By Stephen Hobbs, The Sacramento Bee
Last month, the wildfires that scorched Los Angeles brought California legislators together to support aid for response and recovery efforts.
On Monday, the air of bipartisanship was gone as Assembly Democrats pushed past Republican opposition to approve a pair of bills that will set aside up to $50 million combined to respond to and challenge President Donald Trump and his administration.
They now go to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Salinas, opened the debate over the bills with a blunt message to the entire body.
“Given the many executive orders that have been issued over the past two weeks, I can say with clarity: We do not trust President Donald Trump.”
Democratic lawmakers followed with support, saying the measures were needed to protect Californians across the state, including those who are undocumented, transgender and social services providers.
“I had real questions about whether we were responding to a serious threat or simply trying to score some cheap political points,” Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, D-Delano, said of one of the bills, which would provide up to $25 million to the state Department of Justice. “But this new administration has erased any doubts that I may have had.”
The other measure would set aside $25 million for organizations that provide legal support for immigration cases and other matters.
Republican lawmakers countered that the bills were unnecessary and politically motivated.
“For this body to appropriate $50 million to sue, and block and obfuscate the president of the United States, I think is outrageous,” said Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Corona, who booed Rivas at the end of his speech while Democratic lawmakers gave the speaker a standing ovation.
Republicans unsuccessfully tried to amend the measures. One proposed change would have prevented the $25 million for legal aid organizations to be used to provide services for people with certain criminal convictions.
Democrats rejected the proposed changes. Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-San Fernando Valley, who co-authored both bills, said the $25 million in legal aid would be used to support organizations that provide pro-bono services for “especially vulnerable Californians” and was not intended to be used for immigration-related help for people who have serious or violent felony records.
Republicans wanted the restriction to be explicitly added to the bill.
“If we fail to act, we risk creating loopholes that will allow convicted felons to commit, to continue to harm the citizens of our state through misguided empathy of organizations,” said Assemblymember Leticia Castillo, R-Corona, who introduced the change.
The votes came during a special session that was ordered by Newsom in November.
“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we won’t sit idle,” he said in a statement at the time.
Newsom later expanded the session to include measures related to the deadly Los Angeles-area fires after he and other Democratic lawmakers faced criticism from Republicans.
On Jan. 23, lawmakers unanimously passed bills to provide $2.5 billion to aid cleanup and recovery efforts, less than two week after Newsom called for fire-related support. But the measures relating to Trump and his administration moved more slowly. The most recent holdup occurred Thursday when the Assembly unexpectedly delayed a vote on them.
Also on Monday, Democrats in both the Assembly and Senate voted to end the special session.
Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-San Diego, did not oppose the effort.
Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-East Nicolaus, did. He said he was disappointed that his colleagues were not planning to keep it open so that lawmakers could more quickly aid with recovery efforts and prevent future fires.
“Dangerous fuel is still a problem,” he said. “There’s tinderboxes around the state that we haven’t sufficiently dealt with.”
But Democrats were not persuaded, saying they would continue to work on fire-related issues beyond the special session.
“We know this is not over,” said Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles. “This is going to take a long commitment.”
He added that he was looking forward to bipartisan conversations about fires in the future.
The Bee’s Jenavieve Hatch contributed to this story.
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