DeSaulnier Digest

AT A GLANCE

In this Digest, you will find information on:

• The Veterans Town Hall and Resource Fair Mark hosted;
• Congressman DeSaulnier's remarks on the House Floor; and
• Updates on legislative efforts.

DISTRICT UPDATES

House Republicans last week elected Representative Mike Johnson as the 56^th 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 17^th 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 1^st. 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.