CPRA Strategies: February 2025 Look Ahead
Top Line Takeaways
Chaos before the storm: Trump 2.0 has returned to the White House with a vengeance and a more disciplined approach. The last two weeks are a preview of what I expect to see more of in the coming months.
Governor Newsom’s plan to “Trump-proof” California stalls in the Legislature. Concerns about legal aid funding being used by immigrants with criminal backgrounds are a sticking point.
CPRA Strategies goes to Washington, D.C., the week of February 24–28. Please contact me if there are specific federal issues you need assistance with.
Upcoming Legislative Hearings:
Feb. 6: Senate Budget Committee – Informational Hearing on Transit in California
Feb. 10: Assembly Budget Committee – Overview of Governor’s 2025 Budget
Feb. 12: Assembly Housing – Informational Hearing on State Housing Production Legislation
Key Legislative Deadlines:
February 21, 2025: the deadline for all new bills to be introduced. I expect to see approximately 1,700 new bills introduced in the next three weeks.
Sacramento Update
Last week, the California State Assembly considered two bills that would appropriate a combined $50 million to fund lawsuits against the Trump administration and provide legal defenses for immigrants facing deportation.
SBX1-1 would appropriate $25 million for State Attorney General Rob Bonta to file lawsuits against the Trump administration’s actions, while SBX1-2 would appropriate $25 million for legal aid services for immigrants facing deportation.
The Assembly delayed voting on the two bills over concerns that the legal aid could be used to defend immigrants with criminal records. Sources in the administration indicated that an amendment is being sought by the Governor’s office to SBX1-2 to clarify that legal aid for immigrants with criminal records is not allowed. The Legislature is expected to take these bills up again this week.
Washington D.C. Update
Last week, the Trump administration moved to freeze all federal funding (except Social Security and Medicare), shrink the federal workforce, cut international aid, start a trade war, and provide the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with access to all U.S. Treasury data.
Key Takeaways from Last Week:
Federal Funding:
Trump 2.0 is leveraging the power of the purse early in his term to attack his opponents and gain leverage over Democrats.
Shortly after the President’s executive order freezing all federal funding, California State Attorney General Rob Bonta—joined by 22 other states—filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) to block the order.
Hours after a judge issued the TRO, the Administration rescinded the order but did not completely undo its funding freeze.
In official White House statements and in conversations with federally funded nonprofit organizations, the portals for submitting reimbursement claims remain shut down, and federal agency staff have, to varying degrees, gone silent and withdrawn grant agreements drafted under the previous administration.
It will likely be a few months before we gain any clarity on federal funding for existing and new programs, especially since the courts are expected to review and rule on the issue.
Federal Workforce:
The Administration announced a buyout offer for federal employees as part of its broader plan to reshape the federal workforce.
Under the offer, employees who opt to resign could receive buyouts valued at more than seven months’ salary.
The memo announcing the offer also set new mandatory rules, including a full-time return to the office and stricter performance standards, intended to trigger a wave of voluntary resignations and enable significant downsizing of federal agencies.
The buyout option is open until February 6, 2025, and further downsizing is expected to lead to longer wait times and reduced responsiveness from federal agencies, which are already understaffed.
Artificial Intelligence:
Coinciding with the federal workforce buyout offer, DOGE, led by Elon Musk and six engineers aged 19–24, is using AI to comb through the U.S. Treasury’s payment system, which processes over $6 trillion annually.
This effort is the first step in the Trump administration’s plan to capture massive amounts of government data that, in my opinion, will ultimately be used to replace vacant positions with AI.
DeepSeek Enters the Chat:
The AI world was shaken last week with the release of DeepSeek, a smart search tool that uses AI to quickly locate and process large amounts of data.
Initial reviews compared DeepSeek to ChatGPT, but at a fraction of the cost.
In response, ChatGPT released a new model, o3, which offers advanced reasoning at faster speeds. This new model is available to paid subscribers, and over the weekend, I experimented with o3—it is phenomenal for accurate and detailed research-related tasks.
