On his maiden voyage

to California since announcing his re-election campaign, President Biden on Monday announced $600 million in federal funding to combat the effects of climate change after touring a Northern California wildlife sanctuary with Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The president’s financial commitment is only expected to increase Biden’s strong political support in California and among Americans

editing

on the environment, two constituencies critical to the president’s bid for a second term.

A key Biden rival in the 2024 presidential race, Florida’s Republican governor. Ron DeSantis was also in California on a fundraising tour and Vice President Kamala Harris

spoke was scheduled to speak

during a Juneteenth party in Los Angeles, an indication of the outrageous role the state could play in the upcoming election.

The funding from the Biden administration to fight climate change, which will be awarded by

the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under the Inflation Reduction Act will support coastal and Great Lakes communities prone to storm surges, sea level rise and flooding

for

innovative solutions to increase climate resilience.

“I have visited many sites across the country that clearly show that climate change is a real existential threat to humanity,” Biden said as he stood by a salt marsh at the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center in San Francisco Bay.

The Democratic president praised his administration’s work to combat climate change. Biden highlighted $2.3 billion to modernize the power grid under the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including $67.4 million for California.

“Throughout our history, we are the only nation in the world that has emerged from every crisis stronger than we went into,” Biden said. “We’re talking about the climate crisis here again.”

Biden’s visit to California includes a slew of fundraisers organized by the likes of former EBay executive and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Newsom is expected to co-host a fundraiser for Biden in Marin on Tuesday.

“There is simply no president in modern American history who has done more to fulfill the commitment to address the issue of climate change than President Joe Biden,” Newsom said Monday.

Newsom’s ramblings about Biden’s leadership and performance in the White House adds even more credence to California governors’ vows to help the Democratic president win re-election in 2024.

The governor has spent years trying to quell speculation about his own interest in becoming president, both fueled by whispers from

That

Dissatisfied with Biden and more recently with Newsom’s aggressive national campaign against the far-right policies being championed in Florida and Texas.

Newsom in March transferred $10 million of his state campaign funds to a new federal political action committee, the Campaign for Democracy, which he says he founded to help Democrats in the 2024 election and to abduct migrant Republican leaders who ban books. and to stop sticking. racism.

DeSantis, one of Newsom’s top Republican foils, ventured to Sacramento on Monday to raise money for his own presidential campaign and has plans for another fundraiser in Southern California on Tuesday. The Republicans’ visit comes amid an ongoing public feud with Newsom as California probed its handling of migrant flights to Sacramento earlier this month.

Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) attended a private breakfast at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento and said DeSantis focused on the stark contrast between California and Florida. That included citing Florida’s record-high budget and California’s current budget deficit, he said. Florida’s governor also discussed immigration policy and our porous border, he said.

Biden declined to comment on DeSantis on Monday.

However, the president has not shied away from talking about how his administration has helped improve the daily lives of Americans with the $1.2

trillion trillion

infrastructure bill passed during his first year in office, which is one of his top achievements as president.

“We are investing in people and places that have been hit hardest, but who are also on the frontline to help us move forward,” Biden said.

Passed with Republican support, the infrastructure package was a prize that eluded Biden’s predecessor and main GOP challenger in 2024, former President Trump. The law will expand broadband internet access and repair aging roads and bridges over the next five years. California will receive tens of millions of dollars to improve access to clean drinking water and to reduce wildfires and other natural disasters.

Meanwhile, Newsom is in the final stages of negotiating with Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento over his own plan to streamline California’s infrastructure-building process. The governor’s office has claimed that making it easier to build is critical to the state’s ability to meet its ambitious climate goals.

The funding in the president’s announcement to upgrade the power grid and build coastal resilience, coupled with the governor’s infrastructure package, will accelerate projects across the state and lay the foundations for an era of building.” said Daniel Villaseor, a Newsom spokesperson. , in a statement: “And our work last year to streamline electrical transmission licensing means California will put this funding to work and deliver results faster.

The governor’s office has said state legislation could shorten project timelines by more than three years in some cases and remove bureaucratic hurdles to build transportation, clean energy and water infrastructure across California.

The changes Newsom has proposed would also make it easier to complete his controversial plan to, say, build an underground tunnel to transport water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California. A key goal of the package is to reduce the likelihood of long delays due to lawsuits filed under the California Environmental Quality Act that can sink construction projects.

The infrastructure plan is one of the latest issues Newsom and lawmakers are negotiating in talks over the upcoming state budget.

Lawmakers have questioned the need to urgently move the bills through the budget process rather than through the regular and more deliberative policy process.

In a statement Monday, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) said Senate and Assembly leaders continue to work toward a budget deal with the governor.

While we cannot share the details of these negotiations as they are ongoing, we can confirm that talks on infrastructure proposals are progressing,” the pro tem’s office said. “We look forward to reaching a final budget agreement.

Times staff writers Mackenzie Mays and Seema Mehta contributed to this report.