Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Personnel Administration and Legislation Committee from Monday, September 29th, 2025.

May I have a roll call, please?

Supervisor Fortinato Bass.

Present.

Supervisor Tim.

Present.

Thank you.

Let's go with the federal legislation update from CJ Lake.

You're going to tell us the government, it's going to shut down right in two days.

I think so.

And I mean, honestly, I know right now, I mean, we can just hop right into it.

The big four, as they call it, the House uh Speaker and Minority Leader and then Senate majority and minority leaders are all at the White House right now, meeting with President Trump.

And this is the first kind of big four meeting that they've even held this year.

But just timing for timing's sake, you know, the new fiscal year starts uh Wednesday, October 1st.

And at this point, I don't think that the Senate could the only bill the Senate could pass at this point, just because of procedure, would have to be that House passed bill that's a clean CR that runs through November 21st.

If they were to take that bill up tomorrow and find the votes to pass it, I think that's the only way to avoid a shutdown simply because of how long it takes for the Senate to bring up a bill.

And of course, the House would have to come back and pass something new.

So I kind of skipped ahead.

But I mean, bottom line is yes, it looks like we are uh heading towards a shutdown, at least in the short term.

You know, maybe they do reach some sort of deal today, and it's only shut down for a few hours.

But um, you know, so we'll see kind of what comes out of this meeting uh today at the White House, but it it doesn't feel great right now.

The Senate is going to be in Washington, you know, this week and is expected to be in session all week.

Um the House originally uh was supposed to be um out and come back next week.

You know, speaker Johnson has said uh they could come back on Wednesday, but as of now, the House is out this week because the speaker has said look, we've done our job, we passed um a bill, a clean CR.

So now it's up to the Senate uh and in particular Senate Democrats to uh pass the bill.

Um again, they're they're meeting right now.

I mean, you guys know kind of the ins and outs because we've been reporting on it.

I think the biggest issue, and I I think we shared this with you um maybe on Thursday of last week, but you know, there is a concern that OMB did issue um or publish a memo uh last Wednesday to all federal agencies detailing how the administration plans to handle a potential shutdown.

And that memo set forth a plan to kind of drastically and permanently reduce the federal workforce if a lapse in funding occurs.

Um, you know, while shrinking the size of the federal workforce is a priority for the Trump admin.

That memo kind of also applies significant pressure on Senate Democrats to vote in favor of the House Pass CR.

Um, you know, we'll see kind of um if if there are enough Senate Dems, and I think they're um they need to find six Democrats uh to vote in favor of the continuing resolution.

I know, you know, quite a bit of what we've been talking about is what to expect in a shutdown.

And I know kind of the last two calls we talked about, you know, usually um agencies issue kind of shutdown guidance, and it gives you an idea of of who will be at the agency, who will still be working, who will be sent home, what programs are up and running.

That has not been the case this year.

Um it is not required in statute, and so very few agencies have put out guidance.

I did see today that HHS did put out guidance, and you can click on it by agency.

So I'll have that link for you to take a look in the PAL notes.

But again, with this OMB memo, there really is quite a bit of power that an administration can exert during a shutdown.

Um, and you know, I think we have seen it before.

Um, for instance, and I don't know if we talked about this on the last PAL call, but during one shutdown during the Obama administration, um, they closed uh national parks.

Um, and that was to put pressure on Republicans to to reopen.

So I think just the the threat of the pressure that we could expect under this administration, I just don't think we've seen previously.

So again, like much of this year, it could be something we've we've never seen before.

Um, but I will put that link in the notes.

Um again, in terms of like what we've seen previously, you know, we shouldn't expect an impact to snap.

We have, you know, 30 days at least.

Um, we shouldn't see an impact to Medicaid benefits.

So there are things that we, you know, we should not see um impacts to those types of programs.

Uh, social security, there could be delays in backlogs for new cards, um, but benefit checks should still be distributed.

Um, so it's those kinds of things, and we have that in the notes as well.

So honestly, that's kind of what I have for you.

I'm happy to answer any questions as best I can.

You know, people are trying to think, well, what happens?

Which Democrats end up voting in favor to reopen at some point, or um, if it does in fact shut down.

I've heard um the two senators from Virginia, the two senators from Maryland, just because they have so many federal workers in their states.

Um, heard um Jean Shaheen from New Hampshire potentially, and then Gary Peters from Michigan potentially.

