Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) reaffirmed her commitment to protecting critical funding for California’s working families through the signing of the Budget Act of 2025, passed by the State Senate last week. In a year of tough budget decisions threatening rollbacks to essential protections, Senator Smallwood-Cuevas fought to ensure that the urgent needs of working families, immigrants, and communities of color were not ignored.

La Senadora Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Ángeles) reafirmó su compromiso de proteger los fondos cruciales para las familias trabajadoras de California mediante la firma de la Ley de Presupuesto de 2025, aprobada por el Senado Estatal la semana pasada. En un año de difíciles decisiones presupuestarias que amenazaron con reducir protecciones esenciales, la Senadora Smallwood-Cuevas luchó para garantizar que las necesidades urgentes de las familias trabajadoras, los inmigrantes y las comunidades de color no fueran ignoradas.

SACRAMENTO – Today, the California Assembly Committee on Education voted to approve Senate Bill 638, authored by Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego). The transformative measure would create the California Middle Class Pipeline Project, tasked with eliminating traditional barriers to career technical education and workforce development programs. The Pipeline Project would work with educational institutions and private industry to reimagine career technical education in the state, bringing it in line with the needs of the 21st century economy. Earlier this week, the California Legislature approved and Governor Newsom signed the 2025/2026 State Budget into law in which Senator Padilla secured $1.5 million to establish the Middle Class Pipeline as well as $150 million for strategic grant for workforce development programs in high-unemployment and low-income regions of the state.

SACRAMENTO – Legislation by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, to stop the exploitation of the state’s housing density bonus law on Wednesday passed the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.

SACRAMENTO –Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) released the following statement today after Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre was elected to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors:

On June 30, 2025, as part of the three party budget agreement, Assembly Bill 116 was signed by Governor Newsom. It includes a provision to delay the implementation of Senate Bill 729- Infertility Treatment Health Care Coverage, authored by Senator Caroline Menjivar.

SACRAMENTO, California – (June 30, 2025) – Governor Newsom has officially signed California’s 2025–26 state budget, a landmark $321 billion package that includes critical investments across the state, among them, a significant boost to nutritional assistance.

After a soul-stirring procession and libation ceremony at Sunday’s 15th Annual “Day of Ancestors: Festival of Masks” celebration in Leimert Park, Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) took the stage to announce, before a crowd of about 500 people, her efforts to state-designate Historic South Los Angeles as a Black Cultural District. The new cultural district will serve as a hub for South LA landmarks, businesses and institutions – while spotlighting legendary areas, such as the Crenshaw corridor, Historic West Adams and Central Avenue – to support the community’s preservation and economic revitalization.

Senator Christopher Cabaldon, D-Yolo, and other legislators representing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have successfully rebuffed – at least for now – efforts to speed up the process of building a giant tunnel that would divert water from the Sacramento River before it reaches the Delta and send it to southern California. “This project doesn’t make sense for anyone – not the people of the Delta or the water users in southern California," Sen. Cabaldon said. "It’s time to let go of this fantasy and move on to solutions that don’t harm the Delta and have a realistic chance of being built.”

El 30 de junio de 2025, como parte del acuerdo presupuestario tripartito, el Gobernador Newsom firmó el Proyecto de Ley 116 de la Asamblea. Este incluye una disposición para retrasar la implementación del Proyecto de Ley 729 Proyecto de Ley 729 del Senado sobre cobertura médica para tratamientos de infertilidad, de la Senadora Caroline Menjivar.