As Washington Falters, California Leads the Way on Scientific Research

The government and its people are bound by a compact: Citizens finance their government, delegate it life-and-death powers, and expect security. This is not just a military or police matter; it also concerns protecting public health through vaccines, food inspection, and cutting-edge scientific research. In recent decades, however, Washington has frequently abdicated this core responsibility, paralyzed by ideology or incompetence, leaving a vacuum. Invariably, California steps in to fill it. 

This is not a story of partisanship or the most populous state using its clout. It is pragmatic self-preservation and strategic foresight. When Washington falters, California—leveraging its economic might, its world-class institutions, and its people—acts as a de facto nation-state to safeguard its future and the rest of the nation’s, whether through auto emissions or food safety. This trend reveals a critical shift in the American federalist system, where a single state has become an essential backstop for national progress. At the time of the Republic’s founding, the population difference between the most and least populous states was 10 to 1. Now it’s over 70-to-1.  

Consider the assault on medical science during George W. Bush’s administration. In 2001, the White House effectively shut down federal funding for human embryonic stem cells, freezing a promising frontier of medicine, despite pleas from conservatives such as Nancy Reagan. Faced with the prospect of ceding American leadership in biotechnology, California acted. In 2004, the Golden State voted overwhelmingly for Proposition 71, a revolutionary measure spearheaded by our family friend, Bob Klein, and supported by my wife, Eleni Kounalakis, now the state’s Lieutenant Governor.  

The measure authorized $3 billion in bonds to create the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), a direct mandate from the populace to borrow to build the future. 

Prop 71’s return on this public investment has been extraordinary. CIRM funding has produced an FDA-approved functional cure for “bubble boy” disease and pioneered immunotherapies that weaponize a patient’s own cells to fight cancer. These are not abstract successes; they are life-altering victories, underwritten by Californians, that the federal government chose to forfeit. 

California’s initial financial commitment to CIRM was no fleeting act of defiance. It established a long-term state security doctrine for science. Sixteen years later, as initial funds ran low, Californians doubled down. In 2020, voters passed Proposition 14, injecting an additional $5.5 billion into CIRM. This second, massive self-imposed tax demonstrated an enduring public consensus. The state won’t subordinate citizens’ health to Washington’s ideological whims. When there is no federal vision, California prevents our future from perishing.  

With this sustained popular mandate, California declared its scientific sovereignty. It became the first state to enshrine a constitutional right to conduct stem cell research. Sustained investment followed, funding thousands of research projects and dozens of clinical trials, protecting both its scientific leadership and its citizens’ hope. The state’s public research ecosystem also fostered the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR gene-editing revolution pioneered at the University of California, Berkeley. 

California’s instinct for self-reliance was tested again during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the federal government fumbled, abandoning its role as the central procurement and distribution authority for personal protective equipment (PPE), the states were left to fend for themselves. The directive was clear: you are on your own. 

In response, California used its immense economic leverage. In April 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom secured a nearly $1 billion contract for hundreds of millions of masks per month. California negotiated on the world stage like a global power, ensuring supply chains to protect its frontline citizens. Its success was so profound that it extended its security umbrella beyond its borders, sending ventilators and PPE to other states—underscoring Sacramento’s leadership as national leadership dozed. 

This pattern of innovation is accelerating. The most recent example underscores California’s unique appeal to world-class talent. As reports surfaced of renewed friction between the second Donald Trump administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, threatening to sideline the nation’s top public health experts, California moved decisively. 

The state announced the hiring of two of the CDC’s most respected former leaders, Dr. Susan Monarez and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry, to spearhead its new Public Health Network Innovation Exchange. While Washington disempowered its experts, California recruited them—in time for the current vaccine and flu season. The state is building a parallel institution—a brain-trust insulated from political whims, ensuring that the nation’s best minds continue their work under our state flag. 

California’s motto is “Eureka,” meaning “I’ve found it.” It was a common exclamation of gold prospectors who came here seeking their fortunes. But the word extends back to the Greek scientist Archimedes, who is said to have coined it.  

Eureka remains our refrain. California underwrites America’s scientific and public health security by deploying its robust portfolio of strategic assets—the world’s fourth-largest economy, a peerless university system, a dynamic populace, and its global brand. When Washington retreats from the battlefield of scientific progress and public safety, California digs in to protect its 39 million residents and the rest of the nation. It is what America needs now more than ever.  

The post As Washington Falters, California Leads the Way on Scientific Research appeared first on Washington Monthly.