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San Diego economy strong in life sciences and defense but faces permitting, housing and federal funding headwinds, panelist says

5374952 · July 11, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation told the Assembly Committee that the region's strengths in life sciences, defense and advanced manufacturing are threatened by permitting delays, housing unaffordability and potential federal research cuts.

Eduardo Velasquez, senior director of research and development at the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, presented a data‑driven overview of the region's economic assets and risks to the Assembly Committee on Economic Development. "As one of California's most globally connected regions, our economy is also fueled by world class universities, a highly skilled workforce, and those binational ties," Velasquez said.

Velasquez highlighted key industry clusters: aerospace and defense ("over $27,000,000,000 in Department of Defense contracts in the last fiscal year"), life sciences ("more than 60,000 jobs tied to that…

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