Sen. Schiff says his 1st bill will focus on wildfire relief and risks
Sen. Schiff says his 1st bill will focus on wildfire relief and risks
Senator Adam Schiff is now three months into his term as Californias newest Senator. He talks about working in a bipartisan manner and prioritizing wildfire relief.
OAKLAND, Calif. - On Capitol Hill, Senator Adam Schiff is now three months into his term as California's newest Senator.
"I find the Senate, compared to the House, much more conducive to bipartisan work," Schiff said.
Trump's speech
His optimism might surprise some Americans who saw the bitter partisan divide at President Trump's speech Tuesday, with Democrats divided on how to respond.
Some boycotted the speech or left the chambers. Others held signs saying "False" or "Save Medicare."
Senator Schiff sat silently.
"In terms of the Democratic reaction, my feeling was we should keep the focus on his speech and the lack of anything in it to really help families," Schiff said. "I attended the speech. I wasn't going to not attend it. For me, that's a sign of respect for the office, even if I have very low regard for the current occupant of that office."
The Senator is serving on four committees, and says in 2025, he wants to deliver results for Californians.
"If there's one thing I could accomplish, it would be to do things to reduce the cost of housing, to make it more affordable for Californians to buy a house or to rent an apartment," Schiff said. "I've been speaking with my Republican colleagues about increasing, for example, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit to make it more economical to build low-cost housing."
He says he's also prepared to fight.
The economy
He is serving on the Small Business Committee, and spoke out vocally opposing tariffs that President Trump claims will help small businesses and Americans.
"I think these tariffs would be enormously destructive. And what we've seen just in the last couple of weeks is President Trump imposing tariffs, the markets diving. President Trump not imposing tariffs, and then President Trump imposing them again, and now he is unimposing them, putting off a new date, April 2," Schiff said. "This uncertainty for all businesses, large and small, means really grave injury to the economy."
"The cost of services and oil change for a customer is going to go up by 25% auto insurance rates, up 25-35%," Schiff said, adding the increased cost for small businesses could be passed on to consumers.
He is also on the Environment Committee, and vows to protect California's stricter vehicle emission standards. He and Senator Alex Padilla sent a letter calling for the Government Accountability Office to rule on Republicans' assertion that they could eliminate the California waiver granting the stricter standards, by calling for a Congressional Review process that would sidestep committees. On Thursday, Schiff said the GOA announced that review process was not allowed.
Rule of law
Schiff was also appointed to the Judiciary Committee. He has been an outspoken critic, slamming the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Justice Roberts this week for giving Trump broad immunity from prosecution, and questioning nominees to the Justice Department.
"They have confirmed the top three lawyers at the Justice Department... Donald Trump's former criminal defense lawyers. And when they came to testify, and I asked them, are you still his criminal defense lawyer? Their answer was, yes, I am. I asked them, well, if you are asked to involve yourself in one of his cases, will you recuse yourself because of the obvious conflict of interest? And they said, No," Schiff said. "That kind of abuse of the justice system would be absolutely unprecedented, and just bringing complete contempt for the rule of law. So I'm fighting back against this in the Judiciary Committee every day."
Wildfires
He is also serving on the Agriculture and Forestry Committee.
He says he's concerned about wildfires, and plans to make that the focus of the first bill he is crafting to bring to the Senate.
Now, Californians are waiting to see if Schiff and other politicians during these next four years can find a path forward.
"I've been having conversations with Republicans about working together to tackle those challenges," Schiff said. "The urgent need for funding to make sure we get assistance to the victims of those fires, but I'm also working on legislation to try to help in the recovery, help harden, our defenses against fire, and that will be my first legislative initiative."
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