Gov. Sanders touts legislative wins, Dems cite power grabs
The big picture: During the biannual full session, Arkansas lawmakers negotiated changes to the management of state government, budgets, infrastructure, education and public safety.
State of play: Sanders signed more than 600 bills into law. Some of those bills include:
Increasing the general revenue budget to $6.49 billion for fiscal 2026, up nearly 3% from 2025.
Elimination of the state's grocery tax of 0.125%, which generated about $10 million annually.
Creation of Arkansas ACCESS, a higher-education reform package to prepare high school and nontraditional students for the workforce while also setting guidelines for state-supported schools to lose funding if they engage in certain diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Passage of the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act, designed to improve maternal health outcomes, especially for low-income women.
Lawmakers also approved a cellphone ban in public schools, granted parents the right to sue social media companies if harm is done to a minor, and passed legislation to provide a free breakfast to every public school student.
Arkansas also became the first state to prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from owning pharmacies, seen as a step to protect independent operators and mitigate drug-price hikes.
Sanders signed a bill to allow for nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution for state inmates on death row.
Reality check: In her speech marking the end of the session, Sanders notably did not mention the $750 million appropriations fight over the proposed Franklin County prison project, which failed five times to garner enough support to make it through the state Senate this session.
What she's saying: "We went after big tech companies exploiting our kids, big drug middlemen manipulating drug prices, big government subsidizing junk food at the taxpayers' expense, lobbyists working for adversaries like China, woke faculty trying to indoctrinate our students, and the far left that wants to coddle dangerous criminal illegals and threaten our elections with petition fraud," Sanders said Wednesday.
The other side:"This session will be remembered for out-of-control spending on misguided policies, power grabs away from the people of Arkansas, and divisive national politics continuing to seep into our state," Rep. Andrew Collins (D-Little Rock) said in a news conference Wednesday.
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CBS News
18 minutes ago
- CBS News
Newsom signs California redistricting plan that could tilt 5 House seats toward Democrats
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed into law a contentious congressional redistricting plan, as state Democrats seek to counter a Trump-backed effort to add to the GOP's House majority by redrawing Texas' congressional maps. The new map — which still needs to be approved by voters — would shift five of California's Republican U.S. House seats to be more favorable to Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections. The legislation easily passed the Democratic-led Assembly and Senate on Thursday. After Newsom's signature, it will be added to the ballot on Nov. 4 for the voters' final say. That election is likely to be expensive and unpredictable given how quickly the effort has come together and how little time there is between the legislature's actions and voters starting to have their say. California Democrats insisted they had no choice but to undertake the new maps after President Trump intervened in Texas and asked Republican lawmakers to redraw the districts to preserve the GOP's razor-thin majority in the U.S. House. Following Newsom's declaration that he would redraw California's maps, several other states said they would undertake similar efforts. "They fired the first shot, Texas. We wouldn't be here had Texas not done what they just did," Newsom said at a signing ceremony Thursday. "We're neutralizing what occurred [in Texas] and we're giving the American people a fair chance." Although California Republicans have denounced the redistricting plan as a "tit-for-tat strategy," the state's Democrats on Thursday touted that the effort is different from Texas since it will be ultimately approved by the state's voters. "In California, we will do whatever it takes to ensure that voters, not Donald Trump, will decide the direction of this country," said Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. "This is a proud moment in the history of this assembly. Californians, we believe in freedom. We will not let our political system be hijacked by authoritarianism, and today, we give every Californian the power to say no. To say no to Donald Trump's power grab and yes to our people, to our state and to our democracy." The Republican-led Texas House on Wednesday approved the new congressional maps after a two-week delay when Democrats left the state to deny a quorum to bring the measure to the floor. The measure now goes to the Texas Senate, where it is likely to pass. Shortly after the Texas House passed the maps, Newsom posted to social media: "It's on." When Texas first launched its redistricting effort, Newsom had vowed to redraw the Golden State's congressional districts to counter the Lone Star State's plan and neutralize any potential GOP gains. Newsom — who is widely seen as a possible 2028 presidential contender — sarcastically congratulated Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott on X, saying, "you will now go down in history as one of Donald Trump's most loyal lapdogs. Shredding our nation's founding principles. What a legacy." President Trump late Wednesday congratulated Texas Republicans for advancing the new maps, writing on social media that "Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself." He also encouraged GOP-led Indiana and Florida to take on redistricting. The relatively rare mid-decade redistricting gambit comes as both parties prepare to face off in 2026 and has major implications nationwide. Republicans have a narrow majority at the moment, and Democrats winning back three seats in the 2026 midterms could be enough to flip control of the chamber if the lines used in the 2024 election were still in place. Redistricting in red states could change that dynamic significantly however, and with it the impact of the final two years on Mr. Trump's second term in office. Texas and California are the two biggest redistricting battlegrounds, but Mr. Trump has pushed similar efforts in GOP-led Indiana and Florida, and New York Democrats have floated redrawing their House map. The Republican-led state of Missouri could also try and redraw a Democratic district in the coming weeks, and new maps are also expected in Ohio, where a redraw brought about by state law could impact some of the red state's Democratic members of Congress. Earlier this week, former President Barack Obama acknowledged that he was not a fan of partisan gerrymandering but he backed Newsom's redistricting plan anyway at a fundraiser in Martha's Vineyard and on social media, calling it a "smart, measured approach." Less than 24 hours before California's scheduled vote, Newsom joined a press call with Democratic party leaders, urging support for his state's