These are the guests accompanying OC lawmakers to President Trump’s speech to Congress

President Donald Trump today, March 4, will deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress since returning to the White House.

While not a State of the Union address — which gives a sitting president the opportunity to recap the administration’s accomplishments from the prior year — Trump’s speech is expected to outline the administration’s legislative agenda. It comes ahead of the March 14 federal funding deadline to avoid a government shutdown.

Also in attendance will be U.S. Supreme Court justices and members of Trump’s Cabinet, as well as guests invited by members of Congress. These guests often reflect each member’s values or policy focus and can be a way for lawmakers to push back on the administration’s agenda.

Here are the guests accompanying Orange County’s six congressional members.

Eric Ball

With Rep. Dave Min, D-Irvine, will be Dr. Eric Ball, a pediatrician and member of the CHOC Primary Care Network. Ball is an Irvine resident who has voiced concerns over the potential consequences of Medicaid cuts for local families.

Trump’s address comes after the House passed a budget resolution last week that calls for significant reductions in federal spending, which Democrats say cannot be met without cuts to the government-funded health insurance program. Min said more than 100,000 people in his district, including children and seniors, rely on Medicaid and could lose coverage.

Ball said that any reductions to Medicaid funding would have long-term implications.

“My patients and their families are scared. They are worried that their children will lose their health care, which would make their children sicker and increase the financial burdens on their families,” he said.

Dan Munsey

Also sitting in the House Chamber will be Dan Munsey, the San Bernardino County fire chief, who is no stranger to the Capitol; he has testified before Congress in support of natural disaster legislation and about the dangers posed by lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles.

Munsey will be the guest of Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, whose district includes communities impacted by the Airport fire in 2024.

This year began with the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles, and the Trump administration has repeatedly said federal wildfire aid to California will be tied to certain conditions, floating ideas from changing the state’s water management system to implementing a voter ID law. Kim, as most of the Southern California delegation on either side of the aisle has indicted, is opposed to tying strings to disaster relief aid.

Munsey, who became fire chief in 2019, has spent nearly three decades in fire service and has worked in every division of San Bernardino County Fire, according to his bio. He joined the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District as a full-time firefighter and paramedic in 1988.

Kim’s office said Munsey was chosen to highlight the role of firefighters in combating wildfires and the need to equip first responders with the tools they need to do their jobs.

Albert Ostering

As other congressional Democrats have done, Rep. Derek Tran, D-Orange, invited a fired federal worker as his guest to the joint address.

Tran’s guest will be Albert Ostering, an Air Force veteran and former cybersecurity professional who most recently worked with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “He was let go in mid-February citing ‘performance issues’ despite consistently outstanding performance reviews,” Tran’s office said in a statement.

“My family relies on my job for our livelihood (and) our health insurance. And this is not just a blow to my family, but this is also going to disrupt vital projects I was working on as part of the critical infrastructure protection teams with CISA,” Ostering told Spectrum News.

Ostering, who lives in Maryland, has since become an advocate for Tran’s Protect Veteran Jobs Act, which seeks to reinstate veterans like himself who were terminated from positions under Trump’s initiative to reduce the federal workforce.

Robert Rodriguez

Joining Rep. Lou Correa at the address will be Santa Ana Police Chief Robert Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, who was appointed in December, moved to Santa Ana from Tijuana, Mexico, with his parents, growing up an undocumented immigrant. He obtained his permanent residency under the Reagan-era Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. While that law included penalties for employers who knowingly hired undocumented workers, it also provided a pathway to lawful permanent residence and naturalization for certain migrants.

A Marine Corps veteran, Rodriguez said his story is a “testament to resilience, dedication and the unwavering belief that through hard work and service, we can uplift our communities and create a brighter future for all.”

“Immigrants like Chief Rodriguez are an essential part of our communities,” Correa said.

Trump has made immigration reform a pillar of his second presidency, already signing executive orders to deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally and has vowed to be more aggressive this term.

Andrew Schorr

Del Mar resident Andrew Schorr will accompany Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano. Schorr, in 1996, was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of cancer impacting blood and bone marrow. This type of leukemia generally progresses slowly, according to the Mayo Clinic, and affects older adults.

Schorr credits a clinical trial with saving his life and leading to a “very long remission.” He was later diagnosed with a second blood cancer that was “treated pretty successfully for quite a while now with a breakthrough medicine that required millions of dollars in research support.”

“If federal funding stopped — let’s say for medical research — that would really throw a lot of cold water on my hope for living a longer, healthier life and maybe being cured of the two blood cancers I live with,” Schorr said in a video produced by Levin’s office. “And it’s not just me, but really the millions of people across America who are living with chronic conditions or, like me, living with chronic cancers.”

The Trump administration in January sought to enact a sweeping freeze of federal funding, impacting grants and other aid that was directed to research institutions, early childhood education programs, nonprofits and more.

Tom Vaught

Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Whittier, is also bringing a former federal employee who has lost their job because of special government employee Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to shrink the size of government and curtail waste.

A veteran and Asheville, North Carolina, resident, Tom Vaught worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where he helped to develop “a process that prioritized the agency’s budget to address IT requirements and streamline portfolio management for greater efficiency,” according to Sánchez’s office. He served 13 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, which included multiple overseas deployments, including to Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Unfortunately, due to DOGE, Tom is now searching for a new job to provide for his family,” said Sánchez. “His story shows the real cost of these reckless firings will be borne by folks like Tom, his family and the veterans he served, while billionaires like Elon Musk and his rich friends receive even more tax cuts.”