Democratic lawmakers in California want the state to restore funding for scientific research that has been slashed by the Trump administration, creating an ambitious plan to use tens of billions of dollars in voter-approved bonds to fill the void.
In California, the federal cuts have been deep, and are expected to worsen.
At one site alone — the University of California, Los Angeles — the Trump administration has already sought to freeze roughly $584 million in federal research grants, state lawmakers said.
At the time, the $3 billion bond measure was the largest state-run scientific research effort in the country.
Now, scientific research has become a critical economic engine in the state, fueling jobs from the Silicon Valley’s tech giants to the vast farms of the Central Valley.
In California, Democratic lawmakers have devised a bold plan to use tens of billions of dollars in voter-approved bonds to restore funding for scientific research that has been cut by the Trump administration.
Proponents of the plan claimed that it would essentially establish a state-based equivalent of the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, two of the biggest institutional funders of scientific and public health research in the country. In an effort to circumvent vaccine skeptics in the Trump administration, the states of California, Washington, and Oregon announced that they would establish a health alliance to evaluate scientific data and recommend vaccines for their citizens.
Legislators must approve a proposed $23 billion in bonds in 2026, and voters must approve the measure in order for the state to finance grants and loans to academic institutions, research firms, and healthcare organizations.
It is far more aggressive than the one that was floated in Massachusetts in July and would be the biggest state effort of its kind. There, Maura Healey proposed a $400 million study.
Federal cuts have been severe in California and are predicted to get worse. According to state legislators, the Trump administration has already attempted to freeze about $584 million in federal research grants at just one location: the University of California, Los Angeles.
The legislation supporting the restoration effort was drafted by Assemblyman José Luis Solache Jr. and State Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco. of Lynwood, Southern California — was formally introduced by the writers late Friday. The bill needs the consent of a supermajority of the Legislature in order to be put on the ballot in 2026, and it won’t be considered until January, following the state’s legislative recess.
It is not guaranteed to pass the legislature or the electorate. Even by Californian standards, the proposed bond amount is enormous. A $15 billion bond to fund higher education was rejected by voters in 2020. Additionally, a $6.04 billion bond previously issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to provide housing and treatment for homeless individuals suffering from severe addiction and mental illness narrowly passed.
The United Auto Workers, which represents tens of thousands of graduate students and other academic workers, is among the groups supporting the proposal, but they remain hopeful.
“The decision to fund lifesaving research in cancer treatment, disease diagnostics, chronic diseases, climate science, wildfire preparedness, and more should be left to Californians, not Donald Trump,” said Mike Miller, director of U.S. a. W. In a statement, Region 6, which represents about 76,000 academic employees in the state, said.
Organized labor is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the state and a dependable source of campaign volunteers, and Democrats have a legislative supermajority in Sacramento. It would only need a majority vote to pass if the initiative were to appear on the ballot. The state’s electorate is roughly two times more Democratic than Republican.
Similar ballot measures have previously been approved by Californians. A ballot measure to fund research on human embryonic stem cells was approved by the state’s voters in 2004 following President George W. Citing opposition to the destruction of human embryos, the Bush administration limited the use of public funds for such research.
The $3 billion bond measure at the time was the nation’s largest state-funded scientific research project. In 2020, the state’s voters approved an additional $5 billion in bonding to fund the research and possible cures for disorders of the brain and nervous system, including dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s.
The state’s economy now depends heavily on scientific research, which supports jobs in everything from the massive farms of the Central Valley to the tech giants of Silicon Valley.
“California should double down on our global leadership on science as Trump and his cronies slash research funding for universities and destroy federal science capacity,” Mr. Dot Wiener stated in an interview. Among the foundations of the California economy is scientific research. “”.
This proposal comes as the government is investigating other campuses and the Trump administration and the University of California, the biggest recipient of National Institutes of Health funding, are at odds over the antisemitism record of the Los Angeles campus. More than $1 billion has already been demanded from the federal government. C. L. . a. more than it is known to have asked any other university for in order to settle the dispute.
The U. A. President James B. A payment of this magnitude would totally destroy our nation’s best public university system and cause severe harm to our students and all Californians, Milliken warned last month. “.”.
In addition to researching its legal options and attempting to prepare lawmakers for a potentially expensive response to Washington’s threats, the university system has been in discussions with the federal government.
Nearly three dozen lawmakers urged Mr. Milliken and other university officials “to stand by Californians and their values and not back down in the face of this political shakedown” in a letter sent late last month. The lawmakers went on to say, “The Legislature is fully behind you.”. “.”.
Mr. Milliken clarified how much assistance he might eventually require from Sacramento in a response to Senator Wiener, the chair of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, a few days later. Mr. Milliken wrote that if federal funding for the universities effectively disappeared, U. A. To lessen the harm of that loss, at least $4–5 billion would be required annually. “.”.
