or friends.\n\nA 13-year-old Brazilian national was arrested in Everett, Massachusetts and transferred to a Virginia detention center. His family and lawyers were left in the dark for days about his location or the reason for his arrest.\n\nLuis Peralta, who has lived in the United States since he was a child, was detained and transferred from Miami to Tacoma. Officers denied him access to his personal documents, leaving him unable to contact his family or attorney.\n\nGeorge Retes, a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE agents and held incommunicado, leaving him unable to contact his family \u2014 who only learned what happened to him after his release.\n\nRamon Eduardo Contreras-Hernandez was denied access to legal representation after being transferred from an ICE detention center to a county jail, cutting him off from information about his own case.\n\nA ProPublica investigation found that more than 20 U.S. citizens have reported being detained for over a day without being able to call their loved ones or an attorney.\n\nCivil rights attorneys representing detained individuals in \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d filed for a temporary restraining order against the detention center, citing systemic violations of detained individuals\u2019 constitutional rights to legal representation and due process.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda, including standing up for noncitizens\u2019 due process rights. Earlier this year, Padilla introduced the Access to Counsel Act to ensure that U.S. citizens, green card holders, and other individuals with legal status can consult with an attorney, relative, or other interested parties to seek assistance if they are detained by CBP for more than an hour at ports of entry, including airports. He and his colleagues also demanded the Trump Administration protect Congressionally mandated legal representation for unaccompanied children in the immigration system.\n\nA one-pager on the bill is available here.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-durbin-slam-trump-administrations-unlawful-plan-to-seize-private-voter-data-to-purge-voter-rolls/", "Padilla, Durbin Slam Trump Administration\u2019s Unlawful Plan to Seize Private Voter Data to Purge Voter Rolls", "2025-11-06", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, slammed the Department of Justice\u2019s (the Department or DOJ) unlawful efforts to force states to surrender their voter registration lists to the Department to build an unauthorized national voter registry and pressure states to remove eligible voters from the rolls. The Senators condemned DOJ\u2019s lawsuits against eight states, including California, for their refusal to surrender unrestricted access to their states\u2019 sensitive voter information and registration lists.\n\nIn their letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Senators warned that DOJ\u2019s demands for private voter information lack basic transparency, create serious privacy and national security concerns, and exceed their legal authority over elections. They outlined how DOJ is using the data to help the Trump Administration build a national voter database, likely to compel states to purge voters using the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) recently overhauled and untested Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to sift through voter rolls.\n\n\u201cWe write to raise serious objections to the Department of Justice\u2019s \u2026 ongoing efforts to force states to provide state voter rolls and private voter information to the Department,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cWe strongly oppose DOJ\u2019s efforts to pursue litigation against states that have refused to surrender unfettered access to their sensitive voter registration lists, which include personally identifiable information (PII). We are especially concerned that these actions pose serious risks to voter privacy and national security, and we stand with election officials who are ready to fight back against misuse of the data in calls for baseless purges or meritless challenges to election results.\u201d\n\n\u201cPut simply, it is neither the Department\u2019s job nor its skillset to micromanage how election officials purge voters from state voter rolls,\u201d continued the Senators.\n\nThe Senators highlighted that the U.S. Constitution unequivocally gives the states and Congress \u2014 not the executive branch \u2014 authority over elections, and emphasized that DOJ\u2019s lawsuits violate the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act. Instead, DOJ is operating with \u201cblind allegiance to the President\u2019s unlawful and unconstitutional\u201d anti-voter executive order to build a massive voter database in line with Trump\u2019s unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, which he continued to make during the recent 2025 state elections.\n\nThe Senators sounded the alarm that DOJ\u2019s national citizenship registry \u2014 combined with DHS\u2019 efforts to run sensitive voter information through its SAVE program, potentially with DOJ involvement \u2014 could be used to purge state voter rolls. The information of more than 33 million voters has already been screened through this new system, leading to potential voter roll errors for Americans born before 1978 or naturalized citizens.\n\nFurthermore, DOJ\u2019s efforts to build a centralized national voter database violate the Privacy Act of 1974, create national cybersecurity risks, and would provide U.S. adversaries with a new central target to exploit. The Senators also emphasized that the Department still has not issued a legally required System of Records Notice or a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for its ongoing efforts to collect state voter registration list data.\n\nThe Senators demanded accountability from DOJ and requested answers to a series of questions on DOJ\u2019s efforts to amass state voter data, including on the Department\u2019s supposed legal authority, the privacy and national security risks of their actions, and the risk that the Department will coerce states to purge eligible citizens from their voter rolls. They also pushed DOJ to provide a briefing on its state voter roll involvement to the Senate Rules and Judiciary Committees ahead of the 2026 elections.\n\n\u201cThe Department is wasting significant time and energy on a dangerous \u2018solution\u2019 in search of a nearly non-existent problem rooted in election denial conspiracy theories. Voter fraud is extremely rare, and noncitizen voting is even rarer, according to all available data,\u201d added the Senators. \u201c\u2026 The Administration\u2019s few public justifications for this unprecedented interference in state voter registration lists and purges of eligible voters echo the President\u2019s election denial.\u201d\n\nSenator Padilla has led the charge in opposing the Trump Administration\u2019s thinly veiled attempts to purge voter rolls and investigate unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, including his letter with Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) opposing the reckless expansion of the SAVE program. Yesterday, Padilla delivered remarks on the Senate floor sounding the alarm on the Trump Administration\u2019s repeated attacks to undermine future elections. Padilla and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio-03) also recently announced the Voter Purge Protection Act to prevent the Trump Administration\u2019s ongoing voter purge efforts, including by prohibiting the removal of individuals from the voter rolls due to changes in residence or not voting in previous elections.\n\nLast month, Padilla and Senator Peters also filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit opposing the Trump Administration\u2019s illegal ongoing attempts to purge state voter rolls across the country by developing a massive interagency database of Americans\u2019 sensitive personal data. In September, Padilla condemned DOJ\u2019s lawsuits against states for seeking to protect their sensitive voter information.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Attorney General Bondi:\n\nWe write to raise serious objections to the Department of Justice\u2019s (the Department or DOJ) ongoing efforts to force states to provide state voter rolls and private voter information to the Department. We strongly oppose DOJ\u2019s efforts to pursue litigation against states that have refused to surrender unfettered access to their sensitive voter registration lists, which include personally identifiable information (PII). We are especially concerned that these actions pose serious risks to voter privacy and national security, and we stand with election officials who are ready to fight back against misuse of the data in calls for baseless purges or meritless challenges to election results.\n\nThe Department Lacks Legal Authority to Force State Voter Purges and is Desperately Trying to Implement the Legally Flawed Executive Order 14248\n\nRegardless of President Trump\u2019s attempted power grabs, the Constitution of the United States makes clear that states and Congress have primacy over federal elections. As such, when Congress wrote and passed the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), 52 U.S.C. \u00a7 20510 et seq., and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), 52 U.S.C. \u00a7 20901 et seq., it was deliberate in entrusting the details of voter list management to the \u201cdiscretion\u201d of the states. This is well understood by bipartisan Secretaries of State and chief election officials across the country who regularly conduct voter list maintenance according to state law.\n\nPut simply, it is neither the Department\u2019s job nor its skillset to micromanage how election officials purge voters from state voter rolls. The Department claims that it is pursuing these adversarial tactics pursuant to NVRA and HAVA, but its sweeping demands go far beyond the statutes\u2019 purpose of enabling federal oversight of state list-maintenance practices. The Department is also invoking the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which was designed to prevent deprivation of the right to vote and other discriminatory practices, to demand state voter files in an unprecedented way.\n\nDOJ appears to be driven by blind allegiance to the President\u2019s unlawful and unconstitutional Executive Order 14248. Of course, much of this executive order has been preliminarily enjoined by federal courts, and these actions by the Department have likely now made additional sections of the executive order ripe for review. The Department\u2019s largely unsuccessful track record in court with respect to the executive order, coupled with the Department\u2019s most recent legally suspect decisions, likely forecast similar findings by federal courts with respect to additional provisions of the order. The Department should cease these unprecedented activities until the legality of the executive order has been fully determined by the courts.\n\nDemands for a National Voter Database Create Serious National Security and Privacy Risks\n\nThe Trump Administration\u2019s demands for vast amounts of voter data, aggressive tactics, and the greater potential for a centralized database of sensitive personal information pose an immense cybersecurity risk. In 2017, the Presidential Advisory Committee on Election Integrity requested that states provide voter records, including the names, addresses, birthdates, partial Social Security numbers, party affiliation, conviction status and other data for every registered voter. Even then, bipartisan Secretaries of State and chief election officials pushed back against such requests, citing concerns with providing confidential information, and national security experts cautioned \u201cthe bigger the database, the greater the payoff from a potential breach.\u201d Our adversaries have attempted to undermine U.S. election integrity before, and the Department is creating a new potential target for them to exploit.\n\nOn top of these serious security risks, the Department\u2019s demands lack the necessary legal transparency and pose a serious risk to Americans\u2019 data privacy. The Department has failed to issue or update any System of Records Notice (SORN) under the Privacy Act of 1974 or any Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) in connection with its ongoing efforts to obtain voter registration list data from all 50 states. These basic data management disclosures include what data the Department is seeking, who has access to it, how the Department plans to secure it, and what the Department plans on doing with it. If the Department\u2019s motives are legitimate, then it should follow legal requirements to notify Congress and the public about its activities and provide full responses to congressional oversight requests. DOJ\u2019s inexplicable failure to do so is a troubling sign of incompetence, willful disregard of the law, or suspicious intent.\n\nDespite the lack of public transparency, credible reports indicate that the Administration plans to use sensitive state voter information to create a national voter database, without any direction from Congress or guardrails on how the information in the database will be used. Additional reports found that the Administration has already run the information of more than 33 million voters\u2014likely with the Department\u2019s involvement\u2014through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database program. In fact, statements by official DOJ and DHS spokespeople have confirmed that the agencies are \u201csharing information\u201d to \u201cscrub\u201d state voter roll data so that it is \u201cbeing screened for ineligible voter entries.\u201d Unfortunately, many of the voters who may be purged as a result of these actions are unaware, given the lack of official information about which states have already handed over voter data.\n\nFederal Efforts to Urge Purges of Eligible American Voters are Unreliable and Based on Conspiracy Theories, not Legitimate State and Local Election Administration Needs\n\nThe Department\u2019s litigation efforts combined with DHS\u2019s abuse of the SAVE program run the serious risk of states purging voter rolls of eligible voters, even if doing so would violate state and federal law. American citizens born before 1978 and naturalized citizens are the most at risk from inaccuracies in the SAVE program. In addition, the SAVE program may also generate non-matches due to missing or inconsistent citizenship information for a variety of reasons, including sloppy matching protocols and new errors introduced into the system by this Administration and DOGE\u2019s recent updates.\n\nThe Department is wasting significant time and energy on a dangerous \u201csolution\u201d in search of a nearly non-existent problem rooted in election denial conspiracy theories. Voter fraud is extremely rare, and noncitizen voting is even rarer, according to all available data. Nevertheless, President Trump has continued to spread conspiracy theories about millions of noncitizens voting in our elections and make false claims about how he would have won the State of California three times despite losing it by a combined 12.5 million votes in the last three elections. The Administration\u2019s few public justifications for this unprecedented interference in state voter registration lists and purges of eligible voters echo the President\u2019s election denial.\n\nThe Department\u2019s claims of improving election administration are difficult to believe, given the Administration\u2019s lack of support for the critical resources that state and local election officials actually need. President Trump\u2019s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request proposed a 40 percent cut for the Election Assistance Commission and the complete elimination of its Election Security Grants, along with the complete elimination of the Election Security Program at DHS\u2019s Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Making matters worse, DOJ\u2019s demands and litigation against states will perversely divert time and resources away from the critical work that those states are already doing to ensure the accuracy of their voter lists.\n\nImportance of Full Responses to Congressional Oversight Requests\n\nYou and others in Department leadership have sworn an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution, which unequivocally gives the states and Congress, not the Executive Branch, authority over elections. The Department also has a constitutional responsibility to be responsive to official congressional correspondence and oversight requests. As part of its written response to this letter, we expect the Department to fully answer the following questions, along with additional questions at a briefing.\n\nA. Legal Authority:\n\n(1) What specific constitutional and statutory authorities give DOJ the right to engage in this unprecedented level of federal intrusion into state voter registration list maintenance, including the effort to take possession of state voter registration lists and voter PII?\n\n(2) Why is DOJ seeking information such as political party registration, which is wholly irrelevant to any legal inquiry?\n\n(3) How is the Department in compliance with federal court injunctions on implementation of E.O. 14248?\n\n(4) Please provide the names and titles of the relevant White House and Department of Homeland Security officials with whom you consulted on this request for sensitive voter information and any records or materials related to this consultation.\n\nB. Privacy and National Security Risks:\n\n(1) How is the Department complying with the Privacy Act of 1974 and its requirements to notify the public and Congress about how records of individuals are collected, maintained, used, and disseminated, along with other federal privacy requirements?\n\n(2) What safeguards are in place to protect state voter registration lists, including voter PII, both from unauthorized use within the federal government and from external data breaches?\n\n(3) What damage could criminal organizations or adversarial foreign nations inflict with unauthorized access to a national voter database?\n\n(4) Please provide the names and titles of the relevant White House and Department of Homeland Security officials with whom you consulted on this request for sensitive voter information and any records or materials related to this consultation.\n\nC. Risks of Voter Purges:\n\n(1) The Civil Rights Division seems to have an interest in this data as a stalking horse for other Divisions within the Department or for other federal agencies. How will state voter data be used by the Department internally?\n\n(2) How does the Department plan to share this information internally and with other federal agencies?\n\n(3) How will the Department ensure eligible voters are not misidentified for removal from voter rolls as it runs 33 million voters and counting through new, unreliable, and untested federal databases?\n\n(4) Will the Department commit to not using this information to coerce states to purge eligible voters via lawsuits or to challenge election results based on debunked conspiracy theories?\n\n(5) Please provide the names and titles of the relevant White House and Department of Homeland Security officials with whom you consulted on this request for sensitive voter information and any records or materials related to this consultation.\n\nGiven the unprecedented nature of these actions by the Department and the threat of voter purges to millions of eligible American voters, we demand a thorough written response no later than November 20, 2025. We also request a briefing for the Senate Rules and Judiciary Committees on or before December 6, 2025, on the Department\u2019s activities regarding state voter rolls ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-the-retirement-of-speaker-emerita-nancy-pelosi/", "Padilla Statement on the Retirement of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi", "2025-11-06", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) issued the following statement after Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-11) announced she would retire at the end of her current term, ending nearly 40 years representing San Francisco in Congress and capping her career as one of the most powerful political figures in American history:\n\n\u201cFor nearly four decades, Nancy Pelosi has fought for fundamental rights and freedoms not just for her beloved city of San Francisco, but for all Americans. And as a torchbearer of Democratic and California values, Speaker Pelosi stood as our nation\u2019s chief defender against Donald Trump\u2019s attacks on our democracy.\n\n\u201cShe broke glass ceilings as the first woman to be Speaker of the House, worked relentlessly to pass the Affordable Care Act, and championed transformative legislation to invest in our nation\u2019s infrastructure. And from her roots in San Francisco through her trailblazing tenure in Congress, Speaker Pelosi was a champion for LGBTQ+ rights, fighting to guarantee the right to marry who you love and helping lead San Francisco through the AIDS crisis that devastated the city.\n\n\u201cThrough our country\u2019s greatest triumphs and biggest tests, Speaker Pelosi has always been a voice of the People and a champion for children. It has been an honor to serve alongside her. She always called on us to \u2018organize, not agonize.\u2019 Now it\u2019s up to us to carry on her legacy.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-slams-9th-circuit-nominee-eric-tung-for-extreme-ideology-loyalty-to-trump/", "WATCH: Padilla Slams 9th Circuit Nominee Eric Tung for Extreme Ideology, Loyalty to Trump", "2025-11-05", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, strongly opposed Eric Tung\u2019s nomination ahead of his confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, headquartered in San Francisco, denouncing his extreme conservative ideology and derogatory comments toward women and organized labor. Tung was confirmed to the lifetime position by a vote of 52-45.\n\nPadilla called out Tung\u2019s nomination as part of a broader pattern in which President Trump prioritizes partisan loyalty and extreme conservative ideology over independence and judicial temperament. He emphasized that he and Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) had told the White House months earlier that they were willing to work together to identify less extreme Republican candidates \u2014 including those Trump had previously nominated for District Court seats \u2014 instead of Tung.\n\nTung has made a series of reprehensible sexist and anti-labor comments, including criticizing the \u201cdissolution of the family,\u201d and saying he believes \u201cin gender roles and that women are simply better than men at some things. When these radical feminists try to blur gender roles, they undermine institutions like marriage \u2014 institutions which hold society together.\u201d\n\nTung also played a leading role organizing anti-labor demonstrations where protesters pushed messages including \u201cend mandatory maternity leave \u2014 it hurts women,\u201d and \u201cworkers of the world, get back to work!\u201d Talking to the Yale campus, Tung said that \u201cunionized labor hurts consumers,\u201d while proudly holding a sign that read \u201cUnion NO.\u201d\n\nPadilla stressed that Tung\u2019s extreme ideological record \u201ccalls into question his ability to apply the law fully and fairly.\u201d As Trump prioritizes unwavering loyalty to the Oval Office over independence and fairness, Padilla strongly\u00ad\u00ad urged his colleagues to vote against Tung\u2019s confirmation.\n\nKey Excerpts:\n\nWhat we\u2019ve seen happening to the federal judiciary over the last nine months is beyond concerning. It\u2019s corrupting. We\u2019ve seen nominees who are deeply partisan and deeply ideological. We\u2019ve seen nominees who under any other Administration would be roundly criticized and rejected by this body. \u00ad\u00ad\u00adAnd we\u2019ve seen nominees whose chief qualification is nothing other than loyalty to and relationship to Donald Trump.\n\nThis is a lifetime appointment to the federal bench, colleagues. An appellate court nominee in particular should have the judgment, the independence, and the respect for precedent worthy of the position. But instead, Mr. Tung, the nominee before us, is not here because of his independence or his judicial temperament. He\u2019s here because of his ideology.\n\nMr. Tung embraces an extreme and rigid view of the Constitution that rejects both equality and liberty. He\u2019s made clear that, under his constitutional philosophy, there\u2019s no protection for rights that most Americans take as fundamental, including the rights to reproductive freedom, marriage equality, and even private, consensual relationships. That\u2019s not constitutional interpretation. It\u2019s a radical blueprint for rolling back decades of progress on individual freedom and equality.\n\nWe were willing to try to find that common ground. But clearly, the White House wasn\u2019t interested. Because whether it\u2019s the Department of Justice, the FBI, U.S. Attorneys, or the federal bench, the Trump White House is showing us what they truly care about: unwavering loyalty.\n\nI\u2019ll remind my colleagues that when we reference the judiciary, it\u2019s the American people\u2019s judiciary. And all the decisions that we make today will affect our justice system \u2014 the people\u2019s judiciary \u2014 for years if not decades.\n\nVideo of Senator Padilla\u2019s full remarks is available here.\n\nAt Tung\u2019s nomination hearing in July, Senator Padilla pressed him on his extreme conservative ideology, but Tung dodged Padilla\u2019s questioning on his past comments and refused to say when his viewpoints changed on women\u2019s role in the workplace.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-sounds-the-alarm-on-trump-administrations-threats-to-2026-election/", "WATCH: Padilla Sounds the Alarm on Trump Administration\u2019s Threats to 2026 Election", "2025-11-05", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 A day after Democrats\u2019 landslide state electoral victories across the country, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California\u2019s former Secretary of State, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) held the Senate floor alongside their Senate colleagues, leading a warning to Americans about the Trump Administration\u2019s ongoing efforts to rig election rules one year out from the 2026 midterms. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also delivered remarks.\n\nAs Trump\u2019s tariff wars raise grocery and energy prices and as Republicans refuse to protect health care and SNAP benefits, Padilla emphasized that the President and his party would rather undermine future elections by laying the groundwork to purge state voter rolls and by instituting partisan mid-decade redistricting than change their harmful policies.\n\nPadilla highlighted California\u2019s overwhelming passage of Proposition 50 in response to Texas\u2019 partisan racial gerrymander, which Governor Abbott pushed through to create five additional Republican seats at President Trump\u2019s direction. Padilla emphasized that he and Democrats across the country have offered Republicans an offramp from the redistricting arms race through his bicameral bill to prohibit states from mid-decade redistricting and require every state to adopt nonpartisan, independent redistricting commissions.\n\nContinuing his usual habit of false claims and election denial, President Trump baselessly claimed yesterday that the Proposition 50 vote was \u201crigged\u201d and called on Republicans to eliminate the filibuster to ban mail-in voting and pass other \u201cvoter reform.\u201d The White House is also drafting a new executive order to ban mail-in voting and further restrict access to the polls to complement Trump\u2019s illegal anti-voter executive order, much of which has already been blocked by federal courts.\n\nPadilla blasted the Trump Department of Justice\u2019s (DOJ) illegal ongoing attempts to pressure states to purge voter rolls and restrict the right to vote across the country by suing states for voter information and developing a massive interagency database of Americans\u2019 sensitive personal data. DOJ has sent letters to at least 40 states demanding information about state voter maintenance practices, while recently filing targeted lawsuits against eight states, including California, for their refusal to hand over unfettered access to their state\u2019s sensitive voter information and registration lists to the federal government.\n\nAs Trump and Republicans continue to spread mis- and disinformation about voter fraud and the 2020 election, Padilla also warned that the White House is hiring prominent election deniers and that President Trump is being pressured to declare a fake \u201cnational emergency\u201d to unlawfully influence state elections. Padilla made clear that he would force a vote on the Senate floor to stop any unjustified election-related emergency.\n\nHe concluded by calling on his colleagues to stand up to Trump\u2019s attacks on elections and urging the public to continue exercising their fundamental right to vote.\n\nKey Excerpts:\n\nEnough of the Republican chaos, enough of the power grabs, enough of the corruption, and enough of Trump\u2019s billionaire assault on working families.\n\nBut even after the success of last night, let\u2019s also be clear about this: one free and fair election does not guarantee the next one. We have to fight to ensure future elections. We have to keep asking ourselves: What do we do between now and next November to protect the next election? Because at this very moment, the President and his allies are doing everything they can to rig the rules of the game.\n\nAmericans \u2026 are fired up. They\u2019re angry at a president and a party that are looking out for themselves more than they\u2019re looking out for the country as a whole. But \u2026 instead of changing their policies before the midterm elections, President Trump and Republicans would rather change the rules. And we have a responsibility to sound the alarm before it\u2019s too late.\n\nWhen we knew what Texas was going to do \u2014 a midterm partisan redistricting \u2014 Californians knew right away that enough was enough. And that\u2019s what yesterday was all about: leveling the playing field.\n\nI invite my Republican colleagues to join me, to join us, in supporting true nationwide redistricting reform. And yes, we do have a bill to do just that. \u2026 But no. Republicans would rather try to cling to power by changing the rules of the game.\n\nDonald Trump is also staffing up the White House with likeminded election deniers and conspiracy theorists, hinting at future actions that could disenfranchise even more voters. Of course, the President\u2019s been slandering places like California and our elections practices for years, and he did it once again just yesterday on Election Day. \u2026 The President lies and shouts \u2018fraud\u2019 without a shred of evidence.\n\nMembers of Congress can and must stand up to every one of Trump\u2019s unconstitutional power grabs over state election authority. I\u2019m committed to doing my part: if the Trump White House tries to declare some fake national election emergency to create a pretense for federal intervention, I will force a vote here in the Senate to stop it.\n\nBut no matter what happens, voters cannot lose hope. That\u2019s what\u2019s most important. We need Americans to keep showing up each and every election, and show up in overwhelming numbers, just as they did yesterday, just as they did for hundreds of years prior, and make clear that it will be the people and only the people who will determine the future of our democracy.\n\nWatch Padilla\u2019s full remarks here. Video of Senator Padilla\u2019s remarks can be downloaded here.\n\nAs Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee with oversight over federal elections, Senator Padilla has led the charge opposing President Trump\u2019s attempts to restrict the right to vote across the country. Padilla and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio-03) recently announced the Voter Purge Protection Act to prevent the Trump Administration\u2019s ongoing voter purge efforts, including by prohibiting the removal of individuals from the voter rolls due to changes in residence or not voting in previous elections. Last month, Padilla warned that Trump may declare an election-related national emergency after the White House alarmingly hired former \u201cStop the Steal\u201d and Trump campaign lawyer Kurt Olsen as a \u201cspecial government employee\u201d to \u201cinvestigate\u201d the 2020 election again, five years later. Padilla has also co-authored an amicus brief and letter expressing serious concerns that recent changes to and the expanded use of the insufficiently tested Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program could purge eligible citizens from state voter rolls. In September, Padilla condemned DOJ\u2019s lawsuits against states for seeking to protect their sensitive voter information.\n\nAdditionally, Senator Padilla and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18) are leading the Redistricting Reform Act of 2025 to combat Republican efforts to rig the rules and implement partisan racial gerrymanders before the next census. In July, Padilla convened a Rules and Judiciary Committee Democrats spotlight forum focused on racial gerrymandering and voter suppression, during which he questioned former Attorney General Eric Holder and Loyola Law School Professor Justin Levitt on the Trump Administration\u2019s efforts in Texas and other states to implement mid-decade racial redistricting for partisan political purposes.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-costa-lofgren-tran-california-democratic-delegation-criticize-education-departments-diversion-of-funding-for-minority-serving-institutions/", "Padilla, Schiff, Costa, Lofgren, Tran, California Democratic Delegation Criticize Education Department\u2019s Diversion of Funding for Minority-Serving Institutions", "2025-11-03", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla, chair of the Senate Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Caucus, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), along with U.S. Representatives Jim Costa (D-Calif.-21), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), and Derek Tran (D-Calif.-45), led 34 members of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation in strongly opposing the Department of Education\u2019s decision to rescind $350 million in funding from Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs).\n\nThe lawmakers voiced their disappointment and disagreement with the Department of Justice\u2019s July 25th determination that Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) apply \u201cracial quotas\u201d in a manner that is \u201cunconstitutional,\u201d especially since no court has found the MSI program unconstitutional or instructed the Department of Education to reprogram this funding. The signatories also warned that the Department\u2019s actions would disproportionately harm Californian students and weaken California\u2019s \u2014 and America\u2019s \u2014 long-term competitiveness.\n\n\u201cTo be clear, diverting resources away from these schools will disproportionately harm California students and students across the nation who depend on MSIs as the most accessible and affordable pathway to a degree,\u201d wrote the lawmakers. \u201cIt would also weaken proven engines of upward mobility, deprive our workforce of diverse talent, and undercut the nation\u2019s long-term competitiveness.\u201d\n\n\u201cRather than reallocate scarce dollars from MSIs to HBCUs and TCCUs, we urge you to allocate funding as intended by Congress to support all MSIs, HBCUs, and TCCUs. \u2026 Equitable, sustained funding across the spectrum of MSIs, HBCUs, and TCCUs will ensure that more institutions can continue broadening opportunity, reducing inequities, and powering the American economy,\u201d continued the lawmakers. \u201cOur collective goal must be to invest in all students, no matter which institution they attend.\u201d\n\nThere are over 800 federally recognized MSIs, including Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions (ANNHSIs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTIs), and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). MSIs enroll over 5 million students, many of whom are first-generation college students. These institutions rely on federal funding to provide vital supports and services for students to help them complete their degrees. The Trump Administration\u2019s decision to end funding for MSIs could threaten the institutions\u2019 ability to adequately serve all the students they enroll.\n\nEarlier this year, Tennessee filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education to challenge the eligibility requirements necessary to receive a federal HSI designation. In July, the Department of Justice decided to not defend the constitutionality of the program in the ongoing litigation. Despite no ruling or court instructions, the Department of Education announced during HSI week on September 10th that it would end and reprogram $350 million in discretionary grants for HSIs and other MSIs. On October 10, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee allowed the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) and LatinoJustice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (LatinoJustice PRLDEF) to intervene in the litigation, ensuring affected campuses can help defend the programs.\n\nCalifornia has the largest concentration of MSIs in the country. The state is home to 170+ HSIs and 85 eligible AANAPISIs. In addition, MSIs enroll the majority of first-generation and low-income students in California and consistently demonstrate higher rates of economic mobility than non-MSI institutions. The Department of Education\u2019s decision to reprogram funding from the MSI program undermines the ability of these universities to serve communities that have long been underrepresented in higher education.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Schiff, Costa, Lofgren, and Tran, the letter was also signed by Representatives Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.-33), Nanette Barrag\u00e1n (D-Calif.-44), Ami Bera (D-Calif.-06), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.-26), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.-31), Lou Correa (D-Calif.-46), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.-10), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.-30), John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.-34), Josh Harder (D-Calif.-09), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-51), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.-17), Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.-07), Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.-15), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.-19), Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50), Luz Rivas (D-Calif.-29), Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.-25), Linda S\u00e1nchez (D-Calif.-38), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.-12), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.-14), Mark Takano (D-Calif.-39), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.-04), Norma Torres (D-Calif.-35), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52), and George Whitesides (D-Calif.-27).\n\nAs chair of the Senate HSI Caucus, Senator Padilla has led the fight opposing the Trump Administration\u2019s attacks against MSIs. Last month, Senators Padilla, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), alongside 21 Senate colleagues, demanded Education Secretary Linda McMahon immediately reverse course on the Trump Administration\u2019s harmful decision to end $350 million for MSIs. In September, Padilla and U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas-20), co-chair of the House HSI Caucus, issued a statement slamming this decision. Additionally, Padilla and Castro previously condemned the Trump Administration\u2019s letter declaring that they will no longer defend the $350 million HSI annual grant program in court, effectively ending the program.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary McMahon,\n\nAs members of the California Congressional Delegation, we write to express our strong opposition to the Department of Education\u2019s (EDs) decision to rescind federal resources from Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) \u2013 including Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions (ANNHSIs), Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTIs), and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs).\n\nCalifornia is home to the largest concentration of MSIs in the country. Our state has 85 eligible AANAPISIs, serving large numbers of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander students, as well as more than 170 HSIs, educating nearly two million students of all backgrounds. For example, twenty-one of twenty-two California State University campuses are federally designated HSIs, and five University of California campuses have reached HSI status. California\u2019s community colleges \u2013 our primary access point to higher education \u2013 are overwhelmingly HSIs, with over 90 percent already meeting the federal threshold. Collectively, MSIs enroll the majority of first-generation and low-income students in California and consistently demonstrate higher rates of economic mobility than non-MSI institutions. The Department\u2019s decision to reprogram funding from the MSI program undermines the ability of these universities to serve communities that have long been underrepresented in higher education.\n\nWe are disappointed in and disagree with the Department of Justice\u2019s July 25th determination that HSIs apply \u201cracial quotas\u201d in a manner that is \u201cunconstitutional.\u201d No court has found the MSI program unconstitutional, nor has a court instructed the Department of Education to reprogram this funding. We note that on October 10, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee granted Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) and LatinoJustice PRLDEF the right to intervene in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. U.S. Department of Education, ensuring that affected institutions have a voice in defending these programs. To be clear, diverting resources away from these schools will disproportionately harm California students and students across the nation who depend on MSIs as the most accessible and affordable pathway to a degree. It would also weaken proven engines of upward mobility, deprive our workforce of diverse talent, and undercut the nation\u2019s long-term competitiveness.\n\nRather than reallocate scarce dollars from MSIs to HBCUs and TCCUs, we urge you to allocate funding as intended by Congress to support all MSIs, HBCUs, and TCCUs. We are encouraged that affected institutions can now participate in the judicial process to ensure these programs are fully and fairly defended. In light of these developments, we would welcome the opportunity to work with the administration to increase investments in MSIs, HBCUS, and TCCUs. Equitable, sustained funding across the spectrum of MSIs, HBCUs, and TCCUs will ensure that more institutions can continue broadening opportunity, reducing inequities, and powering the American economy. Our collective goal must be to invest in all students, no matter which institution they attend.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-durbin-raskin-jayapal-condemn-trump-administrations-unlawful-refugee-cap/", "Padilla, Durbin, Raskin, Jayapal Condemn Trump Administration\u2019s Unlawful Refugee Cap", "2025-10-31", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, issued the following statement in response to the Trump Administration\u2019s decision to slash refugee admissions to 7,500 \u2014 almost entirely limited to white Afrikaners from South Africa \u2014 without the legally required consultation with Congress:\n\n\u201cThe Trump Administration just announced that it will gut the United States\u2019 refugee admissions program \u2014 slashing the annual cap to a mere 7,500 refugees, an astonishing 94% cut over last year and the lowest level in our nation\u2019s history. To add insult to injury, the Administration is skipping over the tens of thousands of refugees who have been waiting in line for years in dire circumstances to come to the United States and it is instead prioritizing a single privileged racial group \u2014 white South African Afrikaners \u2014 for these severely limited slots.\n\n\u201cThis bizarre presidential determination is not only morally indefensible, it is illegal and invalid. The Administration has brazenly ignored the statutory requirement to consult with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees before setting the annual refugee admissions ceiling. That process exists to ensure that decisions of such great consequence reflect our nation\u2019s values, our humanitarian commitments, and the rule of law, not the racial preferences or political whims of any one president.\n\n\u201cThe reason for this evasion is evident: the Administration knows it cannot defend its egregious policy before Congress or the American people. While nearly 130,000 vetted, approved refugees \u2014 men, women, and children fleeing persecution and violence \u2014 wait in limbo after being promised a chance at safety, Donald Trump is looking to turn refugee admissions into another political giveaway for his pet projects and infatuations.\n\n\u201cWe reject this announcement as both unlawful and contrary to America\u2019s longstanding commitment to offer refuge to the persecuted. To twist our refugee policy into a partisan straightjacket is to betray both our legal obligations and our moral identity as a nation.\u201d\n\nLast month, Padilla, Durbin, Raskin, and Jayapal blasted the Trump Administration\u2019s blatant violation of federal law in refusing to consult Congress on refugee admissions.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-senate-judiciary-democrats-denounce-trumps-corrupt-attempted-money-grab-for-230-million-from-justice-department-for-previous-investigations/", "Padilla, Senate Judiciary Democrats Denounce Trump\u2019s Corrupt Attempted Money Grab for $230 Million From Justice Department for Previous Investigations", "2025-10-31", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senators highlight another attempt by Trump to weaponize his power for personal financial gain, as well as the inescapable conflicts of interest at DOJ in assessing these claims\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and all Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats in condemning President Trump\u2019s demands that the Department of Justice hand him $230 million of taxpayer dollars in alleged damages from previous investigations.\n\nIn a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Senators blasted the claims as \u201cyet another attempt by President Trump to weaponize his position of power for personal financial gain at the expense of American taxpayers.\u201d They highlighted serious conflicts of interest at the Trump Justice Department, noting that several of the officials who would review his settlement claims previously served as his personal lawyers.\n\n\u201cSetting aside the lack of merit in President Trump\u2019s claims, there is an inescapable conflict of interest in Trump Administration officials assessing these claims while serving at the President\u2019s pleasure. Moreover, the officials who have the authority to approve such a settlement pursuant to DOJ regulations \u2014 Deputy Attorney General (AG) Todd Blanche and Associate AG Stanley Woodward \u2014 have an even more acute conflict of interest because they defended President Trump and his co-defendant, respectively, in the classified documents case,\u201d wrote the Senators.\n\n\u201cThe American people deserve to understand how political appointees of the President whose claims they are assessing, including an appointee who previously defended the President in one of the matters at issue, can ethically assess the merits of his claims,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201c\u2026 As the American people grapple with the impacts of the Republican government shutdown, President Trump\u2019s attempt to exploit the Justice Department and profit from taxpayer dollars cannot be overlooked.\u201d\n\nThe Senators called out DOJ\u2019s attempt to dodge questions on whether Blanche or Woodward would recuse themselves, citing the Department\u2019s weak press statement invoking \u201ccareer ethics officials\u201d that DOJ terminated, instead handing their responsibilities to inexperienced political loyalists. They also criticized the firing of Joseph W. Tirrell, the Director of DOJ\u2019s Departmental Ethics Office, which offers senior political appointees like Bondi, Blanche, or Woodward advice on conflicts of interest, recusals, and financial disclosures. Jeffrey Ragsdale, the lead official in charge of investigating DOJ attorney misconduct, was also previously removed.\n\nIn addition to Padilla and Durbin, the letter is also signed by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).\n\nFull text of the letter to Attorney General Bondi is available here and below:\n\nDear Attorney General Bondi:\n\nPresident Trump has two administrative claims pending before the Department of Justice (DOJ), for which he is seeking approximately $230 million dollars of taxpayer money. In these claims, President Trump has alleged his rights were violated during the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s (FBI) investigation into his 2016 campaign\u2019s ties to Russia and during the course of his investigation and prosecution for allegedly mishandling hundreds of pages of classified documents. This is yet another attempt by President Trump to weaponize his position of power for personal financial gain at the expense of American taxpayers.\n\nSetting aside the lack of merit in President Trump\u2019s claims, there is an inescapable conflict of interest in Trump Administration officials assessing these claims while serving at the President\u2019s pleasure. Moreover, the officials who have the authority to approve such a settlement pursuant to DOJ regulations\u2014Deputy Attorney General (AG) Todd Blanche and Associate AG Stanley Woodward\u2014have an even more acute conflict of interest because they defended President Trump and his co-defendant, respectively, in the classified documents case.\n\nWhen asked by ABC News whether Deputy AG Blanche or Associate AG Woodward would consider recusing themselves, a DOJ spokesperson provided this response: \u201cIn any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials.\u201d However, as you know, the Trump Administration removed the senior career DOJ ethics officials who would provide this critical guidance and placed their duties in the hands of inexperienced political appointees who are beholden to you for their positions, an outrage we have repeatedly asked you to address to since February. Compounding this irresponsible move was the termination of Joseph W. Tirrell, the Director of DOJ\u2019s Departmental Ethics Office, which provides advice on conflicts of interest, financial disclosures, and recusals to senior political appointees at DOJ, such as Deputy AG Blanche, Associate AG Woodward, and yourself. You have failed to address Committee questions regarding this indefensible episode for over three months now. This followed the removal of another Department guardrail\u2014the firing of the Director of the Office of Professional Responsibility, Jeffrey Ragsdale, who was the senior official of the office responsible for investigating DOJ attorney misconduct.\n\nThe American people deserve to understand how political appointees of the President whose claims they are assessing, including an appointee who previously defended the President in one of the matters at issue, can ethically assess the merits of his claims. To that end, we request that you provide the following by November 12, 2025:\n\n1. A thorough description of the process by which President Trump\u2019s claims will be assessed, including a list of all the offices and officials involved.\n\n2. A thorough description of the process by which all officials with any role in this matter will seek guidance on potential conflicts of interest and other ethical issues that may warrant recusal, including a list of all the offices and officials involved in providing such guidance.\n\n3. Records relating to all communications between and among Department of Justice officials and White House officials concerning the submission and adjudication of these claims.\n\nAs the American people grapple with the impacts of the Republican government shutdown, President Trump\u2019s attempt to exploit the Justice Department and profit from taxpayer dollars cannot be overlooked. We look forward to your full and immediate compliance with this request.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-slams-republicans-refusal-to-address-skyrocketing-health-care-premiums-ahead-of-open-enrollment/", "Padilla Slams Republicans\u2019 Refusal to Address Skyrocketing Health Care Premiums Ahead of Open Enrollment", "2025-10-31", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Ahead of Affordable Care Act open enrollment starting tomorrow, November 1, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) issued the following statement on the spike in health care premium costs Californians and Americans across the country will face because of President Trump and Congressional Republicans\u2019 refusal to negotiate with Democrats to keep health care affordable:\n\n\u201cMillions of Californians will see their health care costs double because Republicans in Congress put billionaire tax breaks ahead of making life more affordable for hardworking Americans. Trump\u2019s tariff wars are hitting families with an extra $2,000 a year, but Republicans would rather shut down the government than protect families from losing their health care. And the nearly 2 million people who rely on Covered California are paying the price.\u201d\n\nSenator Padilla has consistently slammed President Trump and Senate Republicans for rejecting Democrats\u2019 bill to avert a government shutdown and also protect health care coverage for millions of Americans. Last month, Senator Padilla joined California health care leaders in Los Angeles to call on congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to protect health care coverage for nearly 2 million California residents and avoid a Republican-caused government shutdown. In July, Padilla blasted Senate Republicans\u2019 passage of their tax bill that will kick 15 million Americans off their health care, shutter rural hospitals across the country, gut critical programs, and explode the debt by over $3.5 trillion.\n\nCalifornians and Americans across the country are facing the largest health insurance premium increases in 15 years and rising costs as a result of President Trump\u2019s chaotic tariffs and catastrophic economic agenda, but Republicans are refusing to extend essential Affordable Care Act tax credits before they expire at the end of the year. These credits helped a record 24 million Americans enroll in Affordable Care Act exchanges this year.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-booker-huffman-pallone-demand-trump-reverse-plan-to-open-new-offshore-oil-and-gas-leases/", "Padilla, Booker, Huffman, Pallone Demand Trump Reverse Plan to Open New Offshore Oil and Gas Leases", "2025-10-30", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Lead sponsors of West Coast Ocean Protection Act and Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling Act condemn efforts that would devastate coastal communities\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), along with House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02) and House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.-06), led over 100 lawmakers in demanding President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum immediately cease any plans to open new offshore oil and gas leases in U.S. federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the Arctic Ocean and northern Bering Sea off of Alaska, and in the Eastern Gulf. The lawmakers warned that opening these untouched coastlines to new offshore drilling would devastate coastal economies, jeopardize our national security, ravage coastal ecosystems, and put millions of Americans\u2019 health and safety at risk, hurting people across the political spectrum.