A representative for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services traveled to Orange County this week to meet with local and state elected officials and Republican residents to tout the administration’s health care agenda.
Victoria Seaman, a regional director for the federal department, said she was in town on Monday, Jan. 19, to meet with folks around Santa Ana to discuss how the administration’s plan to put $50 billion into rural health programs over five years impacts the region.
The Trump administration announced late last month that states will share $10 billion for rural health care, a program that aims to offset its massive budget cuts to rural hospitals. The fund was included as part of last year’s massive tax cuts and spending bill, which President Donald Trump signed into law, and states will apply for funding from the Rural Health Transformation Program, with the average award for 2026 estimated to be $200 million, The Associated Press reported in December.
California is estimated to receive more than $233 million, Seaman said in an interview about DHHS priorities while in Orange County.
“That’s the first step in how this administration is doing things differently,” Seaman said. “The money is going to the states directly. They will partner with the different facilities and doctors to distribute this money and determine how it’s going to be used and spent.”
Seaman said she is also advocating for other priorities that fall under the “Make America Healthy Again” banner — an iteration of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan — including marketing fresher and healthier foods, particularly for youth.
California, famously, is often at odds with the Trump administration.
The state, led by Attorney General Rob Bonta, has sued the administration, just during Trump’s second term, more than 50 times already, with several of those lawsuits related to health care and federal funding freezes.
And critics have worried that the rural health care funding could be in jeopardy for states with policies that don’t align with the president’s.
Seaman, though, said her work specifically is nonpartisan.
“It’s all about making people healthy,” Seaman, a former Las Vegas City Council member, said. She noted her job is to meet with legislators — she was slated to travel to Sacramento this week to meet with more elected officials — “to discuss how we can make our children and people healthy again through these initiatives.”
“That’s what I’m doing, and I’m pretty excited about the response,” said Seaman. “It’s not a partisan issue; it’s all about people getting healthy again.”
And she praised a couple of California laws, including one set to go into effect later this year that restricts smartphone use in schools.
A list of other priorities that she said she will share with state legislators — a copy of which was provided to the Southern California News Group — included a federal waiver to prohibit SNAP purchases of soda, candy or energy drinks, among others.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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