Governator Seeks Money on Washington Trip
Story published on ABC News.com
By Brittany Oat
February 28, 2007
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an election pledge in 2003 to be “the Collectinator” and get more money for California from the federal government.
For the third year in a row, Schwarzenegger said he did just that.
In a two-day series of meetings with members of Congress and Bush administration officials, he lobbied for Californians to recapture more than 79 cents on every federal tax dollar they send to Washington.
“It’s all about fighting for money,” he said, standing alongside Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “We want to get as much as we can for California.”
And, as he often stressed on this annual trip to the nation’s capital, cooperating in a post-partisan fashion.
Pelosi agreed.
“We had a very positive discussion about how we can work together in a bipartisan way on issues that affect people of our country, but specifically on some issues where California is leading the way,” she said.
One such issue is more funding for universal health-care coverage.
Schwarzenegger said California had been developing a $12 billion universal health-care initiative over the last year and a half that relied upon $5.74 billion in new federal money each year. The plan, however, is meeting resistance from congressional Republicans and Democrats.
“We could lead and all the other states could follow,” he said, when asked of the national significance of a universal health-care initiative in California.
Also on Schwarzenegger’s request list is assistance for victims of the January 2007 crop freeze and major increases in the federal budget to pay for incarcerating undocumented prisoners.
In meetings with California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, the governor discussed the ongoing needs of those devastated by the massive loss of crops during the recent citrus freeze, which did an estimated $1 billion worth of damage.
Feinstein and Boxer have introduced the Emergency Farm Assistance Act of 2007, which would allocate $1.3 billion to those affected. California members of the House of Representatives vowed to push forward a similar piece of legislation.
“The effects of this frost cannot be underestimated,” Feinstein said. “There were thousands and thousands of acres damaged and no one can estimate those costs.”
In the spirit of bipartisanship, Schwarzenegger also mentioned a plan to have California’s districts redrawn to make races more competitive. He has a plan to have local election officials pick citizens to be in commissions and draw the districts.
“We would have people draw it,” he said. “Out of the hands of legislators and out of the hands of Congress.”
Feinstein said she’d have to think about the plan and do some research of her own.
“People? How many people?” Feinstein responded, laughing. “I think I ought to study it.”