\n\nBy reversing long-standing legal protections for vulnerable coastal waters, new offshore leases would cause significant environmental damage to communities already reeling from natural disasters and recent oil spills. Oil spills not only cause irreparable environmental damage, but also suppress the value of coastal homes, harm tourism economies, and weaken coastal infrastructure. Already, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is forced to respond to over 150 oil and chemical spills each year. One disastrous spill can cost taxpayers billions in lost revenue, cleanup costs, and ecosystem restoration.\n\nThese threats of expanded oil drilling come as the Administration already dismantled NOAA\u2019s oil spill prevention and response programs, as almost 30 percent of the team in charge of addressing oil spills has been laid off or took early retirement. The Emergency Response Division team and the oil spill program are slated to lose half their funding from the Administration\u2019s proposed FY 2026 budget.\n\n\u201cThis is a matter of national consequence for coastal communities across the country, regardless of political affiliation. It puts our economies, national security, and our most vulnerable ecosystems at severe risk,\u201d wrote the lawmakers. \u201c\u2026 Expanded oil and gas leasing poses risks to the health and livelihoods of our constituents, jeopardizes our tourism, fishing, and recreation economies, and threatens the marine life that inhabits our coastlines.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe United States already leads the world in oil and gas production. The industry currently holds more than 2,000 offshore leases covering over 12 million acres of federal waters \u2014 yet fewer than 500 of those leases are actively producing oil and gas,\u201d continued the lawmakers. \u201cThere is no justification for opening vast swaths of our oceans to leasing when existing leases remain largely unused, while imposing mounting environmental and economic costs on coastal communities.\u201d\n\nAdditionally, the Department of Defense (DOD) previously warned that oil and gas leases in portions of the Eastern Gulf would impact areas critical to our military readiness, including for military training and testing opportunities and assets. DOD has also signaled that parts of the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic Planning Areas are \u201cnot compatible with oil and gas activities and infrastructure.\u201d\n\nThe lawmakers condemned the potential expansion of offshore drilling while the Administration simultaneously curtails offshore wind and clean energy development. This year, the Trump Administration has withdrawn all outer continental offshore wind leases, rescinded all designated Wind Energy Areas, and eliminated $679 million in offshore-wind-related port infrastructure funding, including over $426 million for Humboldt Bay offshore wind infrastructure.\n\nSpecifically, the lawmakers demanded that President Trump and Secretary Burgum:\n\nHalt any steps toward new offshore oil and gas leasing in the Atlantic, Pacific, off the coast the Arctic and Bering Sea coasts of Alaska, and the Eastern Gulf;\n\nLimit offshore drilling, consistent with previous statutory and agency protections;\n\nPrioritize coastal resilience, including expanded storm-surge and flood protection, restoration of wetlands and sand dunes, and early-warning systems, so that communities in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, New Jersey, Alaska, and beyond are better protected; and\n\nRestore a credible pathway for offshore wind and other clean-energy projects by rescinding the OCS wind-leasing withdrawal and rescinded WEAs, enabling science-based projects that support jobs and coastal economies.\n\n\u201cOur coastal communities, fishermen, small business owners, Tribal Nations, tourism operators, and families cannot be sacrificed in the name of short-term drilling booms,\u201d concluded the lawmakers. \u201cOpening new offshore lease areas while cancelling clean energy progress is potentially illegal, a failure of leadership, and a dereliction of the public trust.\u201d\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Booker, Huffman, and Pallone, the letter is also signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nSpeaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-11) and U.S. Representatives Gabe Amo (D-R.I.-01), Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.-03), Becca Balint (D-Vt.-AL), Nanette Barrag\u00e1n (D-Calif.-44), Wesley Bell (D-Mo.-01), Donald Beyer (D-Va.-08), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.-01), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.-26), Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.-05), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), Andr\u00e9 Carson (D-Ind.-07), Ed Case (D-Hawaii-01), Sean Casten (D-Ill.-06), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.-14), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.-20), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.-31), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.-09), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.-05), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.-09), Herbert Conaway (D-N.J.-03), Danny Davis (D-Ill.-07), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.-04), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.-01), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.-01), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.-03), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.-06), Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.-03), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.-03), Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.-04), John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08), Jes\u00fas G. \u201cChuy\u201d Garc\u00eda (D-Ill.-04), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.-42), Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.-10), Jim Himes (D-Conn.-04), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-51), Henry \u201cHank\u201d Johnson (D-Ga.-04), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.-17), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.-08), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.-02), George Latimer (D-N.Y.-16), Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.-16), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.-08), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.-07), Sarah McBride (D-Del.-AL), LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.-10), Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.-04), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.-04), James McGovern (D-Mass.-02), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.-08), Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.-06), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.-15), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.-12), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.-02), Donald Norcross (D-N.J.-01), Eleanor Norton (D-D.C.-AL), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.-14), Johnny Olszewski (D-Md.-02), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.-19), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01), Nellie Pou (D-N.J.-09), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.-05), Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.-03), Emily Randall (D-Wash.-06), Luz Rivas (D-Calif.-29), Deborah Ross (D-N.C.-02), Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.-06), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.-05), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.-09), Kim Schrier (D-Wash.-08), Robert \u201cBobby\u201d Scott (D-Va.-03), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.-12), Adam Smith (D-Wash.-09), Darren Soto (D-Fla.-09), Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.-03), Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.-02), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.-12), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii-02), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.-20), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.-03), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52), Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez (D-N.Y.-07), James Walkinshaw (D-Va.-11), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.-12), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.-24) also signed the letter.\n\nEnvironmental advocates including Food & Water Watch, Oceana, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Surfrider Foundation, Earthjustice, and Alaska Wilderness League supported the letter.\n\n\u201cThese reckless offshore drilling plans would put coastal communities and workers directly in harm\u2019s way, risking new oil spills, worsening climate disasters, and erasing decades of progress toward clean energy,\u201d said Jim Walsh, Policy Director for Food & Water Watch. \u201cWe cannot keep sacrificing people and places for fossil fuel profits. Protecting our coasts isn\u2019t just sound policy, it\u2019s a moral obligation necessary for a livable future.\u201d\n\n\u201cOffshore drilling is a threat to the lifeblood of our coastal communities,\u201d said Oceana Campaign Director Joseph Gordon. \u201cThe people who live and work along our coasts depend on healthy oceans for their economic security and way of life. Oceana commends Sen. Padilla, Sen. Booker, Rep. Huffman, Rep. Pallone, and the many lawmakers across the country who are working to protect our coasts from more drilling and spilling. There\u2019s too much at stake to gamble our future on deadly oil spills that can last for generations to come.\u201d\n\n\u201cSelling off our ocean to the fossil fuel industry is wholly inconsistent with a livable future,\u201d said Taryn Kiekow Heimer, Director, Ocean Energy at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). \u201cDespite the urgency of ramping down fossil fuel production to address the climate and biodiversity crises, Interior is putting forth an outrageous proposal to offer up our coastal waters from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the Gulf to the High Arctic to Big Oil. It\u2019s inconceivable we would put polluter profits above coastal communities and wildlife.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe federal administration\u2019s offshore oil drilling plan will damage coastlines and communities, while threatening coastal recreation and tourism industries that contribute billions of dollars to our nation\u2019s economy,\u201d said Pete Stauffer, Ocean Protection Manager of the Surfrider Foundation. \u201cNew drilling will also increase the likelihood of yet another destructive oil spill off our coasts.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Trump administration should abandon its misguided plan to force offshore drilling on coastal communities that have made it clear they don\u2019t want it,\u201d said Laura M. Esquivel, Senior Legislative Representative, Earthjustice. \u201cThis reckless proposal threatens the way of life, health, and livelihoods of millions of people along America\u2019s coastlines\u2014regardless of political affiliation. The last thing Americans need is yet another threat to their wellbeing and economic security. Voters will remember who tried to bring this deeply unpopular plan to their communities.\u201d\n\n\u201cAlaska Wilderness League stands firmly against this Administration\u2019s push for offshore drilling in Alaska\u2019s coastal waters and the Arctic Ocean,\u201d said Andy Moderow, Senior Director of Policy at Alaska Wilderness League. \u201cFor years, industry has shown no interest in drilling Arctic waters, and an oil spill in these fragile waters would be a global catastrophe with irreversible consequences for the coastal communities, marine wildlife, and the climate.\u201d\n\nOn Earth Day, Padilla, Booker, Huffman, Pallone, and Reed announced a pair of bills to permanently protect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from the dangers of fossil fuel drilling. Padilla and Huffman\u2019s West Coast Ocean Protection Act would permanently prohibit new oil and gas leases for offshore drilling off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington, while Booker, Reed, and Pallone\u2019s Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling Act would permanently prohibit the U.S. Department of the Interior from issuing leases for the exploration, development, or production of oil and gas in the North Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Straits of Florida Planning Areas of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. In 2021, Senator Padilla joined West Coast Senators in calling on Senate leadership to include the West Coast Ocean Protection Act in the Senate version of the budget reconciliation bill after an estimated 126,000 gallons of oil spilled off the coast of California.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Mr. President and Secretary Burgum:\n\nWe write to express our strongest opposition to any effort to open new offshore oil and gas leasing in federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the Arctic Ocean and northern Bering Sea off of Alaska, and in the Eastern Gulf. This is a matter of national consequence for coastal communities across the country, regardless of political affiliation. It puts our economies, national security, and our most vulnerable ecosystems at severe risk. These reported proposals would reverse long-standing protections that shield sensitive coastal waters from new drilling, including withdrawals under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, statutory moratoria, and agency restrictions.\n\nExpanded oil and gas leasing poses risks to the health and livelihoods of our constituents, jeopardizes our tourism, fishing, and recreation economies, and threatens the marine life that inhabits our coastlines. Many of these communities are already reeling from compounded disasters: hurricanes, sea-level rise, storm surge, and the lingering legacy of oil-spill disasters. Since 1980, hurricanes alone have generated well over $1.5 trillion in damage in the United States. Expanding offshore leasing increases the likelihood that future storms, oil spills, or other disasters will impose even greater burdens on front-line coastal communities.\n\nIn addition to storms, the threat of oil spills remains real and costly. For example, the U.S. Coast Guard reported a spill of more than 30,000 gallons of \u201coily-watery mixture\u201d off Louisiana\u2019s coast earlier this year. Oil spill damage threatens not just the environment, but the value of coastal homes, the health of tourism economies, and the resilience of coastal infrastructure. A single catastrophic spill could cost taxpayers, states, and local communities tens of billions of dollars in cleanup costs, lost revenue, and degraded ecosystems. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) already responds to over 150 oil and chemical spills in U.S. waters every year. Under the administration\u2019s proposed plan, every part of the United States\u2019 coastline would be at risk of disaster.\n\nThese risks are magnified by the administration\u2019s dismantling of NOAA and its oil spill prevention and response programs. Nearly 30 percent of NOAA\u2019s Office of Response and Restoration Emergency Response Division staff\u2014the team that addresses oil spills\u2014were already laid off or took early retirement as part of the administration\u2019s ongoing reductions in force. The administration\u2019s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget would cut in half funding for the oil spill program and the Emergency Response Division.\n\nUnder the administration\u2019s reported plans, harmful seismic testing could take place across every coast. NOAA Fisheries recently concluded that oil and gas activities like seismic exploration in the Gulf of Mexico could drive the endangered Rice\u2019s whale\u2014of which only a few dozen individuals remain\u2014to extinction. Seismic testing for oil and gas disrupts communication, navigation, and breeding among whales, fish, and other marine species, inflicting irreversible harm on ocean ecosystems.\n\nThe administration\u2019s reported plans would also open up oil and gas leasing in areas the Department of Defense (DOD) has previously stated would be problematic for military readiness. Leaked documents report that the administration will conduct leasing in parts of the Eastern Gulf, which includes irreplaceable military training and testing opportunities and assets. The DOD has similarly labeled portions of the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic Planning Areas \u201cnot compatible with oil and gas activities and infrastructure.\u201d\n\nThe United States already leads the world in oil and gas production. The industry currently holds more than 2,000 offshore leases covering over 12 million acres of federal waters \u2014yet fewer than 500 of those leases are actively producing oil and gas. There is no justification for opening vast swaths of our oceans to leasing when existing leases remain largely unused, while imposing mounting environmental and economic costs on coastal communities.\n\nWhile the administration prepares to expand offshore drilling, it is simultaneously undermining offshore wind and clean energy development, thereby reducing our ability to expand energy supplies and build resilient coastal economies. On January 20, 2025, the President issued a memorandum withdrawing all areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from offshore wind leasing, pending review. On July 30, 2025, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) rescinded all designated Wind Energy Areas (WEAs). The Department of the Interior has issued directives curbing so-called \u201cpreferential treatment\u201d for wind and solar, and the U.S. Department of Transportation withdrew $679 million in offshore-wind-related port infrastructure funding. These actions raise electricity costs for families, make our coastlines less safe, and our communities more vulnerable.\n\nWe therefore urge your administration to take the following actions to reverse course immediately:\n\n1. Halt any steps toward new offshore oil and gas leasing in the Atlantic, Pacific, off the coast the Arctic and Bering Sea coasts of Alaska, and the Eastern Gulf;\n\n2. Limit offshore drilling, consistent with previous statutory and agency protections;\n\n3. Prioritize coastal resilience, including expanded storm-surge and flood protection, restoration of wetlands and sand dunes, and early-warning systems, so that communities in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, New Jersey, Alaska, and beyond are better protected; and\n\n4. Restore a credible pathway for offshore wind and other clean-energy projects by rescinding the OCS wind-leasing withdrawal and rescinded WEAs, enabling science-based projects that support jobs and coastal economies.\n\nProtecting our waters from offshore drilling is broadly supported by the American public. Nearly two-thirds of registered voters oppose new offshore drilling, and hundreds of municipalities along the Atlantic, Pacific, the eastern Gulf, and these regions of Alaska have passed formal resolutions against its expansion. These communities have made clear that safeguarding their coastal economies, fisheries, and way of life must take precedence over short-term fossil fuel interests. Our coastal communities, fishermen, small business owners, Tribal Nations, tourism operators, and families cannot be sacrificed in the name of short-term drilling booms. Opening new offshore lease areas while cancelling clean energy progress is potentially illegal, a failure of leadership, and a dereliction of the public trust.\n\nWe look forward to your prompt response detailing what specific steps the Administration will take to halt this course of action and recommit to safeguarding our nation\u2019s shores, economy, and shared future.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-demand-trump-administration-cancel-partisan-deployment-of-election-monitors-to-california/", "Padilla, Schiff Demand Trump Administration Cancel Partisan Deployment of Election Monitors to California", "2025-10-30", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senators: \u201cThis deployment is clearly linked to President Trump\u2019s continued perpetuation of lies relating to alleged fraud in our elections and his opposition to California\u2019s Proposition 50.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla, Ranking Member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and California\u2019s former Secretary of State, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) demanded the Trump Administration call off its blatantly partisan plan to deploy Department of Justice (DOJ) staff to monitor state elections in California. The Senators warned that these highly unusual, unwarranted deployments could intimidate voters and perpetuate President Trump\u2019s repeated election disinformation and contempt for state and local election officials.\n\nTrump has already spewed conspiracy theories about the security of early and mail-in voting to lay the groundwork for disputing election results, including for California\u2019s Proposition 50. Shortly after the announcement that DOJ election monitors would be deployed to California and New Jersey, Trump posted on Truth Social: \u201cWatch how totally dishonest the California Prop Vote is!\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the state will dispatch its own monitors to oversee DOJ\u2019s election observers.\n\nAlarmingly, the Department\u2019s claim that its initiative would \u201cpromot[e] transparency and an open flow of communication between poll observers and election monitors\u201d suggests that DOJ may coordinate with Republican candidates and election denier groups to lay the foundation for continued baseless attacks on election administration and results. The Senators also urged DOJ to clarify whether it is sending career Department staff or political appointees, and which other poll observers it is prioritizing open communication with.\n\n\u201cSince the President has been very clear about his motives and claims of power over the Department\u2019s day-to-day law enforcement activities, this deployment runs the very real risk of intimidating voters and turning the Department into a tool of partisan and frivolous election-related challenges,\u201d wrote the Senators to Attorney General Pam Bondi.\n\n\u201cThe circumstances around the Department\u2019s planned deployment create a clear perception of a partisan motive and undermine the credibility of the Department to rely or act on the work of these observers. As a result, the deployment of Department staff to monitor upcoming elections in California should be canceled immediately,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cAt a minimum, the Department should provide greater transparency, coordinate with state and local election administrators, and ensure that its employees comply with federal and state law, Department policies, and ethical requirements to prevent any activities that may lead to voter intimidation or interference with elections.\u201d\n\nDOJ monitors were only ordered to be deployed to Democratic-led states at the request of Republicans in California and New Jersey, differentiating this effort from previous mobilizations to a large number of states. Despite claims by senior DOJ officials, election observers are rarely sent to monitor state level off-year elections, further raising suspicions.\n\nFinally, the Senators criticized DOJ\u2019s politicization of its election monitoring announcement, excluding all reminders of the Department\u2019s impartiality and including a statement from Bill Essayli, former Acting U.S. Attorney of the Central District of California, who has been found by a federal court to be acting in that position unlawfully. One of DOJ\u2019s election monitors reportedly being sent to California is a senior political appointee, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Gates, who has made numerous partisan and political social media posts, including attacks on vote by mail, while serving in his official role.\n\nSenator Padilla has led the charge in opposing the Administration\u2019s ongoing illegal efforts to investigate unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud and influence state election administration. Last month, Padilla condemned DOJ\u2019s lawsuits against eight states, including California, for their refusal to surrender unrestricted access to their state\u2019s sensitive voter information and registration lists. Earlier this month, Senator Padilla and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio-03) announced the Voter Purge Protection Act to prevent the Trump Administration\u2019s ongoing voter purge efforts, including by prohibiting the removal of individuals from the voter rolls due to changes in residence or not voting in previous elections. Padilla has also co-authored an amicus brief and letter expressing serious concerns that recent changes to and the expanded use of the insufficiently tested Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program could purge eligible citizens from state voter rolls.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Attorney General Bondi:\n\nWe write to demand the Department of Justice (the Department or DOJ) withdraw its planned deployment of staff to monitor state-level, off-year elections due to the Department\u2019s blatantly partisan motivations.\n\nContrary to claims made by senior Department officials, this deployment of DOJ election observers is not consistent with usual practice. While the Department has previously used its authority to send election monitors to state-level, off-year elections, it is extremely rare.\n\nWe are further alarmed that this deployment is clearly linked to President Trump\u2019s continued perpetuation of lies relating to alleged fraud in our elections and his opposition to California\u2019s Proposition 50. Shortly after the DOJ\u2019s deployment announcement, the President falsely posted, without evidence: \u201c[w]atch how totally dishonest the California Prop [v]ote is[.]\u201d This statement, in the context of all his repeated election conspiracy theories, is a stain on this deployment and any actions that the Department might attempt to take based on it.\n\nThe Department has also publicly confirmed that these monitors are being deployed only to California and New Jersey at the request of Republican party officials in these states. DOJ has tried to justify this decision by the thinnest of grounds, such as two California counties\u2019 opposing unfettered access to protected voter data. This is also in contrast to numerous recent election monitoring efforts by DOJ which were not based on partisan affiliation. The last DOJ election monitor deployment in 2024 went to a wide range of states led by both Democrats and Republicans, as it did in 2022, 2016, 2014, and other prior years.\n\nThe DOJ\u2019s announcement also stated: \u201c[t]his initiative is aimed at promoting transparency and an open flow of communication between poll observers and election monitors\u201d (emphasis added). This unusual statement indicates DOJ election monitors are planning to coordinate with third party election observers, which could include partisan actors or others who have worked to undermine confidence in elections, such as Cleta Mitchell\u2019s Election Integrity Network. Given this Administration\u2019s willingness to embrace individuals who attempted to overturn safe and secure elections, DOJ\u2019s announcement indicates its staff on the ground intend to act in concert with party officials or election deniers.\n\nIn addition, the President has repeatedly asserted inappropriate control over the traditionally independent administration of the Department\u2019s law enforcement powers to investigate and prosecute individuals. The Department\u2019s announcement included a statement from the former Acting US Attorney of the Central District of California, another significant departure from prior DOJ communications, but failed to affirm the Department\u2019s duty to be impartial and unbiased, especially in the context of elections. Since the President has been very clear about his motives and claims of power over the Department\u2019s day-to-day law enforcement activities, this deployment runs the very real risk of intimidating voters and turning the Department into a tool of partisan and frivolous election-related challenges.\n\nIn sum, the circumstances around the Department\u2019s planned deployment create a clear perception of a partisan motive and undermine the credibility of the Department to rely or act on the work of these observers. As a result, the deployment of Department staff to monitor upcoming elections in California should be canceled immediately.\n\nAt a minimum, the Department should provide greater transparency, coordinate with state and local election administrators, and ensure that its employees comply with federal and state law, Department policies, and ethical requirements to prevent any activities that may lead to voter intimidation or interference with elections.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-colleagues-warn-trump-may-declare-election-related-national-emergency-after-white-house-hires-prominent-election-denier-to-reexamine-2020-election-results/", "Padilla, Colleagues Warn Trump May Declare Election-Related National Emergency After White House Hires Prominent Election Denier to Reexamine 2020 Election Results", "2025-10-29", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senators: Kurt Olsen\u2019s appointment seems \u201cto be part of a scheme to convince the President to attempt a national emergency declaration to illegally claim unconstitutional federal powers over state and local election administration.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California\u2019s former Secretary of State, led eight colleagues in condemning the White House\u2019s alarming hiring of former \u201cStop the Steal\u201d and Trump campaign lawyer Kurt Olsen as a \u201cspecial government employee\u201d to \u201cinvestigate\u201d the 2020 election again, five years later. The Senators emphasized that the White House\u2019s hiring of Olsen follows a clear pattern of hiring 2020 election deniers and Trump loyalists to do election work, raising fears that senior White House staff may enable President Trump to declare a national emergency to illegally interfere in state and local election administration.\n\n\u201cThe 2020 election was heavily litigated and closely examined, and there is no justification for White House staff in 2025 to waste taxpayer money on endlessly rehashing false 2020 election conspiracy theories,\u201d wrote the Senators to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and White House Chief Counsel David Warrington. \u201cMr. Olsen is particularly ill-suited to lead such a probe, given that he advanced such conspiracy theories as he worked to prevent four battleground states from certifying the 2020 election.\u201d\n\n\u201cLet us be clear: any attempt to declare a national emergency to interfere in state and local election administration would be illegal and unconstitutional,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cWhile we are confident any such scheme would fail quickly in the face of judicial scrutiny, it still poses unacceptable risks of undermining future elections in this country. Therefore, we demand you closely oversee Mr. Olsen and other appointees to ensure they do not engage in illegal or unethical conduct in pursuit of an unconstitutional national emergency regarding elections.\u201d\n\nOn President Trump\u2019s 2020 campaign, Olsen worked to prevent the certification of valid election results in four states ahead of the January 6th Capitol insurrection. Since then, he has also been sanctioned by Arizona\u2019s Supreme Court for lies he told to try to overturn the results in Kari Lake\u2019s 2022 gubernational bid, and he pushed President Trump to make legal demands around voter data in Arizona, Wisconsin, and Georgia ahead of the 2024 election to set up future election challenges. Olsen\u2019s position reportedly has \u201cdirect\u201d access to the President, raising concerns after he said he wants to examine election machines and repeatedly spread unfounded misinformation that these machines are not secure, despite major news networks paying hundreds of millions in defamation settlements for similar lies.\n\nOlsen\u2019s hiring comes after other prominent election deniers like Heather Honey, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Election Integrity at the Department of Homeland Security, have pressured President Trump to declare a \u201cnational emergency\u201d to unconstitutionally influence how states administer elections. Prior to her appointment, Honey advocated for Trump to seize \u201csome additional powers that don\u2019t exist right now,\u201d bypass Congress\u2019 authority, and \u201cmandate that states do things,\u201d predicating these changes on an investigation of the 2020 election and senior White House staff cooperation. Olsen\u2019s appointment to rehash 2020 election conspiracy theories further raises alarm bells on the potential for Trump to declare a national emergency.\n\nThe Senators also condemned Trump\u2019s anti-voter executive order illegally directing the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to revise voting system standards and rescind voting machine certifications, and they slammed the President\u2019s threat to issue another illegal and unconstitutional executive order to ban mail-in ballots. They pushed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and White House Counsel David Warrington to also make sure Olsen and other appointees follow the bipartisan Help America Vote Act that established EAC as an independent entity outside of the White House\u2019s unilateral control.\n\nIn addition to Senator Padilla, the letter was also signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nSenator Padilla has led the charge opposing President Trump\u2019s unlawful attempt at a Presidential power grab through his anti-voter executive order. Earlier this year, Padilla led 14 Democratic Senators in calling on President Trump to revoke his illegal executive order that would disenfranchise millions of Americans. Padilla also led 11 Senators in introducing the Defending America\u2019s Future Elections Act to repeal the order and prevent the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive voter registration data and state records. Additionally, Padilla and U.S. Representative Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.-25) warned officials at the EAC about the dangerous implications for elections following President Trump\u2019s executive order purporting to bring independent regulatory agencies under total control of the White House.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Ms. Wiles and Mr. Warrington,\n\nWe write with serious concern that Kurt Olsen has reportedly been hired by the White House as a \u201cspecial government employee\u201d to \u201cinvestigate\u201d the 2020 election.\n\nWhile the 2020 election was nearly five years ago, Mr. Olsen\u2019s appointment appears to be part of a scheme to convince the President to attempt a national emergency declaration to illegally claim unconstitutional federal powers over state and local election administration. Any such declaration would quickly fail to withstand legal scrutiny, but it would still represent a completely unacceptable attempt to undermine the U.S. Constitution and free and fair elections in this country. We write to remind you of your responsibilities to oversee any work conducted by Mr. Olsen, and other similarly minded appointees, to ensure they do not violate legal and ethical standards and undermine the future of free and fair elections in this country.\n\nUnfortunately, these concerns are very real. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Election Integrity at the Department of Homeland Security Heather Honey has advocated for the Trump Administration to declare a \u201cnational emergency\u201d to seize \u201csome additional powers that don\u2019t exist right now\u201d in order to take \u201cthese other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on.\u201d Ms. Honey claimed that such an action could somehow be prefaced on an \u201cinvestigation\u201d of the 2020 election, the purpose for which Mr. Olsen has been hired at the White House. Notably, she stated: \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s really feasible and if the people around the president would let him test that theory.\u201d Ms. Honey is a veteran of the Election Integrity Network, the group founded by Cleta Mitchell, who supported Trump\u2019s attempt to reverse the legitimate outcome of the 2020 election. Ms. Honey collaborated with Mr. Olsen in his efforts to support Kari Lake\u2019s 2022 election loss in Arizona.\n\nThe 2020 election was heavily litigated and closely examined, and there is no justification for White House staff in 2025 to waste taxpayer money on endlessly rehashing false 2020 election conspiracy theories. Mr. Olsen is particularly ill-suited to lead such a probe, given that he advanced such conspiracy theories as he worked to prevent four battleground states from certifying the 2020 election. When all legal avenues were exhausted, he spoke with President Trump in the lead up to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, where a violent mob assaulted the Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral votes. Since then, Mr. Olsen has received sanctions from the Arizona Supreme Court for \u201cunequivocally false\u201d claims made to overturn the 2022 Arizona governor\u2019s race on behalf of Kari Lake. More recently, he encouraged President Trump to make unfounded legal demands of Arizona, Wisconsin, and Georgia relating to voting machine data, to lay the groundwork to challenge the results of the 2024 election if President Trump had lost again.\n\nMr. Olsen has also perpetuated false claims that voting machines were not properly secured during the 2020 election. Major news networks that carried such false claims have paid hundreds of millions in legal settlements brought by voting equipment companies for defamation. Meanwhile, the Administration has shown no concern for the actual needs of state and local election administration by proposing to slash election security grant funding and eliminating the election-related work at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).\n\nMr. Olsen\u2019s appointment also raises concerns in light of Executive Order 14248 which purports to direct the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to revise voting system standards and, concerningly, \u201crescind all previous certifications of voting equipment based on prior standards.\u201d You both have a duty to ensure that Mr. Olsen and other appointees follow the Help America Vote Act, which was enacted on an overwhelming bipartisan basis, and establishes the EAC as an independent entity that cannot be unilaterally directed from the White House.\n\nIn August, President Trump threatened to issue a second illegal and unconstitutional Executive Order on elections in an attempt to ban mail-in ballots. As you know, the President himself has voted by mail, as do millions of Republicans, Democrats and independents in numerous states according to state laws. The U.S. Constitution gives exclusive power over the administration of elections to the states and Congress, not the president, and we understand that this second Executive Order has not been issued following further internal discussions.\n\nLet us be clear: any attempt to declare a national emergency to interfere in state and local election administration would be illegal and unconstitutional. While we are confident any such scheme would fail quickly in the face of judicial scrutiny, it still poses unacceptable risks of undermining future elections in this country. Therefore, we demand you closely oversee Mr. Olsen and other appointees to ensure they do not engage in illegal or unethical conduct in pursuit of an unconstitutional national emergency regarding elections.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-senate-democrats-take-action-to-stop-trump-administration-from-illegally-withholding-funding-for-nutrition-assistance-programs/", "Padilla, Schiff, Senate Democrats Take Action to Stop Trump Administration From Illegally Withholding Funding for Nutrition Assistance Programs", "2025-10-29", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "President Trump: \u201cWe can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible and bad for them like cutting vast numbers of people out. Cutting things they like, cutting programs they like.\u201d\n\nThe Trump Administration is required by law to use billions in available funding to keep SNAP benefits flowing in November; USDA\u2019s own guidance confirmed its authority to use available funds during a shutdown\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) joined Senator Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.) and the Senate Democratic Caucus in introducing the Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act of 2025, legislation that prevents the Trump Administration from illegally withholding available funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The Trump Administration is choosing to withhold billions at its disposal to pay for SNAP, causing the program to lapse for the first time in history, which will be devastating for the 5.5 million Californians who depend on SNAP benefits (called CalFresh in California) to help afford their groceries.\n\nDespite having billions of dollars ready and available for SNAP, the Trump Administration continues to play politics with the ability of Americans across the country to put food on the table. Not only does the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have the authority to release SNAP contingency funds, but the statute is clear: the Trump Administration is required by law to release these funds.\n\nThe Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act of 2025 directs USDA to immediately release billions of dollars in available funds to ensure SNAP and WIC benefits continue uninterrupted for the remainder of this fiscal year. The legislation also requires the federal government to reimburse states for covering SNAP benefits during a shutdown. California has provided $80 million in state funds to stabilize food bank food distribution and offset delays in federal CalFresh benefits.\n\n\u201cDonald Trump is picking winners and losers in this shutdown, and unfortunately, he\u2019s decided not to help the most vulnerable families. Trump is illegally withholding billions of dollars in SNAP emergency funds that help feed over 40 million Americans\u201a including 5.5 million Californians,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cAt any moment, the President could end this manufactured crisis so that American families and children don\u2019t go hungry, but he\u2019d rather starve families to inflict as much pain as possible and score political points. Congress must take immediate action through this legislation to fulfill America\u2019s promise to protect lifesaving food and nutrition assistance.\u201d\n\n\u201cDonald Trump has the power to ensure 40 million people don\u2019t go hungry during the shutdown. But he wishes to inflict the maximum pain on those who can least afford it. If he won\u2019t fund food, then my colleagues and I will push legislation to force him to,\u201d said Senator Schiff.\n\n\u201cLet me be clear: the Trump administration has the authority and the funds to keep SNAP running. No child, veteran, grandparent, or hardworking American should go hungry because of partisan politics,\u201d said Senator Luj\u00e1n. \u201cCongressional Republicans passed the largest cut to SNAP in history, and now the Trump administration is withholding billions in available funding to inflict maximum pain on the American people. 42 million Americans, including 1 in every 5 New Mexicans, relies on SNAP to feed their families. That\u2019s why I\u2019m leading my colleagues to introduce legislation that would ensure the Trump administration immediately releases available funds to keep nutrition programs running.\u201d\n\n\u201cEvery president before Trump\u2014Republican or Democrat\u2014kept food on the table during a shutdown. Trump and Senate Republicans are the first in history to make the cruel and unprecedented decision to let tens of millions of Americans go hungry,\u201d said Leader Schumer. \u201cThis pain doesn\u2019t need to happen: Trump is choosing to inflict it on American families. He\u2019s choosing cruelty over compassion, politics over people. Democrats\u2019 bill would make sure no child, no parent, no veteran misses a meal because of Trump\u2019s shutdown\u2014and Republicans should help us pass it now, and fund SNAP and WIC before this hunger crisis hits home.\u201d\n\n\u201cFood assistance has never stopped going to Americans in need during a government shutdown, and it shouldn\u2019t stop now,\u201d said Senator Klobuchar, Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. \u201cThe fastest way to ensure that American families receive the food assistance they need is for the Administration to use resources they already have at their disposal. Choosing not to is unacceptable. Our bill would ensure food assistance from SNAP and WIC are not interrupted if this shutdown continues. Hungry families should never be used as political bargaining chips.\u201d\n\nIn addition to Padilla and Schiff, the legislation is cosponsored by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nLast week, Senators Padilla and Schiff joined 44 Senate colleagues in calling on the USDA to release the billions of dollars at its disposal to ensure SNAP benefits continue in November. Earlier this year, Padilla joined a spotlight forum titled \u201cHunger by Design \u00ad\u2014 The GOP\u2019s Assault on SNAP\u201d to question witnesses and expose President Trump and Republicans\u2019 cruel budget proposal that cut nearly $200 billion in SNAP benefits while giving tax cuts to billionaires. He also repeatedly slammed Republicans\u2019 billionaire-first budget reconciliation bill that is gutting critical programs like SNAP and devastating families in California and across the country. In June, Padilla joined the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in calling on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to reverse course on Republicans\u2019 plan to take health care and food assistance away from millions of Americans \u2014 including seniors, children, people with disabilities, and veterans \u2014 to pay for tax breaks for ultra-wealthy Americans.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-wyden-lead-colleagues-in-slamming-rfk-jr-for-purging-staff-on-frontlines-of-opioid-crisis/", "Padilla, Wyden Lead Colleagues in Slamming RFK Jr. for Purging Staff on Frontlines of Opioid Crisis", "2025-10-28", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Letter follows mass layoffs from Trump Administration during ongoing Republican government shutdown\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus, and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) led 15 Democratic Senate colleagues in slamming Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for firing federal employees at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) working on the frontlines of America\u2019s opioid crisis. HHS has now terminated more than 100 SAMHSA employees since the start of the Trump Administration, reducing their staff to less than 50 percent capacity.\n\nSAMHSA provides key addiction and mental health treatment services with a focus on rural and underserved areas and is responsible for programs like the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The Trump Administration\u2019s layoffs of vital SAMHSA staff earlier this month as part of another government-wide reduction in force will lead to more Americans falling into addiction because they will be unable to access the agency\u2019s critical addiction prevention and treatment services.\n\n\u201cWithout cause, HHS terminated 125 employees, further decimating the agency that is a critical first responder on the frontlines of our nation\u2019s ongoing substance use and mental health crises,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201c\u2026 The firing of key staff at this agency threatens to undermine years of hard-won progress on the opioid crisis, and could not come at a worse time. Right now, communities across the country \u2014 in both red and blue states \u2014 continue to face record overdose deaths and escalating rates of mental health conditions and substance use disorder.\u201d\n\n\u201cYour decision sends the wrong message to public health professionals \u2014 and to the families counting on them. It contradicts the administration\u2019s own stated goals to tackle the fentanyl crisis, expand mental health services, and end the opioid epidemic. Terminating staff risks derailing the progress made by a workforce whose experience is irreplaceable,\u201d continued the Senators.\n\nPadilla and Wyden warned that these terminations will lead to more opioid-related deaths and illicit drugs flowing into communities across the United States. Kennedy\u2019s decision to purge public health professionals not only derails progress made by a workforce with specialized experience, but it also contradicts the Administration\u2019s pledge to tackle the fentanyl crisis, expand mental health services, and end the opioid epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 73,000 people died from overdosing from April 2024 to April 2025.\n\nIn addition to Padilla and Wyden, the letter to HHS was also signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.).\n\nAs co-chair of the bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus, Senator Padilla previously condemned the Trump Administration\u2019s proposed dissolution of SAMHSA as part of HHS\u2019 restructuring plan and the White House Office of Management and Budget\u2019s HHS budget proposal. Earlier this year, Padilla led 12 Democratic Senators in warning HHS Secretary Kennedy that additional staffing cuts at SAMHSA would have disastrous ramifications for millions of Americans struggling with mental and behavioral health challenges.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Kennedy:\n\nWe are deeply alarmed by the recent firings at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an agency under your jurisdiction at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Without cause, HHS terminated 125 employees, further decimating the agency that is a critical first responder on the frontlines of our nation\u2019s ongoing substance use and mental health crises. The firings that took place on October 10, 2025, were on top of the hundreds of people HHS fired in April, leaving SAMHSA at about half the staff it had in January. The firing of key staff at this agency threatens to undermine years of hard-won progress on the opioid crisis, and could not come at a worse time.\n\nRight now, communities across the country \u2013 in both red and blue states \u2013 continue to face record overdose deaths and escalating rates of mental health conditions and substance use disorder. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 73,690 overdose deaths from April 2024 to April 2025. The opioid epidemic remains an ongoing public health emergency in the United States. In addition, youth suicide rates have risen by over 60% to all-time highs, and one in five Americans live with a mental health condition. Now more than ever, the federal government must be strengthening all efforts to respond to these dual crises, in addition to cracking down on the influx of illicit fentanyl into our country.\n\nIt is important to highlight that SAMHSA\u2019s programs not only save lives, they save money. Mental illness and substance use already cost the U.S. economy more than $1 trillion each year in lost productivity, health care spending, and premature deaths. Terminating the experts at SAMHSA who coordinate our national response will deepen both the human and economic toll and ensure devastating impacts from increasing supplies of illicit drugs flowing into communities across the country.\n\nFor years, SAMHSA has been a cornerstone of America\u2019s public health response; implementing evidence-based solutions, expanding access to key services in rural and underserved areas, and launching critical tools like 9-8-8, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. These efforts enjoy broad bipartisan support, delivering real results on a crisis that transcends party lines.\n\nYour decision sends the wrong message to public health professionals\u2014and to the families counting on them. It contradicts the administration\u2019s own stated goals to tackle the fentanyl crisis, expand mental health services, and end the opioid epidemic. Terminating staff risks derailing the progress made by a workforce whose experience is irreplaceable.\n\nWe have seen your agency course-correct before, reversing similar mass terminations at the CDC. That same logic must apply here. The administration should be bolstering SAMHSA\u2019s mission, not undercutting it.\n\nThe public expects a health department that\u2019s focused on solutions, not politics. I urge you to reverse these terminations immediately and reaffirm your department\u2019s commitment to the people on the ground doing the hard work to keep Americans safe and healthy.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-colleagues-urge-trump-usda-to-immediately-release-november-snap-benefits/", "Padilla, Schiff, Colleagues\u00a0Urge\u00a0Trump USDA\u00a0to Immediately Release November SNAP Benefits", "2025-10-23", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Trump Administration jeopardizing food assistance for 5.5 million Californians on CalFresh\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) joined Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), as well as 41 other colleagues, in calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to release the billions of dollars at its disposal to ensure Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits continue in November. The letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins comes as the Trump Administration\u2019s refusal to provide SNAP funding will force at least 25 states, including California, to delay essential food benefits at the start of next month.\n\nApproximately 40 million low-income Americans \u2014 including 5.5 million Californians \u2014 depend on SNAP benefits to help afford their groceries, which has only grown more important amid skyrocketing food prices under President Trump. In response to USDA\u2019s withholding of SNAP funding, Governor Gavin Newsom announced yesterday that he will deploy the California National Guard to support food banks across the state, similar to the emergency role the Guard played to facilitate nutrition assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. California will also fast-track over $80 million in state support to protect these vital benefits.\n\n\u201cWe were deeply disturbed to hear that the USDA has instructed states to stop processing SNAP benefits for November and were surprised by your recent comments that the program will \u2018run out of money in two weeks,\u2019\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cIn fact, the USDA has several tools available which would enable SNAP benefits to be paid through or close to the end of November.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn the event that more resources are needed than what is available in contingency funding, the USDA should explore all legal means to augment funds to pay the full amount of SNAP benefits in November. Americans are already struggling with the rising cost of groceries, and they cannot afford a sudden lapse in grocery assistance,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cWe urge you to immediately communicate to states and committees of jurisdiction the USDA\u2019s plans to disburse the contingency funding to state agencies and utilize all available legal authorities so that American families can get benefits without interruption. Democrats remain at the table and ready to negotiate reopening the government.