The Newsom administration is navigating a political minefield with the Trump administration and the Republicans in control of Congress. Federal disaster aid for Los Angeles wildfires remains in limbo, critical staff for water operations and bird flu have been fired and spending on climate-smart grants has been paused.
To avoid escalating the conflicts, Gov. Gavin Newsom and his cabinet secretaries are attempting to seize on any common ground with their federal counterparts.
“I'm built to be optimistic and that we will find a pathway forward, and I'm going to continue that,” said Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “There are no guarantees, but I'm optimistic that's what America has always been able to do.”
Updating the State Board of Food and Agriculture last week on the latest federal impacts to CDFA operations, Ross warned that all state agencies have intersected with the spending freezes enacted by the Trump administration as it considers eliminating programs.
She worried about specialty crop block grants, one of 10 policy priorities Ross and her colleagues at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture outlined in January. Last fall USDA awarded CDFA $23 million for projects aimed at increasing the market competitiveness of those crops.
At the NASDA Winter Policy Conference in February, every state demonstrated “100% enthusiastic support” for USDA’s local food procurement program and testified to the positive difference it has made for small farms and for food banks and schools in securing fresh produce, according to Ross.
She was hopeful Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins would follow through on distributing $21 billion in disaster relief for farmers that Congress approved last December and said Rollins is “very committed to getting it out in a timely way.”
Ross is also “very optimistic” that pest detection and eradication efforts, along with assistance in responding to the bird flu outbreak, will proceed as usual, since “they have in every administration, as they should, because these are not partisan issues.” Ross viewed the programs as protecting public health and keeping agricultural goods moving.
Yet she described her overall outlook for federal policies as “a real mixed bag.” She is unsure how much layoffs and office closures for the Farm Services Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service will impact county-level services to farmers. One of her primary issues is that the Trump administration has paused $3 billion in grants for climate adaptation and mitigation.
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“I'm concerned about the outcomes. They can brand it whatever they want to, but I want to make sure we're all working on the outcomes,” said Ross, during a separate media briefing with the California Natural Resources Agency. “This is about long-term food security, which is part of national security.”
CDFA Secretary Karen RossThe redeeming value of those programs, she hopes, is that agricultural groups have partnered with conservation organizations on many of the projects, showing that “we're all very unified.” The benefits would especially help rural communities, “which [the Trump] administration really cares about,” she added.
Ross is also anxiously waiting and watching after the federal government paused agricultural research funding through USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.
“We need new knowledge every day and to translate that to our end users to be able to cope with the complexity of the challenges we face now,” she said.
Her engagement with Rollins and the Trump administration will focus on outcomes, Ross told the CDFA board.
“Secretary Rollins is very focused on farmers and ranchers being viable, because we have a very uncertain — pretty scary — ag economy nationwide right now,” said Ross.
Under that strategy, the California secretary is reframing climate programs as initiatives to build agricultural resilience to extreme weather events. Local procurement programs are now a means to support rural economies and provide them with access to nutritious foods, a priority for the Make American Healthy Again agenda under U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“These are areas where there's huge commonality and opportunity,” said Ross.
Speaking last week to a joint committee hearing in the Legislature on biosecurity and disease monitoring for avian flu, Ross said she found comfort in Rollins making it a priority in her first week in office to issue a five-point plan for tackling highly pathogenic avian influenza, which came with a $1 billion USDA investment.
That will add critical support for biosecurity by increasing and enhancing on-farm measures, addressing breaches in those protections and providing incentives for poultry and bovine operations to invest in additional equipment, explained Ross. She keyed in on provisions that would scale up pilot projects that assess wildlife habitats for infections and other projects in California attempting to close any intrusions on agricultural lands. She also applauded the $400 million for surveillance and testing and for financial relief for farmers who have lost productivity or have had to euthanize birds. She saw the most promise in $100 million to accelerate the development of effective vaccines and therapeutics.
By contrast, progressive lawmakers did not hold back in warning about the potential consequences of haphazardly reforming the federal government, such as accidentally firing bird flu experts.
“Our new administration is basically taking a wrecking ball to basically all scientific expertise in the federal government, but public health in particular,” said Senator Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.
While CDFA closely monitors the Trump administration’s government efficiency efforts, along with congressional debates over the federal budget, the California Department of Water Resources is bracing for regulatory reforms that could compel the state to shoulder more federal duties.