redistricting effort. "This is about taking back our country," Newsom told reporters. "This is about the Democratic Party now punching back forcefully and very intentionally." A draft congressional map unveiled by California Democrats late last week would heavily impact five of the state's nine Republican U.S. House members. It would redraw Reps. Doug LaMalfa and Kevin Kiley's Northern California districts, tweak Rep. David Valadao's district in the Central Valley and rearrange parts of densely populated Southern California, impacting Reps. Ken Calvert and Darrell Issa. And some more competitive Democrat-held districts could be tilted further from the GOP. There's no guarantee that Democrats will win in all five newly recast districts. Democrats hold large majorities in both chambers of California's state legislature. But some legal hurdles still lie ahead, and Republicans in the state have pushed back against the redistricting plans. Unlike Texas, California has an independent redistricting commission that was created by voters earlier this century. To overhaul the current congressional map, a constitutional amendment would need to be passed by a two-thirds vote in California's Assembly and Senate and be approved by voters in the fast-moving fall election. On Wednesday, the California Supreme Court denied a GOP attempt to stop the mid-cycle redistricting. California Republicans had legally challenged Democrats' efforts, claiming the state's constitution gives Californians the right to review new legislation for 30 days. But Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said they "failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time." The GOP legislators who filed the legal challenge told CBS News the ruling is "not the end of this fight," vowing to keep fighting the redistricting plan in the courts. In a phone interview with CBS News on Wednesday, California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a Republican, condemned Newsom's redistricting efforts. "This whole process is illegal from the beginning and violates the current California Constitution," Jones said. "The voters spoke with a loud voice in 2008 and 2010 that they were taking this process out of the politicians' hands and putting the responsibility into an independent commission." Democrats faced a flurry of questions from Republican lawmakers during hearings this week on the alleged lack of transparency in the drafting of these maps and the financial implications of the Nov. 4 special election. "If we're talking about the cost of a special election versus the cost of our democracy or the cost that Californians are already paying to subsidize this corrupt administration, those costs seem well worth paying at this moment," said Democratic state Assemblyman Isaac G. Bryan. Democratic lawmakers and Newsom have repeatedly emphasized that these redistricting efforts would not get rid of the independent commission and that the new maps he's hoping to put in place will be the lines used through the 2030 election. The commission would go back to drawing the state's congressional maps after the 2030 census, according to Newsom, who says this is only being done as a response to Mr. Trump and Texas' redistricting. That notion was rejected by Jones, who said: "Growing up, I was taught two wrongs don't make a right, so no, it is not justified." Anne Bryson contributed to this report.
Axios
19 minutes ago
- Axios
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas says he'll bow out if redistricting stands
Longtime Austin Democratic congressman Lloyd Doggett said Thursday that he won't seek reelection if new congressional maps are not overturned by courts. Why it matters: Doggett's move prevents a potentially nasty Democratic primary in the wake of a Republican redistricting effort, allowing U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, a rising progressive, to remain in power. State of play: Casar and Doggett would have battled for a single Austin-based district under the new congressional map that the Texas House approved on Wednesday and which the Senate is expected to pass soon. Gov. Greg Abbott has said he'll sign the legislation. Doggett, who has been repeatedly targeted by Republicans in redistricting during his over 30 years in Congress, currently represents much of Austin and its suburbs. Casar, a former Austin city council member first elected to Congress in 2022, represents parts of southern and eastern Austin in a district that snakes down to San Antonio. Flashback: In a campaign email nearly two weeks ago, Doggett wrote that "seniority is an asset, not a liability." He urged Casar to "not abandon" his reconfigured district, arguing that Casar could "use his organizing skills and populist message to win over the disaffected, particularly disaffected Hispanic voters." What they're saying: Unless the new maps are overturned by courts, "I will not seek reelection," Doggett said in a statement Thursday. "I had hoped that my commitment to reelection under any circumstances would encourage Congressman Casar to not surrender his winnable district to Trump." "While his apparent decision is most unfortunate, I prefer to devote the coming months to fighting Trump tyranny and serving Austin rather than waging a struggle with fellow Democrats." On X, Casar wrote: "Lloyd Doggett is an Austin institution. I've learned so much from him. I'm grateful to him. The fight for democracy continues." The big picture: The new map could give Republicans an additional five seats in Congress. Democrats say the map disenfranchises Black and Latino voters.
Newsweek
20 minutes ago
- Newsweek
California Advances Redistricting Plan in Texas Counter-Punch
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The California state legislature has passed a redistricting plan that favors Democrats on the same day that Texas looks to pass its own redistricting plan that would favor Republicans as the two parties keep an eye on the 2026 midterm elections and control of Congress. The redistricting plan, pushed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to counter what he called President Donald Trump's efforts to "rig" the next elections, adds five seats that favor Democrats in a direct counterweight to the five seats the Republicans could gain in Texas. The State Assembly passed the new map by 57 to 20, and the State Senate again approved the new map just hours later on a party-line vote with 30 to 8. "Open your eyes to what is going on in the United States of America in 2025," Newsom said at a press conference following the vote. "That's what this is about. We're responding [to] what occured in Texas. We're neutralizing what occurred, and we're giving the American people a fair chance, because when all things are equal, and we're all playing by the same rules, there's no question that the Republican party will be the minority party in the House of Representatives next year." The new map still requires California voters to approve it, which will occur at a special election. Newsom's plan has faced fierce backlash from Republicans in California, including former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who will campaign against the new map in what is set to be a bitter fight in the state. This is a breaking news story. Updates will follow.