\u201d\n\nThe Democratic Senators raised the alarm about USDA\u2019s failure to use available funding to continue SNAP, urging USDA to comply with the law by using contingency funding available for SNAP. They also urged USDA to use its interchange authority under 7 U.S.C. 2257 that allows the agency to transfer funds from other USDA nutrition programs to SNAP, which they recently used to transfer funding to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), to protect important benefits during the government shutdown.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Schiff, Booker, Klobuchar, and Luj\u00e1n, the letter was also signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nEarlier this year, Senator Padilla joined a spotlight forum titled \u201cHunger by Design \u00ad\u2014 The GOP\u2019s Assault on SNAP\u201d to question witnesses and expose President Trump and Republicans\u2019 cruel budget proposal that cut nearly $200 billion in SNAP benefits while giving tax cuts to billionaires. He also repeatedly slammed Republicans\u2019 billionaire-first budget reconciliation bill that is gutting critical programs like SNAP and devastating families in California and across the country. In June, Padilla joined the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in calling on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to reverse course on Republicans\u2019 plan to take health care and food assistance away from millions of Americans \u2014 including seniors, children, people with disabilities, and veterans \u2014 to pay for tax breaks for ultra-wealthy Americans.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Rollins,\n\nThe Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is our nation\u2019s largest food assistance program, serving 42 million people, including 16 million children, 8 million seniors, and 4 million people with disabilities. Any halt in SNAP funding will have devastating impacts for program beneficiaries, increasing food insecurity and undermining family budgets. Given the critical importance of SNAP benefits, the USDA must take all steps possible to ensure that families do not go hungry.\n\nWe were deeply disturbed to hear that the USDA has instructed states to stop processing SNAP benefits for November and were surprised by your recent comments that the program will \u201crun out of money in two weeks.\u201d In fact, the USDA has several tools available which would enable SNAP benefits to be paid through or close to the end of November. First, the USDA must, at a minimum under the law, use the contingency funding that is available for SNAP, as noted by USDA officials. Second, the USDA has interchange authority under 7 U.S.C. 2257 that permits the transfer of funds from other USDA nutrition programs. In fact, this authority was recently used by the USDA when it transferred money from child nutrition programs to the WIC account to maintain WIC benefits during the shutdown. In the event that more resources are needed than what is available in contingency funding, the USDA should explore all legal means to augment funds to pay the full amount of SNAP benefits in November.\n\nAmericans are already struggling with the rising cost of groceries, and they cannot afford a sudden lapse in grocery assistance. We urge you to immediately communicate to states and committees of jurisdiction the USDA\u2019s plans to disburse the contingency funding to state agencies and utilize all available legal authorities so that American families can get benefits without interruption. Democrats remain at the table and ready to negotiate reopening the government.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-lofgren-lead-california-democrats-in-blasting-trumps-unlawful-energy-projects-cuts-call-for-nearly-8-billion-to-be-reinstated/", "Padilla, Schiff, Lofgren Lead California Democrats in Blasting Trump\u2019s Unlawful Energy Projects Cuts, Call for Nearly $8 Billion to be Reinstated", "2025-10-23", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "California Lawmakers: This Administration \u201cis focused on vindictive, destructive actions that will keep us dependent on innovations and expertise from foreign competitors and further raise costs for American families.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), along with Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), Chair of the California Democratic Congressional delegation, led 27 Democratic California lawmakers in denouncing the Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) cuts of $7.6 billion in critical grants for energy projects across California and the country. DOE\u2019s list of cuts includes 79 projects and over $3.3 billion in investment across California, with over $2 billion in projects eliminated from Republican-represented districts in California. The funding for these projects was approved and appropriated by Congress, and the cuts violate existing bipartisan law while threatening to further raise energy costs.\n\nIn their letter to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, the California lawmakers made clear that these vindictive cuts will weaken our electrical grids, harm American workers and manufacturing, and threaten communities who depend on these projects for reliable energy sources. They emphasized that these cuts fly in the face of the Administration\u2019s stated priorities while abandoning their purported goal of securing \u201cAmerican energy dominance.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe write to express our outrage at the unlawful cancellation of nearly $8 billion of crucial Department of Energy grants supporting projects which, if reinstated, would make our country\u2019s electric grids, industrial processes, and workforce stronger, safer, and more resilient,\u201d wrote the lawmakers.\n\n\u201cMany of these projects had already begun implementation, and their cancellation abandons hardworking Americans for the sake of cheap, partisan retribution. The DOE\u2019s $7.6 billion in cancellations do not bring our country any closer to American Energy Dominance. Instead, they threaten the country\u2019s progress toward reliable, resilient, and affordable energy for all and undermine thousands of American jobs along the way,\u201d continued the lawmakers.\n\nThese cuts targeting Democratic-led states like California were telegraphed earlier this year by reports of a DOE \u201chit list\u201d of awards, contracts, and projects \u2014 many of which have already begun construction \u2014 that the Administration was considering canceling. The list contained California\u2019s Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) hydrogen hub and other California projects for which the Trump Administration is intending to withhold funding, including all $1.2 billion for ARCHES.\n\nThe list of cut projects also includes important energy storage projects that would add \u201cdispatchable capacity\u201d to help meet energy demand, going back on DOE\u2019s stated goals. For instance, one canceled project would provide $30 million to build long-duration energy storage capacity for Valley Children\u2019s Hospital in Madera, California, a critical Central Valley facility that that serves 1.3 million children. The project would have provided essential, dispatchable backup power for the hospital\u2019s operations, but now the Valley\u2019s only children\u2019s hospital with either an emergency medicine facility or a Level IV NICU facility for critically ill newborns will be left vulnerable to grid failure.\n\nAdditionally, projects in Republican-represented districts have been canceled that would have supported grid reliability and affordability, bolstered cement and glass manufacturing, improved carbon capture and storage, and facilitated cleaner and safer oil and gas use and processing. These projects would improve air quality in neighboring communities and reduce carbon emissions, while creating good-paying jobs for Californians of all political backgrounds.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Schiff, and Lofgren, the letter was also signed by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-11) and U.S. Representatives Nanette Barrag\u00e1n (D-Calif.-44), Ami Bera (D-Calif.-06), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.-26), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.-31), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.-30), John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.-42), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-51), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37), Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.-16), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.-07), Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.-15), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.-19), Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50), Luz Rivas (D-Calif.-29), Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.-25), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.-12), Norma Torres (D-Calif.-35), Derek Tran (D-Calif.-45), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52), and George Whitesides (D-Calif.-27).\n\nSenators Padilla and Schiff have strongly opposed the Department of Energy\u2019s recent project cuts. Earlier this month, Padilla and Schiff joined 35 Senators in demanding that Secretary Wright and Director Vought restore funding for 223 energy projects in Democratic-led states that the Trump Administration unlawfully canceled. The California Senators also blasted the Department\u2019s cancellation of all $1.2 billion Padilla secured in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for California\u2019s ARCHES hydrogen hub. Padilla, Schiff, and Representatives Whitesides and Levin previously led a bipartisan, bicameral delegation of 45 lawmakers in urging DOE to preserve funding for hydrogen production hubs, including ARCHES. Padilla, Schiff, and 25 other Democratic Senators also sounded the alarm on DOE\u2019s \u201chit list\u201d of key energy projects, demanding Secretary of Energy Chris Wright follow the law and preserve the hydrogen hub program. Additionally, Padilla questioned President Trump\u2019s nominee for Deputy Secretary of Energy on the \u201chit list,\u201d highlighting the importance of the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program to \u201cjumpstart\u201d the national hydrogen economy and urging him to protect vital funding for ARCHES.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Wright and Director Vought:\n\nWe write to express our outrage at the unlawful cancellation of nearly $8 billion of crucial Department of Energy grants supporting projects which, if reinstated, would make our country\u2019s electric grids, industrial processes, and workforce stronger, safer, and more resilient.\n\nOn October 1, 2025, OMB Director Russell Vought claimed that the $7.6 billion cancellations were \u201cGreen New Scam\u201d projects benefiting only Democratic climate priorities, yet over $2 billion in funding has been pulled from Republican-represented districts in California alone. These projects were set to promote energy reliability, affordability, and safety for Americans. Clearly, the administration is not really working toward a \u201cGolden Era of American Energy Dominance\u201d, and instead is focused on vindictive, destructive actions that will keep us dependent on innovations and expertise from foreign competitors and further raise costs for American families.\n\nOn October 3, 2025, California\u2019s Senators decried the cancellation of one of the State\u2019s most important projects for the next generation of energy technology: $1.2 billion for California\u2019s Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy (ARCHES) Hydrogen Hub. The full list of cancelled grants and awards recently released by the Department of Energy (DOE) worsens this egregious, vindictive action by the DOE and cancels additional crucial projects, totaling almost $7.6 billion in investments toward energy reliability, innovation, and affordability.\n\nIn many cases, projects are being cancelled despite being aligned with the Administration\u2019s stated priorities. For example, DOE is cancelling critical energy storage projects which would add \u201cdispatchable capacity,\u201d exactly what DOE has claimed it wants to prioritize. One such cancelled project would provide $30 million to build long-duration energy storage capacity for Valley Children\u2019s Hospital in Madera, CA. Valley Children\u2019s is a critical facility in the Central Valley that serves 1.3 million children and provides the Valley\u2019s only children\u2019s hospital with an Emergency Medicine facility as well as the Valley\u2019s only Level IV NICU facility for critically ill newborns. The cancelled project would have added vital, dispatchable backup power to critical hospital operations. Nevertheless, the DOE seems to believe that the welfare of children in the Central Valley is inconsistent with the Trump Administration\u2019s priorities.\n\nCancelled projects also include critical improvements to grid reliability and affordability. For instance, $13 million was clawed back from Liberty Utilities\u2019 Leapfrog program to improve service and reliability for communities, particularly rural communities. A number of these cancelled projects go beyond critical improvements to the grid. Some of the country\u2019s most innovative industrial projects have also been axed, including groundbreaking improvements in cement and glass manufacturing aimed at protecting clean, breathable air in communities as well as providing key workforce development to create and train for good-paying jobs. These include $75 million for the Gallos Glass Project and $500 million for the National Cement Company of California\u2019s Lebec Net-Zero Project. These projects in Republican-represented districts have not been spared from these unlawful terminations that will only hurt hard-working American families and leave us even further away from securing \u201cEnergy Dominance.\u201d\n\nEven projects intended to support clean, safe oil and gas use and processing to secure \u201cfirm, dispatchable capacity\u201d are being threatened by the Administration\u2019s reckless cancellations. Carbon capture and storage is a promising approach to reducing the emissions footprint of traditionally carbon-intensive processes and products. Projects like the Kern County Community College District\u2019s Direct Air Capture hub have been unceremoniously cancelled despite providing research, workforce training, and technological support to this developing technology.\n\nMany of these projects had already begun implementation, and their cancellation abandons hardworking Americans for the sake of cheap, partisan retribution. The DOE\u2019s $7.6 billion in cancellations do not bring our country any closer to American Energy Dominance. Instead, they threaten the country\u2019s progress toward reliable, resilient, and affordable energy for all and undermine thousands of American jobs along the way.\n\nWe urge you to reinstate funding for California\u2019s projects. Thank you for your time and attention to this important matter.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-urge-federal-trade-commission-to-address-ai-chatbots-risks-to-children-and-teens/", "Padilla, Schiff Urge Federal Trade Commission to Address AI Chatbots Risks to Children and Teens", "2025-10-22", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) are urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to address the full range of risks and potential harms that artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots pose to children and teenagers.\n\nThe Senators\u2019 efforts on children\u2019s safety follow the tragic death earlier this year of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old from Rancho Santa Margarita, California, who took his own life after months of conversations with an AI chatbot in which he discussed his struggles with mental health and specific plans to commit suicide.\n\nThe FTC recently announced that the Commission will begin reviewing certain risks associated with AI chatbots. To prevent future harms and ensure AI systems are designed with children and teenagers\u2019 safety in mind, the Senators are urging the FTC to broaden its review to include whether AI companies have adequate tools to detect and respond to signs of crisis, ensure access to strong parental supervision tools, disclose limitations of their safeguards, address deceptive marketing and sexual exploitation risks for children, and enforce penalties for companies failing to protect minors.\n\n\u201cAI-powered chatbots present an unprecedented and unique danger to minors engaged in longer and unsupervised interactions with these systems. This issue is both timely and urgent, as AI is rapidly shaping how Americans \u2013 including children \u2013 learn, communicate, and seek help. As the agency charged with protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive practices, the FTC has a critical role to play in ensuring that AI companies build safety features that work reliably for children,\u201d wrote the Senators.\n\n\u201cWe request that you provide our offices with a briefing by October 31, 2025, on how the Commission will incorporate the unique risks to children in its upcoming review of AI chatbots. We also urge you to consider convening AI technologists, mental health experts, and child advocates to inform any study the FTC conducts into this issue,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cWe look forward to working with you to ensure that the promise of AI does not come at the expense of our children\u2019s safety.\u201d\n\nEarlier this year, Senator Padilla and Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) raised concerns regarding the mental health and safety risks posed to children using character- and persona-based AI chatbot and companion apps that have surged in popularity in recent years, pushing three leading AI chatbot companies to ensure their products do not contribute to self-harm or suicide of young users. Padilla warned about the safety of this emerging consumer product category during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, noting that AI chatbots have exposed kids to suggestive, sexual, or otherwise age-inappropriate themes.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Chairman Ferguson:\n\nWe are encouraged by the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s (FTC) recent announcement that the Commission will be reviewing certain risks associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots.We write to urge the Commission to ensure its review adequately addresses the range of harms that AI chatbots pose to American\u2019s, and particularly children\u2019s, safety.\n\nAI-powered chatbots present an unprecedented and unique danger to minors engaged in longer and unsupervised interactions with these systems. This issue is both timely and urgent, as AI is rapidly shaping how Americans \u2013 including children \u2013 learn, communicate, and seek help. As the agency charged with protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive practices, the FTC has a critical role to play in ensuring that AI companies build safety features that work reliably for children.\n\nResearch has found that AI chatbots are easily accessible to children without checks for parental consent and generate harmful content, including willingness to engage with explicit sexual content and suicidal ideation. Additionally, safety measures can be easily bypassed and nearly half of prompts included suggestions designed to keep the user engaging in conversation.\n\nThe tragic death of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old from Rancho Santa Margarita, California, underscores the stakes. In April, Adam took his own life after months of conversations with ChatGPT in which they discussed \u2013 over 3,000 times \u2013 his struggles with mental health and specific plans to commit suicide, including analyzing images of a noose and discussing whether it would \u201cwork\u201d. His parents later discovered thousands of chats, documenting how the chatbot at times deepened his sense of hopelessness: assuring Adam that he did not owe his parents his survival and offering to draft a suicide note, advising Adam against leaving a noose out so that his parents would find it, and helping fortify the noose that Adam would ultimately use to take his own life. Adam\u2019s death is not an isolated case but part of a disturbing pattern of AI tools engaging in unsafe ways with vulnerable youth.\n\nTo prevent future harms and ensure AI systems are designed with children\u2019s safety in mind, we urge the Commission to broaden its review to include the following considerations:\n\nChild-Specific Safeguards: Evaluate whether the leading AI companies have adequate, tested protocols to detect and respond to signs of crisis, particularly when minors are involved.\n\nParental Supervision Tools: Assess whether current parental disclosures and supervision tools are sufficient to ensure parents can meaningfully protect their children\u2019s interactions with AI systems and are aware of related risks.\n\nTransparency and Accountability: Require companies to disclose the limitations of their safeguards and to report failures to independent oversight bodies, including the FTC.\n\nDeceptive Marketing to Children: Investigate whether AI platforms are being promoted as companionship tools for youth and the degree to which companies are designing models\u2019 behaviors to keep young users engaged in potentially harmful conversations.\n\nSexual Exploitation and Grooming Risks: Assess whether AI systems expose minors to sexual exploitation, grooming, or sexually explicit content. Evaluate whether companies are implementing proactive safeguards to detect and block exploitative behaviors.\n\nAlgorithmic Amplification of Harm: Examine how design choices, including engagement-driven algorithms and reinforcement loops, may amplify harmful behaviors or prolong children\u2019s exposure to dangerous content.\n\nEnforcement and Penalties: Impose clear consequences for companies that fail to protect minors.\n\nWe urge the Commission to request that AI chatbot companies under review submit to the FTC aggregated data regarding instances of high-volume users, especially teens, who were flagged internally for self-harm by internal company systems who then abruptly stopped using the service.\n\nWe request that you provide our offices with a briefing by October 31, 2025, on how the Commission will incorporate the unique risks to children in its upcoming review of AI chatbots. We also urge you to consider convening AI technologists, mental health experts, and child advocates to inform any study the FTC conducts into this issue.\n\nWe look forward to working with you to ensure that the promise of AI does not come at the expense of our children\u2019s safety.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-advances-fix-our-forests-act-marking-key-progress-to-combat-wildfires/", "Senate Advances Fix Our Forests Act, Marking Key Progress to Combat Wildfires", "2025-10-21", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "One of the most significant steps forward in federal wildfire policy in recent decades streamlines processes to protect communities while restoring forest health\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), John Curtis (R-Utah), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) applauded the advancement of the Senate version of the Fix Our Forests Act through the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, setting the pivotal fire and forestry legislation up for a vote by the full Senate. The bipartisan legislation would help combat catastrophic wildfires, restore forest ecosystems, and make federal forest management more efficient.\n\nThe comprehensive Senate bill reflects months of bipartisan Senate negotiations to find consensus on how to holistically respond to the wildfire crisis, best improve forest management practices, accelerate efforts to protect communities, advance watershed restoration, and strengthen partnerships between federal agencies, states, Tribes, and private stakeholders. The Senate version of the bill would also bolster coordination efforts across federal agencies through a new Wildfire Intelligence Center, which would streamline the federal response and create a whole-of-government approach to combating wildfires.\n\nA one-pager on the Senate Fix Our Forests Act is available here. A list of provisions particularly impactful for California is available here.\n\n\u201cThe status quo around wildfires isn\u2019t working and far too many Americans have paid the price,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cThe families I\u2019ve met who have lost everything to the devastation in Los Angeles and in wildfire disasters across the country deserve action. That\u2019s why we\u2019re coming together to confront this crisis and rethink how we prevent and respond. Today\u2019s advancement of our bipartisan bill is real progress toward protecting Americans and our environment through forward-thinking, practical wildfire solutions.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn Utah and across the West, we face a growing crisis of overgrown, unhealthy forests. Thanks to the cooperation of both parties, we are confronting the challenge head on and now one step closer to passing legislation that will deliver essential tools to combat wildfires, restore forest ecosystems, and make federal forest management more efficient and responsive. I commend the Committee\u2019s action and look forward to the bill\u2019s swift passage by the full Senate,\u201d said Senator Curtis.\n\n\u201cThere is a wildfire crisis across much of the country \u2013 our communities need action now,\u201d said Senator Hickenlooper. \u201cWildfires won\u2019t wait. After bipartisan committee passage, the next step is a full Senate vote. The Fix Our Forests Act will make our communities and environment more resilient.\u201d\n\n\u201cBetter stewardship of our forests is not a partisan issue; it\u2019s an imperative to securing a stronger economy, healthier forests, and safer communities. I\u2019m proud to see the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act move forward in the legislative process, and I\u2019ll continue fighting alongside my colleagues to enact commonsense reforms that ensure proper forest management, unleash the resource economy, and protect American communities from the threat of wildfire,\u201d said Senator Sheehy.\n\nThe American West has long been prone to wildfires, but prolonged drought and the buildup of dry fuels have increasingly intensified these fires and extended fire seasons. Wildfires today are more catastrophic \u2014 growing larger, spreading faster, and burning more land than ever before. Nationwide, total acres burned rose from 2.7 million in 2023 to nearly 9 million in 2024, a 231 percent increase.\n\nCalifornia averages more than 7,500 wildfires a year. Not including the Los Angeles fires at the start of this year, six of the top 10 most destructive fires, three of the top five deadliest fires, and all of the state\u2019s nine largest fires have burned since 2017. The status quo is unsustainable, and responding to the scale and magnitude of the crisis on the ground is essential to keeping California communities safe.\n\nAdditionally, wildfires release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that accelerate climate change. California\u2019s 2020 fire season, the worst on record, emitted enough greenhouse gases to erase nearly two decades of progress on emissions reductions in California. Addressing this wildfire emergency is critical to ensuring that our climate progress is not undermined by the devastating impacts of these fires.\n\nTo address these challenges, the Fix Our Forests Act would:\n\nEstablish new and updated programs to reduce wildfire risks across large, high-priority \u201cfiresheds,\u201d with an emphasis on cross-jurisdictional collaboration.\n\nStreamline and expand tools for forest health projects (e.g., stewardship contracting, Good Neighbor Agreements) and provide faster processes for certain hazardous fuels treatments.\n\nCreate a single interagency program to help communities in the wildland-urban interface build and retrofit with wildfire-resistant measures, while simplifying and consolidating grant applications.\n\nExpand research and demonstration initiatives \u2014 including biochar projects and the Community Wildfire Defense Research Program \u2014 to test and deploy cutting-edge wildfire prevention, detection, and mitigation technologies.\n\nStrengthen coordination efforts across agencies through a new Wildfire Intelligence Center which would streamline the federal response and create a whole-of-government approach to combating wildfires.\n\nImprove reforestation, seedling supply, and nursery capacity; establish new programs for white oak restoration; and clarify policies to reduce wildfire-related litigation and expedite forest health treatments.\n\nSupporters of the Senate version of the Fix Our Forests Act include California Governor Gavin Newsom; Utah Governor Spencer Cox; Colorado Governor Jared Polis; Montana Governor Greg Gianforte; Western Governors\u2019 Association; California Natural Resources Agency; California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection; California State Association of Counties; Rural County Representatives of California; California Fire Chiefs Association; California Fire Service Leadership Alliance; County of Los Angeles; The Nature Conservancy; National Wildlife Federation; Environmental Defense Fund; National Audubon Society; Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership; California Farm Bureau; Federation of American Scientists; Citizens\u2019 Climate Lobby; The Stewardship Project; Megafire Action; Climate and Wildfire Institute; International Association of Fire Chiefs; Alliance for Wildfire Resilience; Wildfire Alliance; American Forests; Tall Timbers; National Water Resources Association; National Association of State Departments of Agriculture; National Association of State Foresters; American Property Casualty Insurance Association; U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Congressional Sportsmen\u2019s Foundation; Hispanics Enjoy Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors; Utah Department of Natural Resources; Colorado Department of Natural Resources; Colorado State Forest Service; Colorado State Fire Chiefs Wildland Section; Colorado Water Congress; Rocky Mountain Elk; and Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.\n\nThe Western Governors\u2019 Association wrote to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry leadership yesterday to express their strong support for the continued advancement of the Senate version of the Fix Our Forests Act:\n\n\u201cWestern Governors are encouraged by the development of bipartisan legislation to improve forest management and mitigate wildfire risk. As the wildfire crisis has worsened in recent years, Western Governors have developed and advocated for a range of policy recommendations to promote healthy western forests that can continue to provide our communities with jobs, recreation, quality of life, and important ecosystem services. S. 1462, the Fix Our Forests Act, advances many of our recommendations, and we are eager to continue to work with the Committee to support critical forest management reforms through the legislative process.\u201d\n\nAdditional letters of support from elected officials, environmental groups, first responders, and wildfire organizations are available here.\n\nA full list of national supporters can be found here, and a list of California supporters is available here.\n\nEarlier this year, Senators Padilla, Curtis, Hickenlooper, and Sheehy praised the continued progress of their Senate version of the Fix Our Forests Act, as it received a legislative hearing in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. The Senators have also announced growing support from state and local government officials, community leaders, and industry stakeholders for the Senate version of the Fix Our Forests Act. In April, Padilla highlighted the Senate Fix Our Forests Act after joining federal and state emergency officials for a tour of the Pacific Palisades fire recovery area led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).\n\nIn the aftermath of the catastrophic Southern California fires, Senator Padilla has introduced more than a dozen bills to help prevent and respond to future wildfires. Last month, Padilla and Sheehy announced the bipartisan Forest Legacy Management Flexibility Act to help permanently conserve forestlands and mitigate increasing wildfire risks. Padilla and Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) also introduced the FEMA Independence Act, bipartisan legislation to restore FEMA as an independent, cabinet-level agency and improve efficiency in federal emergency response efforts.\n\nMore information on today\u2019s business meeting is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-joins-bipartisan-push-warning-trump-administration-to-obey-law-on-back-pay-for-furloughed-federal-workers/", "Padilla Joins Bipartisan Push Warning Trump Administration to Obey Law on Back Pay for Furloughed Federal Workers", "2025-10-15", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined Senators Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.), U.S. Representatives Don Beyer (D-Va.-08) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.-05), and 160 other lawmakers in a bipartisan push urging the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to follow the law that requires furloughed federal employees to receive back pay after a government shutdown. The lawmakers underscored that the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which Trump signed into law during the last shutdown under his previous Administration, is clear that all federal employees are entitled to back pay after a government shutdown ends, regardless of whether they are excepted or furloughed.\n\nThe Senators raised serious concerns with OMB\u2019s recent update to its Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations document and reports of a White House memo suggesting that federal workers furloughed during a government shutdown may be denied back pay. The new OMB guidance blatantly defies federal law and contradicts the Council of Economic Advisers and Office of Personnel Management, who have stated that furloughed workers should receive automatic back pay once the shutdown concludes.\n\nThe Trump Administration\u2019s illegal threat to withhold back pay for as many as 750,000 federal workers is a clear attempt to force Democrats to pass Republicans\u2019 partisan appropriations bill. Protecting legally required back pay for furloughed civil servants is essential to avoid unnecessary chaos and stress. Before President Trump began his mass firings of the federal workforce, California had more than 150,000 federal civilian workers last year.\n\n\u201cThe law is clear: all impacted government employees, regardless of excepted or furloughed status, are entitled to back pay after a government shutdown ends, which is consistent with the guidance currently provided by federal agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management (OPM),\u201d wrote the lawmakers. \u201cOPM\u2019s shutdown guidance from September 2025 still states that furloughed federal workers will be provided back pay once the government reopens.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe decision by OMB to remove critical guidance on federal employee back pay is causing unnecessary stress for the federal workforce comprised of nearly 2.2 million employees,\u201d continued the lawmakers. \u201cThus, we request you immediately clarify and update the Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations Document and other relevant materials to affirm that furloughed employees will receive back pay, as is required by law.\u201d\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Kaine, Murkowski, Van Hollen, Alsobrooks, and Warner, the letter is also signed by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), along with 136 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.\n\nSenator Padilla is a longtime advocate for protecting federal workers\u2019 rights. He has cosponsored several bills to help federal workers in the aftermath of the Republican shutdown, including legislation to ensure federal contract workers receive backpay, to let essential federal employees temporarily apply for unemployment insurance, to allow federal workers and contractors to withdraw funds from their savings or retirement accounts without penalties, and to provide timely relief for federal workers who are illegally fired. He also joined his colleagues in introducing the Federal Employee Civil Relief Act last week to protect federal workers, federal contractor employees, and their families from foreclosures, evictions, and loan defaults during a government shutdown. Last month, Padilla introduced the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act, which would repeal two union-busting executive orders and restore collective bargaining rights and workplace protections for federal workers.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Director Vought:\n\nThe Office of Management and Budget\u2019s (OMB) recent update to the Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations document implies that furloughed federal workers are not entitled to back pay. Additionally, a draft OMB memo stated the administration would deny back pay to furloughed federal workers for the current government shutdown. During the 2018-2019 shutdown, we worked with President Trump to enact the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act (GEFTA) of 2019, the intent of which is clear \u2013 federal employees are entitled to retroactive pay in the event of a government shutdown. We applauded President Trump for signing this bipartisan bill into law.\n\nOn January 16, 2019, the Senate unanimously passed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act to guarantee back pay for all impacted federal workers once a government shutdown ends. This law was enacted during the longest government shutdown which lasted 35 days at the end of 2018, and into the beginning of 2019. Prior to the law\u2019s passage, Congress had to pass specific legislation after each shutdown to ensure furloughed workers received back pay.\n\nExplicitly, the law guarantees back pay for all federal employees in the event of a government shutdown. \u201cEach employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee\u2019s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates, and subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.\u201d The law requires that retroactive pay be required in the event of any government shutdown after December 22, 2018.\n\nThe law is clear: all impacted government employees, regardless of excepted or furloughed status, are entitled to back pay after a government shutdown ends, which is consistent with the guidance currently provided by federal agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). OPM\u2019s shutdown guidance from September 2025 still states that furloughed federal workers will be provided back pay once the government reopens. The decision by OMB to remove critical guidance on federal employee back pay is causing unnecessary stress for the federal workforce comprised of nearly 2.2 million employees.\n\nThus, we request you immediately clarify and update the Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations Document and other relevant materials to affirm that furloughed employees will receive back pay, as is required by law.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-peters-file-amicus-brief-opposing-trump-administrations-illegal-ploy-to-purge-voter-rolls/", "Padilla, Peters File Amicus Brief Opposing Trump Administration\u2019s Illegal Ploy to Purge Voter Rolls", "2025-10-15", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senators argue that DHS\u2019 creation of a massive voter information database without congressional notification violates Privacy Act\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit opposing the Trump Administration\u2019s illegal ongoing attempts to purge state voter rolls across the country by developing a massive interagency database of Americans\u2019 sensitive personal data. Their amicus brief in League of Women Voters v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security endorses the plaintiffs\u2019 motion for a stay and a preliminary injunction to stop the Administration\u2019s widespread collection of Americans\u2019 legally protected data. The Senators argue that the overhaul of the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to sift through voter rolls with no direct notice to Congress violates the Privacy Act and lacks legal authority.\n\nThe League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and other plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward Foundation, the Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and Fair Elections Center.\n\nDHS and the Social Security Administration (SSA) have dramatically expanded DHS\u2019 SAVE program \u2014 originally meant to verify an individual\u2019s immigration status for determining benefit eligibility \u2014 to examine the citizenship of voters on state voter rolls in response to false, unsubstantiated concerns of rampant noncitizen voting. Experts and officials have warned that the reconstructed SAVE program lacks essential safeguards and could lead to errors when applied to voter rolls, since it does not properly account for Americans born before 1978 or naturalized citizens.\n\nNevertheless, the information of more than 33 million voters has already been run through this new system with little to no transparency, further raising the alarm on how that information will be used. These concerns are especially urgent given that DOJ has sent letters to at least 38 states inquiring about state voter maintenance practices, while recently filing targeted lawsuits against eight states, including California and Michigan, for their refusal to hand over unfettered access to their state\u2019s sensitive voter information and registration lists to the federal government.\n\nIn their amicus brief, the Senators argued that the secretive overhaul of the SAVE program to create a voter database violates the Privacy Act\u2019s clear notification requirements to permit congressional oversight and the protection of Americans\u2019 sensitive data. Congress would typically receive a System of Records Notification (SORN) update upon a large restructuring of a program\u2019s use like that made to SAVE to ensure they can uphold their oversight responsibilities; however, DHS did not provide Congress any notification. DHS would also issue an updated Privacy Impact Assessment for SAVE assessing any risks to privacy and potential mitigations, which it has not done thus far.\n\n\u201cDHS is actively advertising and encouraging states to use the overhauled SAVE program for voter verification and several states have begun to do so, running tens of millions of voter files through this expanded system,\u201d wrote the Senators in the legal brief. \u201c\u2026 These actions \u2014 which, again, are occurring outside the bounds of the law \u2014 create an intolerable risk that eligible American voters will be disenfranchised and perhaps even wrongly prosecuted for their alleged ineligibility. This cannot continue.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is no doubt these changes [to the SAVE program] require statutory notice given their significant nature. Again, no SORN has been issued. Nor has Congress otherwise received more than cursory information from the executive branch on this issue,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cDespite repeated outreach to DHS to receive clarity around the SAVE program overhaul, to confirm the accuracy of the reported expanded use of the program, and to ascertain the steps USCIS is taking (or not taking) to educate state and local officials on the potential for falsely identifying individuals as non-citizens with the program as modified, Senators have still not received a response to their letter from DHS as of the filing of this brief.\u201d\n\nThe Senators warned that the requests for statewide voter registration files seek personally identifying and confidential information, including voting history, violating the Privacy Act and First Amendment freedoms. For example, the DOJ Civil Rights Division\u2019s letter to Illinois requested information \u201cincluding the registrant\u2019s full name, date of birth, residential address, his or her state driver\u2019s license number or the last four digits of the registrant\u2019s social security number.\u201d\n\nAdditionally, the Senators made clear that the executive branch lacks constitutional or statutory authority to create a national voter database, as Congress, not the President, can set voter registration laws and preempt state procedures. Congress has passed two laws, the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and Help America Vote Act (HAVA), to make sure elections are administered freely and fairly with properly maintained voter rolls, but the DOJ has no statutory role influencing voter registration lists.\n\nSenator Padilla has led the charge in opposing the Trump Administration\u2019s thinly veiled attempts to purge voter rolls and investigate unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, including his letter with Senator Peters and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) opposing the reckless expansion of the SAVE program. Last week, Senator Padilla and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio-03) announced the Voter Purge Protection Act to prevent the Trump Administration\u2019s ongoing voter purge efforts, including by prohibiting the removal of individuals from the voter rolls due to changes in residence or not voting in previous elections. Last month, Padilla condemned DOJ\u2019s lawsuits against states for protecting sensitive voter information.\n\nFull text of the amicus brief is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/as-trump-unconstitutionally-deploys-military-into-american-cities-padilla-schiff-illinois-oregon-senators-oppose-ndaa/", "As Trump Unconstitutionally Deploys Military Into American Cities, Padilla, Schiff, Illinois, Oregon Senators Oppose NDAA", "2025-10-10", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Amid President Trump\u2019s escalating deployments of troops to American cities, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) \u2014 the six U.S. Senators representing states that Donald Trump is targeting with troop deployments over state and local officials\u2019 strong objections \u2014 issued the following statement on their vote against the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA):\n\n\u201cWhen our troops raised their right hands and took their oaths, they signed up to defend this country and our Constitution. They didn\u2019t sign up to aid a wannabe dictator\u2019s campaign to intimidate Americans in their own neighborhoods from exercising their rights to free speech and protest \u2014 the very rights our servicemembers swore to protect.\n\n\u201cWe cannot support authorizing this Administration to continue its egregious and unconstitutional abuse of our servicemembers, with Donald Trump treating them like political props by deploying them domestically without any legitimate reason or request from state and local officials.\n\n\u201cThe purpose of the NDAA is to make sure our military has the authorities and resources it needs to protect our national security \u2014 but right now, by pulling troops away from their core missions and forcing them into our own streets, Donald Trump is threatening the very rights we all hold dear as Americans.\u201d\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s militarization of Los Angeles and other American cities. Earlier this week, the California, Illinois, and Oregon Senators condemned the President\u2019s deployment of troops against their states. In June, Padilla led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty service members to American cities. Last month, Padilla, Schiff, and 17 other Senate Democrats filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit brought against President Trump for his misuse of the U.S. military in Los Angeles to suppress peaceful protests. The California Senators also recently demanded the U.S. Department of Defense provide information on operational details related to the ongoing deployment of California National Guard personnel in Los Angeles.\n\nAfter the Trump Administration deployed National Guard troops across Washington, D.C. and took control of the city\u2019s police department, Padilla supported legislation granting the District full authority over the D.C. National Guard and the Metropolitan Police Department. Additionally, Padilla recently introduced bicameral legislation to enhance oversight and accountability of the President\u2019s deployment of the National Guard. Padilla previously placed a hold on Trump\u2019s nominee to serve as vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lieutenant General Thomas Carden, until the Trump Administration releases all remaining U.S. military forces from their unjustified deployment to Los Angeles.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-join-35-senators-in-demanding-trump-administration-restore-8-billion-for-energy-projects-they-illegally-canceled/", "Padilla, Schiff Join 35 Senators in Demanding Trump Administration Restore $8 Billion for Energy Projects They Illegally Canceled", "2025-10-10", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senators to Trump Administration officials: \u201cyour cancellations will mean thousands of lost jobs for Americans, many of whom had every reason to rely on the stability of their jobs before these cancellations and all of whom will face uncertain job markets in our increasingly slowing economy.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) joined Senate ENR Committee Ranking Member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and 33 other Senators in demanding that Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought restore funding for 223 energy projects in Democratic-led states that the Trump Administration unlawfully canceled. The funding for these projects was approved and appropriated by Congress, and the cuts break existing bipartisan agreements while threatening to further raise energy costs.\n\nThese cuts targeting Democratic-leaning states like California were telegraphed earlier this year by reports of a DOE \u201chit list\u201d of awards, contracts, and projects \u2014 many of which have already begun construction \u2014 that the Administration was considering canceling. The list contained California\u2019s Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) hydrogen hub and other California projects for which the Trump Administration is intending to withhold funding, including all $1.2 billion for ARCHES.\n\n\u201cWe write in strong opposition to the Trump administration unlawfully cancelling $8 billion in federal investments in 223 energy projects,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cFor the 21 states with impacted projects, your cancellations will mean thousands of lost jobs for Americans, many of whom had every reason to rely on the stability of their jobs before these cancellations and all of whom will face uncertain job markets in our increasingly slowing economy.\u201d\n\n\u201c218 out of 223 projects that were terminated are in states with Democratic leadership. Even in programs where awards were made across all 50 states, such as the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program, only projects in Democratically led states were cancelled while similar projects in \u2018red states\u2019 remain,\u201d continued the Senators.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Schiff, Heinrich, and Murray, the letter was also signed by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). All 34 Democratic Senators from states with canceled grants and funding signed the letter.\n\n\u201cSatisfying the President\u2019s desire for political revenge and intimidation is not a lawful basis for your actions. It also betrays the callous indifference of this administration to the impacts of its decisions on everyday Americans. These are impacts that will be felt by Americans, regardless of their political views,\u201d concluded the Senators. \u201cFor the good of our country, the rule of law, and the American people, we demand that you change course and restore the previously awarded funding.\u201d\n\nSenators Padilla and Schiff have strongly opposed the Department of Energy\u2019s recent project cuts. Last week, the California Senators blasted the Department\u2019s cancellation of all $1.2 billion Padilla secured in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for California\u2019s ARCHES hydrogen hub. Earlier this year, Padilla, Schiff, and Representatives George Whitesides (D-Calif.-27) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49) led a bipartisan, bicameral delegation of 45 lawmakers in urging DOE to preserve funding for hydrogen production hubs, including ARCHES. Padilla, Schiff, and 25 other Democratic Senators also sounded the alarm on DOE\u2019s \u201chit list\u201d of key energy projects, demanding Secretary of Energy Chris Wright follow the law and preserve the hydrogen hub program. Additionally, Padilla questioned President Trump\u2019s nominee for Deputy Secretary of Energy on the \u201chit list,\u201d highlighting the importance of the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program to \u201cjumpstart\u201d the national hydrogen economy and urging him to protect vital funding for ARCHES.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Wright and Director Vought:\n\nWe write in strong opposition to the Trump administration unlawfully cancelling $8 billion in federal investments in 223 energy projects.\n\nYour cancellation of these projects will irreparably harm Americans in all the 21 states with impacted projects, and all additional states that rely on those projects. For the 21 states with impacted projects, your cancellations will mean thousands of lost jobs for Americans, many of whom had every reason to rely on the stability of their jobs before these cancellations and all of whom will face uncertain job markets in our increasingly slowing economy. It will mean lost educational opportunities for countless students at the now-cancelled university-led projects. It will mean difficulty obtaining private financing for impacted developers and utilities, not just on the now-cancelled grants but on other future opportunities that depend in any way on the stability of government permits, investments, and grants. It will mean less domestic manufacturing and innovation, all while diminishing America\u2019s competitive leadership globally. And it will mean higher energy bills for households and businesses across the country, all of whom are already stretched thin thanks to the affordability crisis instigated by this administration\u2019s tariffs and economic policy.\n\nThe illegality of your cancellations is the only thing as indisputable as the harm your cancellations will wreak. The grants you terminated were authorized and appropriated under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and annual appropriation bills which were passed by Congress and signed into law. The Department must expend these funds and faithfully execute the law, including many programs that have strict requirements for the timing of fund expenditure, purposes, and contractual expectations. In cancelling these awards, the Department points to authority to cancel these awards under 2 C.F.R. \u00a7 200.340, which provides very limited circumstances under which federal awards may be terminated, such as if an entity fails to comply with the conditions of the award, if the federal government and the entity mutually agree to terminate the award, or if the entity notifies the government of its intent to terminate the award. You have provided no indication that these conditions apply here.\n\nGiven the states impacted by these cancellations, the only criterion for cancelling the impacted projects appears to have been whether they were within Democratically led states. On this, the numbers do not lie: 218 out of 223 projects that were terminated are in states with Democratic leadership. Even in programs where awards were made across all 50 states, such as the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program, only projects in Democratically led states were cancelled\u2014while similar projects in \u201cred states\u201d remain.