THE BUZZ: PRICE CUTS — Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas kicked off this legislative session with a blistering indictment of his party’s failures on a central issue: combating the soaring cost of living in California. Now, the Democratic leader’s plans to tackle the Golden State’s affordability headache are finally taking shape after the Los Angeles-area wildfires and a Donald Trump-proofing special session dominated the first seven weeks of the legislative year. Rivas’ game plan, as his office exclusively told Playbook, includes four initial efforts: 1. Move quickly on a package of bills to speed up housing construction, especially in fire-ravaged coastal areas, by requiring local governments and state agencies to expedite permit reviews, freeze building standards and strengthen tenant protections for displaced Angelenos. Rivas plans to add urgency clauses, so the bills would take effect immediately. “Affordable decent housing isn’t just a policy challenge — it’s the civil rights struggle of our time,” he said in his opening session speech. 2. Hold a series of committee hearings on affordability over three weeks, starting Feb. 26. The Assembly’s Economic Development, Growth and Household Impact committee will convene panels focused on LA fire recovery, grocery costs and other household cost pressures, such as transportation, child care and health care. 3. Committee Chair José Luis Solache and members will also convene public hearings throughout the state to better understand regional cost-of-living concerns — à la Gov. Gavin Newsom’s post-election economic tour of red counties. Dates for those hearings are TBD. 4. Rivas has his work cut out for him. Today is the deadline for lawmakers to introduce bills. The speaker’s team said he plans to review members’ proposals to determine which ones may be part of a second round of affordability legislation, to be announced in the spring. Rivas previously said “every bill this session” should be examined through the lens of how it affects working people. Some of the affordability-related bills introduced in the Legislature this year deal with programs on student loan debt forgiveness, a tax break for baby wipes, lowering utility bills and a young child tax credit. But Rivas’ primary focus out of the gate is housing, especially in the wake of the LA fires that destroyed more than 16,000 homes and other structures in a region already grappling with one of the worst housing shortages in the nation. Assemblymember Nick Schultz, who is carrying the measure to stop cities from adding additional building requirements, said the Democratic caucus wants to knock out barriers that make housing construction too slow and expensive. “How can we relax those obstacles and supercharge our ability to construct housing?” he said. Assembly Democrats’ attention to affordability issues comes after they lost two seats to Republicans in last year’s election, and as the party suffered nationally due to the widespread perception that the GOP was more focused on cost-of-living issues. But Solache said he also sees the Assembly’s affordability efforts as a response to the Trump administration — namely Trump’s inability to move the needle so far on issues like grocery prices. “This national conversation of, ‘We have this new leader that's going to change the world in one day’” on bringing down consumer prices — “it’s not happening,” Solache quipped. WEST WING PLAYBOOK 2.0: One month in, it’s clear that Donald Trump’s second term is reshaping Washington in ways unseen since the New Deal. To track this seismic shift, we’ve relaunched West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government. Washington, remade: This new daily briefing will deliver blow-by-blow updates on Trump’s far-reaching efforts to overhaul federal agencies. From the actions of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to the strategy being carried out by the Office of Management and Budget under Russ Vought and the resulting conflicts playing out in the courts and Capitol Hill, our reporters will be your guide to the unprecedented disruption hitting Washington. Sign up now to get it delivered straight to your inbox. GOOD MORNING. Happy Friday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at dgardiner@politico.com and bjones@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @jonesblakej. WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.
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