U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, show speaking earlier this year outside the Los Angeles Stentorians headquarters, spoke out against the shutdown of the federal government in a virtual news conference Sept. 30. Kamlager-Dove blamed Republicans in Congress for bowing down to President Donald Trump.
Courtesy photo
By Ray Richardson
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES — Among the many damaging effects of the U.S. government shutdown, projected to last at least through the weekend, health care coverage for constituents is the primary concern for U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove.
Kamlager-Dove’s 37th District includes communities in the Crenshaw Area, West Los Angeles and Culver City. A large percentage of Black and Latino/Hispanic residents live in the district.
“Instead of working across the aisle to protect health care for millions of Americans, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans walked away from the table,” Kamlager-Dove said in a statement on social media Oct. 1. “If they cared about the American people or the devastating impacts of a shutdown, they would have gotten serious about governing months ago. Instead, they wasted time pushing their Big Ugly Bill and leaving working families to pay the price.”
Many residents of color in Kamlager-Dove’s district will be affected by Republican efforts to cut federal funding for Obamacare, Medicare and Medi-Cal.
Democrats opposed the proposed cuts, leading to a shutdown after the Senate failed to pass a funding bill by midnight Sept. 30 to keep the government operating until late November.
Kamlager-Dove’s office set up a website to help constituents in need of assistance during the shutdown at https://kamlager-dove.house. Persons can also call Kamlager-Dove’s district office at 323-965-1422.
During a conference call Sept. 30 with local Black media outlets, Kamlager-Dove estimated that approximately 58,000 residents in her district rely on federally funded health coverage. She said the shutdown puts current and future health coverage at risk.
“There are 700,000 constituents in my district,” Kamlager-Dove said. “400,000 of that total are on either Medicare or Medicaid.”
California residents with Medi-Cal coverage are also at risk of losing benefits. In the 2024-25 state budget, half of the $161 billion appropriated for Medi-Cal came from federal funding.
California’s Women, Infants and Children program is another vital resource facing a cease in operations due to the shutdown. The program, administered by the California Department of Public Health, provides nutrition and health services for women expecting a child and women with young children.
WIC is federally funded with an annual budget of $722.3 million. Kamlager-Dove expressed fears that more than 32,000 people in her district could lose their WIC benefits and services.
“We have a president who is unaware of the devastation he’s inflicting on all Americans around the country,” Kamlager-Dove said of Trump.
Considering ongoing tensions between President Trump and California elected officials, specifically Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, it is unlikely Democrats in the state will get a sympathetic ear from the the Trump administration on how the shutdown could affect state services.
Kamlager-Dove, who replaced Bass as the 37th District representative in 2023, urged the Black community to be more vocal in opposing the shutdown and Trump administration policies that are having an adverse effect on Black communities nationwide.
“We have to continue exposing the hurt and pain,” Kamlager-Dove said of Trump’s policies. “This guy (Trump) might not run again, but we can’t let (Vice President) JD Vance or Donald Trump Jr. (Trump’s son) get in there and keep doing the same thing. We can’t have anarchy. We need a government we can rely on.”
Kamlager-Dove indicated other state components could be affected by a prolonged shutdown, including more than 200,000 active duty and National Guard reserve personnel who would be forced to work without pay.
Kamlager-Dove also mentioned that $4 billion from the federal government would be frozen, money that the state’s Small Business Administration would use for small business loans. About $77 million in advertising money for the state will also be put on hold, Kamlager-Dove said.
“We have Black farmers, Black businesses, people in the armed forces … all of them will be affected by a shutdown,” Kamlager-Dove said. “We have to keep reminding folks that everybody is taking a hit. It’s been a painful nine months.”
Ray Richardson is a contributing writer for The Wave. He can be reached at rayrich55@gmail.com.