\n\nSatisfying the President\u2019s desire for political revenge and intimidation is not a lawful basis for your actions. It also betrays the callous indifference of this administration to the impacts of its decisions on everyday Americans. These are impacts that will be felt by Americans, regardless of their political views.\n\nFor the good of our country, the rule of law, and the American people, we demand that you change course and restore the previously awarded funding.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-joins-bill-to-protect-federal-workers-and-their-families-during-republican-shutdown/", "Padilla Joins Bill to Protect Federal Workers and Their Families During Republican Shutdown", "2025-10-09", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai\u2018i) and 16 Senators in introducing the Federal Employee Civil Relief Act. The legislation would protect federal workers, federal contractor employees, and their families from foreclosures, evictions, and loan defaults during a government shutdown.\n\nPresident Trump and his Administration have continued to threaten the rights of federal workers after Senate Republicans refused to pass Democrats\u2019 continuing resolution that would have protected health care coverage for millions of Americans while averting a government shutdown.\n\n\u201cFor nine months, Donald Trump has taken a sledgehammer to our federal workforce, intimidating and purging hardworking public servants as he consolidates power. Now, he\u2019s threatening to use the Republican shutdown to inflict even more pain,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cCalifornia has one of the largest federal workforces in the country, and we must ensure they can pay their bills and stay in their homes through any future shutdown.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhile the President and congressional Republicans continue to refuse to work with Democrats to stop health care costs from skyrocketing and reopen the government, people are suffering,\u201d said Senator Schatz. \u201cRight now, hundreds of thousands of federal workers, federal contractor employees, and their families don\u2019t know whether they\u2019ll be able to pay rent and make ends meet. Our bill will protect these workers and make sure they aren\u2019t harmed during this shutdown.\u201d\n\n\u201cRepublicans control the House, Senate, and Presidency \u2014 and they have led our country into a shutdown to avoid bipartisan negotiations or a discussion about the impending Republican-led healthcare crisis. Now, Republicans and the White House are even threatening to not provide legally mandated backpay to workers,\u201d said Leader Schumer. \u201cUnfortunately, there are real people \u2014 with real concerns about pay and livelihood \u2014 who are being used as political pawns in the Republicans\u2019 attempt to cater to billionaires and special interests. Senate Democrats remain committed to protecting federal workers who are affected by this shutdown. With the passage of the commonsense Federal Employee Civil Relief Act, federal workers could rest a little easier knowing they and their families are protected from foreclosures, evictions, and defaults during this tumultuous period.\u201d\n\nThe Federal Employee Civil Relief Act addresses the threat of federal workers and contractors losing their homes, falling behind on student loans and other bills, having their car repossessed, or losing their health insurance because they have been furloughed during a shutdown or required to work without pay.\n\nSpecifically, this legislation would protect impacted workers from:\n\nBeing evicted or foreclosed;\n\nHaving their car or other property repossessed;\n\nFalling behind on their student loan payments;\n\nHaving negative effects on their credit history;\n\nFalling behind on paying their bills; or\n\nLosing their insurance because of missed premiums.\n\nThe protection would last during and 30 days following a shutdown to give workers a chance to keep up with their bills. Now in its second week, the government shutdown impacts thousands of federal workers and federal contractor employees in all 50 states. Before President Trump began his mass firings of the federal workforce, California had more than 150,000 federal civilian workers last year.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, the bill is also cosponsored by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai\u2018i), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Companion legislation in the House of Representatives is set to be introduced by U.S. Representative Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.-02).\n\nThis legislation also has the support of the National Treasury Employees Union, International Federal of Professional and Technical Engineers, National Federation of Federal Employees-IAM, American Federation of Government Employees, National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, UNITE HERE, LIUNA (Laborers\u2019 International Union of North America), and the Transport Workers Union.\n\nSenator Padilla is a longtime advocate for protecting federal workers\u2019 rights. He has cosponsored several bills to help federal workers in the aftermath of the Republican shutdown, including legislation to ensure federal contract workers receive backpay, to let essential federal employees temporarily apply for unemployment insurance, to allow federal workers and contractors to withdraw funds from their savings or retirement accounts without penalties, and to provide timely relief for federal workers who are illegally fired. Last month, Padilla introduced the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act, which would repeal two union-busting executive orders and restore collective bargaining rights and workplace protections for federal workers. In April, Padilla joined Senator Van Hollen and the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in urging President Trump to rescind his March 27 executive order to end collective bargaining agreements between public employee unions and dozens of federal agencies and bureaus.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-beatty-announce-new-bill-to-stop-trump-administration-from-purging-voter-rolls/", "WATCH: Padilla, Beatty Announce New Bill to Stop Trump Administration From Purging Voter Rolls", "2025-10-09", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California\u2019s former Secretary of State, and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio-03) hosted a virtual press call to announce new bicameral legislation aimed at preventing the Trump Administration\u2019s ongoing efforts to purge state voter rolls and restrict the right to vote across the country. The Voter Purge Protection Act comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed lawsuits against eight states, including California, for their refusal to hand over unfettered access to their state\u2019s sensitive voter information and registration lists to the federal government. Democracy Forward and a coalition of public interest organizations recently sued the Trump Administration for its efforts to create massive government databases to purge voter rolls.\n\nThe Voter Purge Protection Act would update the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to prohibit the removal of individuals from the voter rolls due to changes in residence or not voting in previous elections, unless supported by objective and reliable evidence that the voter has died or moved out of the state, among other protections for registered voters and states administering elections. The NVRA requires states to conduct ineligible voter removal programs, but it bans states from removing voters without notice solely for their failure to vote. However, at least 19 states have removal processes that target inactive voters that could result in their removal for not voting in two consecutive general elections.\n\nAs DOJ continues to challenge state and local voter registration practices in preparation for mass voter roll purges, Padilla and Beatty were joined by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, to discuss the impact of the Administration\u2019s actions on voters.\n\n\u201cIt should concern every single American, regardless of party, that the President of the United States wants fewer eligible Americans to vote, not more,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cAs the Trump Administration prepares for widespread voter purges by unlawfully demanding states\u2019 entire sensitive voter files and building massive databases to run this voter data through, it\u2019s clear that President Trump and his allies are quietly laying the groundwork to cling to power by manipulating who gets to cast a ballot. With our democracy under attack, our bill would prevent unwarranted voter purges, protect voters, and preserve voting rights for both red and blue states, all while allowing for responsible voter roll maintenance.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe can\u2019t overlook how so-called \u2018use-it-or-lose-it\u2019 voter purges have stripped countless Americans\u2014particularly low-income citizens and people of color\u2014of their voice at the ballot box. Revoking someone\u2019s registration simply because they didn\u2019t return a mailed notice undermines the very foundation of our democracy, especially when so many of those letters never even reach voters,\u201d said Congresswoman Beatty. \u201c\u2018Use It or Lose It\u2019 Is Not Democracy. Protecting the people\u2019s right to vote is a cornerstone of our democracy, and the Voter Purge Protection Act is a critical step toward preventing these harmful and unnecessary purges.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis year, we\u2019ve seen what appears to be an attempt at a federal takeover of our elections through Executive Order and through actions by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice. The Voter Purge Protection Act gives critical protections to Americans to ensure they are not stripped of their right to vote,\u201d said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon.\n\n\u201cDemocracy is built on the idea that all eligible voters should be allowed to choose the direction of their communities and our country by exercising their right to vote. However, anti-democratic forces are working to undermine this core principle by making it easier to erroneously purge the voter rolls and deny eligible voters their ability to exercise that right. This effort is not new, but what is new and bringing urgency to this issue is the extent to which the Executive Branch and the President himself is complicit and facilitating these efforts,\u201d said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. \u201cAttempts to consolidate the American people\u2019s private information and remove eligible voters from voter rolls are unlawful. Our promise to the American people is that we will be in court every day to stop these abuses of power.\u201d\n\nSince July, DOJ has sent letters to at least 36 states inquiring about state voter maintenance practices in addition to their lawsuits against California, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania after these states refused to provide voter lists to DOJ.\n\nAdditionally, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has dramatically expanded its use of the insufficiently tested Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program, which could be used by the Administration as a basis to coerce states into purging eligible citizens from state voter rolls. DHS overhauled the SAVE Program to verify the citizenship of voters on state voter rolls in response to false, unsubstantiated concerns of rampant noncitizen voting. However, the Administration\u2019s political agenda and data quality issues could lead to the erroneous disenfranchisement of eligible voters. DHS has already run over 33 million voters\u2019 information through their SAVE Program with little to no transparency, further raising the alarm on potential future voting list purges.\n\nTo combat the threat of incorrect mass removal of eligible citizens from voter rolls, the Voter Purge Protection Act would:\n\nAmend the NVRA to prohibit states from removing registered voters from voting rolls unless the state has obtained objective and reliable evidence that a person is ineligible to vote. The legislation would clarify that failure to vote or respond to election mail would not constitute objective and reliable evidence of a voter\u2019s ineligibility to vote;\n\nAllow election officials to use state records to remove voters who have died or permanently moved out of the state;\n\nRequire election officials to send a notice explaining the grounds for removal within 48 hours of removing voters from the rolls and provide public notice within 48 hours after any general program to remove voters; and\n\nRevise the voting procedure for a voter who failed to report a change of address by allowing a voter who moved within a state to vote at the polling place of the voter\u2019s current address or at a central location in the jurisdiction of the local voter registration office.\n\nThe Voter Purge Protection Act is cosponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nSenator Padilla has led the charge in opposing the Trump Administration\u2019s thinly veiled attempts to purge voter rolls and investigate unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud. Last month, Padilla condemned DOJ\u2019s lawsuits against states for protecting sensitive voter information. On John Lewis National Day of Action in July, Senators Padilla, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) led 13 Senators in raising the alarm on the DOJ Civil Rights Division\u2019s policy shift to focus on unsubstantiated voter fraud investigations. Earlier that month, Padilla, Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) expressed serious concerns that recent changes to and the expanded use of the insufficiently tested DHS\u2019 SAVE Program could purge eligible citizens from state voter rolls. Earlier this year, Padilla led 11 Senators in introducing the Defending America\u2019s Future Elections Act to repeal Trump\u2019s illegal anti-voter executive order and prevent the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive voter registration data and state records.\n\nA one-pager on the bill is available here.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\nThe full video of today\u2019s press call can be downloaded here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-illinois-oregon-senators-warn-against-trumps-illegal-deployments-of-national-guard-troops-to-their-states/", "Padilla, Schiff, Illinois, Oregon Senators Warn Against Trump\u2019s Illegal Deployments of National Guard Troops to Their States", "2025-10-07", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) \u2014 the six Senators representing states that Donald Trump has sought to force unlawful National Guard deployments to over state and local officials\u2019 objections \u2014 issued the following statement condemning the President\u2019s threats against their states:\n\n\u201cDonald Trump is stretching the limits of Presidential authority far past their breaking point and moving us closer to authoritarianism with each dangerous and unacceptable escalation of his campaign to force federal troops into American communities against the wishes of sovereign states in the Union he is supposed to represent.\n\n\u201cWhether in Los Angeles, Chicago, or Portland, the Trump Administration continues fabricating claims of chaos and crime on American streets to justify his false assertions that there is a \u2018need\u2019 to deploy troops into our cities \u2014 all while literally defunding our police by cutting funding that helps local law enforcement make our cities safer.\n\n\u201cNone of our states asked for this. None of our states need this. And none of our National Guard Troops who are our friends and neighbors \u2014 signed up to intimidate their fellow Americans in their own communities or to be used as political pawns by a vindictive President. Donald Trump should immediately reverse course and end these un-American deployments.\u201d\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s militarization of Los Angeles and other American cities. In June, Padilla led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty service members to American cities. Last month, Padilla, Schiff, and 17 other Senate Democrats filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit brought against President Trump for his misuse of the U.S. military in Los Angeles to suppress peaceful protests. The California Senators also recently demanded the U.S. Department of Defense provide information on operational details related to the ongoing deployment of California National Guard personnel in Los Angeles.\n\nAfter the Trump Administration deployed National Guard troops across Washington, D.C. and took control of the city\u2019s police department, Padilla supported legislation granting the District full authority over the D.C. National Guard and the Metropolitan Police Department. Additionally, Padilla recently introduced bicameral legislation to enhance oversight and accountability of the President\u2019s deployment of the National Guard. Padilla previously placed a hold on Trump\u2019s nominee to serve as vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lieutenant General Thomas Carden, until the Trump Administration releases all remaining U.S. military forces from their unjustified deployment to Los Angeles.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-warns-of-politicization-of-doj-during-oversight-hearing-with-attorney-general-bondi/", "WATCH: Padilla Warns of Politicization of DOJ During Oversight Hearing With Attorney General Bondi", "2025-10-07", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Attorney General Bondi has repeatedly undermined DOJ\u2019s independence, pressuring career prosecutors to manipulate politically sensitive cases, shuttering key offices, and dismantling essential programs. Padilla warned that Bondi\u2019s actions have jeopardized public safety by diverting resources away from organized crime, counterterrorism, and civil rights cases to prioritize immigration enforcement. Padilla also denounced the creation of internal \u201cworking groups,\u201d including a so-called \u201cWeaponization Working Group,\u201d tasked with revisiting investigations involving the President and his allies.\n\nDuring the hearing, Bondi repeatedly refused to answer Senator Padilla\u2019s questions regarding the abrupt dismissal of the investigation into former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan and allegations that he accepted a $50,000 payment from undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents posing as business executives looking to secure contracts with a future Trump Administration. Bondi also evaded questions about the firing of DOJ prosecutor Michele Beckwith, who was reportedly terminated six hours after reminding Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino that he was obligated to comply with a court order and the Constitution.\n\nVideo of Padilla\u2019s opening remarks and questions at today\u2019s hearing is available here.\n\nKey Excerpts:\n\nThe Department of Justice is supposed to be the nation\u2019s guardian of fairness and the rule of law. The power of the Department of Justice is built on public trust and a belief that prosecutions are based on facts and law, not on politics or personal loyalty. And I call that out, Mr. Chairman, because when that breaks down, when the public trust breaks down, then justice itself is at risk.\n\nBut under this Trump Administration and the leadership of Attorney General Bondi, I believe the independence of the Department of Justice has come under attack. The department has been reorganized, it\u2019s been realigned, and repurposed in ways that we\u2019ve never seen before. Important offices have been closed, key programs dismantled, and agents diverted, all without congressional authorization or transparent justification. Now these are not minor bureaucratic changes. They represent a fundamental shift in the Department of Justice\u2019s missions and priorities, its policies, and its practices.\n\nThe American people expect a Department of Justice to pursue violent crime, as do I, to pursue corruption and threats to national security, not to serve as an arm of immigration policy, and in so doing, underresource other critical missions.\n\nNow the Justice Department\u2019s credibility depends on the public\u2019s faith in justice, and that the justice will be applied equally to every person and not reserved for the powerful or the connected, and that faith must be protected. And so it\u2019s in that spirit that this Committee has a duty to ensure the department\u2019s work remains lawful, remains transparent, and remains true to its highest duty, the fair and impartial administration of justice.\n\nSenator Padilla has long warned against the Trump Administration\u2019s attacks on the rule of law and has fought to hold Trump\u2019s DOJ accountable. Padilla opposed advancing Bondi\u2019s nomination after she refused to affirm the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship and declined to disavow false claims that the 2020 election was stolen during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. Last month, Padilla joined Senate Judiciary Democrats in demanding answers from Bondi about the continued weaponization of the DOJ following the forced resignation of Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Seibert and the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.\n\nMore information on the hearing is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-slam-unlawful-elimination-of-federal-funding-for-arches-hydrogen-hub-as-part-of-vindictive-7-5-billion-doe-funding-cuts/", "Padilla, Schiff Slam Unlawful Elimination of Federal Funding for ARCHES Hydrogen Hub as Part of Vindictive $7.5 Billion DOE Funding Cuts", "2025-10-03", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) blasted the Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) cancellation of all $1.2 billion Padilla secured in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for California\u2019s Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) hydrogen hub.\n\nThe elimination of all ARCHES federal funding comes as part of the Trump Administration\u2019s cuts of over $7.5 billion in clean energy and climate project funding exclusively across states that President Trump did not win in the 2024 election. Budget Director Russell Vought announced the unlawful, blatantly partisan cuts on Wednesday, breaking existing bipartisan agreements and threatening to further raise energy costs.\n\n\u201cThe cancellation of ARCHES is vindictive, shortsighted, and proof that this Administration is not serious about American energy dominance,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cWe strongly urge you to immediately restore the funding awarded to the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems Hub in California.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe cancellation of this award threatens the future promise of hydrogen energy, leaving us behind the rest of the world,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cThe ARCHES hub is a key strategic investment into American energy dominance, energy technology prominence, manufacturing job growth, and lowering energy costs for American families.\u201d\n\nARCHES aims to establish a renewable, clean hydrogen market and ecosystem in California by 2030, creating over 200,000 jobs in the state and saving nearly $3 billion in health costs annually, while reducing harmful emissions that disproportionately impact underserved communities and accelerate the climate crisis. California published a roadmap to carbon neutrality by 2045, which included a projected 1,700-fold increase in the use of hydrogen across multiple industrial sectors.\n\nThese cuts targeting Democratic-leaning states like California were telegraphed earlier this year by reports of a DOE \u201chit list\u201d of awards, contracts, and projects \u2014 many of which have already begun construction \u2014 it was considering canceling. The list included ARCHES and other California projects for which the Trump Administration is intending to withhold funding.\n\n\u201cThe ARCHES hub is a critical and strategic investment in our energy future. It provides a clear path toward energy independence, innovation, competitiveness, and affordability. The illegal withdrawal of support for this vital project is a significant step back from American energy dominance, and we request that you restore full support for ARCHES,\u201d concluded the Senators.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a strong supporter of the development of clean hydrogen power in California. Padilla secured up to $1.2 billion for the ARCHES hydrogen hub from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and successfully pushed former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to support ARCHES\u2019 proposal as part of its Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program. Earlier this year, Padilla, Schiff, and Representatives George Whitesides (D-Calif.-27) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49) led a bipartisan, bicameral delegation of 45 lawmakers in urging DOE to preserve funding for hydrogen production hubs, including ARCHES. Padilla, Schiff, and 25 other Democratic Senators also sounded the alarm on DOE\u2019s \u201chit list\u201d of key energy projects, demanding Secretary of Energy Chris Wright follow the law and preserve the hydrogen hub program. Additionally, Padilla questioned President Trump\u2019s nominee for Deputy Secretary of Energy on the hit list, highlighting the importance of the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program to \u201cjumpstart\u201d the national hydrogen economy and urging him to protect vital funding for ARCHES.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Wright,\n\nWe write in strong opposition to the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s cancellation of California\u2019s Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES), in addition to the cancellation of over $7.5 billion in other DOE grants. The cancellation of ARCHES is vindictive, shortsighted, and proof that this Administration is not serious about American energy dominance. We strongly urge you to immediately restore the funding awarded to the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems Hub in California.\n\nIn July 2024, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) awarded $30 million to the California Hydrogen Hub through the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems to initiate hydrogen hub projects, following its selection as one of seven regional hubs in October 2023. These projects \u2013 and the economic growth and American jobs they support \u2013 are dispersed across the State of California, in both Democratic and Republican areas. From the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland to areas of the Central Valley and the reservation of the Rincon Band of Luise\u00f1o Indians, to Lancaster, California, the investment is already being used to bring together private industry, local governments, and community organizations to collaborate and build a secure, American-made energy future.\n\nThis project was projected to create 220,000 good-paying jobs, from research and development (R&D) to manufacturing and maintenance of renewable hydrogen systems. This, in turn, promotes public-private partnerships to expand our energy and STEP workforce. The cancellation of this award threatens the future promise of hydrogen energy, leaving us behind the rest of the world. The ARCHES hub is a key strategic investment into American energy dominance, energy technology prominence, manufacturing job growth, and lowering energy costs for American families.\n\nThe ARCHES hub is a critical and strategic investment in our energy future. It provides a clear path toward energy independence, innovation, competitiveness, and affordability. The illegal withdrawal of support for this vital project is a significant step back from American energy dominance, and we request that you restore full support for ARCHES. Thank you, and we look forward to your response.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-durbin-klobuchar-lead-colleagues-in-demanding-trump-administration-reject-cash-rewards-for-january-6-rioters/", "Padilla, Durbin, Klobuchar Lead Colleagues in Demanding Trump Administration Reject Cash Rewards for January 6 Rioters", "2025-09-30", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senators follow up on previous letter amid reports that insurrectionists are now seeking financial compensation for legal consequences they suffered and requesting DOJ create a special panel to compensate them\n\nSenators to AG Pam Bondi: \u201cUsing taxpayer funds to refund January 6 insurrectionists would be an illegal and corrupt abuse of the justice system.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) led seven of their Senate colleagues in demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) abandon any efforts to refund or financially reward convicted January 6 insurrectionists.\n\nThe letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi comes amid reports that January 6 insurrectionists are now requesting compensation for the \u201charms\u201d they suffered because they were prosecuted for their criminal actions. DOJ recently took a meeting with a lawyer for these insurrectionists in which the lawyer asked the Department to create a special panel, similar to that used to compensate September 11, 2001, victims, to issue cash rewards for these alleged damages. The Senators slammed this proposal as an \u201cillegal and corrupt abuse of the justice system.\u201d\n\nPadilla, Durbin, and Klobuchar previously led their colleagues in denouncing DOJ\u2019s court arguments that the federal government should refund insurrectionists for the restitution payments they made for damage they caused to the Capitol building. Since then, restitution refund requests have almost all been denied, but last month, a judge ordered the government to refund the restitution a January 6 insurrectionist paid before they were pardoned and their case was vacated.\n\n\u201cThese criminals are apparently demanding taxpayer compensation, not only to refund court-ordered restitution to cover damages they caused to the Capitol building, but also to compensate them for having to face the legal consequences of their criminal acts,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cWhile President Trump may have the authority to grant a blanket pardon to these insurrectionists, that miscarriage of justice does not give the Department the unilateral authority to refund or reward these criminals.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is insulting for the Department to even entertain the idea of establishing a \u2018victims\u2019 fund for those who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, injured more than 100 law enforcement officers, and caused nearly $3 million in property damages, which was left to the American taxpayers to cover,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cMoreover, establishing a compensation fund for January 6 insurrectionists without congressional approval would violate federal law. Congress has provided no authorization or funding for such a misguided proposal, and we are confident that it will never do so.\u201d\n\nThe violent mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, attempting to prevent the certification of the 2020 election results caused roughly $3 million in damages to the Capitol building, injured more than 100 law enforcement officers, and threatened members and their staff. Damage to the building included widespread vandalism, ruined furniture, shattered glass, broken doors, defaced artwork, and the desecration of the halls of Congress. Convicted January 6 insurrectionists paid about $400,000 in court-ordered restitution to cover the damages they caused, which has since been transferred to the Treasury Department, from where the funds can only be withdrawn by Congress.\n\n\u201cMisusing taxpayer funds to financially reward those insurrectionists because they were prosecuted and convicted for their violent and destructive actions is unthinkable, and the Department should reject any such request,\u201d concluded the Senators.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Durbin, and Klobuchar, the letter was also signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).\n\nSenator Padilla has repeatedly condemned the deadly January 6 Capitol insurrection and helped pass legislation to prevent similar attacks from threatening our democracy. He previously cosponsored and applauded the passage of the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, which modernized the outdated Electoral Count Act of 1887 to ensure the electoral votes tallied by Congress accurately reflect each state\u2019s vote for president.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Attorney General Bondi:\n\nWe write to reiterate our strong objections to any efforts by the Department of Justice to refund restitution payments to or financially reward convicted January 6 insurrectionists and implore you to forgo any such actions. Using taxpayer funds to refund January 6 insurrectionists would be an illegal and corrupt abuse of the justice system.\n\nOur May 2, 2025 letter urged the Department of Justice to cease advancing arguments in court in support of refunding restitution payments made by convicted January 6 defendants, as it did on April 8, so that these individuals would be held responsible for the physical damage they caused to the Capitol. Over 120 days later, the Department has failed to respond to our letter or justify passing along to taxpayers the full cost of the damage caused during these insurrectionists\u2019 attempt to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power.\n\nRecently, there have been shocking reports that Department officials are meeting with representatives of January 6 insurrectionists who are seeking cash rewards for their violent and illegal behavior. These criminals are apparently demanding taxpayer compensation, not only to refund court-ordered restitution to cover damages they caused to the Capitol building, but also to compensate them for having to face the legal consequences of their criminal acts. While President Trump may have the authority to grant a blanket pardon to these insurrectionists, that miscarriage of justice does not give the Department the unilateral authority to refund or reward these criminals.\n\nMultiple convicted January 6 insurrectionists have already asked courts to refund their previous restitution payments, and in all but one instance the courts have rejected the Justice Department\u2019s assertions and rightfully held that such refunds are unlawful. Yet in an attempt to rewrite history and paint themselves as sympathetic victims, convicted January 6 insurrectionists are now going even further, urging the Justice Department to create a special panel, similar to that used to compensate September 11, 2001 victims, to award them money for the purported harms they suffered at the hands of the federal government. It is insulting for the Department to even entertain the idea of establishing a \u201cvictims\u201d fund for those who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, injured more than 100 law enforcement officers, and caused nearly $3 million in property damages, which was left to the American taxpayers to cover.\n\nMoreover, establishing a compensation fund for January 6 insurrectionists without congressional approval would violate federal law. Congress has provided no authorization or funding for such a misguided proposal, and we are confident that it will never do so.\n\nMisusing taxpayer funds to financially reward those insurrectionists because they were prosecuted and convicted for their violent and destructive actions is unthinkable, and the Department should reject any such request. Instead, we seek a response to this letter by October 10, 2025 confirming that the Department has no plans to pursue further refunds or rewards for anyone who took part in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-trump-and-republican-shutdown/", "Padilla Statement on Trump and Republican Shutdown", "2025-09-30", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) issued the following statement after President Trump and Senate Republicans refused to pass Democrats\u2019 continuing resolution that would have protected health care coverage for millions of Americans while averting a government shutdown:\n\n\u201cRepublicans have control of Congress and the White House. But rather than negotiate with Democrats, Republicans have sent the House of Representatives home, canceled planned White House meetings until the eleventh hour, told Democrats to \u2018go f*** yourself,\u2019 and posted a racist AI video of Democratic leaders trying to avoid a shutdown.\n\n\u201cHealth care costs are soaring for Americans across the country as a direct result of the Trump Administration\u2019s policies. Republicans funneled trillions of dollars into tax breaks for billionaires, but now they claim they can\u2019t find the money to make life a little more affordable for working families. Because of their cruelty, more than 20 million Americans \u2014 including 1.7 million Californians \u2014 could be priced out of their insurance plans ahead of open enrollment next month.\n\n\u201cThe way out of a shutdown is for the President and Republican leaders to finally negotiate with Democrats in good faith to immediately reopen the government and protect Americans\u2019 health care.\u201d\n\nLast week, Senator Padilla joined California health care leaders in Los Angeles to call on congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to protect health care coverage for nearly 1.7 million California residents and avoid a Republican-caused government shutdown. Californians and Americans across the country are facing the largest health insurance premium increases in 15 years and rising costs as a result of President Trump\u2019s chaotic tariffs and catastrophic economic agenda, but Republicans are refusing to extend essential Affordable Care Act tax credits before they expire at the end of the year. These credits helped a record 24 million Americans enroll in Affordable Care Act exchanges this year.\n\nSenator Padilla has consistently fought against Trump and Republicans\u2019 budget reconciliation bill that makes reckless cuts to health care in order to hand out tax cuts to billionaires. In July, Padilla blasted Senate Republicans\u2019 passage of the bill that will kick 15 million Americans off their health care, shutter rural hospitals across the country, gut critical programs, and explode the debt by over $3.5 trillion.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/ranking-members-padilla-durbin-raskin-jayapal-statement-on-trump-administrations-failure-to-comply-with-law-requiring-congressional-consultation-on-refugee-admissions/", "Ranking Members Padilla, Durbin, Raskin, Jayapal Statement on Trump Administration\u2019s Failure to Comply with Law Requiring Congressional Consultation on Refugee Admissions", "2025-09-30", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, issued the following statement in response to the Trump Administration\u2019s blatant violation of federal law in refusing to consult Congress on refugee admissions:\n\n\u201cThe Administration is required by law to formally consult with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees regarding the number and types of refugees they intend to admit in the coming year. The deadline for this consultation was today. In open defiance of the law, the Trump Administration has failed to schedule the legally required consultation.\n\n\u201cDespite repeated outreach from Democratic and Republican Committee staff, the Trump Administration has completely discarded its legal obligation, leaving Congress in the dark and refugees in limbo.\n\n\u201cThe consequences are dire. The Administration has already frozen the U.S.\u2019s Refugee Admissions Program, a program that for decades has been a beacon of hope to people fleeing persecution and violence. What began as a so-called \u2018suspension\u2019 has now stretched into an eight-month shutdown, betraying the nation\u2019s promise as a refuge for the oppressed.\n\n\u201cNearly 130,000 people facing persecution abroad who have already passed the rigorous vetting requirements of our refugee program have been abandoned by this Administration, left to languish in refugee camps around the world after being given the promise of safety and a new life in America. Meanwhile, President Trump is carving out exceptions for white South African farmers, allowing Afrikaners to skip the line and rigorous vetting as countless others are shut out of the U.S.\n\n\u201cWe call on the Administration to immediately schedule the legally mandated consultation and restore the nation\u2019s refugee admissions program without further unlawful delay and obstruction.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-warns-trumps-national-guard-deployments-put-u-s-national-security-at-risk/", "WATCH: Padilla Warns Trump\u2019s National Guard Deployments Put U.S. National Security at Risk", "2025-09-30", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) questioned Major General William L. Enyart, the former commander of Illinois\u2019 National Guard, on President Trump\u2019s escalating militarization of American cities, including his unlawful attempts to deploy National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities against local leadership\u2019s objections. Padilla\u2019s questioning at today\u2019s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing comes after President Trump recently ordered the deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland to facilitate immigration enforcement despite their governors\u2019 explicit opposition and ongoing court challenges.\n\nEarlier this month, a federal judge ruled that President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth violated federal law through their unprecedented deployment of active-duty U.S. Marines and California National Guard members to Los Angeles in response to largely peaceful demonstrations. Yet as Trump continues to unilaterally militarize cities like Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Portland, Padilla called Trump\u2019s ongoing military deployments a \u201cfundamental threat to democratic norms and the separation of powers between states and the federal government.\u201d\n\nGeneral Enyart emphasized that the vast majority of National Guard troops are not trained in civilian law enforcement, and that the military\u2019s mission is to defend the nation from foreign threats, not to police American streets. As Trump also orders deployments to Republican-led states like Louisiana and Tennessee, Padilla and General Enyart warned of the consequences of diverting money, military resources, and troops away from defending America\u2019s national security and responding to natural disasters.\n\nKey Excerpts\n\nPADILLA: General Enyart, as someone who commanded the Illinois National Guard, how do you view the danger of using Guard units or even active-duty service members in cities like Los Angeles and Portland and Washington D.C. for local law enforcement efforts?\n\nENYART: Thank you, Senator. Well, as a commander of National Guard forces, former commander of National Guard forces, you need to understand that National Guard forces are not trained law enforcement officers. We may have a few police officers in our ranks who just happen to be cops in civilian life, but the vast majority of National Guardsmen and, for that matter, the active-duty forces, are not police officers, and MP units are trained in military response, military law, not civilian law enforcement. So it is a hazard.\n\nPADILLA: Given that, what risks do we face if the executive branch normalizes or the Republican majority in Congress allows the executive branch to normalize unilateral use of troops in American cities?\n\nENYART: Well, there\u2019s, you know, there\u2019s clearly going to be a disconnect between American citizenry and the American military. The American military is designed to protect us from foreign enemies. \u2026 It\u2019s designed to protect us, not to police our streets. That\u2019s what civilian law enforcement is for, and there are plenty of federal law enforcement agencies that can provide that response.\n\nPADILLA: Thank you. And one last question, I know my time is running out quickly here, having learned from this experience in Los Angeles, which was clearly the test case for this Administration, I have a concern about our national readiness. From a readiness standpoint, what does it mean when military resources are diverted from national defense and disaster response to conduct police civilian activities?\n\nENYART: Every dollar that you take away from or that you spend on a on a misuse of military force is a dollar that you don\u2019t have available for national defense, a dollar you don\u2019t have available to respond to the next Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, or the next Mississippi River flood, or the next tornado in St Louis. So it\u2019s spending resources that need to be allocated to where they\u2019re properly allocated, and that\u2019s to the defense of our great nation and to recovery from national disasters.\n\nVideo of the full exchange is available here.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s militarization of Los Angeles and other American cities. In June, Padilla led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty service members to American cities. Earlier this month, Padilla, Schiff, and 17 other Senate Democrats filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit brought against President Trump for his misuse of the U.S. military in Los Angeles. Padilla and Schiff also recently demanded the U.S. Department of Defense provide information on operational details related to the ongoing deployment of California National Guard personnel in Los Angeles, first federalized by President Trump on June 9.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-joins-41-democratic-colleagues-in-urging-state-department-to-resume-medical-and-humanitarian-visas-for-civilians-in-gaza/", "Padilla Joins 41\u00a0Democratic Colleagues in Urging State Department to\u00a0Resume\u00a0Medical and Humanitarian Visas for\u00a0Civilians\u00a0in Gaza", "2025-09-29", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and 39 other Democrats in demanding Secretary of State Marco Rubio reverse the State Department\u2019s blanket decision last month to suspend the issuance of temporary medical and humanitarian visas for civilians in Gaza in need of urgent medical care, including children with life-threatening injuries or conditions. The Senators also requested information on the Department\u2019s recent decision to restrict nonimmigrant visas for people who hold Palestinian passports.\n\n\u201cWe write with grave concern regarding the State Department\u2019s recent suspension of all visitor visas for eligible, vetted individuals from Gaza, including those in need of urgent medical care. We are also concerned by the unprecedented decision to abruptly refuse nonimmigrant visas to people with Palestinian passports. It is critical that the Department immediately reinstate temporary medical and humanitarian visas for Palestinian civilians in Gaza in order to save lives, resume nonimmigrant visas for eligible Palestinian passport holders, and double down on the work needed to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region,\u201d wrote the Senators.\n\n\u201cDuring the Biden and current Trump administrations, individuals from Gaza who met specific criteria set by the State Department have been granted temporary medical and humanitarian visas, allowing them to access life-saving medical treatment in the United States. These civilians include severely wounded children who are especially vulnerable and, through no fault of their own, have been caught in the crossfire and forced to endure horrible impacts from the war in Gaza. These children and their accompanying caretakers leaving Gaza to receive medical treatment are subject to strong vetting processes, including by the Israeli government, which look specifically at any potential security threats and known associations,\u201d continued the Senators.\n\nMedical facilities in Gaza are growing increasingly limited amid a worsening humanitarian crisis, and the region is facing acute shortages of medicines, medical supplies, and medical professionals, particularly those with expertise in complex specialties. Care has been delayed as a result, exacerbating the suffering of those in need.\n\nThe Senators requested a full explanation of the circumstances leading to this abrupt decision to suspend medical and humanitarian visas as well as specific issues, instances, or concerns identified, and a list of any cases of medical treatments that have been delayed as a result. Further, they requested information on what specific processes and procedures are being reviewed, the criteria being used to review them, when the State Department expects the reviews to be completed, and how the Department plans to ensure that access to emergency medical care for those eligible is not disrupted going forward.\n\n\u201cAs Secretary of State, we urge you to immediately reinstate the issuance of temporary medical and humanitarian visas in order to provide urgently needed life-saving civilian relief, resume issuing nonimmigrant visas for eligible individuals with Palestinian passports, and refocus U.S. efforts on achieving a lasting end to the conflict in Gaza that ensures security, peace, and prosperity for all in the region,\u201d concluded the Senators.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Booker, and Schumer, the letter was also signed by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nIn July, Senator Padilla joined his colleagues led by Senators Schiff, Schatz, Schumer, and Rosen to express unified alarm about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, call for the large-scale expansion of humanitarian aid, and urge the Trump Administration to resume diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire agreement and end the war.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Rubio,\n\nWe write with grave concern regarding the State Department\u2019s recent suspension of all visitor visas for eligible, vetted individuals from Gaza, including those in need of urgent medical care. We are also concerned by the unprecedented decision to abruptly refuse nonimmigrant visas to people with Palestinian passports. It is critical that the Department immediately reinstate temporary medical and humanitarian visas for Palestinian civilians in Gaza in order to save lives, resume nonimmigrant visas for eligible Palestinian passport holders, and double down on the work needed to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region.\n\nDuring the Biden and current Trump administrations, individuals from Gaza who met specific criteria set by the State Department have been granted temporary medical and humanitarian visas, allowing them to access life-saving medical treatment in the United States. These civilians include severely wounded children who are especially vulnerable and, through no fault of their own, have been caught in the crossfire and forced to endure horrible impacts from the war in Gaza. These children and their accompanying caretakers leaving Gaza to receive medical treatment are subject to strong vetting processes, including by the Israeli government, which look specifically at any potential security threats and known associations. Despite this rigorous vetting and extreme need for lifesaving treatment, on August 16, the State Department announced that \u201call visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped\u201d pending a \u201creview of the processes and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days.\u201d We are deeply concerned that this blanket decision prevents a viable pathway to critical care for individuals who qualify for temporary medical and humanitarian visas, including children with life-threatening injuries or conditions, worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis.\n\nAccess to functioning medical facilities in Gaza has grown increasingly limited, and acute shortages of medicines, medical supplies, and medical professionals, particularly those with expertise in complex specialties, delays care and exacerbates the suffering of those in need. Doctors Without Borders/M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF) has reported that emergency rooms have been \u201covercrowded\u201d and health facilities are running over capacity. The State Department\u2019s decision to indefinitely pause the visa process places eligible and vulnerable civilians in a life-threatening position of further uncertainty, likely causing preventable deaths. Therefore, we request a full explanation of the circumstances leading to this abrupt decision, including any specific issues, instances, or concerns identified, and a list of any cases of medical treatments that have been delayed as a result. Further, we request information on what specific processes and procedures are being reviewed, the criteria being used to review them, when you expect the reviews to be completed, and how the Department plans to ensure that access to emergency medical care for those eligible is not disrupted going forward.\n\nMore recently, the State Department made another broad decision to refuse nonimmigrant visas for individuals who would otherwise be eligible but hold passports issued by the Palestinian Authority, using a mechanism that is usually applied narrowly in specific circumstances where further documentation is required from a visa applicant. Those receiving nonimmigrant visas also go through a vetting process and often travel to the U.S. for university studies, business, and visits with family and friends. The State Department has not communicated the reasoning behind the abrupt change in procedure nor a timeframe for lifting this categorical visa restriction. As a result, we also request a full explanation of the circumstances leading to the suspension of nonimmigrant visas for people with Palestinian passports, including any specific issues or concerns identified and how they are being addressed, and when the Department plans to resume processing and approving these visas.\n\nAs Secretary of State, we urge you to immediately reinstate the issuance of temporary medical and humanitarian visas in order to provide urgently needed life-saving civilian relief, resume issuing nonimmigrant visas for eligible individuals with Palestinian passports, and refocus U.S. efforts on achieving a lasting end to the conflict in Gaza that ensures security, peace, and prosperity for all in the region.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-announce-bipartisan-bills-to-support-over-2000-acres-of-tribal-land-management/", "Padilla, Schiff Announce Bipartisan Bills to Support Over 2,000 Acres of Tribal Land Management", "2025-09-29", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) announced a trio of bipartisan, bicameral bills to promote Tribal management of over 2,000 acres of land in California. The bills would transfer federal land to the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, the Pit River Tribe, and the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians.\n\n\u201cFor too long, senseless conflict and bureaucratic barriers have kept California Tribes from managing their ancestral lands,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cThe federal government must right these historical wrongs and uphold its trust responsibility to help Tribes protect their traditions, communities, and local environment. I thank my Republican House colleagues and Senator Schiff for their partnership in this bipartisan effort to support the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, the Pit River Tribe, and the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians in their management of these sacred lands.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m proud to join Senator Padilla\u2019s efforts to help three of California\u2019s tribes restore their ancestral homelands and improve the quality of life across their communities,\u201d said Senator Schiff. \u201cThis package of bills would allow the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation to acquire cultural sites and better manage wildfires, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians to build more housing and grow their community, and the Pit River Tribe to manage the Four Corners site as their ancestors did. These bills correct historic wrongs and promote Tribal sovereignty.