DeSaulnier Digest
House Republicans last week elected Representative Mike Johnson as the 56th Speaker of the House after 22 days without a Speaker. The vacancy prevented the House from considering legislation to fund the government beyond the November 17th deadline, provide assistance to address global conflicts, and address other critical priorities.
After the extreme faction of the Republican Party voted to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, Republicans in the House remain unable to come to a consensus on electing a new Speaker. Last week, Congressman Jim Jordan, one of the most extreme MAGA Republicans and right-hand-man to ex-President Trump, failed three times to get enough votes to win the Speakership and has since ended his bid for the position.
It has been 13 days since extreme members of the House Republican conference ousted the Speaker of the House for the first time in history. Since then, they have nominated 2 separate individuals for the job, but haven’t had enough support to have the House take a vote and elect a Speaker. Reports are that they will try for an election tomorrow so I will be back in DC, but in the meantime, we are unable to work on the important issues our nation needs to address, like funding the government and supporting Israel and Ukraine.
I am deeply troubled and saddened by the despicable terrorist attacks against the Israeli people. I condemn Hamas and these heinous attacks in the strongest way. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen – may their memories be a blessing.
After weeks of pushing partisan spending bills that were bound to fail and leading the country to the brink of a government shutdown, Speaker McCarthy finally reversed course and allowed a vote on a bipartisan funding bill that my Democratic colleagues and I have been advocating for. The last-minute bill was passed into law, with more Democratic votes in the House than Republican ones, mere hours before the government was set to shut down.
With less than a week left until a potential government shutdown, Republican infighting in the House has stalled action on legislation to fund the government beginning on October 1st. Our government should work for the American people, but extremist members of the Republican Party in the House are marching our country toward a government shutdown and insisting on their demands for spending cuts of over 8%.
I’ve been delighted to have spent the past six weeks in the district, engaging with constituents and spending time in the community. We hosted four town halls to discuss some of the issues most important to CA-10, including youth mental health, animal welfare, climate change, and civic engagement. I also met one-on-one with constituents in two rounds of Virtual District Office Hours.
AT A GLANCE
In this Digest, you will find information on:
- Recent town halls Mark hosted;
- Efforts to help end food insecurity in our community; and
- Updates on Mark's legislative efforts.
IN THE COMMUNITY
In California and across the country, we see the devastating impacts of climate change firsthand. I'm hosting an Environmental and Climate Change Town Hall on August 31st from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. to provide updates on the impact of climate change, including on natural disasters and water security, and Democrats' efforts in Congress to combat the climate crisis and create good-paying jobs in a clean energy economy. I will also answer your questions live.
I hope you will join us for a Youth Mental Health Town Hall and Resource Fair at the John Muir Health, Concord Medical Center at 2540 East Street in Concord tomorrow,August 22nd from 1 – 3:30 p.m. We will hear from special guest expert panelists, including Gigi Crowder of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Contra Costa, Ade Gobir of the Contra Costa County Office of Education, Natalia Garcia of Common Sense Media, Anna Sabio and Dr.
