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katie porter
Tell Congress: It’s the Perfect Time for Fourth Graders to Go to a Park
We are working to build bipartisan support for the Every Kid Outdoors Act, a bill that would make permanent free national park admission for fourth graders and their families, and expand the program to fifth graders.
Oct 23, 2024
As we head into fall, now is the perfect time for families to plan their next escape from the stresses of school, work, and everyday life—and there’s no better place to go than the outdoors. From Acadia to Everglades to Yosemite, our national parks provide opportunities for relaxation, camping, day hikes, and science education.
We are two people who understand—and love—the outdoors. I, Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), am a single mom of three kids and an avid national park visitor, and serve on the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees federal land and our environment. And I, Tigran Nahabedian, am a student and youth adviser at Outdoors Alliance for Kids. We’re both passionate about exploring our national treasures and making it easier for all Americans to experience our country’s beautiful parks and lands.
Some families might be daunted at the idea of visiting our national parks. For some, the cost of entry and other assorted expenses can feel prohibitive. Fortunately, the Every Kid Outdoors program helps remove one of those barriers by granting fourth graders and their families an annual pass that allows them free entry to all federal public lands, waters, and shores. Dedicated park staff, both in person and online, can help families plan a fun, safe trip, appropriate for every level of outdoor experience, fitness, and budget.
If you love visiting our national treasures and agree that everyone should have the ability to enjoy the outdoors, make your voice heard.
Every year, over 200,000 kids and their families get a pass, helping connect them with nature and history. These affordable vacation and recreation opportunities help kids learn about conservation and wildlife, and teach important lessons about our nation’s history, geology, biology, and more. The Every Kid Outdoors program sparks passions that can shape future careers in science or recreation and creates lifelong memories.
But, if Congress doesn’t act to extend and fund the program, it will expire in 2026, leaving families to pay the full cost of admission to our public lands. Respectively, in our roles as parent and congressmember, and as a student and an outdoor advocate, we have seen the benefits of this program firsthand, which is why we are working to build bipartisan support for the Every Kid Outdoors Act. This bill would make permanent the free admission for fourth graders and their families, and expand the program to fifth graders.
Getting families on our federal lands goes beyond the direct benefits of helping kids learn and grow. Our national parks, forests, and marine sanctuaries are cornerstones of our economy, infrastructure, and communities. That diner serving bananas foster pancakes half an hour from the campsite or that roadside shop stocking magnets and bug spray rely on thriving national parks that attract millions of visitors each year. A National Park Service report in 2023 found that over 325 million visitors spent $26.4 billion in communities within 60 miles of a national park. Outdoor recreation alone accounted for $560 billion of the United States’ 2022 GDP.
So, if you love visiting our national treasures and agree that everyone should have the ability to enjoy the outdoors, make your voice heard. Be loud and be proud about your support for the Every Kids Outdoors program and the Every Kid Outdoors Act so that generations of families can continue to make memories in our national parks. Talk about the program with your friends, family, and neighbors—and if you know a fourth grader, tell them to get an Every Kid Outdoors pass. It’s the perfect time to visit a park.
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Lee's Call for Unconditional Gaza Cease-Fire Stands Out in California Senate Race
"We need leaders who set the pace for change—not halfheartedly follow along when it's politically expedient," the progressive congresswoman insisted.
Dec 20, 2023
Congresswoman Barbara Lee—the only one of three California House Democrats vying for a U.S. Senate seat who backs an unconditional Gaza cease-fire—on Wednesday set herself apart from congressional colleagues who support a pause to the fighting, but with strings attached.
"A conditional cease-fire is not a cease-fire at all," Lee
said on social media. "We need leaders who set the pace for change—not halfheartedly follow along when it's politically expedient."
"I've always shown up for the side of peace and I'll take urgent, unwavering action for peace and security in the Senate," added Lee, the only member of Congress to vote against authorizing the open-ended U.S. War on Terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Lee's remarks came after rival Rep. Katie Porter
said this week that she now favors a Gaza cease-fire—but only on condition of "release of all hostages, durable security for Israel, and an end to Hamas' control of Gaza."