\u201d\n\nYuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation Land Exchange Act\n\nThis bill would transfer 1,475 acres of land from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation in fee in exchange for 1,460 acres of fee land the Tribe already owns. Representative Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.-23) is leading companion legislation in the House of Representatives.\n\n\u201cAfter eight years of dialogue with the U.S. Forest Service, the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation is pursuing a legislative path to expedite and secure the restoration of Yuhaaviatam ancestral lands to our stewardship, as well as the transfer of property to the Forest Service that it has identified as highly valuable to its mission and of public benefit,\u201d said Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation Chairwoman Lynn R. Valbuena. \u201cThis effort is rooted in our commitment to protect culturally significant sites\u2014such as the Arrowhead monument\u2014in their natural state, while supporting the Forest Service\u2019s mission.\u201d\n\nThe Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, formerly known as the San Manuel Band of Indians, is a federally recognized Native American Tribe of Serrano people. Their reservation is located in San Bernardino County, California, and their people have lived in the San Bernardino Mountains and surrounding areas for thousands of years.\n\nFor years, the Tribe has been working toward a land exchange with the Forest Service, which would enable them to acquire lands that were once home to a Tribal village known today as Arrowhead Springs. The Tribe has gone through the administrative process to transfer this land, but it has been time consuming and expensive, costing over $5 million, including for purchasing multiple parcels of land in the San Bernardino National Forest and for other expenses associated with the land exchange. This legislation would facilitate this land transfer to allow the Tribe to manage their ancestral lands.\n\nFull text of the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation Land Exchange Act is available here.\n\nPit River Land Transfer Act\n\nThis bill would transfer 584 acres of federal land administered by USFS to the Secretary of the Interior to be held in trust for the Pit River Tribe. Representative Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.-01) is leading companion legislation in the House of Representatives.\n\n\u201cFor countless generations, the Pit River people have cared for and lived in relationship with these lands. The return of these homelands is not simply a matter of acres and boundaries-it is the restoration of a sacred connection that has endured despite great hardship and dispossession. Senator Padilla\u2019s introduction of the Pit River Land Transfer Act reflects a deep respect for tribal sovereignty and justice long delayed for our people,\u201d said Yatch Bamford, Chairman of the Pit River Nation. \u201cWe are profoundly grateful for Senator Padilla\u2019s unwavering leadership and commitment to righting this historic wrong. This land transfer will strengthen our Tribe\u2019s ability to preserve our language, culture, and traditions, and ensure that future generations of Pit River people can continue the practices handed down by our ancestors. On behalf of the Pit River Tribe, I extend our wholehearted support and look forward to working alongside Senator Padilla to see this vital legislation enacted into law.\u201d\n\nThe Pit River Tribe consist of 11 autonomous bands traditionally inhabiting the area surrounding the Pit River and its tributaries. They are known for their deep spiritual connection to the land, with a rich cultural heritage centered around fishing, hunting, and seasonal gatherings.\n\nThe proposed land to be transferred is known as the Four Corners Property, located in Shasta County. The Tribe has strong cultural and historical connections to the Four Corners, and they view it as a central landmark of their ancestral lands. In October 1970, members of the Tribe erected a Quonset hut on the Four Corners, staking a peaceful, yet firm claim. That month, over 100 sheriff\u2019s deputies, federal marshals, and forest rangers ordered the occupants to evacuate the property, which eventually resulted in violence and the hospitalization of several of the Tribal members.\n\nThe Tribe has been actively trying to acquire this land through various governmental processes for over a decade. However, they have experienced a series of delays that have added years to the process.\n\nFull text of the Pit River Land Transfer Act is available here.\n\nShingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Land Transfer Act\n\nThis bill would place approximately 80 acres of land currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) into trust for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, and place into trust 185 acres of fee land already owned by the Tribe. Representative Tom McClintock (R-Calif.-05) is leading companion legislation in the House of Representatives.\n\nThe Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians is a federally recognized Tribe located near Placerville in the western Sierra Nevada foothills. They have over 580 Tribal citizens, with 140 members living on reservation and the remainder residing in the surrounding area.\n\nThe Tribe\u2019s current trust land base is limited, just 317 acres, and their reservation access was significantly disrupted decades ago when Highway 50 was constructed across their only entrance. While the Tribe has since invested in an off-ramp to restore access, their existing land remains insufficient to meet the needs of their citizens, particularly related to housing.\n\nThis bill would place BLM land into trust for the Tribe to maintain it for open space and fire risk management. By enabling the Tribe to place their existing fee land into trust, the bill would help the Tribe build much-needed housing for its citizens.\n\nFull text of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Land Transfer Act is available here.\n\nSenator Padilla is a strong advocate for restoring Tribal ownership of ancestral lands. Last year, the Senate passed of a pair of his bills to support the restoration of Tribal lands for the Jamul Indian Village and the Lytton Rancheria of California, the first of which became law. In 2023, President Biden signed into law a series of Padilla\u2019s bills to restore Tribal stewardship of sacred lands and ensure that our federal land management laws respect Tribal sovereignty. The package included laws to take more than 2,500 acres of land in the San Jacinto Mountains into trust for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, to place roughly 1,000 acres of federal land located in Humboldt and Siskiyou counties into trust for the Karuk Tribe, and to permit BLM to sell and lease certain public lands to Tribes below market value if used for recreational or public purposes. The first Tribal land transfer under the BLM program occurred last year when 88 acres of land were transferred back to Susanville Indian Rancheria. Furthermore, last year, Padilla and Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced similar bipartisan legislation to strengthen Tribal parity for the transfer of surplus federal property to Tribes if used for specified public purposes.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-joins-senate-judiciary-democrats-in-demanding-answers-on-politicization-of-doj-as-trump-pursues-criminal-charges-against-his-enemies/", "Padilla Joins Senate Judiciary Democrats in Demanding Answers on Politicization of DOJ as Trump Pursues Criminal Charges Against His Enemies", "2025-09-26", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cOur justice system operates on the principle that the President cannot demand the prosecution of an individual to settle personal scores, let alone when there is no credible evidence that a person engaged in any wrongdoing,\u201d the lawmakers wrote following the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senate Judiciary Democrats in demanding answers from Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi about the continued weaponization of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in light of the forced resignation of Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Seibert and the indictment of former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey. In the letter, the lawmakers demand information on investigations against the President\u2019s perceived enemies and press AG Bondi to make several U.S. Attorneys and DOJ officials available for interviews by the Senate Judiciary Committee to understand the full scope of the President\u2019s campaign to weaponize DOJ.\n\nMr. Seibert\u2019s forced resignation, prompted by his refusal to pursue criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, and the indictment of Director Comey are just the latest examples of President Trump abusing the powers of DOJ to attack his political enemies.\n\n\u201cWe write to express our alarm at the recent resignation of Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert after he refused to bring criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey. Mr. Siebert\u2019s decision to resign after reportedly facing immense pressure from the White House and Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership\u2014followed by the indictment of Director Comey by unqualified loyalist Acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan\u2014are the latest steps in President Trump\u2019s efforts to reshape the nation\u2019s leading law enforcement agency into a weapon focused on punishing his enemies,\u201d the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats wrote.\n\nThe Senators delivered a scathing condemnation of the President\u2019s waste of DOJ\u2019s time and resources to fabricate criminal wrongdoing by perceived political enemies while covering up repeated corruption by the President\u2019s own supports and Administration officials.\n\n\u201cWhile DOJ wastes resources chasing President Trump\u2019s petty grievances, it is gaining the dubious reputation of pursuing cases with insufficient evidence and covering up reported corruption and criminal wrongdoing by the President\u2019s supporters, donors, and Administration officials. The redirection of valuable personnel and funds towards resolving the President\u2019s personal grievances and rewarding his political allies ignores real issues impacting American families and leaves our country less safe. The Department\u2019s capitulation to any demand to baselessly prosecute the President\u2019s enemies would represent a grave miscarriage of justice and a violation of your oath of office to support and defend the Constitution,\u201d the lawmakers wrote.\n\nJoining Senators Padilla and Durbin in sending the letter were U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Richard Blumethal (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).\n\nSenator Padilla has consistently pushed for accountability and transparency from the DOJ. Earlier this year, Padilla blasted Attorney General Pam Bondi on her decision to change Justice Department policies to make it easier for the Department to subpoena journalists to obtain confidential information about their sources and potentially harass journalists who write stories critical of the Trump Administration. Padilla also joined Senate Judiciary Democrats in filing professional misconduct complaints against senior Department of Justice attorneys.\n\nFull text of the letter is available HERE and below:\n\nSeptember 26, 2025\n\nDear Attorney General Bondi:\n\nWe write to express our alarm at the recent resignation of Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert after he refused to bring criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey. Mr. Siebert\u2019s decision to resign after reportedly facing immense pressure from the White House and Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership, followed by the indictment of Director Comey by unqualified loyalist Acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, are the latest steps in President Trump\u2019s efforts to reshape the nation\u2019s leading law enforcement agency into a weapon focused on punishing his enemies.\n\nOn September 19, 2025, Mr. Siebert was forced to resign from his position as Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.[1] This decision came after months of pressure from President Trump and senior Administration officials\u2014including Ed Martin, the head of the DOJ Weaponization Working Group\u2014to more aggressively investigate and pursue criminal charges against Attorney General James, Director Comey, and other perceived adversaries of the President.[2] Mr. Siebert left after he was notified of the President\u2019s intention to fire him the previous day, reportedly because federal prosecutors recently declined to indict Attorney General James on charges related to allegations of mortgage fraud and recommended not charging Director Comey.[3] Mr. Siebert is not the only U.S. Attorney navigating demands to prosecute the President\u2019s enemies, with Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Kelly O. Hayes reportedly facing similar pressure to file charges against other targets of President Trump and other U.S. Attorney offices having similarly faced pressure to fire staff.[4]\n\nPrior to taking office, every federal prosecutor takes an oath to faithfully execute their duties.[5] They are required to follow the facts and the law prior to pursuing a criminal indictment against any individual, regardless of their political party or standing. After nearly five months and over a dozen interviews, the Department has reportedly been unable to find sufficient evidence that Attorney General James committed a federal crime to bring an indictment.[6] Without such evidence, federal prosecutors cannot simply manufacture charges against an American citizen. President Trump\u2019s belief in an individual\u2019s guilt and his desire for personal retribution are not sufficient.\n\nFollowing Mr. Siebert\u2019s resignation, the President went so far as to preemptively declare Attorney General James \u201cguilty as hell,\u201d and then pressured you to charge his enemies, with a dramatic plea that, \u201cWe can\u2019t delay any longer, it\u2019s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED NOW!!!\u201d[7]\n\nOur justice system operates on the principle that the President cannot demand the prosecution of an individual to settle personal scores, let alone when there is no credible evidence that a person engaged in any wrongdoing.\n\nWhile DOJ wastes resources chasing President Trump\u2019s petty grievances, it is gaining the dubious reputation of pursuing cases with insufficient evidence[8] and covering up reported corruption and criminal wrongdoing by the President\u2019s supporters, donors, and Administration officials.[9] The redirection of valuable personnel and funds towards resolving the President\u2019s personal grievances and rewarding his political allies ignores real issues impacting American families and leaves our country less safe. The Department\u2019s capitulation to any demand to baselessly prosecute the President\u2019s enemies would represent a grave miscarriage of justice and a violation of your oath of office to support and defend the Constitution.[10]\n\nTo ensure that the Department remains faithful to the Constitution and protects American citizens from criminal prosecution by social media fiat, we ask that you provide the following information and materials no later than October 10, 2025:\n\nDocuments and communications reflecting or relating to communication between and among members of the Department\u2019s Weaponization Working Group, the Office of Deputy Attorney General, the Office of Attorney General, the Office of the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and any White House official concerning the investigations of Attorney General Letitia James, Tom Homan, James Comey, current Members of Congress, or former Administration officials.\n\nDocuments and communications reflecting or relating to communication between and among members of the Department\u2019s Weaponization Working Group, the Office of Deputy Attorney General, the Office of Attorney General, and any White House official concerning personnel decisions in the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, the District of Maryland, the Western District of Virginia, the District of Columbia, and the Central District of California.\n\nDocuments and communications reflecting or relating to communication between and among members of the Department\u2019s Weaponization Working Group, the Office of Deputy Attorney General, the Office of Attorney General, the Office of the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia concerning the investigation into Attorney General James, James Comey, or former Administration officials.\n\nDocuments and communications reflecting or relating to communication between and among members of the Department\u2019s Weaponization Working Group, the Office of Deputy Attorney General, the Office of Attorney General, the Office of the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Maryland concerning the investigation into Senator Adam B. Schiff.\n\nDocuments and communications reflecting or relating to communication between and among members of the Department\u2019s Weaponization Working Group, the Office of Deputy Attorney General, the Office of Attorney General, and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Western District of Texas concerning the investigation into Tom Homan.\n\nDocuments and communications reflecting or relating to communication between and among members of the Department\u2019s Weaponization Working Group, the Office of Deputy Attorney General, the Office of Attorney General, and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Western District of Virginia concerning investigations into the handling or storage of classified documents.\n\nDocuments and communications reflecting or relating to communication between and among members of the Department\u2019s Weaponization Working Group, the Office of Deputy Attorney General, the Office of Attorney General, and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Central District of California concerning the investigation into Andrew Wiederhorn and Fat Brands, Inc.\n\nWe also ask that you make available Kelly O. Hayes, Justin R. Simmons, Bilal Essayli, Lindsey Halligan, Robert Tracci, Jeanine Pirro, Ed Martin, and Jared Wise available for interviews by the Committee, so we may fully understand the scope of the President\u2019s abuse of power and your commitment to the rule of law.\n\nWe look forward to your full and prompt responses to these questions.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-passes-bipartisan-padilla-mullin-bill-strengthening-cybersecurity-for-the-988-suicide-crisis-lifeline/", "Senate Passes Bipartisan Padilla, Mullin Bill Strengthening Cybersecurity for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline", "2025-09-26", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus, and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) announced that the Senate unanimously passed their bipartisan legislation to strengthen the cybersecurity protocols for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in response to previous outages that resulted in a day-long outage for those in crisis. The 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act passed as part of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act, which reauthorizes key public health programs focused on prevention, treatment, and recovery for patients with substance use disorder.\n\n\u201cPeople struggling with their mental health shouldn\u2019t be met with disruptions or service outages when they call the 988 Lifeline at the most critical times of need. We can\u2019t let cybersecurity vulnerabilities get in the way of providing lifesaving support,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cI am glad to see the Senate unanimously pass our bipartisan bill to better identify and prevent cyberattacks so people in crisis have access to the Lifeline whenever they need it.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am grateful to my colleagues for their support of this critical legislation. Increasing cybersecurity measures for the 988 Lifeline is imperative to suicide prevention,\u201d said Senator Mullin. \u201cSuicide is a heartbreaking tragedy, and every life lost is one too many. This bill will keep the lifeline secure to ensure that those experiencing a mental health crisis have access to the resources and support they need when they need it most.\u201d\n\nSince its launch in July of 2022, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has received 10.8 million contacts, including 1.4 million within the Veterans Crisis Line. The Lifeline\u2019s services are critically important and must stay secure. The cyberattack on the 988 Lifeline in December of 2022 exposed vulnerabilities in the system where individuals who tried to call the suicide prevention hotline were instead greeted with a recorded message informing them of the service outage.\n\nSpecifically, Padilla and Mullin\u2019s 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act requires coordination between the Lifeline and the Chief Information Security Officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to prevent cybersecurity attacks and eliminate known vulnerabilities. The suicide hotline\u2019s network administrator would also be required to notify the government of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents within 24 hours of discovery. Lastly, the Government Accountability Office would be required to conduct a study evaluating cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities in the 988 system.\n\nThe 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act is supported by the following groups: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Psychiatric Association, Crisis Text Line, inseparable, Mental Health America, Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, National Alliance on Mental Illness, The Jed Foundation, and Vibrant Emotional Health.\n\nLast year, Padilla applauded the Federal Communications Commission\u2019s adoption of his bipartisan Local 9-8-8 Response Act of 2023, making critical improvements to the 988 Lifeline to help callers access localized, lifesaving behavioral health resources.\n\nAny person in crisis and in need of help can dial 9-8-8 to reach free and confidential professional support 24/7 or can visit 988lifeline.org/chat/ to start a free and confidential conversation.\n\nClick here to learn more about the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-condemns-trump-administrations-unconstitutional-attempt-to-purge-voter-rolls-in-california-five-other-states/", "Padilla Condemns Trump Administration\u2019s Unconstitutional Attempt to Purge Voter Rolls in California, Five Other States", "2025-09-25", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California\u2019s former Secretary of State, issued the following statement condemning the Trump Administration\u2019s Department of Justice (DOJ) decision to file new lawsuits against six states, including California, for their refusal to hand over their state\u2019s voter information and registration lists to the federal government:\n\n\u201cThis baseless, partisan lawsuit is about one thing: restricting the right to vote in order to undermine our democracy. Whether it\u2019s combing through personal voter information or threatening to prosecute hardworking election officials, Donald Trump and his Administration will stop at nothing to rig future elections in a desperate effort to cling to power. Now he\u2019s weaponizing the Department of Justice in a clear attempt to purge eligible citizens from voter rolls in California and other states across the country.\n\n\u201cNo matter what Trump and MAGA Republicans claim, voter fraud is extremely rare. And the Constitution clearly gives states \u2014 not this Administration \u2014 the responsibility to administer elections. California maintains one of the most transparent election processes in the nation. We will fight back and defeat this blatantly partisan lawsuit.\u201d\n\nSenator Padilla has led the charge in opposing the Trump Administration\u2019s thinly veiled attempts to purge voter rolls and investigate unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud. On John Lewis National Day of Action in July, Senators Padilla, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) led 13 Senators in raising the alarm on the DOJ Civil Rights Division\u2019s policy shift to focus on unsubstantiated voter fraud investigations. Earlier that month, Padilla, Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) expressed serious concerns that recent changes to and the expanded use of the insufficiently tested Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program could purge eligible citizens from state voter rolls. Earlier this year, Padilla led 11 Senators in introducing the Defending America\u2019s Future Elections Act to repeal Trump\u2019s illegal anti-voter executive order and prevent the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive voter registration data and state records.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-california-health-care-leaders-call-on-republicans-to-extend-lifesaving-affordable-care-act-tax-credits-instead-of-shutting-down-the-government/", "WATCH: Padilla, California Health Care Leaders Call on Republicans to Extend Lifesaving Affordable Care Act Tax Credits Instead of Shutting Down the Government", "2025-09-25", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "LOS ANGELES, CA \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was joined by Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles), Covered California, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, and local health care providers in Los Angeles to call on Congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to protect health care coverage for nearly 1.7 million California residents and avoid a Republican-caused government shutdown.\n\nCalifornians and Americans across the country are facing the largest health insurance premium increases in 15 years and rising costs as a result of President Trump\u2019s chaotic tariffs and catastrophic economic agenda, but Republicans are refusing to extend essential Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits before they expire at the end of the year. These credits helped a record 24 million Americans enroll in Affordable Care Act exchanges this year.\n\nExtending these premium tax credits by the September 30 government funding deadline is critical before open enrollment to purchase health insurance begins on November 1, but Republicans have made clear that they would rather shut the government down with their partisan, status-quo bill and conduct mass federal layoffs than passing Democrats\u2019 proposal to actually address Americans\u2019 health care needs.\n\n\u201cTrump and Republicans in Congress would rather shut down the government than work with Democrats to make health care more affordable as millions of Americans struggle to pay the bills,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cRepublicans are refusing to extend lifesaving tax credits that millions of Americans rely on, jacking up premiums for 1.7 million Californians just trying to get by. If Republicans want to actually govern instead of shutting the government down, they need to earn Democrats\u2019 votes by reversing their dangerous attacks on health care and supporting our plan to make these premium tax credits permanent.\u201d\n\n\u201cFamilies in my district are already stretched thin by the rising cost of rent, food, and child care \u2014 they cannot afford to also lose their health care,\u201d said Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles). \u201cIf Republicans refuse to extend these Affordable Care Act tax credits, millions of Californians will see their premiums skyrocket or lose coverage altogether. Congressional Republicans must work with Democrats to protect coverage for the 1.7 million Californians who rely on it and prevent a Republican-caused shutdown, instead of holding our health care hostage to push their billionaire-first agenda.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe enhanced premium tax credits have been a critical lifeline for millions of Americans to get access to affordable, quality health insurance,\u201d said Covered California Executive Director Jessica Altman. \u201cThat includes nearly 2 million Californians currently enrolled through Covered California, as we have seen a 23 percent jump in enrollment across all segments and ethnic groups. According to a Congressional Budget Office estimate, not extending the enhanced premium tax credits would make coverage unattainable again for hundreds of thousands of Californians and millions of Americans. But there is still time for Congress to act and extend the premium tax credits for 2026 and beyond.\u201d\n\nThanks to Trump and Republicans\u2019 billionaire-first budget bill and rejection of Democrats\u2019 ACA tax credit extension proposals, 15 million Americans will be kicked off their health insurance and premiums will increase by an average of 75% for more than 20 million Americans, an average $700 increase per family. On its own, passing an extension of these vital ACA tax credits would prevent more than 4 million Americans on the ACA market from losing their health insurance. If these credits aren\u2019t extended, Californians making $62,000 or less could be forced to pay around $100 or $200 a month more in premiums.\n\nCovered California is a free service that connects Californians with brand-name health, dental, and vision insurance, providing financial assistance to help residents pay for their health plan under the Affordable Care Act. 1.8 million Californians have signed up for a health plan through Covered California.\n\nSenator Padilla has consistently fought against Trump and Republicans\u2019 budget reconciliation bill that makes reckless cuts to health care in order to hand out tax cuts to billionaires. In July, Padilla blasted Senate Republicans\u2019 passage of the bill that will kick 15 million Americans off their health care, shutter rural hospitals across the country, gut critical programs, and explode the debt by over $3.5 trillion.\n\nWatch Senator Padilla\u2019s opening remarks here and his closing remarks here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-sheehy-announce-bipartisan-bill-to-improve-forest-conservation-reduce-wildfire-risk/", "Padilla, Sheehy Announce Bipartisan Bill to Improve Forest Conservation, Reduce Wildfire Risk", "2025-09-24", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate Wildfire Caucus, announced bipartisan legislation to help permanently conserve forestlands and mitigate increasing wildfire risks. Representatives John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08) and Ken Calvert (R-Calif.-41) are leading companion legislation in the House.\n\nThe Forest Legacy Management Flexibility Act would allow states to designate accredited nonprofit land trusts to manage conservation easements purchased with federal funding from the U.S. Forest Service\u2019s Forest Legacy Program (FLP). This additional flexibility would allow private landowners who are interested in conservation but do not want to sell an easement on their property to federal or state governments, as is currently required, to conserve more land.\n\nForest management and conservation are critical to minimizing wildfire risk by reducing hazardous fuels, building healthier and more resilient forests, and allowing for effective fire mitigation practices. By saving states money and time, this change would also expand the FLP\u2019s impact and conservation footprint.\n\n\u201cCalifornians know that the status quo isn\u2019t working when it comes to wildfire and forest management. Addressing the wildfire crisis requires collaboration between federal and state governments, private landowners, and nonprofit land trusts to responsibly manage our forest lands,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cIt also means working across the aisle to build practical solutions to strengthen our forest resiliency. Our bipartisan bill would improve the conservation of private forests to mitigate wildfire risk while protecting important forest resources and habitat and expanding access to outdoor recreation.\u201d\n\n\u201cRestoring responsible, commonsense land management is key to protecting property, homes, and communities across the country against the threat of catastrophic wildfire. I\u2019m proud to be part of this bipartisan effort to streamline coordination between federal, state, and local governments and provide landowners the support they need to ensure proper forest management and reduce wildfire risk across the country,\u201d said Senator Sheehy.\n\n\u201cAs the former Deputy Secretary of the Interior to President Clinton, I know that our national conservation goals cannot be achieved through public land ownership alone. Federal and state governments can, and must, do a better job of working with private landowners who want to conserve their land, as my family did for our cattle ranch in 1998. I\u2019m honored to join Senator Padilla in introducing a bill that would unlock millions in federal funding to help states conserve working forestlands, create good-paying jobs, and support sustainable forest management practices that reduce wildfire risk,\u201d said Representative Garamendi.\n\n\u201cThe Forest Legacy Management Flexibility Act will provide new tools to help achieve our conservation, forest management, and economic goals. This bipartisan bill is an important step in strengthening partnerships between private landowners and public stakeholders interested in conserving forestlands,\u201d said Representative Calvert.\n\nProtection of private forests through FLP maintains a multitude of public benefits, including clean drinking water, habitats for fish and wildlife, timber, fuel, other forest products, and activities such as hunting, fishing, camping. Since its creation in 1990, FLP has conserved over 3 million acres of forest land and expanded across the country to 53 states and territories.\n\nThe bill is endorsed by organizations including Partnership of Rangeland Trusts, American Farmland Trust, Pacific Crest Trail Association, Pacific Forest Trust, California Rangeland Trust, North Coast Land Conservancy, American River Conservancy, Colorado Cattlemen\u2019s Agricultural Land Trust, Georgia-Alabama Land Trust, Northeast Wilderness Trust, Sequoia Riverlands Trust, Oregon Agricultural Trust, Placer Land Trust, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Natural Lands, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Forest Society of Maine, Lookout Mountain Conservancy, and Saratoga PLAN.\n\n\u201cThe Forest Legacy Program remains the largest program for federal funding to states for private forest conservation, but only government entities can hold the conservation easements acquired through the Program. This legislation would grant states the flexibility to have land trusts hold these easements, thereby increasing the potential for high priority lands to be conserved through this Program, saving the state money, and increasing the impact of the Program at no additional administrative cost,\u201d said CalFire Director/Fire Chief Joe Tyler.\n\n\u201cWe applaud Senators Padilla and Sheehy for introducing this bill. This bi-partisan legislation is a commonsense, no-cost enhancement to the Forest Legacy Program \u2014 the largest program for federal funding to states for private forest conservation. It will make it easier for private landowners and states to fulfill their goals of voluntarily conserving well-managed working forestlands for all their public benefits while maintaining private ownership. The option provided in this bill will help many states leverage private-public partnerships to get better outcomes while saving money and resources. This bill would unlock and leverage millions in federal funding to help states conserve priority working forestlands, create good-paying jobs, and support sustainable forest management practices that reduce wildfire risk,\u201d said Laurie Wayburn, Pacific Forest Trust President.\n\nIn the aftermath of the catastrophic Southern California fires, Senator Padilla has introduced more than a dozen bills to help prevent and respond to future wildfires, including the Senate version of the Fix Our Forests Act, bipartisan legislation to combat catastrophic wildfires, restore forest ecosystems, and make federal forest management more efficient and responsive. Padilla highlighted the Senate Fix Our Forests Act after joining federal and state emergency officials for a tour of the Pacific Palisades fire recovery area led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Padilla and Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) also introduced the FEMA Independence Act, bipartisan legislation to restore FEMA as an independent, cabinet-level agency and improve efficiency in federal emergency response efforts.\n\nA one-pager on the Forest Legacy Management Flexibility Act is available here.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-conducts-oversight-at-san-diego-immigration-court-amid-mass-judicial-firings/", "WATCH: Padilla Conducts Oversight at San Diego Immigration Court Amid Mass Judicial Firings", "2025-09-24", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "SAN DIEGO, CA \u2014 Following the Trump Administration\u2019s latest purge of nearly 20 immigration judges, including in California, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, visited the San Diego immigration court today to conduct oversight over the Trump Administration\u2019s mismanagement and dismantling of immigration courts to carry out its mass deportation agenda\n\nPresident Trump has now removed approximately 100 immigration judges this year alone, and the Pentagon is now funneling hundreds of military attorneys to temporarily serve as immigration judges \u2014 dropping the requirement that judges have immigration experience \u2014 exacerbating a historic 3.4 million case backlog. San Diego\u2019s immigration courts have become extremely overwhelmed, struggling to balance an increasing caseload as President Trump slashes staff and pressures the Department of Justice to help meet deportation quotas. Trump\u2019s firings and recent retirements have left the city\u2019s main immigration court with only eight judges. As a result of the backlog, many San Diegans face postponed hearings, lengthy detention times, and delayed due process.\n\nThe visit comes after a gunman opened fire this morning on an ICE detention facility in Dallas, killing one detainee and leaving two others in critical condition.\n\n\u201cToday\u2019s horrific shooting at a Dallas ICE facility is a stark reminder: there is no place for political violence in America. We can and should debate our differences and fight for what we believe in \u2014 but violence, whether it\u2019s violence against law enforcement or violence against immigrants, is never the answer.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m in San Diego today to conduct oversight of what is happening at our immigration courts because over the past few months, this Administration has made it harder for immigrants to have their day in court. They\u2019ve fired a hundred immigration judges, fueling a case backlog in San Diego and across the country, and repeatedly ignored due process, indiscriminately deporting immigrants who are here to have their cases heard. I will continue to hold the Trump Administration accountable for their violations of due process and dismantling of our judicial system.\u201d\n\nImmigration prosecutions now account for an estimated three quarters of all new federal cases in the Southern District of California. Since January, the number of local arrestees with no prior criminal charges or convictions has doubled to 72 percent. In attempts to boost deportation numbers, the Administration has started re-calendaring cases of long-term residents with no criminal history or prior deportations after their cases were previously considered \u201cadministratively closed.\u201d In July 2025, 2,958 of these cases were put back on the docket, a 750 percent increase from last year.\n\nIn June, Senator Padilla, Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and members of the San Diego Congressional delegation sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem expressing their concern over the deliberate targeting of immigrants trying to follow the legal process at courthouses, including at the San Diego Immigration Court that Padilla visited today located in the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building. The next month, Padilla, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) led 21 Senate Democrats in pressing the Trump Administration on its recent initiatives to weaponize immigration court hearings as an inhumane trap to arrest immigrants just trying to follow the law by terminating their immigration court cases and deporting them without adequate due process. Padilla also previously led a letter demanding an investigation on a cruel ICE raid in San Diego following reports that around 20 ICE agents detained four employees at Buona Forchetta and Enoteca Buona Forchetta restaurants.\n\nVideo of Senator Padilla\u2019s remarks today is available here and can be downloaded here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-colleagues-demand-withdrawal-of-endangerment-finding-rollback-that-will-accelerate-the-climate-crisis/", "Padilla, Colleagues Demand Withdrawal of Endangerment Finding Rollback That Will Accelerate the Climate Crisis", "2025-09-23", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cThis proposed action represents an abdication of EPA\u2019s duty, a violation of Supreme Court precedent and Congressional directive, and a blatant failure to protect the American people,\u201d wrote all 47 Democratic Senators\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, joined EPW Ranking Member Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and the entire Democratic Caucus in demanding the Trump Administration withdraw its factually inaccurate and legally deficient proposed rollback of the endangerment finding.\n\nThe rollback, if finalized, would constitute a formal denial by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare \u2014 a position that defies decades of scientific evidence, agency precedent, and Supreme Court rulings. The 47 Senators called the repeal of the climate and public health protection a \u201cdereliction of duty\u201d and a \u201cblatant failure to protect the American people.\u201d\n\nThe endangerment finding is a 2009 scientific determination by EPA that greenhouse gases harm public health and welfare and is the legal basis for U.S. climate policy. It is grounded in extensive peer-reviewed science and confirmed by successive National Climate Assessments and reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Twice, EPA\u2019s scientific finding has withstood challenge at the D.C. Circuit, and both times, the Supreme Court declined to revisit the decision. Repealing the endangerment finding would ignore overwhelming scientific evidence and set the stage for rolling back air quality standards for power plants, airplanes, and more, making it easier to pollute.\n\n\u201cScientists, financial experts, international governments, and the American public agree that climate change is a looming crisis. Greenhouse-gas driven climate change is driving extreme weather, flooding, erosion, sea-level rise, heat waves, drought, catastrophic wildfires, famine, smog pollution, and other disasters. These effects drive illness, hospital visits, and deaths, as well as displacement, asset loss, infrastructure damage, rising insurance premiums, declining home values, and long-term destabilization of the national economy. \u2026 And yet, in this proposal, EPA proposes to abdicate all responsibility to address this dangerous pollution,\u201d wrote the Senators.\n\n\u201cCongress established the Clean Air Act to protect the public health and welfare, and the Supreme Court confirmed that this includes EPA\u2019s obligation to regulate greenhouse gases to the extent they endanger the same. The science is clear that they do so. We ask that you withdraw this proposal and reverse your decision to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding,\u201d continued the Senators.\n\nNot only do EPA\u2019s actions fail to protect the American public from well-documented harms, but the agency\u2019s justifications \u201care directly at odds with Supreme Court precedent, Congressional directive, and the facts.\u201d In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court deemed that carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons were air pollutants under Clean Air Act \u201cwithout a doubt,\u201d calling it \u201cunambiguous.\u201d\n\nTo justify the repeal, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has relied on a Department of Energy pseudoscientific report written by known climate deniers with close ties to fossil fuel and polluting industry actors. Rife with clear errors, cherry-picked data, and misrepresented facts, the report peddles the lie that human-caused climate change is not a threat. But scientists have known since the 19th century that greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans drive climate change and accelerate global warming.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Whitehouse, and Schumer, the letter was signed by the entire Senate Democratic Caucus, including Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nSenator Padilla has been outspoken in underscoring the catastrophic environmental consequences of the Trump Administration\u2019s attempts to reverse the endangerment finding. Last week, Padilla joined Representative Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), Senator Schiff, and 41 other members of California\u2019s Democratic Congressional Delegation in calling on EPA to keep the endangerment finding in place. Yesterday, Padilla, Senator Markey, and nine other Senators urged Zeldin to reverse course on the elimination of federal standards for greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars and medium and heavy-duty trucks, which was enabled by EPA\u2019s proposal to undermine the underlying finding that greenhouse emissions threaten our health and welfare by contributing to climate change. Padilla and all other EPW Committee Democrats demanded answers about Zeldin\u2019s secretive efforts earlier this year to roll back the longstanding EPA endangerment finding.\n\nFull text of the Democratic caucus\u2019 letter to Administrator Zeldin is available here and below:\n\nDear Administrator Zeldin:\n\nWe write in united opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)\u2019s proposal to rescind its 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare of current and future generations (the \u201cendangerment finding\u201d). This proposed action represents an abdication of EPA\u2019s duty, a violation of Supreme Court precedent and Congressional directive, and a blatant failure to protect the American people.\n\nIn 1896, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius concluded that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities contribute to a global \u201cgreenhouse effect\u201d, driving global warming. One hundred and twenty-nine years later, the reality of human-caused climate change is not up for debate. Scientists, financial experts, international governments, and the American public agree that climate change is a looming crisis. Greenhouse-gas driven climate change is driving extreme weather, flooding, erosion, sea-level rise, heat waves, drought, catastrophic wildfires, famine, smog pollution and other disasters. These effects drive illness, hospital visits, and deaths, as well as displacement, asset loss, infrastructure damage, rising insurance premiums, declining home values, and long-term destabilization of the national economy. The United Nations considers greenhouse gas-driven climate change a \u201cglobal emergency.\u201d The United States Department of Defense has called greenhouse gas-driven climate change a \u201cthreat multiplier\u201d whose destabilizing effects can \u201cenable terrorist activity and other forms of violence.\u201d The United States emits over eleven percent of all greenhouse gas emitted by all 195 countries in the world, and has emitted over 400 billion tons of carbon dioxide since 1750, by far the most of any country. And yet, in this proposal, EPA proposes to abdicate all responsibility to address this dangerous pollution.\n\nApart from being a dereliction of duty, EPA\u2019s action here is one of breathtaking hubris: the agency presents a series of alternative arguments defending its proposal, all of which are directly at odds with Supreme Court precedent, Congressional directive, and the facts.\n\nFirst, EPA argues that the Clean Air Act is ambiguous as to whether the EPA may \u201cregulate\u2026 GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions in response to global climate change concerns,\u201d and that this issue constitutes a \u201cmajor question\u201d. The agency further argues that in light of the Supreme Court\u2019s decisions in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which overturned the doctrine of Chevron deference, and West Virginia v. EPA, which formalized the concept of a major questions doctrine, the agency may not regulate GHGs absent a clear statement authorizing such action. But Massachusetts v. EPA, the controlling Supreme Court case on EPA greenhouse gas regulation, left no room for ambiguity: the Court in that case found that \u201c[c]arbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons are without a doubt\u201d air pollutants under the Clean Air Act\u2019s definition, and that \u201c[t]he statute is unambiguous\u201d on this point.\n\nWillfully blind to this clear legal precedent, EPA argues that the term \u201cair pollutant\u201d, as employed throughout the Clean Air Act, refers to those pollutants that \u201ccause or contribute to air pollution for which the air pollution itself, through local or regional exposure to humans and the environment, endangers public health or welfare.\u201d This argument that EPA may regulate only air pollutants with direct local impacts on human health ignores both Supreme Court directive and the plain text of the statute itself. The Clean Air Act does not exclusively or even primarily address pollution on a local basis: programs like the interstate air pollution program and the national ambient air quality standards program specifically address pollution that transcends local and regional borders. Other programs, including mobile source regulation under section 202, are even broader, directing EPA to address \u201cany air pollution\u201d with deleterious impacts on \u201cpublic health or welfare.\u201d Notably, \u201cwelfare\u201d is defined to include not only economic and ecological wellbeing but also specifically \u201ceffects on\u2026weather\u2026and climate\u201d\u2014a point that the Supreme Court highlighted in Massachusetts v. EPA.\n\nThe Massachusetts Court agreed that under the clear terms of the Act, climate pollution is subject to EPA regulation. The Court wrote, \u201c[u]nder the clear terms of the Clean Air Act, EPA can avoid [making an endangerment finding] only if it determines that greenhouse gases do not contribute to climate change or if it provides some reasonable explanation as to why it cannot or will not exercise its discretion to determine whether they do.\u201d Furthermore, the Court declared, \u201c[i]f EPA makes a finding of endangerment, the Clean Air Act requires the Agency to regulate emissions of the deleterious pollutant\u201d under section 202(a). In refusing to make an endangerment finding, the Court held, the EPA then, as now, \u201crefused to comply with [a] clear statutory command.\u201d\n\nMoreover, Congress has contemplated tackling climate change under the Clean Air Act since the 1970s. The Act\u2019s Statement of Purpose, noting the \u201cmounting dangers\u201d that air pollution poses to the \u201cpublic health and welfare,\u201d declares that the \u201cpurpose\u201d of the Act is to protect the same. As noted above, \u201cwelfare\u201d includes effects on weather and climate. Since Massachusetts, Congress has confirmed the Court\u2019s interpretation by passing legislation affirming that greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Act, and authorizing programs to address this pollution.\n\nFinally, in addition to its legal arguments, EPA suggests that the endangerment finding was based on faulty science, and that \u201cthe projections [the finding] relied upon\u2026appear unduly pessimistic in light of empirical observations made after it was finalized in 2009 through 2024.\u201d In making this argument, EPA relies upon a report solicited and published by Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright and written in less than two months by professional climate skeptics with established ties to the fossil-fuel industry. EPA\u2019s arguments, and those of the report\u2019s authors, are unavailing. Climate science developed since 2009 only suggests more dire implications than were reflected in the agency\u2019s 2009 findings. As reported by the World Meteorological Organization in 2023, the rate of climate change \u201csurged alarmingly\u201d between 2011 and 2021. During this decade\u2014the hottest ever recorded\u2014sea level rise accelerated, ocean heat and acidification increased, and extreme weather increased in frequency and intensity. In its Sixth Climate Assessment in 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that the \u201cevidence is unequivocal: climate change is a grave and mounting threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet.\u201d The IPCC further warned that \u201c[a]ny further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.\u201d It is also worth dispensing with EPA\u2019s argument that because the endangerment finding did not consider our capacity to adapt to a rapidly shifting climate\u2014which could include migration and projects such as sea walls and pumps\u2014the finding itself should be discredited. This is tantamount to suggesting that EPA can set weaker standards for air pollution by assuming the public could wear gas masks.\n\nCongress established the Clean Air Act to protect the public health and welfare, and the Supreme Court confirmed that this includes EPA\u2019s obligation to regulate greenhouse gases to the extent they endanger the same. The science is clear that they do so. We ask that you withdraw this proposal and reverse your decision to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-joins-bill-to-expand-head-start-early-learning-program-for-working-class-families/", "Padilla Joins Bill to Expand Head Start Early Learning Program for Working-Class Families", "2025-09-22", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 As the Trump Administration continues to attack and undermine Head Start, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), in introducing the Head Start for America\u2019s Children Act. This sweeping legislation would expand Head Start to ensure that more than 11 million young children from working-class families can access high-quality early education and comprehensive services, while also ensuring Head Start educators earn the wages they deserve.\n\nCalifornia\u2019s Head Start program is the largest in the nation. In Fiscal Year 2023 alone, Head Start and Early Head Start programs served more than 94,000 children across the state. These programs offer critical support to children by integrating early education with health, nutrition, and family services, providing targeted support to those facing poverty, housing insecurity, and systemic inequities.\n\n\u201cInvesting in our children is one of the best ways we can uplift working-class families and give everyone a fair shot at the American Dream. Yet Donald Trump and RFK Jr. have decimated Head Start, eliminating essential support staff and withholding $1 billion from the program,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cWe should be empowering our next generation \u2014 not taking an axe to this vital program to fund tax cuts for billionaires. This sweeping legislation would support over 11 million young children while ensuring teachers can earn a living wage and parents can keep working and contributing to our economy.