Latest news with #KenCalvert
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrat Katherine Aleman challenges California's longest-serving GOP congressman in 41st district race
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif. - A Riverside County teacher is running for congress, looking to unseat Rep. Ken Calvert, the longest serving Republican in California's congressional delegation. Katherine Aleman officially launched her campaign for California's 41st Congressional District. What they're saying Having been raised in the Inland Empire, Aleman said she knows first-hand the struggles families in the community are going through. "Our residents deserve a representative who's walked in their shoes, knows how to balance a household budget, knows the challenges of starting a small business. And that's exactly why I'm running for Congress. We need someone who is going to serve the community instead of serving themselves," Aleman said on FOX 11. "We keep seeing an increase in costs: the price of eggs, the prices of groceries, of rent, gas. You know now we're going to see cuts in healthcare. We're going see cuts of nutrition for 30,000 families," she added. Aleman, who raises chickens and sells eggs, said the price of goods has gone up because of corporate price-gouging, forcing working families to pay the cost. "During the pandemic, we had corporations and businesses who drove up the cost of goods, not because they had to, but simply because they could." Running as a democrat, Aleman said her experience sets her apart in the race. "You know I'm the Democrat that should go up against Ken Calvert because I'm the only Democrat in this field that has ran tough races and won. Norco is the second reddest city in the district, it's plus 30 Republicans. You know, I ran a hard campaign. I was elected and I served with Republicans. We balanced the budget, bought land for affordable housing for veterans. We fixed a ton of streets. We invested in public safety. I listened to my residents. I showed up for them and I have a track record of getting things done," she stated. Who Is Katherine Aleman? Aleman is a public school teacher and mother of four. She served on the Norco City Council and in the Peace Corps. She is the daughter of a Marine helicopter pilot and was raised on the El Toro Marine Corps base. Aleman is also a small business owner, raising chickens and running an egg stand. Calvert is the longest-serving Republican in California's congressional delegation, having been first elected in 1992. He defeated Democratic challenger Will Rollins in 2024 and again in 2022. What's next The general election is scheduled for November 3, 2026. All 435 House seats will be up for election. The Source Information for this story came from an interview with Katherine Aleman. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Teacher enters crowded race to topple Rep. Ken Calvert, with Barbara Boxer's blessing
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Katherine Aleman, an Inland Empire public-school teacher and part-time chicken farmer, is the latest Democrat to join a crowded field of challengers hoping to unseat 41st Congressional District Rep. Ken Calvert, the longest-serving Republican in California's congressional delegation. The race against Calvert, who for more than 30 years has represented Riverside County, will be one of the most closely watched in the nation as Democrats push to retake control of the U.S. House in 2026. The congressman, a Trump loyalist, has been a perpetual white whale for Democrats despite his controversial votes to overturn the results of the 2020 election. This time, Democratic insiders are bullish that Aleman – a mother of four sons who teaches middle school in Corona – will be the one to break their cycle of losses. Aleman is leaning into her background as a working parent and lifelong Inland Empire resident as she works to make affordability her primary message. Along with cost of living, she said veterans' issues and education are important to her as the daughter of a Marine helicopter pilot and an elementary school principal. 'Folks deserve someone who has walked in their shoes, who's had to balance a household budget, who's struggled,' Aleman told CalMatters. 'We have a congressman who really has only been serving himself and his friends.' Calvert will not be an easy target. This past quarter he outraised all of his Democratic challengers combined, pulling in more than $1.3 million in contributions and bringing his stockpile of cash on hand to an eye-popping $2.5 million. 'This massive fundraising haul shows just how energized voters are to keep him in Congress,' Christian Martinez, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee wrote in a statement when the fundraising numbers were released earlier this month. The W-shaped district spans from working-class towns like Corona and El Cerrito in the west to wealthier Coachella Valley cities like Palm Springs in the east. Aleman's fluency in Spanish, which she refined during two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, is an asset in a district where nearly 40% of the population is Hispanic. Aleman's supporters, who include former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, say her deep roots on the western side of the district – where more than 70% of the population is – differentiate her from her competitors. That background also sets her apart from Will Rollins, a former federal prosecutor who lost to Calvert twice and whose campaign Boxer vigorously supported. Former U.S. Sen Barbara Boxer is a fan 'She's an undiscovered star,' said Boxer, who sought to support a female candidate from the western side of the district. 