Governator Seeks Money on Washington Trip

Feb. 28, 2007 — -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an election pledge in 2003 to be "the Collectinator" and get more money for California from the federal government.

For the third year in a row, Schwarzenegger said he did just that.

In a two-day series of meetings with members of Congress and Bush administration officials, he lobbied for Californians to recapture more than 79 cents on every federal tax dollar they send to Washington.

"It's all about fighting for money," he said, standing alongside Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "We want to get as much as we can for California."

And, as he often stressed on this annual trip to the nation's capital, cooperating in a post-partisan fashion.

Pelosi agreed.

"We had a very positive discussion about how we can work together in a bipartisan way on issues that affect people of our country, but specifically on some issues where California is leading the way," she said.

One such issue is more funding for universal health-care coverage.

Schwarzenegger said California had been developing a $12 billion universal health-care initiative over the last year and a half that relied upon $5.74 billion in new federal money each year. The plan, however, is meeting resistance from congressional Republicans and Democrats.

"We could lead and all the other states could follow," he said, when asked of the national significance of a universal health-care initiative in California.

Also on Schwarzenegger's request list is assistance for victims of the January 2007 crop freeze and major increases in the federal budget to pay for incarcerating undocumented prisoners.

In meetings with California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, the governor discussed the ongoing needs of those devastated by the massive loss of crops during the recent citrus freeze, which did an estimated $1 billion worth of damage.

Feinstein and Boxer have introduced the Emergency Farm Assistance Act of 2007, which would allocate $1.3 billion to those affected. California members of the House of Representatives vowed to push forward a similar piece of legislation.