Stopgap funding measure signed by President Trump; California’s Senators voted no

By G. A. McNeeley 

March 18 2025 (Washington D.C.) — Congress avoided a government shutdown on March 14, just a few hours before the funding deadline. The stopgap measure to fund the government until September 30 was signed by President Donald Trump on Saturday.

The stopgap would fund government operations through the remainder of this fiscal year, but it would also slash non-defense funding by roughly $13 billion and increase defense spending by about $6 billion over current budgets (including billions for deportations, veterans’ health care and the military). 

Many Democrats, including California’s Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, opposed the measure due to the non-defense cuts and because Republicans refused to include language in the bill putting guardrails on Trump and Elon Musk’s ability to continue dismantling the federal bureaucracy unchecked. The  Democrats also advocated for a shorter, four-week stopgap to keep the government running on current funding levels in an effort to buy more time for appropriators to strike a deal on a bipartisan funding package.  Republican leadership interest in those negotiations diminished weeks ago. 

East County News Service

November 6, 2024 (Sacramento) – Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, who led impeachment efforts against Donald Trump, is poised to defeat former baseball player Steve Garvey, a Republican, to represent California in the U.S. Senate.

Shiff has nearly 60% of the votes, with over half of all votes counted statewide, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.

Update March 6:  As of this morning, Steve Garvey has pulled ahead of Adam Schiff in the partial term Senate election.  Garvey is leading with 1,317,911 votes to 1,173,917 for Adam Schiff.  The two will run-off in November, with the winner seated as soon as votes are certified to serve the remaining few weeks in the late Senator Dianne Feinstein's term this November and December. 

Schiff  still has a narrow lead in the long-term race for the six-year term starting in January; currently Schiff leads in the long-term race narrowly with 1,247,753 over Garvey with 1,218,050 votes.  They will run-off in November as well for the long-term race to fill the next six-year term beginning in January.  

March 5, 2024 (San Diego) --With the balance of power in the U.S. Senate nearly equally split between Republicans and Democrats, the California race to replace the late Dianne Feinstein may decide the balance of power in the Senate and the Nation.

Currently, there are 49 Republicans, 48 Democrats and 3 Independents in the Senate. The Independents have chosen to Caucus with the Democrats, giving them a slight edge. Additionally, on January 20, 2021, Democratic vice president Kamala Harris took office. Her tie-breaking vote established a Democratic majority in the Senate.

With the death of long-serving Senator Dianne Feinstein, a seat that has been held by Democrats for decades is now up for grabs. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to fill the seat until an election could be held.

Today's ballot includes both a partial term election to complete the last two months of Feinstein's unfinished term, as well as a full-term election for the next six-year term beginning January 3, 2025.

By Miriam Raftery

January 24, 2020 (Washington D.C.)- - As  Democrats wrapped up their arguments for removing President Trump from office during the Senate impeachment trial this week, Republicans controlling the Senate have thus far refused to allow new witnesses to be called. The White house continues to defy requests for public records. 

Now, CBS news reports that a confidant of President Trump told CBS that senators were warned quote: “vote against the president & your head will be on a pike.”

Such a threat, if true, could amount to witness tampering and threatening federal officials with violence.

In addition, MSNBC reports hearing a tape in which Trump demands that Marie Yovanovich, the former ambassador to Ukraine, be removed, though whether he was calling for her firing or assassination is unclear.

 “Get rid of her...Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it,.” A voice that sounds like  Trump is heard demanding on the tape, ABC News reports. 

The recording was allegedly made during a 2018 dinner party with Lev Parnas, a former associate of Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Parnas’ attorney, Joe Bondy, has issued a statement which says of the recording, which he indicated was not released by his client, “It is yet another example of Mr. Parnas’s version of events being corroborated by evidence in the form of recordings, emails, text messages.”

Trump has used the phrase “take out” when he referred to his order to kill Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. air strike in Iraq.  Trump, who formerly starred in the Apprentice game show, famously used the phrase “You’re fired!” when referring to terminating a job.