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn the richest country in the history of the world, we have a moral responsibility to provide high-quality early childhood education and child care for our children. Instead, President Trump has illegally withheld funds from Head Start and slashed critical programs for children and families to pay for $1 trillion in tax breaks for the top 1% and over $900 billion in tax breaks for large corporations,\u201d said Senator Sanders. \u201cI have a different idea: Let\u2019s expand and fully fund Head Start to make sure it reaches every eligible young child, extend the length of programs so working families don\u2019t have to find additional child care and raise teacher pay so educators are not forced to leave the field or work a second job just to make ends meet. At a time of greater income and wealth inequality than ever before, it is unconscionable for President Trump and Republicans in Congress to hand tax cuts to billionaires while slashing education funding, including for Head Start. If we are serious about caring about our young children, we must expand Head Start programs across the country to reach every working-class family.\u201d\n\nFor 60 years, local Head Start programs have provided high-quality early education and comprehensive services for more than 40 million children and working-class families. Today, nearly 800,000 children receive early education, health and dental care, and healthy meals through Head Start, while their families access referrals for job training, adult education, nutrition services, and housing support.\n\nResearch shows that the first five years of a child\u2019s life are critical for social, emotional, and cognitive development. Head Start children are better prepared for kindergarten, have better health outcomes, and are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college. Yet in America today, families in most states pay more for child care than rent, mortgage payments, or in-state college tuition. High-quality early learning opportunities remain out of reach for millions, with 5.3 million children under the age of 6 \u2014 nearly 17% of children in America \u2014 living in poverty in 2023.\n\nSpecifically, the Head Start for America\u2019s Children Act would:\n\nFully fund Head Start to serve 11 million eligible young children and simplify enrollment;\n\nAlign program hours with working families\u2019 schedules so parents do not need additional child care;\n\nRaise Head Start educator pay to at least $60,000 a year and establish salary scales and competitive benefits;\n\nProvide recruitment and retention incentives grants for up to 12,500 educators;\n\nExpand co-location of Head Start programs on college campuses and partnerships with child care providers;\n\nStrengthen and diversify the early educator pipeline to prepare at least 3,000 teachers over five years;\n\nImprove mental health services for Head Start staff, families and children; and\n\nInvest in facility upgrades, including removing lead contamination in paint and water.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, the bill is also cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nThe legislation is endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers, Zero to Three, MomsRising, the National Women\u2019s Law Center Action Fund, UnidosUS, Child Care for Every Family Network, The Arc of the United States, Council for Exceptional Children, Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children, New America\u2019s Early and Elementary Education Policy Program, and the Vermont Head Start Association.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading advocate in condemning the Trump Administration\u2019s attacks on Head Start and child care. Earlier this year, Padilla and Senators Luj\u00e1n and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) led 25 Senators in slamming the Trump Administration\u2019s mass firings of federal employees at the Office of Head Start (OHS) and the Office of Child Care (OCC) and demanding Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. immediately reinstate these employees. Padilla also joined 41 Senators in another letter blasting the Trump Administration\u2019s direct attacks on the Head Start program. As the Trump Administration considered eliminating Head Start funding during federal budget discussions, Padilla joined the entire California Democratic Congressional Delegation in urging President Trump and Secretary Kennedy to safeguard federal funding for the Head Start program.\n\nA summary of the bill is available here.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-paul-ross-miller-meeks-introduce-bipartisan-bicameral-bill-to-protect-documented-dreamers/", "Padilla, Paul, Ross, Miller-Meeks Introduce Bipartisan, Bicameral Bill to Protect Documented Dreamers", "2025-09-19", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), along with U.S. Representatives Deborah Ross (D-N.C.-02) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa-01), reintroduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for long-term residents who were brought legally to the United States as children as dependents on their parents\u2019 work visas. The America\u2019s CHILDREN Act would allow 250,000+ Documented Dreamers living in the United States to stay and contribute to the country and protect them from deportation or other hardships they unfairly face as a direct result of our outdated immigration system.\n\nThe U.S. visa system grants certain dependent children of visa holders legal status until they turn 21, but long green card backlogs have led to many such children aging out. These long-term residents are often left with no choice but to leave the United States if they cannot transition to a new status, leaving them in legal limbo and splitting families living here legally for years. This gap leaves young people, many of whom have only known the United States as home for most of their lives, vulnerable. The bill would establish age-out protections so that Documented Dreamers can keep their place in the green card line after their 21st birthday. Without this fix, the U.S. would risk losing talented young individuals \u2014 educated here and contributing to the American economy \u2014 to global competitors.\n\n\u201cThese Documented Dreamers are Americans in every way except one: their parent\u2019s green card is tied up in red tape,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cThis long overdue change is about more than just immigration reform \u2014 it\u2019s about righting a wrong that\u2019s a byproduct of our outdated immigration system. Our bipartisan bill would prevent these hardworking young members of our communities and economy from \u2018aging out\u2019 of their parents\u2019 visa status when they turn 21, and create additional green card opportunities for Documented Dreamers. I appreciate the partnership of my colleagues across the aisle and urge others to stand up and do the right thing for these young Americans.\u201d\n\n\u201cThese children who have legally called the United States home for many years and even decades, are contributing members in our communities and to our economy. They shouldn\u2019t be penalized by the government\u2019s failures in addressing green card backlogs,\u201d said Dr. Paul. \u201cThe America\u2019s Children Act provides targeted relief for these children of merit-based immigrants who are at risk of \u2018aging out\u2019 of their lawful immigration status, and I\u2019m pleased to join Sen. Padilla in introducing this bill.\u201d\n\n\u201cDocumented Dreamers are members of our communities \u2014 they study at our schools, learn alongside our children, and attend our houses of worship in North Carolina and nationwide,\u201d said Representative Ross. \u201cDespite these deep ties, many of them are at risk of deportation from the country they love and call home. It\u2019s time to finally fix our broken immigration system and give these inspiring young people a chance to pursue their dreams and give back to their communities. I\u2019m proud to join my colleagues in both chambers to introduce bipartisan legislation to ensure Documented Dreamers can remain in this country and use their talents and skills to make America stronger.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe are deeply grateful to the bipartisan leaders reintroducing America\u2019s Children Act. Fixing this loophole puts in place a policy most Americans assume already exists and ensures that America reaps the benefits of the contributions from the children it raised and educated. Allowing children of long-term visa holders to stay will empower people to tap into their talents and ambitions, helping us and our country reach our fullest potential. We urge Congress to act swiftly and pass the America\u2019s Children Act,\u201d said Dip Patel, Founder of Improve The Dream.\n\nThe Senate version of the bill is cosponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), John Curtis (R-Utah), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). The House bill is co-led by Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.-08), Maria Salazar (R-Fla.-27), Ami Bera (D-Calif.-06), and Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.-06). It is cosponsored by Representatives Henry C. \u201cHank\u201d Johnson, Jr. (D-Ga.-04), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.-01), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.-06), Don Bacon (R-Neb.-02), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.-23), Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50), John Rutherford (R-Fla.-05), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.-05), Zachary Nunn (R-Iowa-03), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.-01), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.-13), Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.-04), and Dave Min (D-Calif.-47).\n\nThe bill is endorsed by organizations including Improve the Dream, Americans For Prosperity, Niskanen Center, The LIBRE Initiative, Economic Innovation Group, National Immigration Forum, and Council on National Security and Immigration.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\nSenator Padilla has fought relentlessly to expand a pathway to citizenship for millions of long-term U.S. residents, including Documented Dreamers. In July, Padilla announced legislation to update the existing Registry statute to expand a pathway to lawful permanent residency for millions of immigrants, including children of long-term visa holders.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/newsweek-trump-appointed-judge-says-admin-argument-crumbled-like-a-house-of-cards/", "Newsweek: Trump-Appointed Judge Says Admin Argument \u2018Crumbled Like a House of Cards\u2019", "2025-09-18", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "By Gabe Whisnant\n\nA federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from immediately deporting Guatemalan migrant children who entered the United States alone, halting an aggressive effort to send them back to their home country.\n\nThe ruling marks the latest chapter in a legal battle over one of the most contentious issues in President Donald Trump\u2019s hard-line immigration agenda.\n\nWhy It Matters\n\nThe decision, handed down by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, came in response to the administration\u2019s attempt over Labor Day weekend to deport Guatemalan minors living in government-run shelters and foster care facilities.\n\nWhat To Know\n\nTrump officials argued that the plan was intended to reunite children with parents who supposedly wanted them returned home. But Judge Kelly sharply rejected that reasoning.\n\n\u201cBut that explanation crumbled like a house of cards about a week later,\u201d wrote Kelly, who was appointed by President Trump during his first term. \u201cThere is no evidence before the Court that the parents of these children sought their return.\u201d\n\nBefore Thursday\u2019s ruling, a temporary order had already been preventing the removal of Guatemalan children. That order, however, was set to expire Tuesday. Kelly, himself a Trump appointee, granted a preliminary injunction that extends the protection indefinitely, though the government retains the right to appeal.\n\nWhile the judge preserved safeguards for Guatemalan children, he declined to broaden the ruling to cover minors from other countries. He noted, however, that any attempt to remove those children in a similar manner \u201cwould likely be unlawful.\u201d\n\nOther federal courts have weighed in on related cases. Judges in Arizona and Illinois have issued temporary restraining orders as well, though those rulings cover a narrower group of children. The broader Washington case, advocates argue, underscores the national significance of Kelly\u2019s decision.\n\nThe legal clash followed a late-night government operation on Aug. 30. Shelters housing migrant children were abruptly notified that Guatemalan minors in their care would be returned within hours. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contractors arrived to collect children from shelters and foster homes, transporting them to airports. Court filings revealed that the administration had initially identified 457 Guatemalan children for deportation. That number was later reduced to 327, and on Aug. 31, 76 children boarded planes in El Paso and Harlingen, Texas, bound for Guatemala as part of what officials described as a \u201cfirst phase.\u201d\n\nImmigration and children\u2019s rights advocates quickly filed lawsuits, seeking to block the deportations. They argued that many of the minors were escaping abuse or violence in their home country and that the administration was sidestepping longstanding legal protections designed to prevent young migrants from being returned to dangerous conditions.\n\nIn response, another federal judge in Washington issued a temporary restraining order that largely prohibited the deportation of Guatemalan minors, except in cases where immigration judges had already reviewed and ordered removal. That order lasted 14 days and was later extended by Kelly through Tuesday to give him time to more closely examine the case.\n\nThe Trump administration maintained it had the authority to return the children and initially claimed it acted at the behest of Guatemalan parents. But officials later walked back that assertion. Instead, the Guatemalan government expressed concern about minors in U.S. custody who were nearing their 18th birthdays and faced the possibility of transfer to adult detention facilities.\n\nUnder existing policy, children who cross the southern border without a parent or guardian are transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. They typically live in a nationwide network of shelters overseen by the office until they are released to a sponsor, often a relative.\n\nWhat People Are Saying\n\nDemocratic Senator Alex Padilla of California said in a statement to Newsweek: \u201cToday\u2019s court decision provides some hope in the face of the Trump Administration\u2019s disturbing, middle of the night push to remove unaccompanied Guatemalan children and put them back into harm\u2019s way. This Administration must be held accountable for its attempts to violate these children\u2019s due process rights and endanger them, especially in light of the concerning allegations we received in the whistleblower complaint. While this decision protects Guatemalan children for now, I am deeply concerned about similar deportations of children to other countries, especially when we cannot be confident that Administration officials are following the law.\u201d\n\nWhat Happens Next\n\nAfter securing the restraining order for Guatemalan children, advocates also pressed the court to extend protections to minors from other countries. Reports had surfaced that the administration was preparing to deport Honduran children as well, raising alarms that similar efforts could soon be underway.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/spectrum-news-1-california-democrats-unveil-bill-seeking-to-end-nationwide-redistricting-battle-call-it-off-ramp-for-gop/", "Spectrum News 1: Cal\u00adi\u00adfornia Democrats unveil bill seeking to end na\u00adtionwide re\u00addis\u00adtricting battle, call it \u2018off-ramp\u2019 for GOP", "2025-09-18", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "By Maddie Gannon\n\nDemocrats unveiled a bill Thursday that seeks to put a stop to what they branded as President Donald Trump\u2019s nationwide \u201credistricting war\u201d that has already brought a new Republican-favored House map in Texas, a move toward one in Missouri and a ballot initiative set to go before voters to boost Democratic districts in California.\n\nThe legislation, called the Redistricting Reform Act, is being introduced by two California Democrats, Rep. Zoe Lofgren in the House and Sen. Alex Padilla in the upper chamber.\n\nIt would require states to create independent redistricting commissions to draw Congressional district lines instead of allowing state lawmakers to do so themselves, as is the case in many states. It would also ban efforts to draw new House district maps in the middle of a decade as opposed to after the census every 10 years.\n\nPromoting the bill at a press conference at the Capitol, Lofgren noted she has introduced this act since 2005, but said this year it takes on new meaning amid the scramble that has set off around the country to draw new maps in favor of one side or the other ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.\n\n\u201dSo what started in Texas has spread, predictably, to Missouri and Indiana, Florida and beyond,\u201d Padilla said at the press conference. \u201cIt\u2019s become a race to the bottom to impress Donald Trump who is personally issuing these marching orders from the White House \u2013 from the White House to legislators in statehouses across the country to rig the maps.\u201d\n\nTexas became the first state to embark on the effort, with the state legislature passing and the state\u2019s GOP Gov. Greg Abbott signing a new map last month that could give Republicans five more seats in the U.S. House by making some currently held by Democrats more red.\n\nCalifornia\u2019s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom immediately moved to hit back, quickly getting his state legislature to get an initiative on the ballot this November that asks voters to approve new district lines in the state that seeks to give Democrats five additional seats of their own. As opposed to Texas, Newsom\u2019s plan had to require getting approval from voters because they had tasked an independent commission with drawing California\u2019s district lines years ago.\n\nIn a potential nod to the irony that the bill unveiled on Thursday by two California lawmakers would put an end to Newsom\u2019s plan too, Padilla argued his state had \u201cno choice\u201d but to respond to Republicans\u2019 efforts \u2013 and as long as those continued, so to do efforts in the Golden State.\n\n\u201cCalifornia will not stand down,\u201d he declared. \u201cCalifornia will continue to stand up if Republicans choose to continue to make a mockery of democracy.\u201d\n\nAt the same time, the California senator presented the bill as an \u201coff-ramp\u201d for Republicans and Democrats to come together to put a stop to the ballooning nationwide redistricting scramble.\n\nLofgren pointed out that a few California House Republicans who would be in jeopardy of losing their seats if voters approve the new map on the ballot in November \u2013 particularly Rep. Kevin Kiley who introduced his own bill in Congress to ban mid-decade redistricting \u2013 may now be willing to support her bill. She would \u201cwelcome\u201d their support and intends to reach out to seek it.\n\n\u201cWhen we passed this bill through the House in 2021, we did not receive a single vote from the Republicans,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope that they will change this time around, since so many of them seem to have expressed support for a nonpartisan redistricting process now that their seats may be at risk.\u201d\n\nSince the redistricting moves by Texas and California, Missouri\u2019s Republican-led legislature has since passed a new map intended to give the GOP a new seat and there has been pressure on Indiana to do the same. Indiana\u2019s Republican Gov. Mike Braun told a local radio station this week that a redrawing of his state\u2019s map in favor of Republicans \u201cprobably\u201d will happen, despite some expressed hesitancy from state lawmakers.\n\nThere has also been chatter about Florida Republicans considering doing the same while Democrats in New York and Maryland have floated the possibility in response. Utah and Ohio, meanwhile, are required to look into new district lines for different reasons but nonetheless could see maps change.\n\nPete Buttigieg \u2013 the former mayor of South Bend and transportation secretary under former President Joe Biden \u2013 was back in Indiana on Thursday to rally against potential redistricting in the state.\n\n\u201cThey are being pressured to change the rules so that voters don\u2019t have a say anymore and they know that that is wrong,\u201d Buttigieg said of state Republicans at a rally at the Statehouse in Indianapolis.\n\nMeanwhile, Thursday\u2019s press conference on Capitol Hill featured remarks in support of the Redistricting Reform Act from Democratic lawmakers from both chambers, hailing from an array of states. In a release after, Lofgren\u2019s team noted the legislation has 50 co-sponsors, including the entire California Democratic Congressional Delegation, although she noted at the press conference no Republicans have offered their support yet.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-colleagues-announce-bill-to-stand-up-to-trumps-attacks-on-free-speech-safeguard-against-politically-motivated-harassment-and-prosecutions/", "WATCH: Padilla, Colleagues Announce Bill to Stand Up to Trump\u2019s Attacks on Free Speech, Safeguard Against Politically Motivated Harassment and Prosecutions", "2025-09-18", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 As President Trump and his Administration launch repeated attacks against Americans\u2019 First Amendment rights, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) in announcing the No Political Enemies (NOPE) Act, upcoming legislation to protect individuals and organizations, including non-profits, faith groups, media outlets, and educational institutions, from politically motivated harassment and prosecution by the federal government.\n\nThis bill would reaffirm the constitutionally protected right to free speech and establish clear, enforceable protections to deter abuse, empower individuals and organizations to defend themselves, and create meaningful accountability. The legislation would also prohibit the use of federal funds for any investigations or regulatory actions aimed at suppressing protected speech. The announcement follows threats from President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and White House Senior Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller who have vowed to use the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk as justification to weaponize the federal government against left-leaning individuals and organizations that don\u2019t align with Trump\u2019s political agenda.\n\nPadilla\u2019s remarks came a day after ABC announced that it would stop airing Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s late-night show indefinitely following pressure from Trump\u2019s hand-picked chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Padilla criticized President Trump for suing the New York Times and Wall Street Journal over coverage he opposed, and for threatening a reporter who asked about Attorney General Bondi\u2019s ridiculous pledge to prosecute people for \u201chate speech.\u201d\n\nSenator Padilla\u2019s full remarks, as delivered, are available below:\n\nThank you, Senator Murphy and all my colleagues, for leaning in at this additional critical moment.\n\nThis is the United States of America, where, since the beginning, we have protected free speech.\n\nThat\u2019s why we\u2019re here today, because we have a president and an administration that has been weaponizing the government against their critics, plain and simple. An attorney general who is vowing to prosecute Americans for what she alone deems \u201chate speech,\u201d a president who threatens a reporter with prosecution for asking a question about that, and Donald Trump personally suing the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for publishing stories that he doesn\u2019t like. And just last night, ABC announcing they\u2019re pulling down Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s show following the pressure from the chairman of the FCC.\n\nNow, what happened to Jimmy Kimmel last night, and Stephen Colbert, for that matter, isn\u2019t just about one comedian or one television personality, or any one network \u2014 it\u2019s about whether we as Americans still have the freedom to laugh at those in power, to question authority, and to tell the truth without fear of retribution. Now, history shows us that when leaders start silencing entertainers and journalists and critics, it\u2019s not because they\u2019re strong, it\u2019s because they\u2019re weak.\n\nSo we have to ask, what is this Administration afraid of? They\u2019re afraid of accountability, plain and simple, they\u2019re afraid of being questioned and their record being held up to the light, because when their record is exposed on health care, on the economy, on corruption, they know the American people won\u2019t stand for it.\n\nSo make no mistake, they are looking for excuses to crack down on dissent. I\u2019m proud to represent California, and California knows these efforts far too well. We\u2019ve seen Trump respond to overwhelmingly peaceful protests in Southern California to federalize and send in National Guard troops and then deploy the Marines into an American city. We see it today as Donald Trump is trying to extort UCLA and other universities for not falling in line with his agenda, and I experienced it personally when I had the audacity to ask a question at a press conference with the Secretary of Homeland Security and was thrown to the ground and handcuffed.\n\nSo today, it\u2019s no surprise that the Trump Administration is using the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk last week to justify its latest crackdown, and we have all denounced that assassination. We have all denounced political violence in all its forms, anywhere in our country. Now you could disagree with just about everything he stood for or agreed with him, for that matter, but in the spirit of Charlie Kirk, he came to debate, and he was proud to say so. He came to debate and to exercise his right to free speech, no matter how controversial.\n\nSo we\u2019re here to help protect that right for all Americans through legislation to prevent the President of the United States from punishing people for constitutionally protected speech.\n\nBecause the day that we stop fighting for our rights is the day that we lose them, and we\u2019re not going to go quietly.\n\nThank you, colleagues, thank you, Senator Murphy.\n\nA recording of today\u2019s full press conference is available here. A one-pager on the NOPE Act can be found here.\n\nSpecifically, the NOPE Act would prevent the targeting of individuals or organizations on the basis of their constitutionally protected speech, beliefs, and political participation by:\n\nReaffirming our Constitution and laws prohibit the president from weaponizing government against people who disagree with the administration. Uphold foundational constitutional principles that protect free speech and political participation. The Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, and other government agencies cannot be used to silence or target people for criticizing the government with constitutionally protected speech.\n\nDeterring government officials from abusing their power to silence or retaliate against critics. Deter misconduct by making clear there are consequences for violating federal civil rights laws and that federal officials can be held accountable for abuses.\n\nProviding tools for those wrongly targeted to defend themselves in court, including meaningful access to evidence, correcting the imbalance of proof, having the legal costs to defend themselves covered, and allowing courts to quickly dismiss abusive actions.\n\nProviding due process for any U.S. nonprofits the government attempts to label as criminal or terrorist organizations.\n\nImproving transparency and accountability for federal agencies that seek to silence critics. Create mechanisms for improved reporting and accountability for government agencies so that officials who commit misconduct by abusing their power to censor or retaliate against critics can be held accountable.\n\nShortly after CBS announced they were canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Padilla joined the show to call out the Trump Administration\u2019s cruel, unpopular mass deportations.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-lofgren-introduce-legislation-to-establish-independent-redistricting-commissions-end-mid-decade-redistricting-nationwide/", "WATCH: Padilla, Lofgren Introduce Legislation to Establish Independent Redistricting Commissions, End Mid-Decade Redistricting Nationwide", "2025-09-18", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California\u2019s former Secretary of State, and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18) held a press conference introducing bicameral legislation to combat Republican efforts to rig the rules and implement partisan racial gerrymanders before the next census. The Redistricting Reform Act of 2025 is co-led by Senators Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Angus King (I-Maine), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).\n\nAs Republicans in state houses across the country heed President Trump\u2019s orders to redraw congressional maps in their favor, the bill would prohibit states from mid-decade redistricting and would require every state to adopt nonpartisan, independent redistricting commissions (IRCs). For the past 15 years, California has had its own IRC, and the state continues to push for similar commissions nationwide while fighting back against Texas and other Republican-controlled states\u2019 partisan mid-decade redistricting efforts.\n\n\u201cMAGA Republicans are afraid to run on their unpopular record of cutting health care and escalating tariff wars raising prices for consumers, so they\u2019re redrawing congressional maps to hand Donald Trump the congressional seats he says he\u2019s \u2018entitled\u2019 to,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cIn response, California has no choice but to gear up for a fight. But there is a better way forward. By banning mid-decade gerrymanders and establishing fair criteria so districts are drawn to best represent communities, our bill presents a commonsense, nonpartisan solution to Donald Trump\u2019s power grab.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe redistricting fight playing out across the country is not healthy for our democracy,\u201d said Senator Warnock. \u201cWe have to do everything we can to push back against the cynical attempt by the President and his allies to rig the maps, and hold them accountable for taking health care away from 15 million people. That is why passing legislation on the federal level, like the Redistricting Reform Act of 2025, is so important. This legislation would require every state to adopt nonpartisan, independent redistricting commissions and would prohibit states from mid-decade redistricting. We can end partisan gerrymandering today and ensure every American has a voice in their democracy. I encourage my colleagues across the aisle to join us in getting this done.\u201d\n\n\u201cAbusing the redistricting process is one of the most serious threats to democracy and our Constitution,\u201d said Senator King. \u201cNot only does partisan and off-schedule redistricting damage and disenfranchise American citizens\u2019 fundamental right to vote, but it also contributes to rising polarization in Congress and further diminishes public faith in our political process. I\u2019m proud to cosponsor this critical piece of legislation that will ensure the American people are accurately represented by their elected officials and hope that we can begin to discourage hyper partisan politics. Voters should choose their officials, not the other way around.\u201d\n\n\u201cDemocrats are committed to ending partisan gerrymandering once and for all in a national redistricting reform. We made it our signature commitment when we controlled Congress in the past, and we have led by example in states like California. It is even more important now, when the president is trying to insulate his deeply unpopular cuts to health care by redrawing the lines in Texas and elsewhere. Elected officials should not be allowed to pick their own voters, instead of the other way around. And no president should be able to predetermine the outcome of an election by diluting the power of voters. The Redistricting Reform Act will address this terrible abuse of power,\u201d said Senator Schiff.\n\n\u201cPresident Trump has unleashed a redistricting war across the country, calling up Republican-controlled states and demanding that they rig their maps. Why? Because he\u2019s an unpopular President who has stripped healthcare from millions, and he knows that rigging the redistricting process is the only way his party doesn\u2019t lose the House in 2026,\u201d said Representative Lofgren. \u201cWhen Democrats held the House, we passed independent redistricting in H.R. 1, but Senate Republicans killed it. It can\u2019t be just one side that agrees to stop gerrymandering; it needs to be both. I welcome the support of my Republican colleagues from California, since so many have recently expressed their support for a nonpartisan redistricting process.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur polling shows more than two-thirds of Americans know it\u2019s bad for our country when a single political party controls how voting districts are drawn,\u201d said Virginia Kase Solom\u00f3n, President & CEO of Common Cause. \u201cBut that hasn\u2019t stopped Donald Trump, whose own voters reject the White House\u2019s mid-decade redistricting power grab. Common Cause proudly supports the Redistricting Reform Act of 2025, legislation that responds to Republican, Democrat, and Independent voters\u2019 demands for Congress to protect fair representation for all.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe unprecedented and unpopular mid-decade power grabs in Texas and Missouri at the direction of Donald Trump underscore that the current system \u2014 a system protected by too many Republicans \u2014 does not work. An overwhelming majority of Americans oppose partisan gerrymandering because it leaves all citizens worse off by sowing extreme division, undermining equal representation, and boosting the influence of powerful special interests. We must pursue a bold, new vision for our country by building a system that gives power back to the people instead of compromised politicians,\u201d said Eric H. Holder, Jr., 82nd Attorney General of the United States and Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC). \u201cThe Redistricting Reform Act is a crucial step toward achieving that vision and putting our nation back on the path toward true democracy, where every state is required to have independent commissions draw the maps instead of power-hungry politicians and every state is held to the same standards to achieve fair maps. Any Republicans who demonstrate concern about the threat of gerrymandering should work with their Democratic colleagues to pass this bill right now to put a stop to both Donald Trump\u2019s gerrymandering scheme and unfair redistricting wherever it exists.\u201d\n\nSpecifically, the Redistricting Reform Act of 2025 would require IRCs to have 15 commissioners, evenly divided into three groups \u2014 majority party, minority party, and unaffiliated/minor party. The composition of each commission would be representative of the state\u2019s demographic and geographic diversity, with enough members from racial, ethnic, and language minority communities to allow meaningful participation in the redistricting process.\n\nIn line with the criteria listed below, each state redistricting plan must:\n\nComply with the U.S. Constitution;\n\nComply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and all applicable federal laws;\n\nEnsure minorities receive equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect their preferred candidates; and\n\nRespect communities of interest, including shared interests and representational needs based on common ethnic, racial, economic, Tribal, social, cultural, geographic, or historic identities, or arising from similar socioeconomic conditions.\n\nUnder the bill, IRCs may not unduly favor or disfavor a party on a statewide basis and cannot use political data for determining districts, except to make sure that any plan complies with the first three criteria above to ensure it does not lead to partisan political bias. The legislation also mandates that IRCs hold at least three noticed public hearings and receive a majority vote, including a vote from all three political affiliation subgroups, before enacting a plan.\n\nA three-judge court would help ensure IRCs are established by the necessary deadlines and enact their plans in line with the required deadline and public engagement opportunities. The bill also affords the U.S. Attorney General and private citizens the right to sue to remedy IRC issues that arise.\n\nIn July, Padilla convened a Rules and Judiciary Committee Democrats spotlight forum focused on racial gerrymandering and voter suppression, during which he questioned former Attorney General Eric Holder and Loyola Law School Professor Justin Levitt on the Trump Administration\u2019s efforts in Texas and other states to implement mid-decade racial redistricting for partisan political purposes. Padilla also applauded California for standing up to Trump and Texas Republicans\u2019 gerrymandering last month.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-durbin-call-for-oversight-hearings-after-whistleblower-report-alleges-trump-admin-lied-about-safety-of-unaccompanied-guatemalan-children-to-deport-them/", "Padilla, Durbin Call for Oversight Hearings After Whistleblower Report Alleges Trump Admin Lied About Safety of Unaccompanied Guatemalan Children to Deport Them", "2025-09-17", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Call comes ahead of a Subcommittee hearing on Biden\u2019s management of unaccompanied children, despite the Trump Administration\u2019s ongoing flagrant disregard for unaccompanied child safety\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 After a whistleblower disclosure alleged that the Trump Administration concealed information about the safety of dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children they tried to deport in the dead of night, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are requesting an oversight hearing on the Office of Refugee Resettlement\u2019s (ORR) mass child deportation efforts and apparent lies under oath.\n\nThe urgent call for a hearing comes after the disclosure alleged that at least 30 of 327 unaccompanied Guatemalan children the Administration attempted to deport without due process \u201chave indicators of being a victim of child abuse, including death threats, gang violence, human trafficking and/or have expressed fear of return to Guatemala.\u201d The disclosure contradicts Acting ORR Director Angie Salazar\u2019s sworn statement under penalty of perjury that these children had been screened for removal to ensure they would not face child abuse or human trafficking in Guatemala. ORR\u2019s criteria for removal, according to Salazar, explicitly specify that children do not \u201chave indications of child abuse/neglect perpetrated by a parent/legal guardian\u201d or \u201cindications of being a victim of trafficking.\u201d The data on these children was present in ORR\u2019s database at the time of Salazar\u2019s statement.\n\nOver Labor Day weekend, the Trump Administration attempted to unlawfully remove dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children from the United States in the middle of the night. After a September 10 hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly extended a temporary restraining order to block the Administration from removing the children until September 16. The injunction is in place until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, September 18.\n\n\u201cThe allegations in the whistleblower complaint are shocking. If the Administration indeed misled the courts to justify deporting unaccompanied children who, by their own standards, should never have been on that list in the first place, that is inexcusable,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cSending children back into danger is a betrayal of our moral and legal obligations. We\u2019re going to hold those responsible accountable for endangering children, starting by putting them on the record in the Senate.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am deeply disturbed by the whistleblower allegations that the Trump Administration misled the courts to justify deporting unaccompanied children at risk of trafficking and abuse. Protecting children should be a bipartisan issue. When I was Chair of this Committee, I held a hearing with Biden Administration officials who oversaw unaccompanied children,\u201d said Senator Durbin. \u201cI call on Chairs Grassley and Cornyn to do the same and hold an oversight hearing with Administration officials so that we can get to the bottom of this issue in a bipartisan fashion.\u201d\n\nUnder the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), unaccompanied children are generally afforded the opportunity to appear before an immigration judge before they can be removed. However, the Guatemalan children the Trump Administration suddenly targeted did not have this opportunity \u2014 likely violating the TVPRA \u2014 and the Administration failed to explain to them why their immigration court cases were taken off the docket.\n\nMany of these children and their families strongly objected to their return to Guatemala. In fact, a majority of Guatemalan families contacted explicitly expressed that they did not request their children\u2019s return, according to a recent report by a Guatemalan attorney general\u2019s office. This report was then later substantiated by a Department of Justice attorney representing the government at a September 10 hearing, withdrawing the government\u2019s previous statements in court claiming parents had requested that their children be returned. However, as the whistleblower disclosure alleges, the Administration continued to lie about whether they properly screened children for removal.\n\nOn Monday, Padilla, Durbin, and Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07) demanded answers from senior Administration officials on this cruel effort, including information on their compliance with due process and confidentiality obligations under asylum law, the TVPRA, and other statutory protections afforded to unaccompanied children by law.\n\nEarlier this year, Senator Padilla led seven Senators in sounding the alarm on troubling reports that ORR unlawfully granted expanded access to sensitive data on unaccompanied children and their sponsors to DHS\u2019 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Senators raised serious concerns that ICE could misuse this confidential information to enact mass deportations and detain immigrant families and demanded DHS Secretary Noem and HHS Secretary Kennedy immediately cease this misguided practice. In March, Padilla blasted the Trump Administration\u2019s stop work order to organizations that provide legal services for unaccompanied children and demanded they protect Congressionally mandated legal representation for these children in the immigration system.\n\nFull text of the whistleblower disclosure is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/washington-post-trumps-mass-deportations-bring-a-new-wave-of-family-separations/", "Washington Post: Trump\u2019s mass deportations bring a new wave of family separations", "2025-09-17", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "By Maria Sacchetti\n\nSulma Martinez had just left the dentist\u2019s office with her 14-year-old twin daughters when an unmarked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicle pulled up behind her and flashed its blue lights. The officers asked for her papers.\n\nMartinez, a 35-year-old originally from Honduras, had a work permit, a pending asylum claim and a pathway to a visa for crime victims. But none of that mattered, she said the officers told her.\n\nThey gave her a choice: She could head to a hotel and be deported with her daughters, or she could contest her removal and try to stay in the United States. If she chose the latter, she\u2019d be arrested and the twins would be sent to a shelter for child immigrants.\n\n\u201cWe were crying. We were scared,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want them to separate me from my girls.\u201d\n\nAs President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign ramps up, ICE has sharply increased the number of migrant children it is sending to federal shelters for unaccompanied minors. Officers have referred more than 400 children nationwide to shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement since Trump took office, according to two people who have reviewed internal records. While some allegedly were removed from dangerous situations, many were separated from parents, relatives or government-vetted sponsors as part of immigration enforcement actions.\n\nICE officials disputed that information and said its referrals are not that high. But the agency and ORR did not provide the data.\n\nThe separations recall the \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy Trump implemented along the southern border during his first term, which led to the forced separation of more than 4,000 newly arrived children from their parents without a plan to reunite them. A federal judge called the episode \u201cone of the most shameful chapters\u201d in U.S. history and approved a court settlement that barred such separations for several years. But that agreement does not apply to families apprehended beyond the border, in U.S. cities and towns where many of the children and teens have lived for years.\n\nIn July, the Trump administration withdrew a Biden administration policy urging that parents be detained only in \u201climited circumstances.\u201d As a result, immigrant advocates and lawyers say, ICE officers are arresting growing numbers of people with children to meet the president\u2019s mass deportation goals and, in some cases, using the threat of separation to push them to abandon their immigration cases and leave the country.\n\n\u201cWhat we are seeing now is a reckless attempt to deport as many people as possible without regard at all to family unity or family relationships,\u201d said Efr\u00e9n Olivares, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center who has filed a lawsuit to stop the rapid removal of unaccompanied minors in federal custody. \u201cAnd it\u2019s happening in darkness without any kind of oversight or accountability for what this process means for families.\u201d\n\nU.S. Customs and Border Protection has historically been, and continues to be, the primary agency that sends migrant children to federal shelters. Most of those cases involve unaccompanied minors who crossed the border illegally in hopes of reuniting with a parent or relative in the United States. ICE officers enforcing immigration laws beyond the border have typically sent children to shelters only when a minor had run away, been arrested or been abused.\n\nBut today, lawyers are hearing reports of separations happening during immigration court hearings, workplace raids and elsewhere as enforcement ramps up.\n\nNeha Desai, a lawyer with the National Center for Youth Law, whose team represents immigrant children in federal immigration custody, said she is aware of more than 50 children and teens who were taken into custody during situations as minor as traffic stops.\n\nDHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the agency is not splitting up families. ICE gives parents the option of having their children removed with them or being placed with \u201ca safe person the parent designates,\u201d she said in a statement. ORR, which oversees shelters for unaccompanied minors, did not respond to questions about the number of children apprehended and placed in the agency\u2019s care.\n\nAs the officers put her in shackles that July morning, all Martinez could think about was her daughters. Their father had been killed in an apparent robbery less than two years earlier. They could not lose their mother, too.\n\n\u2018Look at Sulma\u2019\n\nMartinez said she and the twins had never intended to leave Honduras. Her husband, the girls\u2019 father, Melvin Rodriguez Manueles, had come to the United States illegally years earlier with a plan to work in construction, save money and return home. He sent them money to cover their expenses, and Martinez said she and the girls were \u201cdoing well.\u201d But in 2019, Martinez said, she fled with her daughters to the U.S. border after gang members assaulted her father and torched his house. She feared they would come for her and the girls next.\n\nBorder agents released Martinez and the girls after they crossed the southern border illegally and surrendered, seeking asylum. But ICE never filed charges against them in court. They settled in Louisiana, and Martinez hired an immigration lawyer in 2022 and submitted an asylum claim.\n\nOn Nov. 5, 2023, Rodriguez was fatally shot in what prosecutors believe was an attempted robbery in front of the family\u2019s house in New Orleans.\n\nMartinez remembers waking to the sound of gunfire and rushing outside to find her husband in a pool of blood. She recalls trying to shake him awake and shouting at the twins to stay inside. Rodriguez\u2019s wallet was never found. But Martinez found an iPhone and turned it over to the police, who say it led to the arrest of Jose Gamboa Escobar. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder.\n\nThe Orleans Parish District Attorney\u2019s office has certified that Martinez is a crime victim, clearing the way for her to apply for a U visa for victims who help with an investigation. Prosecutors said she may be needed to testify at the trial.\n\n\u201cOur office takes seriously its responsibility to prosecute crime and protect all victims, regardless of their immigration status,\u201d District Attorney Jason Williams said in a statement. \u201cWhen victims and witnesses are afraid to come forward, violent perpetrators go free, police are placed in greater danger, and our entire community is less safe.\u201d\n\nYolani and Loany, Martinez\u2019s daughters, had just begun emerging from the shock of losing their father. He had doted on the girls and took them on camping trips. The girls, poised to start their first year of high school, dreamed of becoming flight attendants. Yolani flirted with the idea of being a fashion influencer. Loany is more low-key and hides her braces when she smiles.\n\nMartinez worked as a cook at a pizzeria, chopping vegetables and other toppings, and became a deacon at the small congregation outside New Orleans that has become an extended family. Everyone was looking forward to the twins\u2019 double quincea\u00f1era party in December.\n\n\u201cLook at Sulma,\u201d Eunice Alvarado, the youth minister at the Ministerio Pentecostal Restauracion y Poder, and other churchgoers would say when they fell on hard times. She had lost so much and remained strong.\n\nA choice or coercion?\n\nICE records show that Martinez has no criminal history and was not the person the officers had been searching for that day. She just happened to drive by them after taking Loany to have her braces adjusted, and officers followed her.\n\nAlmost as soon as she agreed to voluntarily deport to Honduras, she said, she began to regret her decision. She was a single mother responsible for protecting her daughters. Gang members had warned her family not to report them to authorities in Honduras or they would attack them again, she said, but her family did anyway.\n\nAfter the officers drove them home to pack, Martinez told them she wanted to stay.\n\nBy nightfall, she was in an ICE detention center in Basile, Louisiana, and the twins were in a government shelter in San Antonio, hundreds of miles away.\n\nICE said in a statement that officers separated Martinez from her daughters because she \u201cchanged her mind last minute and chose not to voluntarily depart the United States.\u201d The agency said officials informed her that she would be placed in immigration proceedings \u201crather than on her way to her home country with her kids.\u201d\n\nICE has reopened a family detention center in Texas that was closed during the Biden administration. But it held fewer than 400 people in August, well below its stated capacity of 2,400 beds, federal records show. The agency did not answer questions about why the family and others could not be held together there instead.\n\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt, who led the legal effort to reunite families separated during Trump\u2019s first term, said the ACLU is investigating the legality of the new separations inside the United States.\n\nIn some cases, he said, parents are being told their children will be taken away unless they give up their right to a hearing and return home. In other cases, children who arrived as unaccompanied minors are being sent back to government shelters for months after they had already been released to vetted sponsors.\n\nMishan Wroe, also with National Center for Youth Law, said she represents a teen from Latin America who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border alone in February 2023 and was released to his sister in Georgia after a few weeks in a federal shelter. He enrolled in high school and played for the soccer team, but he ended up back in ORR custody in March after a traffic stop. He was later released to a short-term shelter shortly before turning 18.\n\nJonathan Ryan, a lawyer and CEO of Advokato, a nonprofit legal service provider in San Antonio, said he represents a pair of underage siblings from Afghanistan who were separated from their mother in May after they tried to cross into Canada. The family had been living in Texas for about two years.\n\n\u201cI fear that what we are seeing is only the beginning,\u201d Gelernt said. \u201cAlthough I had hoped for the best, it doesn\u2019t surprise me that we are seeing new separation tactics given that the Trump administration has never acknowledged its original policy, much less its cruelty.\u201d\n\n\u2018Your daughters are yours\u2019\n\nFrom detention, Martinez cannot shake the fear that she could lose the girls forever.\n\nHer anchor is the Ministerio Pentecostal Restauracion y Poder, a red-brick church outside New Orleans, where churchgoers say the sudden absence of Martinez and the girls has left a hole. The church is where Martinez and Rodriguez had the formal wedding ceremony she had always wanted, with a white gown, a frosted cake and matching dresses for the girls. It\u2019s also where Rodriguez\u2019s funeral was held.\n\nAlvarado, the youth minister, said the girls were teacher\u2019s aides at Sunday school and entertained children with a yearly puppet show. The church canceled the show this year.\n\n\u201cThey really made a home here,\u201d she said.\n\nPeople in the neighborhood where Martinez was stopped said ICE arrests have rattled the community and taken away people who paid rent on time and construction workers who fixed hurricane-damaged roofs free. One neighbor said ICE had arrested the mother of a little girl in the neighborhood. Since then, he said, he has seen the girl on walks with her father, crying for \u201cMama.\u201d\n\nIn phone calls with their mother, the twins have said they are doing fine in the shelter. They went on a field trip to a restaurant in San Antonio and attend school in the shelter, though the girls said their math class is below their grade level. But they are also scared. They recounted how immigration officers recently visited the shelter at night and picked up a child for deportation. They are worried that could happen to them, too.