'I've been around a long time, and I never say that.' Boxer, a 24-year veteran of Capitol Hill who, alongside former Sen. Dianne Feinstein, won election to the Senate in 1992's 'Year of the Woman,' pointed to Aleman's successful 2020 campaign for Norco City Council as proof that she can win Republican votes. Aleman, the council's lone Democrat, won despite a nearly 30% Republican voter registration advantage, but lost her reelection bid last November. When the two women met for lunch a month ago, Boxer said she was immediately impressed with Aleman's straightforward assessment of her district's top issue – affordability. 'She said, 'Senator, people can't afford to live here anymore, and I grew up here.' And I just saw the authenticity of her,' Boxer said of Aleman. 'She fits so well into what we're looking for,' Boxer added, 'someone who has lived the lives of her constituents.' This time, Calvert has attracted at least eight other Democratic challengers. Among them are Brandon Riker, an entrepreneur who ran for lieutenant governor of Vermont in 2016, and Anuj Dixit, a voting rights attorney who was born and raised in Riverside County. Tim Myers, the bassist for the band OneRepublic, has already bowed out and announced he will instead run for lieutenant governor. 'Katherine is exactly the type of candidate the Democratic Party needs,' said Orrin Evans, a media strategist working on Aleman's campaign launch. His has helped Democratic candidates such as Rep. Derek Tran defeat incumbent Republicans in tough races. Evans said the takeaway from the 2024 election should be the importance of candidate quality, and that a 'homegrown leader' like Aleman would gain the most traction. 'Katherine's not from Hollywood or Vermont,' he said. 'She's from the Inland Empire.' In addition to teaching, Aleman raises chickens and sells eggs at a family farm stand. What began as a side project during the pandemic to provide eggs for her family has grown into a small business known as 'Fluffy Butt Ranch.' The additional income helps cushion the family budget. She also runs a chicken club at her school, which provides extra food security for students in the form of farm-fresh eggs. This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Who is challenging Ken Calvert for Congress Solve the daily Crossword
Forbes
20-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Burgeoning Hedge Strategy Amplifies Commercial Technology In Defense
ATLANTIC OCEAN - MAY 14: In this handout released by the U.S. Navy, An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air ... More System (UCAS) demonstrator launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) May 14, 2013 in the Atlantic Ocean. George H.W. Bush is the first aircraft carrier to sucessfully catapult-launch an unmanned aircraft from its flight deck. The Navy plans to have unmanned aircraft on each of its carriers to be used for surveillance and be armed and used in combat roles. (Photo by U.S. Navy via Getty Images)Advancing the Mix of Defense Capabilities The President's defense budget, released in June, embraces a vision of balancing traditional platforms with new digital technologies—a 'Hedge Strategy'—at a pivotal moment for military modernization. This "high/low" approach, enables the U.S. military to complement its arsenal of (high) expensive defense platforms of ships, tanks and planes with new capabilities such as small, inexpensive, AI-enabled and upgradeable unmanned systems (low). Hedge Strategy is a term coined by Rear Admiral (retired) Lorin Selby and me in a paper we co-authored in 2022. Later that year, Rep. Ken Calvert, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee—Defense (HAC-D), called for adopting new technologies—predominantly commercial technologies—as a hedge strategy and provided increased funding for the concept. Today, the vision is becoming a reality on a much larger scale. America's military arsenal now includes an increasing inventory of unmanned systems across air, sea, and ground, along with a proliferated constellation of small satellites. Harnessing leading commercial technologies, these capabilities weren't mature enough to be on the battlefield a decade ago but have proven instrumental in Ukraine and other recent conflicts. In fact, in describing the War in Ukraine a few weeks ago, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Colin Kahl, observed that this war is a surprising mix of the trenches and artillery shells of World War I with World War III. We haven't left the industrial age of armaments behind, but armaments are now complemented by drones and emerging digital technologies which, in combination, are game-changing capabilities a modern military cannot live without. This photograph shows the first batch of Ukrainian made drone missiles "Peklo" (Hell) delivered to ... More the Defence Forces of Ukraine in Kyiv on December 6, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. December 6, 2024 marks the 33th anniversary of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP) (Photo by GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images) Recognizing this, Congress has strongly supported the organizations within the Defense Department which focus on commercial capabilities such as the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), whose budget has increased ten-fold in the last three years to $2 billion for FY26, and the Office of Strategic Capital, which now can offer up to $4 billion in loans for component technologies like batteries and rare-earth magnets that are critical for defense. The Defense Department must pivot quickly to adopt new capabilities to augment what's in place and do so with more cost-effective technologies. In other words, our military must shift from expending the U.S. Navy's multi-million dollar missiles to neutralize Houthi low-cost drone attacks. Additionally, we must embrace more nimble and asymmetric warfare like Ukraine's recent Operation Spider's Web. Systems that provide low-cost, attritable mass, better tactical situational awareness, and optimized decision-making by fusing multi-modal data in real-time all reinforce the mix shift towards new capabilities. Traditional primes like Lockheed Martin and L3Harris, along with emerging primes like Anduril, are advancing lower-cost, mass produced munitions to improve defense-offense cost ratios. SANA'A, YEMEN - NOVEMBER 13: Mock drones and missiles are displayed at an exhibition on November 13, ... More 2024, in Sana'a, Yemen. Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis announced on Tuesday that they launched a significant attack by drone and ballistic and cruise missiles on US Navy vessels, while they were navigating at the Bab al-Mandeb strait off the Yemeni coast. (Photo by)$1 Trillion for Defense The appropriations landscape today is multifaceted. For the current fiscal year—FY25–Congress did not pass a defense budget, so the Defense Department operates under a Continuing Resolution which is less efficient than an on-time budget since a CR usually means no annual spending increases (regardless of inflation) and no new program starts. For next fiscal year—FY26, which begins this October—the President submitted his budget four months late which puts a burden on Congress to appropriate funds on time. The FY26 budget request at $831.5 billion is only slightly larger than last year's $825 billion. WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 03: Members of the House walk up the steps outside the U.S. Capitol during the ... More procedural vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 03, 2025 in Washington, DC. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), President Donald Trump and other Republicans are scrambling to gather enough support to begin debate on Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill. (Photo by) However, Congress recently passed the Big Beautiful Bill (or Reconciliation) which includes $150 billion of additional and multi-year defense spending for the next five fiscal years with $133 billion planned in FY26. Defense spending in FY26 might include the regular appropriation of $831.5 billion plus $133 billion plus around $40 billion for nuclear refurbishment executed by the Department of Energy. This combination pushes top-line defense spending to a record $1 trillion. However, this level of spending, as a percentage of U.S. GDP (estimated at $30 trillion for 2026), is only 3.4% of the economy. Historically, the U.S. has spent much more on defense: 6% in the Reagan build-up, 9% in the Vietnam War and routinely 8-10% in the 1950s. The cost of fighting (and potentially losing) a major war with China is far more costly than what the U.S. spends on defense. With a nod to Ronald Reagan, President Trump's 'Peace through strength' policy means the U.S. must continue to invest to deter adversaries from initiating future wars. A $1 Trillion defense budget is likely to become the norm as geopolitical tensions suggest we will be in a great power competition with multiple capable adversaries for years to come. Our adversaries, especially China, recognize that new technologies can deliver battlefield advantage and our adversaries are sharing military technology and strengthening each other's supply chains. As a result, the race is on to invest in new capabilities and adopt them rapidly to yield a military edge. In addition, the U.S. must rebuild with its allies the ability to sustain manufacturing for the materiel needed in a conflict. Golden Dome, All Types of Unmanned Systems, and AI HawkEye 360 satellites gather signals intelligence data to provide governments with better ... More understanding of activity in regions such as the South China Sea. HAWKEYE 360, HERNDON, VIRGINIA Specifically, there are several initiatives fueling large spending increases that should benefit commercial technology vendors. Perhaps most visible is the President's Golden Dome estimated at three years and $175 billion or more to develop. The FY26 down payment on this initiative is $25 billion with two-thirds for more and better sensors from space that could detect enemy missiles, improvements in standardized satellite manufacturing, and better ways to search and process the increasing amount of space-based imagery. DoD will heavily leverage commercial solutions in delivering Golden Dome. Rendering of Albedo's Clarity-1 in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) capturing exquisite imagery For the first-time, there are large, dedicated budget lines for aerial, ground-based, maritime surface and underwater autonomous systems, totaling $16 billion including AI-based software to control them. A partial list includes $1.4 billion for small unmanned aerial vehicles like the first-person view drones in Ukraine, $2 billion for medium maritime surface autonomy, $.7 billion for underwater autonomy, $1 billion for one-way aerial attack drones, and $3 billion for systems to counter drones. Lightfish Security ASV features a small solid state radar and a high resolution day/night camera to ... More detect and identify vessels within a few miles and transmit the radar image and video real time to the user. Designed to be used in a constellation of multiple vessels to counter Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, monitor protected marine areas, secure our maritime borders and maintain overwatch on critical maritime infrastructure In AI-based software, spending will increase 50% from $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion according to defense data provider, Obviant. This should significantly expand the military's adoption of AI-based commercial applications such as modeling and simulation for logistics, analyzing the electromagnetic spectrum, code generation and modernization, and other AI-native applications like agentic workflows. The Pentagon's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office recently awarded four contracts (each worth up to $200 million) to the leading large language model providers so that, analogous to the Department's multi-cloud strategy, the Pentagon can make use of multiple models for better decision What? The upshot of this shifting mix of capabilities is a much more favorable environment for commercial technology adoption with opportunities for new vendors. The defense primes have consolidated 