He left elective office and served as President Bill Clinton's deputy secretary of the interior from 1995 to 1998 then worked for the Peace Corps again.

[12] Garamendi is an Eagle Scout and a member of Sigma Chi, as a brother of the Alpha Beta Chapter at Berkeley.

In the general election, Garamendi defeated Carter, 60,380 votes (64.08%) to 33,842 (35.92%), as Democrats won a supermajority in the California State Assembly for the first time since the 1800s.

They made billions of dollars selling off the company's portfolio of junk bonds while the Californians with Executive Life policies were very negatively affected.

A leader of the policyholders' interest group, Sue Watson, said, "We are shocked and outraged that the largest financial fraud in California history would be settled for so little and without even a fight."

The Bee editorialized that "Garamendi cannot simultaneously assert that the sale was a good deal and a multibillion-dollar fraud, and then defend a cents-on-the-dollar settlement that left the buyers with billions of dollars in windfall profits.

Garamendi won the Democratic primary by defeating state senators Jackie Speier and Liz Figueroa 43% to 40% to 18%.

[36] Despite living outside California's 10th congressional district, Garamendi announced his intention to run in the 2009 special election there after Representative Ellen Tauscher vacated her seat.

Garamendi ranked first among Democrats with 26% of the vote, defeating State Senator Mark DeSaulnier (18%) and Assemblymember Joan Buchanan (12%).

Garamendi voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.

[49] In July 2017, Garamendi said that during recent visits to Vietnam, South Korea, and Australia, he had encountered "angst, worry and concern about what's happening in America.

The post read, "I welcome the energy and commitment of the supporters of H.Res.109, and I join with them as I continue my decades-long effort to stop Climate Change and save our planet.

Industry commentators noted the risk of delaying such projects and/or increasing their costs due to lack of US vessels and personnel.

He asserted that House "deficit hawks" wanted to "cut out the social safety net" to pay for the bill.

He complained that current economic policies, including the large 2017 tax cuts, benefited the rich and corporations, not the middle class.

[50] In January 2018, Garamendi expressed the desire to "make sure every person is identified" and charged that E-Verify, a system intended to curtail undocumented employment, had "not really been enforced".

He said that it was possible to compromise on the issue between conservative and progressive House members, and expressed concern about the fate of "undocumented immigrants who are not considered Dreamers.

"[50] After Mark Zuckerberg's April 2018 testimony before a joint Senate committee, Garamendi called for a privacy law that would cover social media.

[58] The same month, he introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would withdraw 90% of troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2013.

[59][60] With Dianne Feinstein and Martin Heinrich, Garamendi sponsored the Due Process Guarantee Act, a 2012 bill that would bar the military from indefinitely detaining U.S. citizens or residents within the country without charge or trial.

[64] In a May 2011 article, Garamendi wrote, "our national security is much more dependent on ending desperate poverty, funding good schools, and empowering women in the developing world while eradicating international terrorist networks like al Qaeda.

"[65] In April 2018, he expressed opposition to building a border wall and said, "If you want to go where the problem is, fund the Coast Guard.

[67] On November 19, 2015, Garamendi voted for HR 4038, legislation that would effectively halt the resettlement of refugees from Syria and Iraq to the United States.

"[57] In a June 2017 article, Garamendi rejected the proposal known as California WaterFix, calling it an "expensive boondoggle", and instead expressed support for Proposition 1.