\n\n\u201cThey tell me they are worried, and I can hear it in their voices,\u201d Alvarado said.\n\nICE said in a statement that Martinez\u2019s daughters are \u201cbeing cared for by professionals and will remain in ORR custody until her immigration proceedings are complete.\u201d Alvarado and her parents, meanwhile, are trying to reassure Martinez that she will be reunited with her twins.\n\n\u201cYour daughters are yours,\u201d Veronica Salazar, Alvarado\u2019s mother, said on a recent phone call with Martinez from detention.\n\nRepublicans and Democrats clashed over the treatment of immigrant children in the United States at a Senate hearing on Wednesday.\n\nRepublicans accused the Biden administration of allowing tens of thousands of children into the country and then releasing some to abusive or dangerous conditions. Democrats countered that Trump officials have tried to strip minors of legal aid, attempted to expel dozens of Guatemalan children without warning, and separated families like Martinez\u2019s.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t lecture me about kids and then refuse to speak out when we hear parents are being forced to decide whether to be deported with their children, or let them be sent to ORR shelters,\u201d Sen. Alex Padilla (California), ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee\u2019s subcommittee on border security and immigration, said at the hearing. He called the Martinez case \u201cheartbreaking.\u201d\n\nMartinez\u2019s final deportation hearing is scheduled for Oct. 10 in the detention center in Louisiana where she is being held. Her daughters have been scheduled for a hearing before a judge in Texas one week later.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-denounces-trump-administrations-mistreatment-of-unaccompanied-children/", "WATCH: Padilla Denounces Trump Administration\u2019s Mistreatment of Unaccompanied Children", "2025-09-17", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, criticized Senate Republicans\u2019 hypocrisy in convening a hearing focused on the Biden Administration\u2019s management of unaccompanied children as multiple recent reports emerge about the current Administration\u2019s cruel mistreatment of unaccompanied children, ongoing family separations, and disregard for child safety and the rule of law. During his opening statement at the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing, Padilla called on his Republican colleagues to join him in pushing for oversight and accountability over this Administration\u2019s flagrant violations of unaccompanied migrant children\u2019s rights.\n\nPadilla slammed the Trump Administration for attempting to unlawfully deport dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children in the middle of night over Labor Day weekend despite their ongoing immigration proceedings and fear of returning to Guatemala. Despite the Trump Administration\u2019s claims to the contrary, a whistleblower disclosure yesterday alleged that at least 30 unaccompanied Guatemalan children the Administration attempted to deport without due process were flagged in the Office of Refugee Resettlement\u2019s (ORR) database as having indicators of trafficking or child abuse if they were to be removed to Guatemala. Ahead of the Subcommittee hearing, Padilla and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) requested an oversight hearing on ORR\u2019s mass child deportation efforts and apparent lies under oath.\n\nHe also highlighted reporting from the Washington Post uncovering that the Trump Administration\u2019s mass deportation agenda has reignited forced family separations, including a recent incident in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ripped a 35-year-old Honduran mother from her twin 14-year-old daughters despite her maintaining a work permit, a pathway to a visa, and a pending asylum claim.\n\nKey quotes from Senator Padilla\u2019s opening remarks are below:\n\n\u201cToo often, their stories of unaccompanied children go unheard until a horrific story about their mistreatment shocks the conscience of our country. And it\u2019s not just a matter of past tense. It is not just a matter of what happened during the Biden Administration or in prior years. One of these stories broke out just a few weeks ago.\u201d\n\n\u201cOn Sunday, August 31st \u2014 at about 1 or 2 in the morning \u2014 76 children in Texas shelters were jolted awake. In the middle of the night, with no warning, they were instructed to pack their bags, and immigration officials led them to an airport to be deported. Without a hearing, without due process, and without proper vetting to see if they would be safe back in Guatemala, these kids, as you can imagine, were terrified.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow it\u2019s on us to do the right thing and bring ORR officials before this committee to demand the truth. Now, Mr. Chairman, we are the committee of jurisdiction with an obligation to conduct oversight over ORR. So I don\u2019t just ask you, I urge you: let\u2019s work together to schedule an oversight hearing with ORR to get to the truth.\u201d\n\n\u201cEvery single one of us here has a responsibility to stand up for the children in our immigration system, whether it\u2019s because of trafficking, physical or sexual abuse, child labor, or violations of their due process. And this is a responsibility that I don\u2019t take lightly, none of us should take lightly.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe reality is, the Trump Administration officials should be the ones in the seats in front of us to field our questions and to answer our questions about their, in many ways, cruel and unlawful policies, especially after this whistleblower disclosure.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf we truly want to improve our immigration system and protect unaccompanied children, we\u2019d be exercising our oversight authority to ask about the real harm currently happening to children because of the indiscriminate mass deportation policies that this Administration is carrying out. There has to be real oversight of this Administration and their dangerous treatment of minors.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo don\u2019t lecture me about kids, and then at the same time grab defenseless children in the middle of the night to haul them off to a country when we know they will be in danger. Don\u2019t lecture me about kids, but then refuse to call out this Administration when they deprive them of representation. And don\u2019t lecture me about kids and then refuse to speak out when we hear parents are being forced to decide whether to be deported with their children or let them be sent to ORR shelters, as we learned just this morning.\u201d\n\n\u201cNot a single child benefits from political theater. So today, it\u2019s my hope that this hearing doesn\u2019t devolve into just a competition of who can praise Trump the most or who can bash Biden the best. Because regardless of which party is in the White House, or which party is in the majority in Congress, keeping children safe should be a bipartisan concern.\u201d\n\n\u201cEverybody in this hearing room and everybody watching at home: Democrats demanded accountability from the Biden Administration on what happened to children under their watch. And I invite our Republican colleagues to join us in demanding the same accountability from the Trump Administration about what\u2019s happening to children under theirs.\u201d\n\nVideo of Senator Padilla\u2019s opening statement is available here and be downloaded here.\n\nOn Monday, Padilla, Durbin, and Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07) demanded answers from senior Administration officials on this cruel effort, including information on their compliance with due process and confidentiality obligations under asylum law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, and other statutory protections afforded to unaccompanied children by law.\n\nEarlier this year, Senator Padilla led seven Senators in sounding the alarm on troubling reports that ORR unlawfully granted expanded access to sensitive data on unaccompanied children and their sponsors to ICE. The Senators raised serious concerns that ICE could misuse this confidential information to enact mass deportations and detain immigrant families and demanded DHS Secretary Noem and HHS Secretary Kennedy immediately cease this misguided practice. In March, Padilla blasted the Trump Administration\u2019s stop work order to organizations that provide legal services for unaccompanied children and demanded they protect Congressionally mandated legal representation for these children in the immigration system.\n\nUnder the Biden Administration, Padilla co-chaired a hearing in which he condemned the labor exploitation of migrant children in the United States and called on the federal government to enforce the law and hold employers accountable for unlawfully exploiting migrant children.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/with-federal-workers-under-attack-padilla-warner-colleagues-introduce-legislation-to-repeal-union-busting-executive-orders/", "With Federal Workers Under Attack, Padilla, Warner, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Repeal Union-Busting Executive Orders", "2025-09-17", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Two-thirds of federal workers lost their collective bargaining protections under Trump EO\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act, which would repeal two union-busting executive orders and restore collective bargaining rights and workplace protections for federal workers.\n\nThis legislation comes in response to a pair of executive orders issued earlier this year by President Trump. These executive orders revoked collective bargaining rights for a majority of federal employees under a false national security pretext. While federal employee unions do not negotiate pay or benefits, collective bargaining agreements protect them from retaliation, discrimination, and illegal firings, while promoting resources for whistleblowers and veterans.\n\nCalifornia has among the highest number of federal employees in the nation, many of whom have lost their labor rights under the Trump Administration.\n\n\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s executive orders ripping away collective bargaining rights from over a million federal workers constitute one of the biggest union busts in American history,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cEliminating these basic labor protections is a thinly veiled retribution campaign under the guise of national security, but these orders make us all less safe by undermining the workforce Americans rely on for vaccine research, food inspections, natural disaster relief, and so much more. Our bill reverses these callous attacks to protect the fundamental workplace rights of federal employees in California and across the country so they can continue serving the American people.\u201d\n\n\u201cFrom the gutting of essential government agencies to the politization of nonpartisan government jobs, there\u2019s never been a tougher time to be a federal worker,\u201d said Senator Warner. \u201cAs the Trump administration continues to terrorize the federal workforce, I\u2019m proud to introduce legislation to safeguard the longstanding protections that federal employees need right now.\u201d\n\n\u201cEvery day our patriotic, merit-based civil servants provide essential services to the American people \u2013 and their collective bargaining rights are critical to protecting them from unfair labor practices as they carry out that important work. Trump wants to strip them of these rights so he can continue to gut the federal workforce and easily replace them with political cronies who will do his bidding without regard for the law. This bipartisan bill will stop this lawless union-busting power grab \u2013 and protect the integrity of our federal workforce and the services they provide,\u201d said Senator Van Hollen.\n\n\u201cTrump\u2019s attacks on unions, union jobs, and the right to collective bargaining is making our economy weaker and putting American jobs at risk,\u201d said Leader Schumer. \u201cEarlier this year, President Trump issued wide-sweeping executive orders that revoked collective bargaining rights that federal workers have held for decades \u2013 a threat to the rights of all of America\u2019s workers. Federal workers deserve to have union protection to improve their working conditions and to defend those who speak up on behalf of the American people \u2013 it\u2019s how our federal workforce finds and retains the best talent and how we live up to the values and standards our country has set for itself. Democrats know that union strong is America strong which is why I am proud to support the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act to restore commonsense measures that will right this wrong and help protect the rights of the people who have elected to serve our country.\u201d\n\nThe Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CRSA) grants the president authority to limit collective bargaining agreements when there is a national security concern. President Trump\u2019s executive orders, however, sought to take advantage of the CRSA by inappropriately classifying two-thirds of the federal workforce as having national security missions in order to claim the authority needed to cancel valid union contracts.\n\nThe Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act also affirms that any collective bargaining agreement in effect as of March 26, 2025, the day before the first executive order, will be in full force.\n\nThis legislation also has the support of the AFL-CIO, Actors\u2019 Equity Association, Alliance for Retired Americans, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), American Federation of Musicians, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Communications Workers of America (CWA), Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), Federal Education Association, International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM), International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots, LIUNA \u2013 the Laborers\u2019 International Union of North America, National Education Association, National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM), National Nurses United, National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU), National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), Seafarers International Union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, United Auto Workers (UAW), United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), and United Steelworkers (USW).\n\n\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s executive order launched the biggest act of union-busting in our history, ripping away collective bargaining rights from a million federal workers. In the months since, his administration has expanded that order and unilaterally cancelled union contracts for more than 400,000 workers. These moves are an assault on our fundamental freedoms and undercut critical services people across the country rely on. We commend Senators Warner, Van Hollen, and Minority Leader Schumer for bringing the fight to overturn the Trump administration\u2019s attack on workers to the Senate. Bipartisan momentum is already building in the House, where lawmakers are collecting the final signatures on a discharge petition to bring this bill to a vote. The labor movement looks forward to working with senators to stop the senseless assault on workers who provide essential government services to communities across America. The labor movement stands united behind this bill, and we call on every senator\u2014Democrat, Republican and Independent\u2014to keep their promise to workers by backing this legislation,\u201d said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.\n\n\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s March executive order stripping most of the federal workforce of collective bargaining rights represents the single most aggressive action taken by the federal government against organized labor in U.S. history, dwarfing any previous action against public or private sector working Americans. AFGE members are grateful to Sen. Warner for introducing the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act and standing up for the nonpartisan civil service, the women and men who serve in it, and the critical role that collective bargaining has played for decades in fostering a safe, productive, and collaborative workplace that serves the American people,\u201d said AFGE National President Dr. Everett Kelley.\n\n\u201cPresidential orders stripping union rights from federal employees are not only an attack on the civil service, they\u2019re an attack on the vital services Americans depend on. NTEU members are grateful to Senators Warner, Van Hollen, Schumer, Schatz, Padilla, Alsobrooks, and Kaine for leading this legislation requiring agencies to honor the collective bargaining agreements already in place. The Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act ensures federal employees can collectively advocate for a better workplace and the resources to best serve the American people,\u201d said Doreen Greenwald, National President of the National Treasury Employees Union.\n\n\u201cNFFE is proud to endorse the Protecting America\u2019s Workforce Act, which will restore union rights for over one million civil servants,\u201d said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. \u201cThe union busting executive order signed by President Trump in March has proven to be detrimental to federal workers and the essential services they provide to the American people every day. This legislation has garnered broad bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and will surely do the same in the Senate. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle understand that if this bill is not passed into law, their constituents will suffer the consequences. Thank you to Senator Warner and the initial cosponsors of the legislation for their leadership on this critical issue.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey protect the environment, care for veterans, and support public health and education. Characterizing these workers as a national security threat in order to strip them of their union rights and protections is shameful and a gross overreach by this administration. The Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act is necessary to restore their collective bargaining rights, including protection against illegal firing, discrimination or retaliation particularly at this time in our country,\u201d said Heather Conroy, Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union.\n\n\u201cFederal workers are essential to our nation\u2019s health and well-being, and when they have the freedom to collectively bargain for safe working conditions and strong public services, we all benefit. The billionaires running this administration are hell-bent on rigging our government to line their own pockets, and silencing federal workers is how they plan to do it,\u201d said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. \u201cWe thank Senator Mark Warner for introducing this legislation, and we urge the Senate to quickly pass this bill.\u201d\n\nThis legislation was cosponsored by U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).\n\nSenator Padilla is a longtime advocate for protecting workers\u2019 rights and fighting for their safety. In April, Padilla joined Senator Van Hollen and the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in urging President Trump to rescind his March 27 executive order to end collective bargaining agreements between public employee unions and dozens of federal agencies and bureaus. Earlier this year, Padilla, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and a bipartisan group of Senate and House colleagues introduced the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), comprehensive labor legislation to protect the rights of workers to stand together and bargain for fairer wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces. Padilla also joined every Democratic Senator and a bipartisan group of 213 Representatives in urging President Trump to immediately reinstate National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Member Gwynne Wilcox and restore the NLRB\u2019s ability to protect the rights of American workers to organize and collectively bargain. In July, Padilla announced the Asunci\u00f3n Valdivia Heat, Illness, Injury and Fatality Prevention Act to protect the safety and health of workers who are exposed to dangerous heat conditions in the workplace. He also cosponsored a pair of bills to hold companies who engage in union busting activities accountable and to protect striking workers\u2019 access to health care. Padilla previously cosponsored the Nationwide Right to Unionize Act, legislation that would support the right to unionize by prohibiting states from banning union security agreements through \u201cright-to-work\u201d laws.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/nyt-whistle-blower-account-contradicts-governments-claims-on-guatemalan-children/", "NYT: Whistle-Blower Account Contradicts Government\u2019s Claims on Guatemalan Children", "2025-09-16", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "By Zach Montague\n\nMore than two dozen children from Guatemala whom the Trump administration sought to deport earlier this month had been flagged as vulnerable to child abuse and human trafficking in a Health and Human Services Department database that tracks unaccompanied children, according to a whistle-blower complaint filed to Congress on Tuesday.\n\nThe report, based on accounts of several unidentified federal employees familiar with the data, appeared to contradict a sworn statement made in a lawsuit over the children\u2019s fate by Angie Salazar, a senior health official. She said the children had been properly screened and cleared for repatriation. It also came less than a week after the judge presiding over the case, Timothy J. Kelly, challenged lawyers from the Justice Department about the veracity of another of their central claims in the dispute: that the children\u2019s parents had requested their return.\n\nFiled to Congress by the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower protection group, the report said at least 30 of the 327 children the government cleared for imminent removal had \u201cindicators of being a victim of child abuse\u201d in Guatemala, based on the government\u2019s own findings.\n\nThe children, who came to the United States as unaccompanied minors in recent years and have been living in shelters or foster care under government supervision, were hastily targeted by the Trump administration over the Labor Day weekend. Upon learning that the children were being loaded onto flights to be sent back, lawyers from the National Immigration Law Center sued to block the removals and a federal judge ordered the government to halt until the case could be argued.\n\nThe Trump administration has said it was exercising an authority to reunify unaccompanied children with their parents abroad, claiming that it was acting at the behest of the children\u2019s families and with the children\u2019s well-being in mind.\n\nBut the report on Tuesday was the second time that notion had been called into question.\n\nMs. Salazar filed the declaration in her capacity as the acting director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services that maintains custody over minors who enter the United States alone.\n\nIt stated that her office had reviewed the cases of all 327 children using a \u201cbest interests framework\u201d that included considerations such as whether her office was \u201cassured the child will not be trafficked upon their return\u201d or whether the children had been known to have faced abuse in the past. It added that the government had completed the review and deemed all the children eligible to be sent back to Guatemala, where most or all have parents residing.\n\nBut the whistle-blower report countered that the available data about the children made it clear that around 10 percent of them, and possibly more, should not have been eligible under the government\u2019s criteria.\n\nThe report stated that as recently as Sept. 5 \u2014 the day before the government filed Ms. Salazar\u2019s declaration in federal court \u2014 analyses run by her office had returned results showing that many of the children faced dangers in Guatemala or had expressed fear of being sent there. It added that Ms. Salazar \u201cknew or should have known of the inaccuracies in her declaration,\u201d based on the data on hand.\n\n\u201cThese whistle-blowers\u2019 disclosures evidence violations of law, rules and regulations, abuse of authority and substantial and specific danger to public health and safety on a matter of urgent, and potentially life and death, importance,\u201d it said.\n\nLawyers for the Government Accountability Project sent the report on Tuesday to Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Alex Padilla of California, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Border Security and Immigration subcommittee.\n\n\u201cThe allegations in the whistle-blower complaint are shocking,\u201d Mr. Padilla said in a statement.\n\n\u201cSending children back into danger is a betrayal of our moral and legal obligations,\u201d Mr. Padilla\u2019s statement said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to hold them accountable for endangering children.\u201d\n\nA spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\n\nAfter the children were nearly flown out over the Labor Day weekend, a judge intervened on an emergency basis, halting the government\u2019s effort. The case was then transferred to Judge Kelly to manage the rest of the proceedings, and he extended the order blocking the government from making further attempts to remove the children until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday.\n\nDuring a hearing last week to determine how to proceed, Judge Kelly grew skeptical about the government\u2019s position, pressing for details about its claim that the children\u2019s parents had asked for their return.\n\nHe homed in on a memo prepared by the Guatemalan government, which was filed as evidence in the case, in which officials tried to contact and survey the children\u2019s parents. Of those they were able to track down, none had asked for their children\u2019s return, with more than half explicitly refusing to authorize any attempt to have their children forced out of the United States.\n\nAsked by Judge Kelly to reconcile the competing claims, a lawyer from the Justice Department conceded that the government had no reason to believe that the parents had asked to have their children returned.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-announce-another-168-million-to-strengthen-airport-infrastructure-across-california/", "Padilla, Schiff Announce Another $168 Million to Strengthen Airport Infrastructure Across California", "2025-09-16", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) announced that 46 California airports were awarded a combined $168.85 million in grant funding from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to bolster aviation infrastructure. The funding comes through the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), which invests in airport infrastructure projects such as runways, taxiways, noise cancellation, airport signage, airport lighting, and airport markings. Congress appropriates funding for the AIP annually.\n\n\u201cFrom large international hubs to the hundreds of small regional or local airports, the Golden State\u2019s airports play an essential role in helping millions of Californians and visitors alike get where they need to go,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cThis tranche of more than $168 million in federal aviation funding will modernize our airport infrastructure to create a safer, smoother passenger experience while creating good-paying jobs and investing in low-emission equipment.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis federal funding will make a critical investment in California\u2019s airports, improving their safety and modernizing their infrastructure, while creating more jobs in communities across the Golden State. I will keep working with Senator Alex Padilla and the entire California delegation to continue to strengthen our transportation system and boost our local economies,\u201d said Senator Schiff.\n\nCalifornia airports selected to receive funding include:\n\nMonterey Regional Airport \u2014 $25.13 million: This project constructs a new 66,500 square foot terminal to accommodate the movement of passengers and baggage. This grant funds the sixth phase, which consists of construction of 16,625 square feet of the terminal building.\n\nLos Angeles International Airport \u2014 $22.77 million: This funding will be used to extend an existing taxiway by an additional 990 feet in length to bring the airport into conformity with current standards. A second project acquires and installs low-emission equipment, including 42 electric vehicle charging stations.\n\nSan Francisco International Airport \u2014 $16.76 million: This project rehabilitates 2,400 feet of an existing paved taxiway to maintain the structural integrity of the pavement and minimize foreign object debris.\n\nCamarillo Airport \u2014 $13.47 million: This project rehabilitates 6,013 feet of an existing paved runway to maintain the structural integrity and minimize foreign object debris, extending its useful life.\n\nFresno Yosemite International Airport \u2014 $12.53 million: This project reconstructs 9,539 feet of an existing paved runway that has reached the end of its useful life. This grant funds a portion of phase 1, which consists of design and construction of 1,866 feet.\n\nOntario International Airport \u2014 $10.81 million: The first project reconstructs 5,526 feet of an outdated existing paved taxiway pavement. A second project acquires and installs low-emission equipment, including 24 ground power units.\n\nPalm Springs International Airport \u2014 $7.96 million: This project reconstructs an existing terminal by installing a new baggage handling system to improve the movement of passengers and baggage. This grant funds a portion of phase 1, which consists of site enabling work, building expansion, and proposed electrical work.\n\nOakland International Airport \u2014 $5.94 million: This project rehabilitates 5,412 feet of an existing paved runway to maintain the structural integrity and minimize foreign object debris to extend its useful life. The grant funds the first phase, which consists of the construction of 2,692 feet.\n\nHayward Executive Airport \u2014 $5.84 million: This project reconstructs 3,497 feet of an existing paved taxiway that has reached the end of its useful life. This grant funds a portion of the final construction phase.\n\nHemet-Ryan Airport \u2014 $4.56 million: This project rehabilitates 62,500 square yards of existing East and West Apron pavement to maintain the structural integrity of the pavement and to minimize foreign object debris. This grant funds the final phase, which consists of the rehabilitation of 41,115 square yards.\n\nA complete list of AIP awards for California airports in this round of funding is available here.\n\nLast month, Senators Padilla and Schiff announced that 72 California airports were awarded a combined $158.4 million in grant funding from the Airport Infrastructure Grant (AIG) program, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the AIP. In July, they announced that 18 California airports were awarded a combined $81.3 million from the AIP to bolster aviation infrastructure. Padilla also announced $219.5 million in grant funding from the FAA through the AIP last year to upgrade aviation infrastructure. Additionally, he announced $89.3 million from the FAA\u2019s Airport Terminal Program, made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Padilla and the late Senator Dianne Feinstein previously announced a combined $528 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for airport upgrades and modernizations across California.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-unanimously-passes-padilla-mcconnell-resolution-recognizing-national-voter-registration-day/", "Senate Unanimously Passes Padilla, McConnell Resolution Recognizing National Voter Registration Day", "2025-09-16", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration with oversight over elections and California\u2019s former Secretary of State, announced that the Senate unanimously passed S. Res. 388, his bipartisan resolution with Rules Committee Chairman Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) recognizing National Voter Registration Day. The resolution encourages eligible Americans to register to vote, verify with the appropriate state or local election official that their personal information is current, and cast their ballot.\n\n\u201cAmid relentless attacks from this Administration on our democracy and the right to vote, the best way American citizens can make their voices heard is by registering to vote online, by mail, or in person,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cAs California\u2019s former Secretary of State, I oversaw record voter registration and participation, and I will keep working to help all citizens participate in our democracy. I encourage all eligible Americans to visit vote.gov to confirm you\u2019re registered to vote with the correct information and learn how to cast your ballot.\u201d\n\nNational Voter Registration Day is a nonpartisan event celebrated by election officials across the country on a Tuesday in September. The day is endorsed by the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED), the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), and the National Association of Election Officials (Election Center).\n\nNational Voter Registration Day began in 2012 with 2,000 civic organizations helping launch the civic holiday to encourage people to register to vote.\n\nSenator Padilla has led the charge opposing President Trump and Republicans\u2019 reckless attempts to restrict the right to vote. In May, Padilla stopped Senator Mike Lee\u2019s (R-Utah) attempt to pass the anti-voter SAVE Act through the Senate by unanimous consent. Earlier this year, he convened a Rules Committee Democrats spotlight forum focused on Congressional Republicans\u2019 SAVE Act and Trump\u2019s illegal anti-voter executive order. As President Trump marked 100 disastrous days in office, Padilla led his Democratic colleagues on the Senate floor to speak out against the SAVE Act and the Trump Administration\u2019s attacks on election integrity. In April, he warned Secretaries of State, Lieutenant Governors, and Chief Election Officials across the country of the devastating potential impacts of the SAVE Act, concerns that have been echoed by top election officials across the country. Padilla also led a letter sounding the alarm on the devastating impacts on voting rights in Native American communities of the SAVE Act and Trump\u2019s executive order.\n\nAdditionally, Padilla led 11 Senators in introducing the Defending America\u2019s Future Elections Act to repeal Trump\u2019s illegal anti-voter executive order and prevent the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive voter registration data and state records. Padilla previously led 14 Democratic Senators in calling on Trump to revoke his illegal anti-voter executive order and issued a statement slamming the order when it was announced. In July, Padilla convened a Rules and Judiciary Committee Democrats spotlight forum focused on racial gerrymandering and voter suppression, in which he reiterated concerns that the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s insufficiently tested Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program could purge eligible citizens from state voter rolls.\n\nBefore coming to the Senate, Padilla established automatic and same-day voter registration, upgraded California\u2019s voting systems to meet higher security standards, and expanded mail-in and in-person early voting as the chief elections officer for the most populous state in the nation.\n\nFull text of the resolution is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-durbin-raskin-jayapal-demand-answers-on-trump-administrations-unlawful-attempt-to-deport-unaccompanied-guatemalan-children/", "Padilla, Durbin, Raskin, Jayapal Demand Answers on Trump Administration\u2019s Unlawful Attempt to Deport Unaccompanied Guatemalan Children", "2025-09-15", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, demanded answers from the Trump Administration on their cruel efforts to unlawfully remove dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children from the United States in the middle of the night over Labor Day weekend.\n\nIn their letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the lawmakers demanded answers on the Administration\u2019s compliance with due process and confidentiality obligations under asylum law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), and other statutory protections afforded to unaccompanied children by law. They also asked for copies of the agreement the Administration said they made with the government of Guatemala regarding these removals and requested copies of training requirements for officials who interact with children.\n\n\u201cWe write in response to deeply disturbing allegations that the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted to unlawfully remove unaccompanied children (UACs) from the United States in the dead of night, during a holiday weekend,\u201d wrote the lawmakers. \u201cWe are concerned that you violated these children\u2019s due process and procedural rights, and in doing so, abandoned your legal obligation to safeguard the best interests of the children in your care.\u201d\n\n\u201cUACs are among the most vulnerable children attempting to navigate our complex immigration system. They must trust in the government\u2019s care, frequently having fled abuse, violence, and persecution abroad,\u201d continued the lawmakers. \u201cThey are entitled to notice and due process under the Constitution, and the Trafficking Victims Protections Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) sets forth special procedures for the removal or voluntary departure of UACs to ensure they receive such process.\u201d\n\nThe Trump Administration identified approximately 600 Guatemalan children living alone for removal, first notifying Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) staff on Friday night, August 29, to prepare children for deportation despite their ongoing immigration proceedings. Both attorneys and the children were shocked to learn for the first time that night that repatriations may occur. Late Saturday into Sunday morning, 76 Guatemalan children were put on planes for removal with no regard for their well-being or safety, as many children expressed immense fear of returning to Guatemala.\n\nAt 4:22 a.m. on Sunday, August 31, a federal judge issued an emergency temporary restraining order against the removals, but the Administration continued to place children onto planes until 10:30 a.m. Government officials did not respond to the judge\u2019s requests to transmit the court order to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ORR staff amid their ongoing attempts to deport these unaccompanied children, which prompted the judge to call an emergency hearing at 12:30 p.m. the same day.\n\nThe TVPRA sets forth specific procedures for the removal or voluntary departure of unaccompanied children, generally affording them the opportunity to appear before an immigration judge before DHS can remove them. The Guatemalan children in question did not have this opportunity \u2014 likely violating the TVPRA \u2014 nor did the Administration explain to them why their immigration court cases were taken off the docket.\n\nMany of these children and their families strongly objected to their return to Guatemala, and many had pending applications for asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, or other protection. In fact, a majority of Guatemalan families contacted explicitly expressed that they did not request their children\u2019s return, according to a recent report by a Guatemalan attorney general\u2019s office. This report was then later substantiated by a Department of Justice attorney representing the government at a September 10 hearing, withdrawing the government\u2019s previous statements in court claiming parents had requested that their children be returned. After the hearing, D.C. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly extended the preliminary injunction, blocking the Administration from removing the children until September 16.\n\n\u201cAs the Ranking Members of the Committees and Subcommittees with primary jurisdiction over the TVPRA and the [Immigration and Nationality Act], it is our responsibility to conduct oversight over implementation of these laws, ensuring that HHS, ORR, DHS, and the immigration courts meet their legal and ethical obligations under the law with respect to the care and protection of unaccompanied children. This situation is alarming, unacceptable, and raises serious concerns as to whether you are meeting your basic obligations to act in the best interests of children in your care,\u201d concluded the lawmakers.\n\nThe lawmakers demanded responses to a series of inquiries regarding the incident by September 29.\n\nEarlier this year, Senator Padilla led seven Senators in sounding the alarm on troubling reports that ORR unlawfully granted expanded access to sensitive data on unaccompanied children and their sponsors to DHS\u2019 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Senators raised serious concerns that ICE could misuse this confidential information to enact mass deportations and detain immigrant families and demanded DHS Secretary Noem and HHS Secretary Kennedy immediately cease this misguided practice. In March, Padilla blasted the Trump Administration\u2019s stop work order to organizations that provide legal services for unaccompanied children and demanded they protect Congressionally mandated legal representation for these children in the immigration system.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Rubio, Attorney General Bondi, Secretary Kennedy, and Secretary Noem:\n\nWe write in response to deeply disturbing allegations that the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted to unlawfully remove unaccompanied children (UACs) from the United States in the dead of night, during a holiday weekend. We are concerned that you violated these children\u2019s due process and procedural rights, and in doing so, abandoned your legal obligation to safeguard the best interests of the children in your care.\n\nOn the evening of Friday, August 29, staff at ORR shelters received notice to prepare children to depart the country, and attorneys for the children learned for the first time that their clients were facing return to Guatemala. In the wee hours of Sunday, August 31, the Trump administration put 76 Guatemalan children on planes bound for Guatemala. These planned removals came as a total surprise to the children and their attorneys, as many, if not all, of the children that DHS attempted to remove were properly participating in ongoing immigration court proceedings and requesting relief from removal because they did not want to, and in many cases feared, return to their home country. Even after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) at 4:22am, children continued to be transferred onto planes as late as 10:30am. Reports suggest that government officials did not respond to requests by the presiding federal judge to transmit the court\u2019s order to your Departments to ensure compliance, even as officials worked through the night to rush these children out of the country.\n\nUACs are among the most vulnerable children attempting to navigate our complex immigration system. They must trust in the government\u2019s care, frequently having fled abuse, violence, and persecution abroad. They are entitled to notice and due process under the Constitution, and the Trafficking Victims Protections Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) sets forth special procedures for the removal or voluntary departure of UACs to ensure they receive such process. If DHS seeks to remove any UAC who is not from Mexico or Canada, it must place the child in removal proceedings under section 240 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and wait until such child is issued a final order of removal or receives voluntary departure after an Immigration Judge adjudication. As noted above, many children slated for \u201crepatriation\u201d were in such proceedings and had not received a final order of removal or agreed to voluntary departure. Most received no explanation from the government as to why their cases were being dropped from immigration court dockets.\n\nMultiple public reports indicate these actions were part of an orchestrated plan to remove hundreds of Guatemalan children without any regard for their best interests, wishes, or safety. Affidavits submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia indicate that many of the children on the planes expressed fear of returning to Guatemala and had pending applications for asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, or other protection. According to a report by a Guatemalan attorney general\u2019s office, and contrary to initial assertions by the Trump Administration, Guatemalan authorities were unable to contact the vast majority of the families of the children slated for return, and the majority of those who they did contact stated that they did not request their children\u2019s return and, in fact, \u201cexpressed anger\u201d at the prospect of their children being returned; some even described their contact with Guatemalan officials as \u201cintimidating\u201d and said they were told that they needed to take their children back. This report was then later substantiated by a Department of Justice attorney representing the government at a September 10th hearing, withdrawing the government\u2019s previous statements in court. It also does not appear that children were screened for concerns related to abuse or neglect in their home country.\n\nAs the Ranking Members of the Committees and Subcommittees with primary jurisdiction over the TVPRA and the INA, it is our responsibility to conduct oversight over implementation of these laws, ensuring that HHS, ORR, DHS, and the immigration courts meet their legal and ethical obligations under the law with respect to the care and protection of unaccompanied children. This situation is alarming, unacceptable, and raises serious concerns as to whether you are meeting your basic obligations to act in the best interests of children in your care.\n\nAccordingly, we ask the Departments to provide written responses to the inquiries below by no later than September 29, 2025:\n\n1. What steps are DHS and ORR taking to meet their legal obligation to ensure that children from noncontiguous countries are given the proper opportunity to appear before an immigration judge if DHS seeks to remove that unaccompanied child from the United States?\n\n2. What are the terms of agreement the Trump Administration made with the government of Guatemala to initiate these repatriations? Please share a copy of the agreement.\n\n3. How many Guatemalan children in ORR custody have final orders of removal from an immigration judge? How many have requested voluntary departure before an immigration judge, and/or had that request adjudicated?\n\n4. What are the training requirements for officials who interview or question children? Please provide a copy of training materials.\n\n5. For children who have been granted voluntary departure or have a final removal order, how are the agencies ensuring that protocols are followed to ensure safe repatriation as required by law?\n\n6. Under what authority are children who have pending asylum cases or other immigration benefits requests determined eligible for removal or repatriation?\n\n7. How are the agencies ensuring compliance with confidentiality regulations under asylum law or other statutory confidentiality requirements that are applicable based on the type of application filed by the child, including ensuring that information included in asylum applications is not shared with the child\u2019s country of origin?\n\nWe understand that responses to some of these questions may relate to ongoing litigation; however, the Supreme Court has held that legal proceedings do not limit the right of Congress to conduct its own investigations. You are obligated to produce the requested information.\n\nThank you for your prompt attention to this matter. We look forward to receiving your responses in a timely manner.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-introduces-bill-to-strengthen-accountability-over-unlawful-national-guard-deployments/", "Padilla Introduces Bill to Strengthen Accountability Over Unlawful National Guard Deployments", "2025-09-15", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 As President Trump charges ahead with the unprecedented and illegal militarization of American cities, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) introduced legislation to enhance oversight and accountability of the President\u2019s deployment of the National Guard. The Safeguarding the Use of the National Guard (SUN) Act would require the President to submit a comprehensive report to Congress within 15 days of deploying the National Guard, except in the case of a natural disaster.\n\nRepresentative Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.-16) is leading companion legislation in the House of Representatives. Senator Padilla also filed the bill as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026.\n\nIn June, President Trump manufactured a crisis and escalated tensions in Los Angeles by deploying 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines without Governor Newsom\u2019s request or consent. Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth \u201cwillfully\u201d violated federal law through their militarization of Los Angeles in response to overwhelmingly peaceful protests supporting immigrants\u2019 rights. However, approximately 300 troops National Guard troops still remain in Los Angeles. Trump has also extended his militarization of Washington, D.C. and has threatened to soon deploy National Guard troops to Memphis.\n\n\u201cFirst it was Los Angeles, now it\u2019s our nation\u2019s capital, and soon it will be any city that dares to speak out against Donald Trump,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cWe cannot allow Trump to keep abusing his power and ignoring local elected officials to intimidate our communities. Our commonsense measure would add an essential layer of scrutiny to hold the Administration accountable and reaffirm the National Guard\u2019s proper role in national defense and emergency support.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs mayor of San Jos\u00e9, I never called in the National Guard to fight crime; our city achieved the lowest homicide rate of any major U.S. city by relying on our experts\u2014our police\u2014working with the community. As President Trump deploys troops to LA, DC, and other US cities, he wastes taxpayer dollars, undermines the critical work of local police departments, and assaults our constitutional order. Americans deserve to know how their money is being spent. The SUN Act shines a light on what these deployments mean for our communities and wallets, and I\u2019m proud to work with Senator Padilla to advance this legislation. If there\u2019s nothing to hide, let the light in,\u201d said Representative Liccardo.\n\nThe SUN Act would require the President\u2019s report to outline the legal basis, clear objectives, and cost to taxpayers for National Guard deployments for non-natural disaster related events. The report would also include the extent of interactions between civilians and the National Guard, accounts from local and state law enforcement detailing such events, and certification that the deployment did not interfere with the National Guard\u2019s ability to assist with natural disaster response.\n\nThe legislation is cosponsored by Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s militarization of Los Angeles. In June, Padilla led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty service members to American cities. Last week, Padilla, Schiff, and 17 other Senate Democrats filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit brought against President Trump for his misuse of the U.S. military in Los Angeles. Padilla and Schiff also recently demanded the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) provide information on operational details related to the ongoing deployment of California National Guard personnel in Los Angeles, first federalized by President Trump on June 9.\n\nAfter the Trump Administration deployed National Guard troops across Washington, D.C. and took control of the city\u2019s police department, Padilla recently supported legislation granting the District full authority over the D.C. National Guard and the Metropolitan Police Department. Additionally, Padilla placed a hold on Trump\u2019s nominee to serve as vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lieutenant General Thomas Carden, until the Trump Administration releases all remaining U.S. military forces from their unjustified deployment to Los Angeles.\n\nFull text of the SUN Act is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-warner-demand-urgent-briefing-on-foreign-election-threats-from-gabbard-after-intelligence-rollback/", "Padilla, Warner Demand Urgent Briefing on Foreign Election Threats From Gabbard After Intelligence Rollback", "2025-09-15", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and Mark Warner (D-Va.), Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard regarding concerns that she may have directed the Intelligence Community (IC) to cease disclosing attempted foreign interference in U.S. elections and requested she provide an urgent briefing on foreign election threats. The Senators also demanded Gabbard clarify her comments made about alleged \u201cevidence\u201d of vulnerabilities to electronic voting systems and manipulation of election results, which has not been substantiated.\n\nAs the country approaches the 2026 federal midterm elections, the Senators highlighted the importance of protecting the United States from foreign influence, including cyber threats. Padilla and Warner pushed Gabbard and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to coordinate an IC briefing on these threats by October 10th, and requested a plan for defensive cybersecurity measures ahead of the 2025 and 2026 election cycles.\n\nThis year, Gabbard has made harmful and unsubstantiated statements about voting system vulnerabilities as the Trump Administration has dismantled election security efforts at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and curtailed the Congressionally authorized Foreign Malign Influence Center at ODNI. At a cabinet meeting in April, Gabbard claimed that she has \u201cevidence\u201d about voting manipulation in electronic voting machines, and on a right-wing podcast in July, she said that her office has evidence of voting machine vulnerabilities that it had not disclosed to the American public or Congress.\n\n\u201cAs your testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in March made clear, foreign adversaries continue to conduct influence activities to undermine public confidence in our election system and potentially even shape election outcomes,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cWhile you have chosen not to release a declassified version of the Intelligence Community Assessment for the 2024 U.S. Elections, the final Election Security Update ahead of Election Day noted that \u2018Foreign actors \u2013 particularly Russia, Iran, and China \u2013 remain intent on\u2019 pursuing efforts to undermine public confidence in our democratic system, including inciting violence among Americans. We are concerned that you may have directed the Intelligence Community (IC) to cease its intelligence reporting on this vital topic.