# Jared Huffman **Jared Huffman** is a Democratic U.S. Representative from California's 2nd congressional district (the North Coast), in office since 2013. As the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources, he serves as its **ranking member** — the minority's lead on a committee whose jurisdiction includes the National Park Service and the federal public-lands machinery, which is what puts him at the center of the [[America 250]] funding story. ## The Freedom 250 report (July 2026) On July 2, 2026, Natural Resources Committee Democrats under Huffman released an interim staff report alleging that the Trump-controlled [[Freedom 250]] vehicle misled donors and starved the nonpartisan [[United States Semiquincentennial Commission]] ("America250") of appropriated funds — lodging itself inside the [[National Park Foundation]] to exploit a public charity's credibility while operating outside the transparency rules Congress required. The report frames the conduct as potential wire fraud and charitable-solicitation fraud. > [!quote] I'm a lawyer, and I know better than to pronounce that a crime has been committed. But I do know the elements of fraud, and there is evidence of all those elements here. > — Rep. Jared Huffman on the report, as reported around its July 2, 2026 release. > [!warning] Sourcing note > This phrasing is as rendered in Heather Cox Richardson's letter of July 5, 2026 and contemporaneous coverage; the committee's own press statement uses different wording (calling Freedom 250 a "shadow organization"). Treat the exact quote as reported rather than a verified transcript. ## Why he's in the KB Huffman is the KB's entry point for the congressional-oversight response to the [[America 250]] / [[Freedom 250]] diversion — the ranking-member vehicle through which the House minority put the fraud framing on the record. He is referenced across the vault's committee-structure maps as the Natural Resources ranking member. ## See also - [[Freedom 250]] — subject of his committee's July 2026 report - [[America 250]] · [[United States Semiquincentennial Commission]] — the celebration and the commission it allegedly starved - [[Democratic Party]]