Porter—who earlier this year
said she was "extremely impressed" by far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after meeting him in Israel—had resisted pressure by progressive Democrats to endorse the cease-fire resolution introduced in October by Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Lee was an early backer of the measure.
Lee supporters expressed skepticism over Porter's new stance.
"She waited until the polling and the outcry became so large that she had to put forth a statement. It's a bunch of caveats and conditions to get her to be able to say the word cease-fire," Konstantine Anthony, a Democrat who on Monday completed his term as Burbank's mayor, told Politico.
Anthony—who last week switched his endorsement from Rep. Adam Schiff to Lee over the cease-fire issue—added that "once you have Katie Porter jump sides, now there's immense pressure for Schiff to take a stance on this."
However, Schiff remains the only candidate who has yet to back any sort of cease-fire in Gaza. He defends his position with the same rhetoric as Israel's far-right leaders and their backers in the Biden administration, arguing that a cease-fire would only benefit Hamas.
This, as the Palestinian death toll from 75 days of Israeli bombs and bullets topped 20,000 on Wednesday, with more than 50,000 others wounded and 1.9 million of Gaza's 2.3 million people forcibly displaced, with many suffering from hunger, diseases, and winter conditions.
As Lee said last week, most of the world's nations "agree with the majority of Americans: We need a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. We must end the bloodshed. Countless lives depend on it."
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Protesters Demanding Gaza Cease-Fire Shut Down California Democratic Convention
"We need to stand up and say we're not going to stand for this, and we have to have a cease-fire," said the chair of the state's progressive caucus.
Nov 19, 2023
Thousands of protesters demanding an immediate Gaza cease-fire forced an early shutdown Saturday of California's Democratic Convention in Sacramento in a resounding rebuke of national party leaders' support for what the demonstrators called Israel's "genocidal" war on the Palestinian people.
Protesters chanted "cease-fire now" and waved Palestinian flags as they marched through the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center, where California Democrats were set to vote on their state party platform. The flood of demonstrators prompted security guards to lock down entrances to the building, ending the day's official events well ahead of schedule.
Outside the convention center, activists from Jewish Voice for Peace laid out 500 pairs of shoes representing the more than 5,000 children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel that left around 1,200 people dead and about 240 others kidnapped.
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, chair of the California Democratic Progressive Caucus, said that "disruption has to happen in a democracy for something drastic to change."
Delegate Sameena Husman told CBS News that "a lot of people who are Democrats have lost faith in the party" due to its leadership's staunch support for Israel.
"We need to stand up and say we're not going to stand for this, and we have to have a cease-fire," she added.
Earlier on Saturday, activists interrupted a Democratic U.S. Senate candidates' forum, disrupting speeches by U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter. Rep. Barbara Lee—the sole California Democratic Senate candidate supporting a Gaza cease-fire—was cheered as she called for an end to the 44-day war in which Israeli forces have killed or maimed more than 40,000 Palestinians and forcibly displaced over 70% of the besieged strip's population.
In preliminary results released Saturday night, none of the Senate candidates mustered the 60% majority required for the party's endorsement. Lee led the pack with over 41% of delegate votes, closely trailed by Schiff with 40% and Porter garnering just 16%.
"I was the only one who voted against the authorization to use force right after the 9/11 horrific events," Lee told convention attendees. "And yes, I am calling for a cease-fire now."
While U.S. President Joe Biden has resisted demands for a cease-fire in favor of a so-called humanitarian pause, progressive Democrats led by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) have signed on to a resolution urging the president to push Israeli leaders to agree to a cessation of the relentless assault on Gaza.
"We want to stop the genocide against my people in Gaza," said Adeeb Alzanoon with the Sacramento Coalition for Palestinian Rights.
"I've lost 42 of my extended family," Alzanoon—who is Palestinian American—added. "We all come here to stand up for justice and for peace."
Many of the demonstrators at the convention had a simple message for Democratic leadership: "In November, we'll remember."
Farah Ard'Lana, a 22-year-old organizer with Palestine Youth Movement and Students for Justice in Palestine at Sacramento State University, told The San Francisco Chronicle that the Democratic Party must "reckon with the fact that their complicity and silence will lose them a generation of voters."
"These politicians say that they support us, but they're empty words," Ard'Lana added. "They're not following their morals."
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