July meeting with Sen. Feinstein’s State Director

By Janna Layton and Catya de Neergaard

On July 25, 2018, a group of Indivisible East Bay members held our regular meeting with Senator Feinstein’s state director, Sean Elsbernd. As usual, the talk ranged over a wide variety of subjects, and Sean gave detailed answers to a large number of questions.

IMMIGRATION

Family Separation, Reunification, and Detention

Sen. Feinstein’s Staffers’ Visit to the El Centro Detention Center:

• Sean reports that two of Feinstein’s staff visited the El Centro detention center last week, where they witnessed horrible conditions:
  • One cell was over capacity by about 30 people
  • The only food item available for any meal is a bean and cheese burrito
  • Separated children did not even have mats
• Both children and adults are held in El Centro
• Staffers were not allowed to bring mobile phones or speak to detainees
• Feinstein was deeply troubled by her staffers’ report, and contacted Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.
• Feinstein’s reaction to the visit was covered in this article by the San Diego Union Tribune.

Other Detention Centers:

• Feinstein has not visited any detention centers and is not likely to. The detention centers are more likely to prepare ahead of time for a visit from Feinstein than they are for her staffers.
• Staffers will visit all centers in CA to determine if what they saw at the El Centro facility is typical or a one-off. Feinstein wants this information before Judiciary Committee hearing.
• Staff are going to the Yuba City detention center next week, but will have similar restrictions as in the El Centro center.
• Several detention centers have cancelled their contracts with ICE.
  • It is important to note that detainees in those centers are not released, but transferred to different centers.

Other Issues:

• In the 48 hours before our meeting, it was announced that hundreds of parents have been deported without their children.
  • The ACLU suspects many of these parents might not have gotten asylum hearings.
• Senator Harris’s REUNITE Act – a Feinstein staffer wrote the bulk of this act, so Feinstein will likely eventually support it. 
  • However, Feinstein has been working on another, similar act that has the support of all Democratic senators, which she believes has a better chance of passing.
  • Sean is unsure if Senator Cruz is still talking with Feinstein re: her act, but if he is, it is only because of local resistance groups in Texas putting pressure on him.

Asylum Seekers

• This has not been focused on as much because there are so many issues to be highlighted, and the public can only take so much.
• The fact that Attorney General Sessions does not attend oversight hearings as he should has been has been overlooked.
• Even some GOP moderates like Senator Rubio have disagreed on the Trump administration’s treatment of asylum-seekers from Central America

ICE

Appropriations Bill:

• Feinstein voted against the bill in the Appropriations Committee
• This might get brought up again in September
• There is slim chance of a government shutdown. Senator McConnell and Congressman Ryan know how bad that would look. However, Trump might not care.

Splitting ICE:

• Feinstein has not discussed this with Sean.
• If done, it would likely be done by Sessions rather than legislature.
  • If Sessions does this, it might be because part of the group that wants to break off from ICE is a union that supported Trump.

Other:

• Sean will follow up with Feinstein re: letter to Grassley

 

SOCIAL SAFETY NET

Health Care

• Senator Feinstein spoke with Peter Lee in the Covered CA administration.  It is expected that Covered CA rates will go up sharply next year. This will give Senator Feinstein a platform for a strong message to wrap the ACA mess around the Republicans. Hurt in the pocketbook is going to wake people up to the message that Republicans broke healthcare. They need to fix it.
• We have asked Feinstein frequently and continue to ask her to consider supporting the single payer system. Sean usually replies that such a bill, for example, the ‘Medicare for All Bill’ introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders, doesn’t currently have any hope of passing, so it is a low priority.

Housing/Homelessness

• Senator Harris introduced The Rent Relief Act in the Senate on July 19, 2018.  There is already a similar bill in the House. Senator Feinstein joined Senator Harris in the introduction and will continue to touch base with Senator Harris about this bill. This bill is a big CA issue. 
• IEB strongly supports the Rent Relief Act’s goal of giving low-income residents more federal support to pay for housing. Indivisible can to help this bill along by getting more co-sponsors.
• Senator Feinstein is working on a new plan for cities and counties to apply for a new federal grant program to address homelessness. There would be strict quality controls, for example, for low income housing. She is calling it her ‘first day’ bill because she plans to introduce it the first day of the new Congress (provided, of course, that she wins the election).
• Possible housing solutions:
  • Senator Feinstein has visited or had her staff visit various ‘tiny homes’ and other solutions to homelessness.  
  • She has a binder listing the name and description of the shelters and other facilities for the homeless across the state.  She sees the scope and quality of solutions across the state.
  • There is no one size fits all solution for homelessness and the housing crisis.
• One potential source of funding is the VA. The VA and various veterans’ assistance programs have pots of money.  Housing homeless veterans with the money could be considered a front end solution to prevent the medical catastrophes that come with homelessness.
• The federal government and each county have surplus property that could be used to build low income housing.  There is a federal law to transfer surplus property. The feds have just transferred a big lot between 7th and 9th streets to the City of San Francisco for $1.