\u201d\n\n\u201cGiven sustained efforts by the current Administration to dismantle CISA\u2019s election security mission, including discontinuing funding to the critically important Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, over the bipartisan objections of Secretaries of State, your cyber vulnerability claims are puzzling and elicit justified skepticism, as well as concerns of politicization,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cSince taking office, the Administration paused CISA\u2019s election security work, fired election security staff, and staff are reportedly afraid to work with state and local election officials and vendors for fear of retribution.\u201d\n\nSenator Padilla has strongly opposed efforts by the Trump Administration to undermine federal agencies\u2019 election security work. Padilla and Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration Joe Morelle (N.Y.-25) have sent four letters to CISA leadership regarding CISA\u2019s pause on all election security-focused activities, the termination of funding for the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, the agency\u2019s refusal to share its review of its election security work, and the firings of CISA employees who previously worked on election security, including misinformation and disinformation issues. Padilla and Morelle expressed serious concerns about the dangerous implications for elections following President Trump\u2019s executive order purporting to bring independent regulatory agencies under total control of the White House.\n\nEarlier this year, Senator Padilla criticized the Trump Administration\u2019s budget request that proposed a devastating 40 percent cut to the Election Assistance Commission and the complete elimination of all of its Election Security Grants funding to support state election administration as well as a dangerous 18 percent cut to CISA and the complete elimination of its $40 million Election Security Program.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDirector Gabbard:\n\nFor the better part of the last decade, the Senate Rules Committee and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence have led efforts to educate the United States Senate, and the American public, about foreign threats to our elections. As your testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in March made clear, foreign adversaries continue to conduct influence activities to undermine public confidence in our election system and potentially even shape election outcomes. While you have chosen not to release a declassified version of the Intelligence Community Assessment for the 2024 U.S. Elections, the final Election Security Update ahead of Election Day noted that \u201cForeign actors \u2013 particularly Russia, Iran, and China \u2013 remain intent on\u201d pursuing efforts to undermine public confidence in our democratic system, including inciting violence among Americans. We are concerned that you may have directed the Intelligence Community (IC) to cease its intelligence reporting on this vital topic.\n\nAs the election cycle for the 2026 federal mid-term elections gets underway, and multiple state contests have already begun, we write to request that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) coordinate an IC briefing for Senators on foreign election threats, including efforts to influence election outcomes through influence or cyber-enabled means. As part of that briefing, ODNI and the IC should also update the Senate on the status of planned defensive steps to ensure the cybersecurity of several state-wide elections in November 2025 and the mid-term elections in 2026.\n\nIn addition to an intelligence briefing on these threats, we invite you to clarify public statements that you have made about voting system security, which have generated significant confusion against the backdrop of efforts to dismantle key election security initiatives and programs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and at the Foreign Malign Influence Center at ODNI. Specifically, at a cabinet meeting with the President on April 10, 2025, you stated that ODNI was \u201cinvestigating\u201d the issue of \u201celection integrity\u201d:\n\n\u201cWe have evidence of how these electronic voting systems have been vulnerable to hackers for a very long time and vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being cast [\u2026].\u201d\n\nOn July 31, 2025, you appeared on a partisan political podcast and repeated these claims, citing alleged information from CISA:\n\n\u201c[A] whistleblower who came forward who was working under CISA at that time which is responsible for critical infrastructure and trying to protect against cyber vulnerability and critical infrastructure, including of course the integrity of our elections. And what was interesting was seeing how this whistleblower brought forward information that CISA at the time \u2013 the federal government \u2013 was aware of vulnerabilities in our election machines but they chose not to disclose that information to the American people or administration at that time. [\u2026] We\u2019re continuing to investigate this [\u2026].\u201d\n\nGiven sustained efforts by the current Administration to dismantle CISA\u2019s election security mission, including discontinuing funding to the critically important Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, over the bipartisan objections of Secretaries of State, your cyber vulnerability claims are puzzling and elicit justified skepticism, as well as concerns of politicization. Since taking office, the Administration paused CISA\u2019s election security work, fired election security staff, and staff are reportedly afraid to work with state and local election officials and vendors for fear of retribution. In June, the Administration proposed to cut CISA\u2019s Fiscal Year 2026 budget by $495 million and reduce its workforce by 30%. To date, CISA has failed to disclose its assessment of its election security work or its plans to secure future elections to Congress or the American people. According to public reports, you have also initiated a review of work of the Congressionally-authorized Foreign Malign Influence Center.\n\nWith significant elections occurring less than 60 days away, we ask that ODNI coordinate an IC briefing before October 10.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-blasts-trump-administration-for-rising-energy-costs-cuts-to-renewable-projects/", "WATCH: Padilla Blasts Trump Administration for Rising Energy Costs, Cuts to Renewable Projects", "2025-09-15", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, spoke on the Senate floor to outline the Trump Administration\u2019s devastating cuts to clean energy projects across the country that are leading to significant energy cost increases for American families. He contrasted Trump\u2019s shortsighted actions against renewable energy with California\u2019s leadership in building a reliable grid and clean energy economy.\n\nPadilla emphasized that Trump has gone back on his promises to cut energy costs, as energy prices are now rising twice as fast as inflation. In the face of rising prices, California state lawmakers passed a legislative package this weekend to strengthen the state\u2019s energy portfolio and lower the cost of living for working families. The package will help increase the supply of energy Californians rely on while facilitating coordination with counterparts in states like Oregon and Washington to create a regional electric grid across the Western United States.\n\nWhile Republicans claim that renewable energy isn\u2019t affordable or dependable, Padilla stressed that solar and wind power are cheaper than both coal and natural gas, with solar power costing only half as much as coal. He highlighted that California\u2019s historic economic growth across industries demonstrates the promise of a sustainable, clean energy future. In 2023, clean energy made up two thirds of California\u2019s retail electricity. At the same time, the state\u2019s grid has become more reliable as battery capacity in California has expanded by nearly 2,000% since 2019.\n\n\u201cThis Administration is shamelessly working to block one of our best defenses against rising energy bills: renewable energy. And I say so because renewable energy is absolutely affordable, renewable energy is abundant, and whether you want to admit it or not, renewable energy sources are our future.\u201d\n\n\u201c[California is] harnessing the power of solar and wind and hydroelectric power and nuclear, geothermal, even hydrogen power to our state. And it\u2019s exactly because of those investments that even in a year like 2024, just last year, when we experienced record heat waves that we also saw record renewable energy generation, and we kept the lights on.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe know that with a growing population and a growing economy, including, but not limited to, the future of an AI boom, demand will continue to grow. But we\u2019re committed to the kind of inclusive portfolio of energy options that has made our grid more reliable.\u201d\n\nDespite California\u2019s leadership, the Trump Administration has decimated clean energy efforts, cutting historic tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act, canceling offshore wind projects, and withholding funding from solar projects that lower energy bills and create good-paying jobs. According to Climate Power, since Trump was elected, over 120 clean energy projects across the country have been canceled or delayed or are laying off staff, amounting to nearly 14,000 megawatts taken off the grid \u2014 enough to power over 8.4 million homes. Padilla further emphasized that by investing in older fossil fuel plants, the Administration will continue to raise energy costs and cede global leadership in renewable energy production and innovation to adversaries like China.\n\nPadilla underscored that Trump\u2019s dependence on fossil fuels will exacerbate the climate crisis and lead to more intense natural disasters, including drought, atmospheric rivers, and catastrophic wildfires like Los Angeles experienced in January. As President Trump has baselessly attacked California\u2019s wildfire policy and withheld disaster aid for California, Senator Padilla highlighted his previous work to pass the FIRE Act to help FEMA better prepare for and respond to wildfires, his efforts to finalize the transfer of seven C-130s from the Coast Guard to California to retrofit for fighting wildfires, and his ongoing bipartisan push to pass the Fix Our Forests Act to combat devastating wildfires, restore forest ecosystems, and make federal forest management more efficient and responsive.\n\n\u201c[Trump\u2019s reliance on fossil fuels] is not just bad for consumers, it\u2019s not just bad for reliability \u2014 it\u2019s literally putting lives at risk.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that Donald Trump loves to attack California\u2019s leaders for wildfire policy and our climate leadership, and we also know he loves to play politics with disaster funding. That record is clear. Yet he continues to dig us deeper and deeper into an energy policy that actually increases the risk of the next great disaster. And Californians will be left to clean up the mess.\u201d\n\n\u201cReliance on fossil fuels comes at a cost, and Americans, not just Californians, but Americans are paying for it in the form of higher energy bills and in lives destroyed after these major disasters. So no matter how many times Trump says it, we can never and will never \u2018Drill, Baby, Drill\u2019 our way to cheaper energy costs. Our solution has to be a more inclusive approach to energy portfolios.\u201d\n\nPadilla concluded by outlining his vision for a more efficient, lower-cost, and reliable clean energy future. He pushed for streamlining the approval and completion of energy projects while building out our transmission system and fostering regional cooperation to strengthen the grid.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s how we meet our growing demand \u2014 more options, not less, more cooperation, not less, and more sources of energy, not less.\u201d\n\n\u201cTrump might continue to lie to the American people about renewable energy, but Americans know that this energy crisis doesn\u2019t have to continue forever, and California is proud to show the way forward.\u201d\n\nWatch Senator Padilla\u2019s full remarks here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-merkley-wyden-bonamici-lead-bipartisan-group-demanding-administration-release-over-50-million-for-agricultural-farm-worker-students/", "Padilla, Merkley, Wyden, Bonamici Lead Bipartisan Group Demanding Administration Release Over $50 Million for Agricultural Farm Worker Students", "2025-09-12", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), along with U.S. Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.-01), led 26 lawmakers in a bipartisan letter demanding that Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought and Education Secretary Linda McMahon immediately release $52.1 million in previously mandated funds for the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) and the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), which support educational opportunities for students from agricultural farm worker families.\n\nAcross the nation, HEP and CAMP programs serve more than 8,000 students whose families work to put food on America\u2019s tables. California receives the largest allocation of HEP/CAMP funding. The refusal to release this funding that Congress has previously approved threatens to undermine these students\u2019 success.\n\n\u201cContinuing and potential new grantees, all of which are colleges and non-profit organizations, were slated to receive funding and begin providing support to students by July 1 but have yet to receive the funding that Congress provided earlier this year,\u201d wrote the lawmakers. \u201cWe understand the Department of Education informed HEP and CAMP leaders in June that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was reviewing these programs, but grantees have not received follow up information as to when the funds will be released, which has imposed challenges on individuals and families served by these programs and applicants and grantees (and their employees) impacted by the uncertainty and delay.\u201d\n\nSpecifically, HEP supports students from migrant and seasonal farm worker families in earning a high school equivalency diploma. The CAMP program provides tutoring, academic advising, counseling, stipends, housing assistance, and other services to first-year college students from migrant and seasonal farm worker families.\n\nIn a 2024 report to Congress, HEP and CAMP showed that the percentage of HEP participants who received a High School Equivalency Diploma (HSED) increased by 4.2 percentage points from FY 2021 to FY 2022, and 84 percent of HSED recipients entered postsecondary education or training programs, attained upgraded employment, or entered the military. Additionally, CAMP exceeded the national retention rates for first-time college freshmen returning for their second year.\n\n\u201cWe should strive to retain more students enrolled in college, just as CAMP programs have achieved. These are results that can help strengthen the economy for agricultural farmworker families and rural communities,\u201d continued the lawmakers.\n\nIn addition to Merkley, Wyden, Padilla, and Bonamici, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Angus King (I-Maine), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and U.S. Representatives Angie Craig (D-Minn.-02), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas-37), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.-03), Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01), Deborah Ross (D-N.C.-02), Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.-25), Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.-06), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.-12), and Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.-01).\n\nEarlier this week, Padilla also joined Merkley and a bipartisan group of Senators to sound the alarm over the Trump Administration delaying millions of dollars in federal education grants with no-cost extensions for TRIO programs, which support low-income, first-generation college students from all backgrounds.\n\nSenator Padilla has repeatedly fought back against the Trump Administration\u2019s efforts to cut critical educational services. In July, Padilla, Senator Schiff, and Representatives Norma Torres (D-Calif.-35), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-51), and Derek Tran (D-Calif.-45) led the entire California Democratic Congressional Delegation in demanding the Department of Education and OMB immediately release nearly $7 billion in Congressionally appropriated funding for K-12 schools and adult education \u2014 including $928 million owed to California. Padilla and 31 other Senators also wrote to OMB Director Vought and Education Secretary McMahon demanding the immediate release of this funding. He and Schiff condemned the funding freeze when it was announced.\n\nFull text of the HEP/CAMP letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Director Vought and Secretary McMahon:\n\nWe write today to express our strong support for the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) and the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP). We urge you to implement the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, which President Trump signed into law and requires $52,123,000 to be used for carrying out CAMP and HEP. This funding is necessary to ensure these educational programs provide critical access to educational opportunities for agricultural farmworker students.\n\nContinuing and potential new grantees, all of which are colleges and non-profit organizations, were slated to receive funding and begin providing support to students by July 1 but have yet to receive the funding that Congress provided earlier this year. We understand the Department of Education informed HEP and CAMP leaders in June that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was reviewing these programs, but grantees have not received follow up information as to when the funds will be released, which has imposed challenges on individuals and families served by these programs and applicants and grantees (and their employees) impacted by the uncertainty and delay.\n\nHEP helps students who have dropped out of high school get their High School Equivalency Credential and serves more than 6,000 students annually. CAMP assists students in their first year of college with academic, personal, and financial support, and serves approximately 2,400 participants annually. Overall, nearly three-quarters of all CAMP students graduate with baccalaureate degrees.\n\nThe HEP/CAMP FY 2024 Report to Congress shows that despite the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of HEP participants who received a High School Equivalency Diploma (HSED) increased by 4.2 percentage points from FY 2021 to FY 2022 and 84 percent of HSED recipients entered postsecondary education or training programs, attained upgraded employment, or entered the military.\n\nSimilarly, the CAMP program is achieving results for students. The HEP/CAMP FY 2024 Report to Congress shows that \u201cDespite pandemic-related challenges, in both fiscal years[2021 and 2022], CAMP exceeded the national retention rates for first time college freshmen returning in their second year.\u201d We should strive to retain more students enrolled in college, just as CAMP programs have achieved. These are results that can help strengthen the economy for agricultural farmworker families and rural communities.\n\nHEP and CAMP programs rely on this funding to serve more than 8,000 students across the country. We urge the administration to release this previously allocated funding. We look forward to working with you to make this funding available as soon as possible.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-castro-condemn-trump-administrations-ending-of-discretionary-grants-for-hispanic-serving-minority-serving-schools/", "Padilla, Castro Condemn Trump Administration\u2019s Ending of Discretionary Grants for Hispanic-Serving, Minority-Serving Schools", "2025-09-11", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas-20), Democratic co-chairs of the Senate and House Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Caucuses, issued the following joint statement after the Trump Administration announced during HSI week that the U.S. Department of Education would end discretionary grants for HSIs and Minority-Serving Institutions.\n\n\u201cThe Administration\u2019s reckless decision will devastate universities across the country in red and blue states as well as urban and rural areas that serve working-class students and students of color. Congress passed laws on a bipartisan basis to establish and support funding for our nation\u2019s Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Minority-Serving Institutions that are economic mobility engines. This action not only jeopardizes the education of the millions of students who attend these institutions, but threatens the future of our workforce.\n\n\u201cAll students, no matter their background, deserve the right to a good college education. We call on the Trump Administration to immediately reverse course and make sure that all universities can meet the unique needs of their students.\u201d\n\nHSIs are accredited, degree-granting, public or private nonprofit institutions of higher education with 25 percent or higher total undergraduate Hispanic or Latino full-time students. There are 615 HSIs in the United States that enroll 5.6 million Hispanic students, two-thirds of all Hispanic undergraduates, and 37 percent of total Pell recipients \u2014 empowering and improving communities. California is home to 171 HSIs and 43 Emerging HSIs.\n\nOver half of students enrolled at HSIs are students of other races/ethnicities. In addition to their substantial Latino student bodies, HSIs enrolled approximately 285,000 Black/African American students, 311,000 Asian/Pacific Islander students, and 15,000 American Indian/Alaskan Native students.\n\nLast month, Padilla and Castro condemned the Trump Administration\u2019s letter declaring that they will no longer defend the $350 million HSI annual grant program in court, effectively ending the program.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schumer-murray-reed-we-will-reject-republican-attempts-to-include-anti-voter-legislation-in-defense-funding-bills/", "Padilla, Schumer, Murray, Reed: \u201cWe Will Reject\u201d Republican Attempts to Include Anti-Voter Legislation in Defense, Funding Bills", "2025-09-10", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Democratic Senators slam SAVE Act: \u201cThe burden of documentary proof required by this bill shows that its true impact is massive voter suppression.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, put Republican Senate leadership on notice that they \u201cwill use all procedural means to oppose\u201d attempts to pass anti-voter legislation, including the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, in any must-pass bills moving through the Senate.\n\nAs the Senate moves forward on considering defense authorization and government funding legislation this month, Trump allies, including Tea Party Patriots Action, are pressuring the Administration to use these bills to pass voter suppression legislation like the SAVE Act. The letter also comes after President Trump threatened to issue an unconstitutional executive order to ban all mail-in voting and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that the White House is considering a legislative strategy to enact the ban.\n\nIf passed, the SAVE Act would lead to the potential disenfranchisement of millions of eligible American citizens by creating overly burdensome documentation requirements, restricting access to the ballot box for new voters, married women, rural voters, servicemembers, communities of color, voters at new addresses, and the tens of millions of Americans who register to vote online or by mail. The Senators warned Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) that the SAVE Act would amount to \u201cmassive voter suppression,\u201d emphasizing that 140 million Americans do not have a passport, over 21 million American citizens cannot easily access proof of citizenship documents, and tens of millions of married women have legal names that differ from their birth certificates.\n\n\u201cThe SAVE Act uses President Trump\u2019s election conspiracy theories to impose new federal mandates on states that would create major barriers to voter registration for millions of eligible American voters,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cIt is wrong, un-American, and we will use all tools at our disposal to oppose efforts to ram it through the Senate contained in unrelated legislation.\u201d\n\n\u201cTaken together, the SAVE Act\u2019s federal mandates would burden voters of all political parties and walks of life but disproportionately harm large swaths of historically marginalized communities who already face obstacles in accessing the ballot box, including rural voters, Native voters, voters of color, and women,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cWhile the cost of this bill would be great, the benefits would be nonexistent. Numerous reviews have found extremely low rates of noncitizen voting.\u201d\n\nDespite the Trump Administration\u2019s unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud by noncitizens, multiple reviews, including an analysis of the Heritage Foundation\u2019s database, have found that noncitizen voting is extremely rare. Moreover, the SAVE Act would impose excessive criminal penalties on election officials who accidentally provide noncitizens with voter registration paperwork, including fines and up to five years in prison. Voting by noncitizens is already a federal crime, and voters in every state must confirm their citizenship under penalty of perjury during registration.\n\n\u201cWe want to be very clear that we will object to any attempt to add the SAVE Act or other anti-voter legislation to any must-pass moving bills in the Senate and will use all procedural means to oppose any efforts to do so,\u201d concluded the Senators.\n\nSenator Padilla has led the charge opposing President Trump and Republicans\u2019 reckless attempts to restrict the right to vote. In May, Padilla stopped Senator Mike Lee\u2019s (R-Utah) attempt to pass the anti-voter SAVE Act through the Senate by unanimous consent. Earlier this year, he convened a Rules Committee Democrats spotlight forum focused on Congressional Republicans\u2019 SAVE Act and Trump\u2019s illegal anti-voter executive order. As President Trump marked 100 disastrous days in office, Padilla led his Democratic colleagues on the Senate floor to speak out against the SAVE Act and the Trump Administration\u2019s attacks on election integrity. In April, he warned Secretaries of State, Lieutenant Governors, and Chief Election Officials across the country of the devastating potential impacts of the SAVE Act, concerns that have been echoed by top election officials across the country. Padilla also led a letter sounding the alarm on the devastating impacts on voting rights in Native American communities of the SAVE Act and Trump\u2019s executive order. In July, Padilla convened a Rules and Judiciary Committee Democrats spotlight forum focused on racial gerrymandering and voter suppression.\n\nLast month, Padilla blasted President Trump\u2019s attacks on mail-in voting and America\u2019s election systems.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Leader Thune:\n\nWe write to make clear our strong opposition to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act (H.R. 22/S. 128) and the President\u2019s ongoing attacks on our elections and to make clear that we will reject any attempts to attach this or any other highly controversial, anti-voter legislation to any pending must-pass bills.\n\nThe SAVE Act uses President Trump\u2019s election conspiracy theories to impose new federal mandates on states that would create major barriers to voter registration for millions of eligible American voters. It is wrong, un-American, and we will use all tools at our disposal to oppose efforts to ram it through the Senate contained in unrelated legislation.\n\nThe SAVE Act purports to stop noncitizen voting, which is already exceedingly rare and a federal crime, with a new federal mandate that anyone registering to vote must provide specific documentary proof of citizenship. In reality, if the SAVE Act were to become law, millions of Americans would face major obstacles to vote because they either lack the required documents to prove citizenship or because they relied on ways to register that the bill would upend\u2014including online voter registration, registration by mail, voter registration drives, or automatic voter registration. This goes far beyond \u201cvoter ID,\u201d as a large majority of Americans live in states where even their driver\u2019s license does not meet the requirements of the SAVE Act.\n\nThe burden of documentary proof required by this bill shows that its true impact is massive voter suppression. Over 140 million Americans do not have a passport, and over 21 million American citizens cannot easily access proof of citizenship documents. This anti-voter bill would prevent people who have changed their legal names from using their birth certificates, impacting tens of millions of married women. More than 12 percent of Americans also move every year and would be forced to access these documents to re-register at their new address. Making matters worse, its sweeping changes to state voter registration would become effective upon enactment, sowing chaos in upcoming elections for state administrators who are already overworked and underresourced, following years of inconsistent federal funding.\n\nTaken together, the SAVE Act\u2019s federal mandates would burden voters of all political parties and walks of life but disproportionately harm large swaths of historically marginalized communities who already face obstacles in accessing the ballot box, including rural voters, Native voters, voters of color, and women. While the cost of this bill would be great, the benefits would be nonexistent. Numerous reviews have found extremely low rates of noncitizen voting. For example, a 2017 Brennan Center analysis of 42 jurisdictions which tabulated 23.5 million votes in the 2016 election found that noncitizens were referred for investigation in just 30 cases\u2014or 0.0001 percent of votes. Even the conservative Heritage Foundation\u2019s database confirms that any meaningful amount of noncitizen voting does not exist.\n\nIf enacted, this bill would also impose severe criminal penalties against election officials, including fines and up to five years in prison, if they inadvertently provide a noncitizen with the paperwork to register to vote. Voters in every state are already required to affirm or verify their citizenship status under penalty of perjury when registering and voting in a federal election as a noncitizen is a federal crime.\n\nIn recent weeks, the President has threatened to issue additional unconstitutional executive orders to interfere in elections, including one that would ban vote by mail, despite casting his own ballot by mail in the 2024 election, its widespread adoption in many states, and the Republican party\u2019s encouragement of this popular voting method. Alternatively, White House staff have indicated that the administration may pursue legislation rather than another blatantly unconstitutional executive order.\n\nAs a result, we want to be very clear that we will object to any attempt to add the SAVE Act or other anti-voter legislation to any must-pass moving bills in the Senate and will use all procedural means to oppose any efforts to do so.\n\nSincerely,\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-lead-17-senators-in-amicus-brief-fighting-trump-abuse-of-military-deployments/", "Padilla, Schiff Lead 19 Senators in Amicus Brief Fighting Trump Abuse of Military Deployments", "2025-09-09", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Brief filed with circuit court hearing case against Trump\u2019s use of military in Los Angeles warns of continued abuse of military in other U.S. cities\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and 18 other Senators filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit brought against President Trump for his misuse of the U.S. military earlier this year.\n\nThe lawsuit came from the State of California after Trump deployed 4,000 members of the California National Guard and 700 active-duty U.S. Marines to Los Angeles without legal justification or approval from state or local officials.\n\n\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s militarized spectacle in Los Angeles was a blatantly unlawful attempt to distract from his failing political agenda and enact his cruel mass deportation campaign. Trump\u2019s deployment of the military to \u2018blue\u2019 cities across America has never been about public safety \u2014 it\u2019s about retribution and control,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cThis abuse of power is a threat to much more than just California or immigrant communities: if the Circuit Court allows the President to bypass the Governor of California to federalize the National Guard to suppress peaceful protests for immigrants\u2019 rights, what\u2019s to stop him from suppressing other rights across the country? Our arguments to the Court make clear that Trump\u2019s unprecedented militarization of Los Angeles should not be used as a playbook for terrorizing other cities across America.\u201d\n\n\u201cDonald Trump made his true motives for the deployment of our military in Los Angeles plain \u2013 instead of improving safety, he is focused on spectacle; instead of protecting Americans, he is punishing cities and states he believes are against him. Trump\u2019s abuse of power is clear, illegal, and unconstitutional \u2013 and our arguments to the Court explain why this case must be the line drawn in the sand to prevent further misuse of our servicemembers on the streets of American cities,\u201d said Senator Schiff.\n\nThe brief filed by the Senators in Newsom v. Trump warns of the potential for continued abuse of the military should the Court rule for the Administration.\n\n\u201cOur concern that President Trump will continue to act in bad faith and abuse his power is borne out by his recent deployment of state militias to Washington, D.C. and his stated intent to deploy state militias in other blue\u2019 cities,\u201d wrote the Senators.\n\nAfter the Trump Administration deployed National Guard troops across Washington, D.C. and took control of the city\u2019s police department, Padilla supported legislation granting the District full authority over the D.C. National Guard and the Metropolitan Police Department. Additionally, Padilla placed a hold on Trump\u2019s nominee to serve as vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lieutenant General Thomas Carden, until the Trump Administration releases all remaining U.S. military forces from their unjustified deployment to Los Angeles.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, Schiff, and Durbin, Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also signed the brief.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s militarization of Los Angeles. In June, Padilla led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty service members to American cities. Padilla and Schiff also recently demanded the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) provide information on operational details related to the ongoing deployment of California National Guard personnel in Los Angeles, first federalized by President Trump on June 9.\n\nFull text of the amicus brief is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-supreme-court-ruling-paving-the-way-for-racial-profiling-in-los-angeles-immigration-enforcement/", "Padilla Statement on Supreme Court Ruling Paving the Way for Racial Profiling in Los Angeles Immigration Enforcement", "2025-09-08", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, issued the following statement after the Supreme Court granted the government\u2019s request to lift restrictions on discriminatory raids happening as part of the Trump Administration\u2019s sweeping immigration enforcement actions across Los Angeles:\n\n\u201cThe Administration has said it themselves: they are detaining people simply based on whether they \u2018look\u2019 like an immigrant, on the language they speak, or where they work. Today\u2019s radical Supreme Court decision tramples on our Constitution and enables racial profiling to continue without explanation.\n\n\u201cTrump isn\u2019t just targeting violent criminals; he\u2019s sweeping up hardworking people \u2014 including U.S. citizens \u2014 indiscriminately. And he\u2019s sowing fear and damaging our economy in the process. This is not the final say. There is still time for the Courts to stop this blatantly racist policy from threatening the basic freedoms of Americans and immigrants alike.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-supports-legislation-to-grant-d-c-officials-full-control-over-its-national-guard-police/", "Padilla Supports Legislation to Grant D.C. Officials Full Control Over Its National Guard, Police", "2025-09-08", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 After the Trump Administration deployed National Guard troops across Washington, D.C. and took control of the city\u2019s police department, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.-AL) in introducing legislation to grant the District full authority over the D.C. National Guard and the Metropolitan Police Department. This need has only become more urgent as the Administration reportedly extended the Guard\u2019s deployment through November 30 and as Congressional Republicans continue attacking the District\u2019s right to self-governance.\n\n\u201cLos Angeles was just Donald Trump\u2019s test case for his unprecedented militarization of cities across the country,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cNow, he\u2019s taking his authoritarian playbook to our nation\u2019s capital, escalating tensions and bypassing local leadership once again by bringing in the National Guard and federalizing D.C.\u2019s police force. Trump is manufacturing a spectacle to distract from his own failed agenda and refusal to release the Epstein files. Washington, D.C. has long deserved full control over its own police force and National Guard, and Trump and Republicans\u2019 continued attacks on the city make this legislation even more urgent.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn a raw power grab, Donald Trump has overtaken D.C.\u2019s police and brought in the National Guard to satisfy his desire to play dictator in our nation\u2019s capital. As he looks to extend his authoritarian control over D.C., it is urgent that we act now to ensure the District\u2019s leaders have the same authority over its National Guard and police force as other states and territories \u2013 while we continue to fight for D.C. statehood. If Trump and Republicans actually cared about the people of D.C. and their safety, they\u2019d get out of the way of D.C.\u2019s leaders and residents and allow them to manage the District and their own funds. Trump and Republicans\u2019 continued withholding of over $1 billion of those funds is unacceptable,\u201d said Senator Van Hollen.\n\n\u201cD.C. residents are Americans, fully capable of governing themselves, including having full control of their police force and National Guard like residents of the states,\u201d said Representative Norton. \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s unprecedented federalization of the D.C. Police and his activation of the D.C. National Guard without D.C.\u2019s consent underscore the necessity of D.C. statehood. Until we get the full protections that statehood would provide, our bills repealing the president\u2019s authority to federalize the local D.C. police department and to give D.C.\u2019s mayor control over the D.C. National Guard, like governors of states have over their National Guards, would place D.C. closer to having control over some of its most vital affairs and equality with the states, as we deserve. Senator Van Hollen, thank you for being D.C.\u2019s determined partner in the Senate and a vigorous advocate for D.C. home rule.\u201d\n\nThe District of Columbia National Guard Home Rule Act would name the mayor of Washington, D.C. as Commander-in-Chief of the D.C. National Guard, giving the mayor the same control over the D.C. National Guard that the governors of the states and the three territories with National Guards have over their respective National Guards. Under current law, the President is Commander-in-Chief of the D.C. National Guard. In addition to Padilla, this bill is cosponsored by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and co-led in the House by U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08).\n\nThe District of Columbia Police Home Rule Act would repeal the provision in the Home Rule Act that gives the President the authority to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department. Currently, the Home Rule Act provides that, \u201cwhenever the President of the United States determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist which require the use of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes, he may direct the mayor to provide him, and the mayor shall provide, such services of the Metropolitan Police force as the President may deem necessary and appropriate.\u201d\n\nIn addition to Padilla, this bill is cosponsored by Senators Alsobrooks, Booker, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Sanders, Schiff, Warren, and Welch.\n\nSenator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s militarization of Los Angeles with the deployment of National Guard troops and active-duty U.S. Marines in response to overwhelmingly peaceful protests. In June, Padilla led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty service members to American cities. Last week, Padilla applauded a federal judge\u2019s ruling that President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth violated federal law through their deployment of military forces to Los Angeles. Padilla and Senator Schiff also demanded the U.S. Department of Defense provide information on operational details related to the ongoing deployment of California National Guard personnel in Los Angeles, first federalized by President Trump on June 9. Following the initial deployment of approximately 700 members of the U.S. Marine Corps, Padilla and Schiff told the Defense Department the action was \u201cunjustifiable\u201d and \u201cirresponsibly rushed.\u201d Padilla also placed a hold on Trump\u2019s nominee to serve as vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lieutenant General Thomas Carden, until the Trump Administration releases all remaining U.S. military forces from their unjustified deployment to Los Angeles.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-the-passing-of-longtime-california-political-leader-john-burton/", "Padilla Statement on the\u00a0Passing\u00a0of Longtime California Political Leader John Burton", "2025-09-07", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) issued the following statement on the passing of John Burton, a longtime member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the California State Legislature, as well as the former Chair of the California Democratic Party:\n\n\u201cThe Golden State has lost one of its fiercest and most influential leaders. John Burton devoted his career to advancing justice, expanding opportunity, and standing up for working families.\n\n\u201cFrom his decades of service and leadership in the State Legislature, and as Chair of the California Democratic Party, Burton shaped California\u2019s progressive legacy for generations. He led the fight to expand access to health care, strengthened protections for workers, increased funding for education, and helped establish our state as a national example for civil rights and environmental protection, while fiercely advocating for these core California values on the federal stage in the U.S. House of Representatives.\n\n\u201cJohn was a mentor to countless progressive leaders across California, including me. I\u2019ll always be grateful for his counsel over our breakfasts at Delancey Street Restaurant in San Francisco, surrounded by residents working to rebuild their lives.\n\n\u201cJohn was bluntly honest and never shied away from a fight if it meant protecting the vulnerable and giving a voice to the voiceless \u2014 a mission he carried on even after his political career by providing a pathway to a better life for thousands of foster youth and securing billions of dollars to invest in their success.\n\n\u201cCalifornia is a better place because of John Burton. His impact on our politics and his dedication to progressive values will be felt for generations to come.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"], ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-merkley-cortez-masto-peters-urge-smithsonian-secretary-to-stand-strong-against-trumps-attacks-on-museums/", "Padilla, Merkley, Cortez Masto, Peters Urge Smithsonian Secretary to Stand Strong Against Trump\u2019s Attacks on Museums", "2025-09-05", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) encouraged Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie G. Bunch III to stand firm against any attempts by President Trump and his Administration to bully the Institution into undermining its mission and values. The Senators emphasized that oversight of the Smithsonian Institution is the responsibility of Congress \u2014 not the executive branch \u2014 and urged Bunch to remain steadfast in the face of recent attacks from the White House on its independence and integrity. Senators Padilla and Merkley\u2019s committees have jurisdiction over the Smithsonian operations and Senators Cortez Masto and Peters are both members of its Board of Regents.\n\nLast month, three White House officials sent a letter to Secretary Bunch requesting that the Smithsonian Institution provide various documents within 30, 75, and 120 days to facilitate a \u201ccomprehensive internal [White House] review of selected Smithsonian museums and exhibits\u201d ahead of America\u2019s 250th birthday. A week later, President Trump posted a message on Truth Social claiming that \u201cThe Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL\u201d and focuses too much on \u201chow bad Slavery was,\u201d while deploying his attorneys to investigate its museums.\n\nThe Senators highlighted that Congress \u2014 not the President \u2014 created the Smithsonian Institution as \u201can establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge,\u201d including both positive and painful chapters in American history, and stressed that Trump cannot exert unilateral control over its museums\u2019 operations or content. They also emphasized that the Institution is uniquely funded with a nearly even split of private donations and public funding, including federal dollars appropriated by Congress for its core operations.\n\n\u201cGiven its history and structure, oversight of the Smithsonian Institution is the responsibility of Congress. Presidents and their staff may be important stakeholders of the Smithsonian, but they do not have any legal authority to dictate how the Institution is run, or remove its leadership staff, much less dictate historical or scientific content of the Institution\u2019s museums and exhibits,\u201d wrote the Senators. \u201cNothing the President or his officials say can change these facts. The Smithsonian\u2019s Board and leadership have an obligation to maintain the Institution\u2019s independence and integrity in the face of any attempts to pressure the Smithsonian to follow a particular political agenda.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs an institution created \u2018for the increase and diffusion of knowledge\u2019, the Smithsonian must strive to tell the full story of America,\u201d continued the Senators. \u201cIt should go without saying that this includes the troubling parts of our history such as slavery, forced removal of indigenous peoples, and other injustices committed that have shaped our nation, along with the historic struggles for freedom that make America a country that we are proud to call home. Similarly, there can be no question that the Smithsonian Institution must be committed to scientific integrity and accuracy, when it comes to established science regarding evolution, climate change, or other matters which some may find controversial.\u201d\n\nThe Senators further underscored that the Smithsonian Board of Regents\u2019 voting members include nine private citizens and six bipartisan Members of Congress, and does not include any voting authority from the executive branch. The Regents hold the sole trust responsibility and leadership over the Institution, including authority over the selection or removal of the Secretary of the Smithsonian.\n\nAs Secretary Bunch considers appropriate responses to the White House, the Senators requested that any materials or briefings provided to the White House also be sent to the congressional oversight committees on a bipartisan basis.\n\nEarlier this year, Rules Committee Ranking Member Padilla introduced the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino Act to build a new Smithsonian museum on the National Mall that recognizes the accomplishments of Latinos. The bill follows the passage of bipartisan legislation that establishes a Latino history museum, which was signed into law in December 2020 during the first Trump Administration.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Bunch:\n\nWe write following the August 12 letter sent to you by three White House officials regarding their \u201ccomprehensive internal review\u201d of Smithsonian Institution museums and exhibitions and the August 19 statement from President Trump denouncing the Smithsonian as \u201cOUT OF CONTROL.\u201d We deeply appreciate your leadership at this time and urge you to resist any attempts by the President or the White House to bully the Institution to go against its mission and values.\n\nAs you know, the Smithsonian Institution is a national treasure, and it is also a public-private partnership managed as an independent federal trust. It is not an executive agency over which the President can exert unilateral control over its historical, scientific or artistic content. The Institution was created by Congress to care for the bequest of James Smithson and to found \u201can establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.\u201d In recent years, it has been funded with a relatively even split of private donations to support its programming, and federal appropriations provided by Congress to support its core operations including the maintenance of the facilities, further underscoring its unique status.\n\nCongress assigned the trust responsibility for this gift of private property to the United States and its ongoing mission to the Smithsonian Board of Regents, not to the executive branch. As you are aware, the Board\u2019s voting members consist of eight private citizens and six bipartisan Members of Congress, with the Chief Justice of the United States and the Vice President of the United States serving as ex officio members who do not vote on Board matters. The Secretary of the Smithsonian has the authority to lead the Institution and is selected by a vote of the Regents and may only be removed by the Regents.\n\nGiven its history and structure, oversight of the Smithsonian Institution is the responsibility of Congress. Presidents and their staff may be important stakeholders of the Smithsonian, but they do not have any legal authority to dictate how the Institution is run, or remove its leadership staff, much less dictate historical or scientific content of the Institution\u2019s museums and exhibits. Nothing the President or his officials say can change these facts. The Smithsonian\u2019s Board and leadership have an obligation to maintain the Institution\u2019s independence and integrity in the face of any attempts to pressure the Smithsonian to follow a particular political agenda.\n\nAs Americans from different backgrounds, we are all proud of our heritage. As an institution created \u201cfor the increase and diffusion of knowledge\u201d, the Smithsonian must strive to tell the full story of America. It should go without saying that this includes the troubling parts of our history such as slavery, forced removal of indigenous peoples, and other injustices committed that have shaped our nation, along with the historic struggles for freedom that make America a country that we are proud to call home. Similarly, there can be no question that the Smithsonian Institution must be committed to scientific integrity and accuracy, when it comes to established science regarding evolution, climate change, or other matters which some may find controversial.\n\nWe understand that prior to receiving the August 12 letter, the Smithsonian had already independently begun a review of its programs and exhibits to ensure that it meets its own standards and provides the appropriate context in its interpretive materials. We expect this review process to be conducted appropriately, free of political interference, and for the Institution to keep the Board and Congress regularly updated on that review.\n\nFurther, as you consider the appropriate response to the White House letter sent to you, we emphasize the necessity to consult closely with the Board of Regents and with Congress. Accordingly, we request that any materials that the Smithsonian determines are appropriate to provide in response to the letter also be provided to the appropriate congressional oversight committees on a bipartisan basis.\n\nThank you for your commitment to the long-standing independence and integrity of the Smithsonian Institution. We look forward to working with you to ensure that it remains a national treasure that tells the full story of America for generations to come.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "truncated": false, "filtered_table_rows_count": 187, "expanded_columns": [], "expandable_columns": [], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "units": {}, "query": {"sql": "select url, title, date, year, month, party, chamber, state, member_name, bioguide_id, domain, scraper, source, date_source, text, has_text, collected_at, updated_at from releases where \"chamber\" = :p0 and \"state\" = :p1 and \"year\" = :p2 order by date desc limit 101", "params": {"p0": "Senate", "p1": "CA", "p2": "2025"}}, "facet_results": {"party": {"name": "party", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?chamber=Senate&state=CA&year=2025", "results": [{"value": "Democrat", "label": "Democrat", "count": 187, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?chamber=Senate&state=CA&year=2025&party=Democrat", "selected": false}], "truncated": false}, "chamber": {"name": "chamber", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?chamber=Senate&state=CA&year=2025", "results": [{"value": "Senate", "label": "Senate", "count": 187, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?state=CA&year=2025", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}, "state": {"name": "state", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?chamber=Senate&state=CA&year=2025", "results": [{"value": "CA", "label": "CA", "count": 187, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?chamber=Senate&year=2025", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}, "year": {"name": "year", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?chamber=Senate&state=CA&year=2025", "results": [{"value": "2025", "label": "2025", "count": 187, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?chamber=Senate&state=CA", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}}, "suggested_facets": [], "next": "2025-09-05,https~3A~2F~2Fwww~2Epadilla~2Esenate~2Egov~2Fnewsroom~2Fpress-releases~2Fpadilla-merkley-cortez-masto-peters-urge-smithsonian-secretary-to-stand-strong-against-trumps-attacks-on-museums~2F", "next_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?chamber=Senate&state=CA&year=2025&_next=2025-09-05%2Chttps~3A~2F~2Fwww~2Epadilla~2Esenate~2Egov~2Fnewsroom~2Fpress-releases~2Fpadilla-merkley-cortez-masto-peters-urge-smithsonian-secretary-to-stand-strong-against-trumps-attacks-on-museums~2F&_sort_desc=date", "private": false, "allow_execute_sql": true, "query_ms": 680.2071700803936, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}