We know that um Fetterman uh from Pennsylvania uh will not vote with Democrats and hasn't previously.

He just has a firm belief that you should not shut down the government.

Um, and then Rand Paul on the Republican side uh usually votes with Democrats uh just because he doesn't like the whole uh the idea of a CR and usually votes against CRs and appropriations bills.

So again, a lot unknown, and I think we'll probably know maybe a little bit more after uh we get a readout from that White House meeting today.

Happy to answer any questions.

I don't have any questions, Emily.

This is just really horrible.

Yep.

Uh so uh I I've been reading and trying to track some of this through CalMatters as well.

Um I thought there's some level of uh workers' rights protection, uh, because you know, the president is talking about potentially firing 155,000 federal employees uh as part of this whole effort, which the shutdown, which would potentially affect the people that provide uh the SNAP, the Medicaid, the Medicare, the Social Security that are not supposed to be affected um by the funding.

So how does that work in terms of their ability to um to save that off?

Yeah, um I was looking for the memo, of course.

I don't, somewhere on my desk.

Um, some of them in that OMB memo, it talked about, you know, there they're the programs that use mandatory spending, like those wouldn't be the ones impacted.

And they talk a lot about the the funding that was included in um OBB, the the reconciliation bill, right?

Like the funding is there for those programs.

It's really those discretionary programs that would no longer kind of have those appropriations.

And I think the point that OMB is trying to make, first of all, like we talked about, they have a lot more power that just hasn't been kind of used in in prior years.

But this idea that if it's not an administration priority, it didn't receive funding in the reconciliation bill.

Uh therefore, you know, agencies have can use their discretion in if they want to impose RIFs.

Um to your point on like federal workers and kind of their rights, usually in a um after a shutdown, you know, they they receive back pay and so are made whole.

But regardless, I mean, we've seen in previous shutdowns that went for 30 some odd days, they didn't get paid in those 30 some odd days.

Okay, so uh there are no protections for the workers, uh, even for a temporary um furlough.

After the last shutdown, and I need to double check myself, but after the last shutdown that we talked about that lasted like 30 days, I believe it was in 2018 into 2019.

Congress did pass legislation that requires the back pay to happen because previously Congress would just have to go ahead and pass a bill after the fact to reinstate the pay.

Now it's in statute that they will be paid.

Okay.

I guess that's helpful to have that level of certainty.

Um, but I was hoping to see if that could be more at the front end, like um, but that's not the case.

Okay.

It's not a case.

Thank you.

You basically answered my next question.

It was like there's absolutely no hope of seeing a rollback on the Medicaid cuts from HR1 or subsidizing the affordable care act because that was in the first CR that got rejected.

Yeah, you know, that is um those are priorities for Senate Democrats.

I don't see any world where um congressional Republicans agree to roll back kind of their priorities from the big beautiful bill as it relates to Medicaid.

I think you know that the ACA, um, the subsidies are out there.

Um, but I think that's gonna be difficult for the speaker because he has a number of members who would object to that.

But I I do think kind of the subsidies could be in the mix at some point.

I don't think um the Medicaid cuts from this summer's bill from HR one would be a part of any negotiation.

Okay, thank you.

Are there any public comments or questions on the federal legislative update?

We have no speakers on item one.

Thank you.

Thank you, Emily.

Despite the grim news, um, let's move to the state legislation update from Full Moon Strategies.

Good afternoon, Amy Costa with Full Moon Strategies.

We had a bit of a quiet week last week uh with Governor Newsom traveling uh to New York City to participate in Climate Week.

Um, as we've reported before, he has until October 13th to either sign or veto the bills within his possession.

Um, during his trip last week, he made several public appearances and spoke on both national uh politics and climate issues.

Uh, now that the governor is back in state, we anticipate seeing some more signings and vetoes this week.

Um, one came out actually right before I joined.

Um, we have good news on our um county sponsored legislation, SB 617.

Uh, on Friday, Senator Argyen was notified by uh Governor Newsom that he is signing our bill to strengthen the worker adjustment and retraining act.

We anticipate a formal announcement from the governor uh in the coming days.

Uh the legislation enhances worker adjustment and retraining notifications by requiring additional information on dislocated worker assistance.

Uh, and a recent webinar hosted by the California Health and Human Services uh agency, Secretary Kim Johnson, she outlined California's strategic response to federal policy changes that are impacting public health, focusing on assembly bill 144, which was the uh health budget trailer bill, which the county uh supported, and the formation of the West Coast Health Alliance.

