WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Budget Committee, participated in a hearing on President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget proposal where he advocated for California’s funding priorities and questioned the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young.

During the hearing, Padilla advocated for additional resources to help people gain access to affordable, safe, and supportive housing both in California and across the country. Last month, Padilla introduced the Housing for All Act to invest nearly $532 billion over ten years to address our homelessness and affordable housing crises.

Padilla questioned OMB Director Young on the significance of the $1.8 billion included in the budget proposal to bolster our federal firefighting workforce. Padilla also lauded the administration for proposing new funding to support the President’s call for full parity between physical health and behavioral health care, comprising mental health and substance use disorder care, as the need for services has become even more urgent during the pandemic.

Key Excerpts:

• PADILLA: […] the pandemic has underscored the need for affordable, safe, and supportive housing. In over the last two years, especially, many have lost their housing, whether they struggle to keep up with rent payments, or mortgage payments despite our assistance programs. And these hardships, no surprise, hit especially hard on communities of color, low-income families, Americans with disabilities, and other historically marginalized communities. Now, affordable housing is essential infrastructure.
  
• As we’ve spoken on a couple of occasions, California and across the West, we continue to see how the climate crisis is leading to more frequent and more severe wildfires. And although we’ve made progress in recent years in increasing funding levels for federal land management agencies, Americans living in the West still need more support to truly address the growing problem and that’s both financial resources, as well as personnel. […] Director Young, can you discuss how these funds will address the firefighter workforce shortage and help chip away at the huge backlog of hazardous fuel reduction and post fire landscape rehabilitation projects?
  
• YOUNG: And I’d also like to point out the 1.8 billion is a $560 million increase. As you say, it’s a start, it’s not a finish. We also are upholding the President’s commitment to make sure firefighters make a minimum wage of $15. […] We know that recruitment will take a long time to build up, so our National Guard presence has been a lifesaver, literally, for a lot of communities, so we remain committed to doing that as well.

Full transcript of the exchange is available here:

PADILLA: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hello, we speak again. I, for a second, just want to echo what Senator Luján and others have mentioned in terms of uplifting and prioritizing the mental health and behavioral health elements of the proposed budget. As Senator Sanders put it well, it was an epidemic before the pandemic, and it’s only been exacerbated since. So, a lot more to work on there and I would ask that we particularly be mindful of how we work in partnership with state and local governments, particularly those who have also stepped up and committed funding through their budgets. Let’s leverage programs, let’s leverage precious resources to maximum effect and look forward to working with you on that.

Now, mental health needs and shortfalls across the country, not just in my home state of California, is not the only factor, but it’s a significant factor in the homelessness issues that we’re experiencing today, coupled with a housing affordability crisis. I also want to thank you for the levels of funding for housing in the proposed budget. And then, similar to mental and behavioral health, the pandemic has underscored the need for affordable, safe, and supportive housing. In over the last two years, especially, many have lost their housing, whether they struggle to keep up with rent payments, or mortgage payments despite our assistance programs. And these hardships, no surprise, hit especially hard on communities of color, low-income families, Americans with disabilities, and other historically marginalized communities. Now, affordable housing is essential infrastructure. And I know other senators have talked about housing, including Senator Warner, but I just want to underscore that we have an ongoing need for robust federal funding for housing programs, more urgent now than it has ever been. I’ll call attention to my Housing for All Act that I introduced several weeks ago that built on proven solutions that have been developed at a state and local level, effective in terms of addressing housing, but with respect to unique challenges and opportunities and communities across my state and you can apply that to communities across the country, so building on provably successful models with investments, I think is a smart way to go. So in lieu of asking you a question on that I just wanted to highlight and underscore my appreciation for that.

Now, a question not unique to California, but probably disproportionate to the West—on the issue of wildfires and disaster preparedness. As we’ve spoken on a couple of occasions, California and across the West, we continue to see how the climate crisis is leading to more frequent and more severe wildfires. And although we’ve made progress in recent years in increasing funding levels for federal land management agencies, Americans living in the West still need more support to truly address the growing problem and that’s both financial resources, as well as personnel. You know, do we’ve the might to try to prevent or mitigate the impact of wildfires? I can’t help but notice that from 2019 to 2021, the US Forest Service, which is the federal government’s primary wildland fire agency, saw its firefighter ranks drop by more than 20% in California to a loss of 1,000 employees. So, I was pleased to see the budget includes $1.8 billion for the Forest Service and the Department of Interior to strengthen our federal firefighting workforce, increase capacity, and improve firefighter compensation. It’s long overdue, but we know that’s just a drop in the bucket. So, Director Young, can you discuss how these funds will address the firefighter workforce shortage and help chip away at the huge backlog of hazardous fuel reduction and post fire landscape rehabilitation projects?

YOUNG: And I’d also like to point out the 1.8 billion is a $560 million increase. As you say, it’s a start, it’s not a finish. We also are upholding the President’s commitment to make sure firefighters make a minimum wage of $15. We think that will also help with recruitment. And I know this is an issue of importance to Senator Merkley, who’s not here, but one thing we also support is the National Guard being used in a lot of these areas. We know that recruitment will take a long time to build up, so our National Guard presence has been a lifesaver, literally, for a lot of communities, so we remain committed to doing that as well.

PADILLA: Thank you very much. And in closing, Mr. Chair, I know the topic of inflation and interest rates back in the 70s and 80s came up earlier in the hearing. I’d just like to note for the record that from 1969 to 1974, there was a Republican president from 1974 to 1977, there was a Republican president, from 77 to 81, yes, there was a Democratic president, and from 81 to 89, there was a Republican president, so happy to have these debates about the economy and interest rates.

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