 

NATIONAL SECURITY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Helsinki/Russia

• There was a hearing that day in the Senate Formulations Committee with Secretary of State Pompeo testifying.
  • Feinstein is not on that committee, but she is anxious to talk to colleagues about how it went.
• Feinstein does not think Russia will be an issue that sways Republicans, but trade. Last summer, Feinstein held a forum with farmers in the Central Valley. They said if trade issues continue until Labor Day, that will hurt their businesses. They invest their money into resources at the beginning of the year, so this is a big issue for them.
• Efforts are being made by Intelligence to get info on what was said at the Summit, but it is unlikely that transcripts will be made public. Such transcripts have not been public for previous administrations.

Iran

• Sean noted a Washington Post article that reported anonymous White House staffers have said Trump’s tweet was a distraction from North Korea.
• Feinstein does not give his tweet much credence.
• The Iran Deal is important to her, as she worked on it.
• It is unlikely the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act will go to the Senate floor or be amended to something.
• Sean will talk with Feinstein re: Senator Merkley’s 2001 AUMF replacement

Election Security

• Feinstein has been focusing on California’s election security with CA Secretary of State Alex Padilla, not nationally, because she is pragmatic about what she can accomplish.
• Sean will check with her re: Wyden’s act.
• It is important for local groups to reach out to their Board of Supervisors regarding election security.

Security Clearances

• Feinstein thinks this is a distraction technique and not a big issue.
• Some former officials have said they don’t need it anyway, and temporary clearances can be gained if needed.

Whistleblowers

• Sean stated that Feinstein has always protected whistleblowers.

 

ENVIRONMENT

EPA Fuel Economy Waiver for CA

• Feinstein is very aggressive on this, because she passed the laws that let CA do this.
• She has lobbied extensively, including reaching out to Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao.
• Advocacy groups need to elevate this issue.
  • One choice would be for consumers to demand car manufacturers continue to meet high fuel efficiency standards even if standards change.

Puerto Rico

• We talked about the disaster in Puerto Rico in the context of the growing effects of climate change all over the country and asked if Feinstein would co-sponsor the Rebuilding Resilient Energy System Act to allow Puerto Rico and other disaster-affected areas (like our own state) to be rebuilt with greener and more resilient infrastructure; Sean said he would look up the bill and convey our request to the Senator.
• Nationwide, Indivisible can help by writing lots more letters on the situation in Puerto Rico to their MOCs. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida would be a good person to lobby because he has 10 to 20K new Puerto Rican voters in his state.
• Senator Feinstein will continue to advocate for Puerto Rico, but the Kavanaugh  nomination is her priority.

• We thanked the Senator for co-sponsoring the Washington DC statehood bill and asked if Feinstein would introduce a Senate version of the Puerto Rico Admissions Act; Sean said she would not, because it isn’t going to happen in 2018.

 

JUDICIARY

Judicial Nominations

Supreme Court:

• According to Sean, Senator Feinstein does not consider the proposal to request and view documents regarding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh a “sinking ship.”
• The Senator’s negotiations have been focused on these documents. They are important because they get Kavanaugh on the record and give insight on his positions. Some valuable documents have been found already.
• Half a million dollars have been given each to Senators Feinstein and Grassley from the Rules Committee to research this. Feinstein is using the money to hire staff to research and comb through documents.
• The GOP is trying avoid the Democrats pointing out the hypocrisy of their treatment of this SCOTUS nominee versus their treatment of Obama’s nominees
  • Schumer has video of Grassley demanding all papers on Kagan.
  • This tactic won’t change McConnell’s mind, but might affect Republican senators who are on the fence.

Court of Appeals:

• The Senator’s focus has been on Kavanaugh, and Sean does not have a statement from her on Eric Murphy, nominated to the Sixth Circuit, or Ryan Nelson, nominated to the Ninth Circuit.

 

TALK TO YOUR GOVERNMENT

Town Hall

• We want Sen. Feinstein to commit to hold a town hall after the election; Sean said that she would think about that after the election.

Join the meetings!

• Indivisible East Bay meets with Sen. Feinstein’s key staff every month. Be part of our team! It’s a fascinating way to find out more about the things you care about. Meetings are announced in the IEB weekly newsletter; subscribe to the newsletter for this and more!

 

Photograph by Catya de Neergaard