90% over the last 30 years to only five companies. While there are only one to three primes competing for major weapon systems, there are dozens of companies producing unmanned systems, software. and space solutions. As the Department buys these new capabilities, there is a much-needed opportunity to expand the supply base. In addition, both the Congress and the Administration have been rapidly ordering changes to streamline the requirements, budget and acquisition processes that underlie the historically long timeframes to deliver new warfighter capabilities. The SPEED Act and FoRGED Act will include some of the biggest reforms in decades much of which will be incorporated in this year's National Defense Authorization Act. The President has already issued six Executive Orders to modernize defense acquisition, realize American drone dominance and rapidly increase shipbuilding capacity. The process changes incorporated in these Orders reinforce existing law that the military should buy commercial first wherever possible (rather than unique military items) and emphasize commercial methods of procurement (leveraging Other Transaction Authority vs. Federal Acquisition Regulations). Additionally, the Department should use a modular open-systems approach when designing large platforms that allows for substituting more capable subsystems on a faster cycle (rather than buying a set specification from a single vendor for decades). These changes create an inflection point for commercial technology adoption. UNITED STATES - MAY 06: Full committee hearing on the "Department of Defense at High Risk: The ... More Chief Management Office's Recommendations for Acquisition Reform and Related High Risk Areas." Witnesses: Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn testifies Location: 2118 Rayburn House Office Building. May 6, 2009. (Photo By Douglas Graham/) In an increasingly dangerous world, we are entering a new era of record defense spending and the adoption of commercial technologies to augment current capabilities. The Trump Administration is striving for real reform in what's being bought and how it's being bought—doubling down on acquisition tradecraft pioneered by the Defense Innovation Unit as described in the book Unit X. Consequently, these process simplifications make it more attractive for venture-backed companies to develop a defense business. Hedging existing military capabilities with solutions from defense tech vendors not only complements what defense primes can do with large platforms (ships, planes and tanks) but also brings more competition to defense procurement with companies that can ramp manufacturing quickly. Today's arsenal of democracy needs to not only be better stocked but also stocked with more modern capabilities. Additionally, the arsenal should include companies that can iterate capabilities with warfighter feedback since improvements on the battlefield now happen in hours not years. Ukraine demonstrates that wars are never won as rapidly as aggressors imagine before the conflict. Consequently, success requires new capabilities that evolve rapidly plus sufficient industrial capacity to sustain a war effort for years. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) ... More weather satellite Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U (GOES-U) lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, June 25, 2024. The United States on June 25 launched a new satellite expected to significantly improve forecasts of solar flares and coronal mass ejections — huge plasma bubbles that can crash into Earth, disrupting power grids and communications. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the satellite into orbit took off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:26 pm (2126 GMT), the US space agency announced. (Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP) (Photo by MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images)
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House advances $832 billion military budget plan for next fiscal year
House lawmakers advanced their $832 billion defense appropriations plan for fiscal 2026 early Friday morning despite strong objections from Democrats over missing budgetary details and social issue fights. The bill's passage — by a 221-209 margin, with only five Democrats backing the measure — sends the national security budget debate over to the Senate, where appropriators still have not unveiled the parameters of their spending plans for next year. The Defense Department is currently operating this fiscal year under a modified continuing resolution, with some additional funding for military programs and purchases. Lawmakers are hopeful that won't happen again next year, but the slow pace of budget work thus far leaves only about six weeks of session work left before a possible partial government shutdown if the appropriations bills aren't finalized. The House spending plan was largely drafted before Pentagon leaders unveiled their detailed budgetary requests for fiscal 2026 just last month. President Donald Trump has touted that outline as a '$1 trillion defense budget,' but that total includes additional one-time funds approved by Congress as part of a separate reconciliation measure. House appropriators OK rebukes to recent DOD scandals in budget bill As such, the House plan for the base defense budget represents a small decrease over current fiscal year military spending, a point that Democrats and some Republican lawmakers have lamented. But Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel, praised the funding plan as 'providing our men and women in uniform with the resources they need to keep America safe.' The bill supports a 3.8% pay raise for servicemembers next year, matching the federal formula for the annual prescribed pay boost. It includes $2.6 billion for hypersonics programs and $13 billion for missile defense programs in support of Trump's Golden Dome effort. The measure sets aside $8.5 billion for 69 F-35 fighters, $3.8 billion for B-21 procurement, $2.7 billion for 15 KC-46s and $1.2 billion for four E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft. Another $37 billion would go to Navy shipbuilding efforts, including procurement of one Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine and two Virginia-class fast attack submarines. Under the plan, the Defense Department civilian workforce would be cut by about 45,000 individuals at a savings of $3.6 billion, a provision that drew strong objections from Democratic lawmakers. Critics also attacked the bill's social issue provisions, including language prohibiting military health care facilities from providing abortion services, bans on transgender medical care and surgeries, and elimination of diversity and equity programs. 