When President Donald Trump delivers his first address before a joint session of Congress today — where he will lay out his priorities for the year — a handful of firefighters from the greater Los Angeles area will be in attendance to remind the nation of Southern California’s continued need for recovery aid following the January wildfires that swept through L.A. County.

It’s a long-held tradition for members of Congress to bring a guest to these types of addresses, either a constituent or someone from outside their district who represents an issue that the legislator wishes to highlight. Often, the issues are centered around current events and national debates.

This year is no different, with many of the guests invited by members of the L.A. County congressional delegation falling into one of two buckets: They represent the firefighting community and victims of the recent L.A. County wildfires, or they worked for federal agencies impacted by cuts or layoffs imposed by the six-week-old Trump administration.

Others on this year’s guest list have advocated for the health and well-being of various populations, including immigrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Wildfires a hot topic

We’ll start with the firefighters. They, or the legislators who invited them, have a message for those who work on Capitol Hill: Do not politicize support for firefighters or communities recovering from natural disasters such as a wildfire.

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, who co-chairs the bipartisan Senate Wildfire Caucus and advocates for federal disaster aid for Los Angeles without conditions, is bringing Capt. Frank Líma of the L.A. Fire Department, who served on the frontlines during the January wildfires in L.A. County.

Líma has worked for the Los Angeles Fire Department since 1992 and served as a truck company captain for over 20 years. Líma has also held various leadership roles within local and international firefighters unions. He said he’s honored “to put the spotlight on supporting our firefighters and our community.”

“Firefighters were in a fight for their lives last month against the once-in-a-generation fire that tore through our city — and we need all the federal support possible to help us recover,” Líma said. “Los Angeles firefighters and Sen. Padilla have always had the backs of our communities, and we need our country to do the same.”

Another firefighter with a similar message is Capt. Vincent Culliver, a 25-year federal firefighter for the Vandenberg Space Force Base Fire Department who served on the frontlines during the Eaton fire. He will attend as the guest of California’s newest U.S. senator, Adam Schiff.

“As the recovery process continues in Los Angeles, I hope to convey the urgency we feel in our state to support survivors of these devastating fires and deliver the assistance needed so that when the next one hits, we’re adequately prepared to do our jobs,” Culliver said. “California stands united for Los Angeles, and we hope that that unity will inspire similar cooperation from our representatives in Washington.”

Schiff has urged the Trump administration to exempt federal firefighters from federal funding and hiring freezes, raising concerns that the freezes have halted the onboarding of thousands of seasonal firefighters. Schiff has also advocated to reinstate firefighters laid off by the Trump-era Department of Government Efficiency.

On the House side, Rep. Julia Brownley, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Ventura and L.A. counties, will bring Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner, who has worked for that county’s fire department since 1998 and became chief in 2022. Gardner has responded to a number of fire events, including the Mountain, Thomas, Woolsey and Easy fires.

“Protecting communities from wildfires and natural disasters must remain a national priority,” she said. “Federal support for our firefighters and emergency responders is essential, and disaster assistance should never be politicized. When disaster strikes, our communities deserve timely and effective federal aid, regardless of politics.”

Rep. Laura Friedman, D-Burbank, will bring Eric Rowley, president of the Burbank firefighters union.

“We cannot allow politics to stand in the way of recovery efforts and the resources our first responders need,” Friedman said. “Holding disaster aid hostage isn’t leadership; it’s cruel extortion.”

Firefighters won’t be the only ones on Tuesday night’s guest list. A victim of the Eaton fire and another worker who helped with the recent fire response in L.A. County will also be there.

Dianne Lewis, a retired Los Angeles Unified school teacher and longtime Altadena resident whose home was swallowed up by the Eaton fire, will be the guest of Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena.

Lewis is chief executive of Pasadena’s Alkebu-Lan Cultural Center, which promotes storytelling through instruments, Brazilian dance and African drumming and dance. She’s also been a community liaison on issues ranging from the education system, the relationship between police and people of color, and community safety, and was the recipient of Chu’s “Activist of the Year” award in 2023.

Then there’s Jasmin Dominguez, who was recently laid off from the U.S. Forest Service as a result of the Trump administration’s federal spending cuts or freezes. Dominguez, of Lancaster, is a constituent of Rep. George Whitesides, D-Agua Dulce, and his guest on Tuesday night.

Before she was laid off, Dominguez would map out where fires were as they erupted, providing information to firefighters and the public during the Bridge fire in late 2024 and the Eaton, Hughes and Hurst fires in January.

“As the sole Fire GIS Information Specialist in the area, losing her position will severely harm the ability of our firefighters to keep the surrounding area safe,” Whitesides’ office said in an email.

Impacts of budget cuts

Dominguez won’t be the only guest who can speak to the impacts of recent actions by the Trump administration.

Other legislators chose as their guests individuals who also lost their jobs or who work for programs that have been affected by federal spending freezes or that are at risk of being cut. Such cuts and freezes have been imposed or suggested by DOGE under the leadership of tech mogul Elon Musk.

Republicans who support DOGE say its purpose is to find and cut out wasteful spending, fraud and abuse within federal departments. But critics say Musk — who was neither elected nor confirmed by the U.S. Senate to his position — has taken actions they believe are unconstitutional and that would dismantle the federal departments and gut many safety net programs that Americans rely on, such as Medicaid and Medicare and other social services.

Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Covina, will have as his guest West Covina City Councilmember Ollie Cantos, the first blind person and individual with a visual disability elected to that dais. According to Cisneros’ office, Cantos was a special assistant to the assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education but was recently placed on leave as a result of recent actions by DOGE.

Rep. Kamlager-Dove, D-Los Angeles, is bringing Sylvia Joyner, acting president of the American Federation of Government Local 1534, which represents workers employed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. Department of States and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. She also worked at USAID for 34 years before retiring from that agency.

Kamlager-Dove said Joyner “has worked tirelessly to help hundreds of displaced federal employees rebuild their lives after being callously and recklessly removed from their careers of service to the United States. As Donald Trump addresses the nation, Sylvia is the perfect embodiment of the human toll his anti-American policies have caused.”

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Los Angeles, meanwhile, plans to bring Shannon Whaley, the director of research and evaluation at PHFE WIC, which serves over 190,000 low-income people monthly in L.A., Orange and San Bernardino counties. It is the largest local WIC program in the country, according to Lieu’s office. WIC is a federal program that provides free healthy foods, breastfeeding support and nutrition education to families.

The vast majority of women and young children receiving WIC benefits also receive Medicaid, Lieu said.

“Shannon’s work underscores how important federal funding is in helping to make our community nourished and healthy. Indiscriminate cuts to Medicaid and other vital federal funding will have a devastating impact on those in need. … I am pleased that Shannon is joining me for the joint address so that we can uplift the stories of WIC recipients and underscore how vital federal funding is,” Lieu said.

Joining Rep. Luz Rivas, D-Arleta, at Tuesday’s address will be California state Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat representing the San Fernando Valley who chairs the Senate Health Committee in Sacramento. Menjivar is also vice chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus and a member of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.

Rivas said Menjivar “has been instrumental in advancing policies to protect and secure the health and welfare of all Californians, including immigrant communities, the LGBTQ+ community and low-income communities.”

Critics of Trump have decried his call for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and actions he’s taken that they consider to be an attack on the LGBTQ+ community. Since resuming office, Trump has signed an executive order for the federal government to define sex as only male or female and issued a ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports.

Trump’s joint congressional address — his first of his second presidency — is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. local time.