Latest news with #Garamendi
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Contra Costa County's $19-million EPA grant abruptly canceled by Trump administration
The Brief EPA suspends $19-million-dollar grant to Contra Costa County and community partners in North Richmond One project was already laying the foundation of an environmental health center, when funds were canceled Congressional Representatives Garamendi and DeSaulnier issued letter to EPA director RICHMOND, Calif. - The Trump administration has abruptly canceled more than 100 EPA Community Change grants nationwide, including a $19.1 million grant to Contra Costa County for community projects that were already approved by the EPA in January. What we know The grant awarded to Contra Costa County was slated to fund some eight projects as part of the North Richmond Community Resilience Initiative (NRCRI), to transform the area into a model for climate resilience. Those projects include: adding shade trees and gardening for students at Verde K-8 school, converting abandoned Las Deltas public housing into livable, green affordable homes, energy-efficient home improvements, e-bike lending, Wildcat Creek trail flood prevention, a North Richmond Urban Tilth farm disaster response center, and watershed tree-trimming and flood mitigation. Construction crews have already started laying the foundation of the new center at the Urban Tilth Farm at 323 Brookside Drive. Now, however, with the EPA grant funds frozen, there is concern the building might not be completed. What they're saying "The community resiliency enter essentially is designed to provide four days of care and shelter, HVAC system, solar-powered," Adam Boisvert, the Urban Tilth Education Coordinator said, noting the center would help residents who live next to the Chevron refinery and are often subjected to poor air quality during wildfires, hot weather, and proximity to industrial areas. "They're going to finish the foundation, and we're going to try and figure out what to do next," Boisvert said. Contra Costa County officials say the EPA website showed the grant was suspended in March, but Contra Costa County received no notice and requests to the EPA for clarification have remained unanswered. "We were never officially notified by the EPA that the grant was canceled," Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia said." We only found out it was canceled from Congressman John Garamendi's office." Now Rep. Garamendi and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier have sent a letter to EPA director Lee Zeldin calling for a reinstatement of the grant so the projects can be completed. Contra Costa County's coalition of non-profit partners include Urban Tilth, Community Housing Development Corporation (CHDC), The Watershed Project, Richmond LAND, and Rich City Rides. "There is now a court decision which has basically ruled that these grants and there are 100 of them across the country were illegally canceled," Gioia said. UC Berkeley Environmental Law Professor Dan Farber says canceling the EPA grants is just one of many changes the Trump administration is making, to reverse decades of environmental regulations and policies. "It has an enormous practical effect, because there are all kinds of projects going that are just getting halted where they are," Farber said. On Sunday, EPA director Zeldin announced 280 EPA employees will be laid off as of July 31. The layoffs will be in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights and regional environmental justice divisions. Zeldin said the layoffs are "necessary to align our workforce with the agency's current and future needs and to ensure the efficient and effective operation of our programs." Farber noted that the EPA director has suggested there could be up to 30-40% cuts in EPA staff, which Farber says would make it difficult for the agency to function. The White House put out an Earth Day statement Tuesday, saying it is reforming the EPA, cutting down on wind farms, opening more federal land to oil, natural gas, and mineral extraction, and making other changes. Farber says changing laws is difficult and slow, requiring passage through Congress, so the administration has been moving to roll back a wide range of regulations by adding expiration clauses or claiming without going through the courts that some regulations are illegal. "They've looked at a large range of regulations, not just those EPA regulations relating to pollution," Farber said. "It's an enormous challenge for the environmental movement, because so many things are being changed, you know, all at the same time." Community groups say they are hoping Congressional representatives can help secure the EPA grant funding, as Contra Costa County considers whether to file a legal challenge. Jana Katsuyama is a reporter for KTVU. Email Jana at Call her at 510-326-5529. Or follow her on Twitter @JanaKTVU and read her other reports on her bio page.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House Democrat: Hegseth shared classified info to make up for ‘personal inadequacies'
Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) suggested Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared top secret information in a Signal group chat with national security officials to alleviate 'personal inadequacies.' 'What in the hell are you guys doing? And why are you doing that on a commercial chat platform? Makes absolutely no sense. And it's, in fact, extraordinarily dangerous,' Garamendi said during a Tuesday appearance on NewsNation. 'And then you bring in the Secretary of Defense and perhaps for his own personal inadequacies for the job, he decides that he's got to show that he's got the really big, important stuff that he can then share with the other teenagers that are chatting about this,' the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee's subpanel on military readiness added. The California lawmaker's comments referred to reports from The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who said he was mistakenly added to a chat with President Trump's Cabinet members where war plans regarding strikes on the Houthis in Yemen were revealed. Multiple Democrats have urged both Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz to resign over the discrepancy. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) sent a Tuesday letter to the White House encouraging President Trump to fire the Secretary of Defense. 'It's like the top national security secretaries and others that are at the top of the national security program kind of got together like a bunch of teenagers talking things over about the school dance and the football game,' Garamendi told Laura Ingle during the NewsNation interview. However, Hegseth denies claims that war plans were inadvertently shared. 'Nobody was texting war plans, and that's all I have to say about that,' Hegseth told reporters on Monday. Garamendi has long questioned Hegseth's ability to lead the Department of Defense and initiated a probe into the leader's decision to deploy medical units at Guantanamo Bay where the Trump administration has tried to hold illegal immigrants. 'Unfortunately, it is clear that this administration cares more about imposing their radical political agenda and lining the pockets of their billionaire buddies, than it does about protecting the American taxpayer and our national security,' the lawmaker told The Hill in February. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
26-03-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
House Democrat: Hegseth shared classified info to make up for ‘personal inadequacies'
Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) suggested Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared top secret information in a Signal group chat with national security officials to alleviate 'personal inadequacies.' 'What in the hell are you guys doing? And why are you doing that on a commercial chat platform? Makes absolutely no sense. And it's, in fact, extraordinarily dangerous,' Garamendi said during a Tuesday appearance on NewsNation. 'And then you bring in the Secretary of Defense and perhaps for his own personal inadequacies for the job, he decides that he's got to show that he's got the really big, important stuff that he can then share with the other teenagers that are chatting about this,' the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee's subpanel on military readiness added. The California lawmaker's comments referred to reports from The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who said he was mistakenly added to a chat with President Trump's Cabinet members where war plans regarding strikes on the Houthis in Yemen were revealed. Multiple Democrats have urged both Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz to resign over the discrepancy. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) sent a Tuesday letter to the White House encouraging President Trump to fire the Secretary of Defense. 'It's like the top national security secretaries and others that are at the top of the national security program kind of got together like a bunch of teenagers talking things over about the school dance and the football game,' Garamendi told Laura Ingle during the NewsNation interview. However, Hegseth denies claims that war plans were inadvertently shared. 'Nobody was texting war plans, and that's all I have to say about that,' Hegseth told reporters on Monday. Garamendi has long questioned Hegseth's ability to lead the Department of Defense and initiated a probe into the leader's decision to deploy medical units at Guantanamo Bay where the Trump administration has tried to hold illegal immigrants. 'Unfortunately, it is clear that this administration cares more about imposing their radical political agenda and lining the pockets of their billionaire buddies, than it does about protecting the American taxpayer and our national security,' the lawmaker told The Hill in February.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Democratic rep questions military medical deployment to Cuba
(NewsNation) — A Democratic representative is questioning Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth about military medical units being deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., sent Hegseth a letter questioning the use of medical personnel at Guantanamo Bay, where the Trump administration says thousands of migrants will be held. NewsNation obtained a copy of the letter, where Garamendi calls into question other aspects of President Donald Trump's immigration efforts as well. Watch: Trump gives remarks at Saudi-led investors conference in Miami 'First it was Trump's use of military aircraft to enforce his immigration policy that was alarming and potentially unconstitutional,' Garamendi said. 'Now, the military is preparing to send trained medical professionals to the Guantanamo detention facility.' The personnel being deployed from Travis Air Force Base are said to include pediatricians, OB-GYNs and surgeons who usually provide care for military family members on base. In the letter, Garamendi said the primary role of these personnel is to support service members and their families. He acknowledged that detainees held at Guantanamo Bay deserve comprehensive medical care, he objected to the use of military resources to provide it. Aviation firings a 'concern' amid increase in plane crashes 'Diverting these medical professionals away from their normal duties and regular patients hampers their ability to provide medical care to our warfighters and their dependents,' Garamendi said. When NewsNation reached out, the Air Force declined to comment on the 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CA post-wildfire beef heats up as state insurance chief accuses Dem congressman of ‘White mansplaining'
