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From his swearing in on Monday, to his first votes on the Senate floor, it has been a very busy first week for newly minted Sen. Adam Schiff of California.
“It’s been really wonderful to celebrate this with my family and friends. It’s also been very powerful to sit at the desk on the Senate floor that Senator Feinstein sat at for so long, and to realize that I have to try to take up a small part of the legacy she has left behind, which is immense,” Schiff said, in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News.
This week, Schiff could be seen on the Senate floor, sitting at his desk, taking in the sight of his fellow senators coming and going as they cast their votes.
Schiff, a Democrat, says it is a completely different experience than the time he spent in the House of Representatives, where he served for two decades.
“In the House there are lots of occasions during the course of a day when you’re all on the House floor, you can find the people you’re looking for, you can twist some arms, etc.,” said Schiff.
“In the Senate, the votes are spread out over time, and so people walk onto the Senate floor, they cast their vote, and they walk off, and there just aren’t that many senators on the floor at a given time. And that’ll take some getting used to.”
As Schiff has been navigating his new position, the Franklin Fire has been raging through Malibu. Schiff says he has been keeping a close eye on the disaster from across the country.
“I want to make sure that we do everything possible to provide assistance to put down these fires, to make sure that people can rebuild,” he said, adding that he spoke to Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart Wednesday evening. “My staff is keeping track of how much progress is being made. We’re hoping the winds are going to die down within the next 24 hours and help firefighters get control of this.”
Schiff said one of his highest priority as he prepares for his full senate term that will begin in January, is to address the cost of living. He feels it’s a prime opportunity to work with Republicans.
“We need to reduce the cost of housing — we need to build a lot more housing. We need to expand available affordable child care and health care. And I’ll work with anyone — from the former president, my Republican colleagues — I will work with anyone to get those things done. And a lot of those objectives, the Republicans say they’re for too.”
When it comes to President-Elect Donald Trump, he added: “There are areas of common interest that I’m going to focus on. It will be necessary at times, I’m sure to push back against what the former president wants to do. I don’t think the abuses of Office that we saw in his last term are the end of the story. He seems even more unrestrained than before, but my priority is get things done and pick my battles.”
Over the last several years, Schiff has been a target of attacks by Republicans in the House. Last year, they censured Schiff for his investigations into Trump. He’s also been a target of the president-elect himself.
But Schiff says that with just a few days under his belt, he already feels a difference in congeniality with his Senate colleagues — perhaps in part due to the filibuster, which make bipartisanship in the chamber paramount.
“It’s a different culture in the Senate, one in which the personal relationships are even more important, and in which there’s much more of an effort to get along personally with each other across the aisle, which is welcome,” said Schiff. “I’m enjoying the different culture here in the Senate and the receptivity that I’m finding among Republicans to work together. And so that’s a big change.”
One change that Schiff might have trouble with on the Senate side of the Capitol? The food — since Schiff tries to eat vegan when he can.
“I have to say I prefer the House cafeteria. There are more vegan options, although I have to admit that during the course of the campaign, I cheated a lot on my vegan diet, he admitted. “It was very hard to get the protein I needed out of the campaign trail, so I’m going to have to get back in shape.”
With the Senate scheduled to be in session the first ten weeks of 2025, Schiff may have reason to occasionally return to the House side of the Capitol — but just for lunch.
For more from our conversation with Schiff, including his concerns about President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and his thoughts on Trump threatening to jail members of the January 6 committee, click here.