'These poison pill riders will not go unnoticed by our troops,' said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., ranking member on the appropriations committee's defense panel. 'They will impact recruitment and retention.' Passage of the defense budget bill was delayed for much of the week by unrelated legislative floor fights in the House, and could be complicated in the Senate by similar, broader fights over federal spending and program cuts. House lawmakers are expected to shift focus in coming days to the annual defense authorization bill — legislation which sets Defense Department policy and spending priorities for the upcoming year, but does not actually appropriate the funds for those goals — but a full floor debate on that measure is unlikely to happen before the chamber's August recess.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House appropriators OK rebukes to recent DOD scandals in budget bill
House Republican appropriators agreed Thursday to several checks on recent controversial Pentagon moves in their $832 billion defense budget plan for fiscal 2026, including a ban on using any money for military personnel to conduct law enforcement duties on U.S. soil. But the spending plan still drew significant criticism from Democratic lawmakers who objected to restrictions on abortion care for troops, insufficient funds to support Ukraine and missing budget justifications from the administration on how hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent. The funding bill — which heads to the full chamber for consideration later this summer — includes a 3.8% pay raise for troops in 2026 and plans to trim 45,000 civilian employees from the department's workforce in a cost-cutting move. Administration officials have billed it as the first $1 trillion defense budget, pairing the appropriations request with an expected $150 billion funding boost for military programs in the Republican-backed reconciliation package winding through Congress. Without that money, the defense budget would see no increase from fiscal 2025 levels. House panel pushes ahead $453 billion funding plan for VA next year In a statement Thursday, Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., chairman of the appropriations committee's defense panel, praised the funding plan as 'investing significantly in modernization of the force, maintaining U.S. maritime and air dominance, fostering both innovation and the production capacity it relies upon, air and missile defense, and support for service members and their families.' But he also acknowledged Democratic complaints about incomplete funding requests from the administration, and said he hopes those information gaps will be filled in coming weeks. The committee approved the bill largely along party lines (only one Democrat, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, voted for it) after more than eight hours of debate and delays, with numerous Democratic amendments rejected by the GOP majority. But Republicans did go along with several provisions touching on recent department controversies. Language offered by Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., and approved by the committee would block the use of funds to skirt the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of military personnel for civilian law enforcement. The provision came in response to the Trump administration's recent decision to deploy National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to help with immigration enforcement efforts, over the objections of city and state officials. Calvert and other Republicans backed the measure without offering any direct criticism of President Donald Trump's decision. The committee also approved a Democratic-led amendment to block defense officials from sharing classified information on unsecured networks, a measure aimed at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the privately-owned Signal app earlier this year to discuss overseas airstrikes with senior administration leaders. And the legislation calls for a full accounting of money spent on the Army' 250th anniversary celebrations, scheduled for this weekend. The event — which coincides with Trump's 79th birthday — has seen its size and scope balloon by tens of millions of dollars as White House officials have mandated a larger and larger celebration. Other Democratic-led proposals on restricting Trump's use of a Qatari plane as the new Air Force One, blocking the renaming of Navy ships and returning to previous policies allowing travel stipends to help pay for abortion-related care were all rejected. Republicans also included language in the final bill which would block any diversity and inclusion programming at the Defense Department and severely limit health care options for transgender troops or family members, both priorities of the administration. Earlier this week, Senate Republicans expressed stronger concerns about the missing budget information, but said they hope to move soon on their own version of the defense spending package. Both chambers will have to adopt their own drafts of the appropriations measures before negotiating a final budget compromise to be sent to the president to become law.