Allegations of coziness between California's elected state insurance commissioner and the insurance industry led to accusations flying between him, critics in Sacramento and Washington, and frustrated Californians who lost everything in the Pacific Palisades fires. Commissioner Ricardo Lara accused Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., of trying to "White mansplain" the role of insurance commissioner after the Los Angeles Times reported his criticisms of the agency. Garamendi, who was California's first insurance commissioner after the position became an elected one in the 1990 contests, had said Lara's intended reforms are ones that "clearly… the insurance industry wants." "Your job is to hold the companies accountable, and he seems to be doing the exact opposite, and that is giving the companies whatever they want," he said of Lara to the Times. Longtime Ca Dem Leader Says 'Adios' To Her Party, Registers Gop Lara claimed in response that he does not have the power to compel companies to write insurance policies, and that Garamendi's suggestions would "exacerbate the problem at a time when insurance companies are pulling out of California." Read On The Fox News App "[Q]uite honestly… this is not going to be the first or last time that I get White mansplained on how to do my job," Lara, who is the son of Mexican immigrants, told the Times. With six years in his current role under his belt and several prior in the state legislature, Lara's reform plan seeks to help Californians following the weekslong conflagration of Los Angeles County that destroyed untold numbers of homes. Insurance companies may be on the hook for about $45 billion, and State Farm reportedly asked for an emergency rate hike following the blazes, which Lara rejected, according to the Times. The paper described Lara's plan as a "carrot-and-stick" effort to offer concessions to insurers who agree to help underwrite customers in areas prone to natural disasters. A representative for Lara expounded on the controversy to Fox News Digital, saying that it is entirely normal for an insurance commissioner to meet regularly with insurance companies. "The California Department of Real Estate [also] meets with Realtors. The California Public Utilities Commission meets with SCE and SoCalGas. If they didn't, they would be rightly criticized for failing to do their job," the representative said. "The same standard applies to the Department of Insurance." He also took aim at a prominent critic cited in the original report, a group called Consumer Watchdog that had claimed Lara and associated entities "attempted to conceal" $122,000 in contributions from the insurance industry to support his re-election. A state commission later found "insufficient evidence" to support the complaint as a violation of state law and closed the case in January, according to the Times. The Lara representative called those allegations "baseless," when reached Tuesday by Fox News Digital. Ca Voters Narrowly Reject $18 Minimum Wage The Lara representative characterized Garamendi as a "member of Congress who has failed to act in his current position to protect consumers." The representative added Lara is committed to holding insurers accountable in the rate-making process and met with residents at 900 town halls covering every Golden State county. "Californians want solutions, not distractions. Commissioner Lara is battling the status quo that has failed consumers for decades, while his critics have done nothing of merit to help consumers and make insurance more available and more affordable." When asked for further response, a representative for Garamendi pointed to recent remarks he made on the subject. "The commissioner must really stand up for consumers, and that is the challenge that the current commissioner (Lara) must address in the days ahead." "Unfortunately, in the months and years past, he basically rolled over and let the insurance companies cancel policies which they did in the Palisades area, and he allowed the insurance companies to double and, in many cases, triple and quadruple homeowner insurance rates without the normal and the required public hearings and detailed investigation," Garamendi said. Meanwhile, in the state legislature, Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom as well as Lara and Sacramento Democrats for putting off serious reform to the insurance structure. "Waiting this long leaves us now with the current system waiting for major reforms to take effect, and could result in the total failure of the insurance market during these catastrophic events like those we are seeing in Los Angeles," said Jones, R-San Diego. "Sadly, if the FAIR Plan collapses, every Californian will be paying the price with a surcharge on their homeowner policies to cover the state's failures to act." Fox News Digital also reached out to Newsom for comment but did not receive a response by press article source: CA post-wildfire beef heats up as state insurance chief accuses Dem congressman of 'White mansplaining'
