SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers have a duty to balance taking on the incoming Trump administration with making the state a more affordable place to live, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said Monday.

Rivas, who was again elected speaker by his Democratic colleagues at the start of a new legislative session, called housing affordability “the civil rights struggle of our time” and said he heard two distinct messages from California reporters in recent elections.

“First, they continue to believe deeply in the California values of tolerance, equality and human rights,” he said, referring to voters’ passage of two constitutional amendments enshrining the right to reproductive and marriage freedom in subsequent November elections.

But Californians are also “deeply anxious” about the cost of living and doing business in the state. The speaker said it’s a feeling he remembers “in the pit of my stomach from my own childhood” growing up in a tiny farming community.

“Our task this session is clear,” he told members of the Assembly. “We must chart a new path forward and renew the California Dream by focusing on affordability.”

Rivas announced he would limit Assembly members from introducing more than 35 bills during the two-year session, down from 50 in previous years, to help focus on that priority.

“We want every leader in this room to have the greatest possible bandwidth to focus on laws that uplift affordability and prosperity,” he said.

Rivas also said he would be directing leaders of relevant legislative committees to investigate rising energy costs and review every state agency that oversees housing supply.

“We have to understand what’s working and what’s obstructing real progress right here in California. It’s our responsibility,” he said.

The remarks by Rivas, one of the most powerful elected officials in California, serve as an acknowledgment of Democrats’ struggle to win voters over on the economy. Post-election, Gov. Gavin Newsom has also visited areas of the state that are struggling economically.

Senate President pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat, echoed Rivas’ concern, saying state leaders “must double down on our efforts to make life more affordable and livable. Make our economy work for all, not just a privileged few.”

Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher, a Nicolaus Republican, said he hoped the sentiment from the leaders was genuine.

“Talk is cheap,” he said. “The truth of the matter is that the only way we can do that is to course correct the policies that have been championed by Democrats in the last 10 years.”

Gallagher pointed to a recent vote by air regulators to tighten the state’s fuel standard, which could make gasoline even more expensive in California.

Both McGuire and Rivas support Newsom’s proposal to funnel $25 million to the California Department of Justice in preparation for legal battles against the Trump administration.

McGuire said the chamber would defend policies like reproductive health care, protections for immigrants, and climate change resilience.

“Are we going to fight to protect the people, the policies, and the progress that make California great,” he said. “Absolutely, we’re going to go to the mat for them.”

“If LGBTQ people come under attack, if the hard working immigrants are targeted, if women’s reproductive freedom is threatened, we will fight back with everything we have,” Rivas said, adding that the state’s progress cannot come “on the backs of poor and working people.”

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