One of the most rewarding parts of my job is nominating bright, promising young men and women to our nation’s military academies. On Monday, I visited the Air Force Academy in Colorado for the first time and talked with cadets who spend each day rigorously studying and training to become Airmen. It was great to hear what they like about the Academy and which careers they’re looking forward to when they graduate. I also had the chance to meet up with some students from San Diego, and I loved hearing how far they’ve come.  

This week, I also visited Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) San Diego and the Navy’s Silver Strand Training Complex, and I met with the Regional Commander for Navy Region Southwest. Housing remains a top concern in the military community, and I talked with them about opportunities I have to secure funding for military housing in various funding packages. MCRD let me know that they are working to strengthen their relationship with the external community and I look forward to how the relationship between civilian and military families will grow.  

On Wednesday, I hosted a press conference with San Diego County Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe and Nyrine Washington, Director of Strategic Communications for AFGE TSA Local 1260. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been shut down for nearly two months now, and federal workers are stretched dangerously thin. The worst effects of the shutdown are being felt at our airports, where TSA agents are overworked and unappreciated and travelers endure long delays.   

I'm glad President Trump recently decided to pay TSA employees with unspent funds from his and Republicans' 2025 ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’ In early March, I introduced a bill to do exactly that for every DHS agency except ICE and CBP. We should pass my bill, so the livelihoods of essential federal workers don't depend on the whims of any one person. It is shameful that the President and congressional Republicans withheld these public servants’ paychecks for weeks in a failed effort to secure billions more funding for ICE and CBP without reform. Hardworking employees at TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and other DHS agencies must not be used as leverage during shutdowns.  

• NPR highlights 3 individual reports that talk about how democracy and civil rights have eroded in the United States since President Trump took office last year.   

• The Atlantic outlines how President Trump’s attacks on science will push the next generation of researchers and scientists to other countries.