Key speakers, including Dr.

Erica Pan with the California Department of Public Public Health, detailed two main topics.

Um AB 144 shifts authority for immunization guidelines from uh the advisory committee on immunization practices at the federal level to the California Department of Public Health, ensuring that all California-regulated health plans, which cover the vast majority of Californians, over 30 million residents, would maintain access to vaccines, COVID-19 tests and treatments without any cost sharing for individuals, while also granting pharmacists expanded administration authority and providing provider liability protections.

The West Coast Health Alliance in partnership with the states of Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon, coordinates evidence-based guidance from trusted national organizations to maintain scientific integrity and promote vaccine access across each of those states.

The state also launched the FACT coalition to combat misinformation and improve public outreach with resources including data dashboards, social media tool kits, and a help center.

Last week, while the governor was back east, he had an appearance on the late show with Stephen Colbert, and he emphasized the importance of ensuring that vaccines are scientifically validated and accessible to everyone.

He explained that normally insurance coverage depends on the CDC recommendations, but if federal guidance is limited, millions could lose access to that coverage.

To prevent this, California is requiring health plans to cover all recommended vaccines and is conducting its own independent analysis for the decisions here in California.

In our notes, we'll include a couple of different resources specifically on these topics.

And again, we'll include our notes on all of the bills that we've taken a position on and any uh signatures.

Right now, most of them are still in the governor's possession with him only acting on two, and pretty soon we'll get formal notification on 617.

With that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Amy.

Questions, comments?

Supervisor Fortunatabas.

I actually don't have any questions.

Thanks for keeping us in the loop in terms of all of the bills that are moving that we have decided to support and the few that we've decided to oppose.

Thank you.

So why don't you uh do a special shout out, obviously, to your all your work on helping us with AB 617.

Um, and I know there's going to be a press statement about congratulating the senator and the governor for signing that.

Um, in terms of like the budget adjustments that might happen to mitigate HR 1, uh, which most of it will take place starting next year.

So when do you see that timing happen?

Obviously, we need to know specifically what that means from the state, from the federal government before the state can react and then we know how we can best manage at the county level.

Yeah.

Well, there's a couple of things happening.

One, in previous federal shutdowns, um, specifically around food assistance, the state has offered to put forward funding to prevent any gaps, especially in kind of more prolonged shutdowns.

Um, recently, the Department of Finance didn't make sort of any of those promises quite yet.

Um, I think they're probably waiting to see what happens in DC.

Um, the budget package that was passed towards the end of session in uh September did include some very small resources for HR1 implementation, um, a small local portion, a much bigger portion actually, um, for the state to hopefully bring down the SNAP error rate, um, which is a trigger that's causing, you know, potentially some increased cost for the state and potentially locals.

Um, there's a couple of different sort of strategies, and I do think the state is still waiting for all of the guidelines related to HR1 to come out.

Um, sometimes what they'll do is when the governor releases his January budget, they may have an early action proposal, which is a series of bills that would uh be acted on uh before the budget bill in principle is due on July 1, the start of our fiscal year.

Um, if things get really bad, and this is really a technical point, but there are areas in the budget that allow the administration, with approval generally through the joint legislative budget committee, um, to move uh expenditures within budget items.

Um, and so, you know, they do have some of that authority.

It would require legislative approval to do that.

Um, and sometimes there's control sections in the budget that allow them to move between items as well.

Um, and that's just because obviously the legislature is on break, and we always have those regardless of what's happening at the federal level, because things can happen in the fall when the legislature's not in session.

Um, but I think you know, I would imagine um the Department of Finance has been relatively quiet on what they think the total cost implication is of HR1, um, that we'll likely see it when the governor releases his budget in early January.

Great, thank you.

Appreciate that.

Um, are there any uh public comments on the state legislative update?

We have no comments on item two.

Okay.

Well, those that are participating online identify themselves so we can appreciate your participation today.

Good afternoon.

Yarkin from Supervisor Miley's office.

Hello everyone, Mona Bargibson here from the Alameda County Assessor's Office.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Jessica Blake Moore, Alameda County Health.

Hi, Alexis Chetiar from Cardia Health.

Hi, Alvi Kidoga, Alameda County Tax Collector's Office.

Thank you very much for your participation and um both of Emily and Amy for your very comprehensive reports.

This meeting is adjourned.