Beverly Press Park Labrea News: Friedman holds firm against GOP-led budget

The longest government shutdown in United States history is finally poised to come to end, as of press time on Nov. 12, with the House of Representatives back in session after a near-two-month recess. But the deal brokered by eight members of the Democratic caucus in the Senate has not found support among their Congressional counterparts. While a 60-vote majority was necessary to bring the continuing resolution in the Senate, only a simple majority – of which the Republican party holds slim advantage – is necessary in the House.

The sticking point that has kept the resolution from passing is an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. If these expire in 2026, millions of Americans’ health care costs are expected to increase significantly. In the Senate’s budget deal, a vote on ACA extensions is promised in December, though Democrats would face headwinds in getting the subsidies extended by Republicans who have long sought to gut President Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation.

“I can’t speak for every single one of the [Democratic caucus] members, but there’s a lot of determination to not support taking health care away from Americans,” Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) said in an interview. “We are standing strong for the American people and will continue to fight, and it doesn’t end today, regardless of this vote. There’s a discharge petition on the floor, which means we’re going to try to move a bill that would continue the ACA tax subsidies for three years. We’re going to continue to do everything that we can to try to get relief to people so they can keep affording health care.”

When asked whether she felt any of the Republican congressional members might support such a resolution, Friedman said, “We’re going to give them the choice of helping their constituents and everybody’s constituents, or voting no, and we’ll see what they do.”

She added that, behind closed doors, “a significant number of Republican House members … will admit that this is wrong.”

“But so far, very few of them have been willing to stand up to Donald Trump. They see themselves as simply an extension of whatever Donald Trump wants,” Friedman said.

The congresswoman said one of the most egregious conditions of the Senate bill was a provision that would allow senators to sue federal investigators who search their phone records without notification in judicially authorized probes.

“You’re not supposed to be able to vote on something that particularly benefits yourself financially, and yet they have to vote to enrich themselves with at least a million dollars of taxpayer money,” Friedman said.

The shutdown has had major effects on Los Angeles County, with flight delays reported at local airports as funding pauses led to furloughed and unpaid federal workers, including air traffic controllers. Additionally, a protracted fight over the issuance of SNAP benefits has played out between the Trump administration and the courts, and residents who use the ACA-aligned Covered California and Medi-cal for health coverage have raised concerns over potential hikes in premium costs. Additionally, several hospitals and clinics in the area rely on federal funding to serve the community.

“We have over 50,000 constituents [who are] going to see dramatic increases in their health care premiums because of this Republican budget. And that’s on top of the billion-dollar cuts to Medicaid that are going to impact people [and] on top of the huge cuts coming down to hospitals and clinics. This is something that’s going to affect everyone, even if you don’t get your coverage from the ACA, this will ultimately end up with increased premiums for you because of the number of uninsured people now that are going to be in the system and have to be taken care of. This is a Republican health care crisis that they have created. This is Trumpcare,” Friedman said.

On Nov. 12, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) swore in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), seven weeks after the Tucson area overwhelmingly elected her as their congressional representative. That same day, House Democrats released emails that alleged to show a connection between Jeffrey Epstein, convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell and President Donald Trump. Republicans also dropped 23,000 documents related to Epstein. With Grijalva providing the final signature on a petition to release the full Epstein file, the House is expected to vote on its release next week.

“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects,” Trump wrote on social media on Nov. 12. “Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap.”

“I think that the victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell deserve justice, and they will never have justice if we don’t have accountability to the rich and famous people who abuse them, whoever that might be,” Friedman said. “And that’s why it’s important that the Trump administration releases the files. They’re clearly doing their best to prevent the release of these files. They’re doing their best to prevent justice for these victims, and hopefully, with the pushing that we have done on our side, we can finally get the files released, that the American public has some transparency and that the victims will get justice.”