“I really can't overstate how integrated a lot of our operations are,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth, during the agency briefing. “We're all part of a no-fail operation.”
California is locked into a coordinated operating agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation to share the burden of meeting water quality and environmental flow obligations. Sometimes Reclamation “pumps a little more and [DWR] pumps a little less,” which is critical for keeping water moving when facilities are offline for maintenance, explained Nemeth. The combined water system relies on real-time coordination between state and federal officials.
Like Ross, Nemeth emphasized the political commonalities between Newsom and Trump, such as investing in projects to expand and improve water infrastructure. Newsom has been a strong advocate for the proposed Sites Reservoir and Delta tunnel projects, which promise to more reliably store and deliver water for farms, cities and ecosystems. That mutual interest in infrastructure will be tested if Trump pushes forward on raising Shasta Dam to store more water in the reservoir. California took to the courts to shut down Trump’s previous attempt to do so, and irrigation interests allied with Trump, such as the Westlands Water District, are hoping to revive the effort.
DWR Director, Karla Nemeth (photo: DWR)Moderate Democrats in congressional battleground districts are calling for a truce in another longstanding water battle. On his first day in office, Trump followed through on a campaign promise to farmers and Southern California cities by issuing a memo to begin the process of rewriting the biological opinions for Delta smelt and other endangered fish species. The environmental review would dictate the pumping operations for the Central Valley Project.
On Monday Reps. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and Adam Gray, D-Merced, called for the two leaders to work collaboratively on a pumping plan that would “alleviate regulatory concerns related to clean water permitting, issues related to maximizing pumping and yield and ensuring that strong allocations continue to be released for South-of-Delta agricultural water service and repayment contractors.” The lawmakers pointed out in their letter that both Newsom and Trump have issued executive orders this year aimed at sending more water to farmers.
A week after his memo on the biological opinions, Trump issued an order to ensure adequate water resources in Southern California by “overriding disastrous California policies.” The president directed Reclamation to deliver more water and produce more hydropower by jointly operating state and federal facilities, despite state or local laws to the contrary. Reclamation must take steps to ensure DWR does not interfere with the directive, according to the order.
Newsom followed up with his own order to ease barriers for capturing and repurposing flood flows for groundwater recharge, as California faced an onslaught of atmospheric rivers deluging the state. Reservoirs — still brimming with carryover storage from previous water years — lacked the space for capturing much of the runoff.
“We are hopeful that these executive orders will provide a path forward on this critical issue,” wrote Costa and Gray. “We urge you to continue to work in a collaborative manner to help shape a more fruitful and resilient future in California water.”
With massive environmental regulations on the line, Nemeth is looking to maintain federal partnerships when possible. Reclamation has reportedly fired 10% of its staff in the region, prompting California’s senators to join with Sacramento Valley farmers and Colorado River interests in pushing back on the downsizing. But Nemeth, as Newsom’s water advisor, was cautious in her response.
“Until we get better information and really triage how we can work through things, it's just going to be hard to say,” she said. “The takeaway is that just given the intensity of the interaction, it is something we're going to have to work through, and it has the potential to be significant.”
Nemeth’s boss, Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, went toe-to-toe with Trump over climate policies during the president’s first term. Last week he focused on water reliability and pledged to fill in any duties left vacant from the staff cuts.
“We stand ready and prepared to do whatever's needed on the state side to ensure that our local water partners continue to be able to operate,” said Crowfoot.
Chuck Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, offered a measured response as well, urging everyone to take a deep breath. CDFW has partnered with Reclamation on pilot projects testing new technologies for salmon hatcheries.
“People may want efficiencies, but let's pause and talk about, like, do you want your efficiency to undercut your embracing of technology?” said Bonham. “That's the space we want to really encourage people to take a moment and talk with us about.”
Environmental groups, on the other hand, are interpreting the Newsom administration’s restrained messaging as evidence that it is partnering with Trump to prioritize corporate interests over socially disadvantaged communities, endangered species and tribal practices.
“Governor Newsom, like President Trump, is facilitating the biggest transfer of public health and environmental health by pitting one area of California against the other through water transfers,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, in a statement Monday. “He is a divider, not a uniter.”
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