An Inside Look at Alex Padilla

By Kaitlan Collins (Brooke Lynch)

Senator Alex Padilla (Rebeca Perez) was elected Chair of the Foreign and Military Affairs Committee a little over a week ago. This appointment was a huge step in Padilla’s career.

They explained their decision to run for the position, “I just really wanted to put myself out there and make sure that I had a voice in the Democratic party and in Congress in general.”

Padilla hopes to prioritize issues such as immigration, protecting our service members, and supporting Ukraine in the Foreign and Military Affairs Committee. Outside of the Committee, Padilla has plans to further other issues well. “Personally, I also hope to work on my legislation that would expand health care access, protect our environment and current climate change, and race.”

Having only been a senator for less than two years, Padilla surprised everyone when their committee was the only one to have reportedly run smoothly during its first meeting, as opposed to the Judiciary and Budget committees whose separate debacles made headlines in The Washington Watch. Democrats have certainly had a difficult beginning to this session with committees. Padilla acknowledged, “I think we came to kind of a rocky start, but I think even [Monday’s] session proved we can really come back from it, we can stand strong, stand united. I think we’ve definitely learned from the mishaps that happened last week and are ready to come back stronger.”

Running the Foreign and Military Affairs Committee has come with its lows as well. Padilla’s first bill, the Home of the Brave Act, was killed in committee when two Democratic senators teamed up with the Republicans to vote against the bill. Here’s what Padilla has to say about working with Republicans:

“It’s been kind of confusing honestly cause they’ll say ‘oh we’re really willing to work with you, we can’t wait to work with you, we’re committed to working bipartisanly,’ and then they’ll just completely trash us on Twitter, completely trash us in press releases, block anything that we try to get done even if it would be better, without even considering other perspectives.”

Padilla clarified further, “I do think there’s a minority of republicans who are not committed to working bipartisanly. It very much seems that their top priority is blocking Democrats, stopping Democrats, attacking Democrats and not to working together and working to make our country better” Senator Padilla isn’t upset with all Republicans though, they expressed, “There definitely are some that are committed to working with Democrats … I don’t think it’s everyone.”

Despite Padilla’s critique of the Republicans’ recent actions, they are still committed to working closely with them on legislation. “Honestly I’m excited to work with everyone. Every time I talk to people about what bills they’re working on, what legislation they’re writing, it’s always so fascinating.” When it comes to working with other senators Padilla stated they’re open to working with “honestly anyone who is willing to work with me.”

Regardless of the highs and lows of the past week, Padilla is ready to take on the challenges of running the Foreign and Military Affairs Committee and is excited to continue representing California’s citizens.