Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) is trying to rally his Republican colleagues to speak out against the Trump administration’s attacks on USAID and other government agencies.
His pitch? These cuts will hurt your districts and your reelection chances.
In an interview earlier this week, Garamendi said he has had conversations with several of his GOP colleagues – including California Reps. Ken Calvert, Kevin Kiley and Doug LaMalfa – to raise concerns about DOGE.
“I’ve talked to Ken Calvert on the military side of [USAID] and he’s very much aware of the soft power issues,” Garamendi told us. “There’s a whole series of issues that are going to be extremely important to Republicans in the California delegation.”
So far, the persuasion campaign being run by Garamendi and fellow California Democrats doesn’t seem to be working on GOP members from vulnerable districts.
Earlier this month, 40 California Democrats sent a letter to NIH Director Dr. Matthew Memoli asking that he halt the freeze of more than $800 million of NIH money from going to California. The move would impact ongoing biomedical research and give foreign competitors like China and Russia an edge, lawmakers argued. California is home to some of the nation’s leading research programs.
Rep. Linda Sánchez, who led the letter with Rep. Jared Huffman, sought to get several California Republicans on board with their effort, but all declined, per her office.
Garamendi is still working with his GOP colleagues and pointed to large swaths of federal forest lands in LaMalfa’s district and at-risk research programs in the Tahoe area that would impact Kiley.
“Certainly that’s an issue for Kevin Kiley who represents a large swath of the Sierra Nevada Mountains,” Garamendi said.
Outside the delegation, Garamendi said he’s also spoken with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) regarding USAID rollbacks. Additionally, he’s talked to Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) about protecting Tahoe research.
