In progress.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Personnel Administration and Legislation Committee for Monday, October 20th, 2025.

May I have roll call, please?

Supervisor Fortunato Bass.

Present.

Supervisor Tim.

Present.

Thank you.

Okay, let's start with the federal legislative update.

We are in week four of the shutdown, right?

We are.

Good afternoon.

You have Emily Bake de Silva here with CJ Lake.

I think John is stuck, but we'll be joining us shortly.

And I mean, quite honestly, um, not much new to report.

I mean, today is day 20.

Um, I think last week you all were asking kind of where does this fit in in terms of longest shutdown?

Right now, we're it's the third longest shutdown, um, and already the longest full shutdown ever.

Uh, you know, I know we talked about that the the last shutdown 2018-2019 was only a partial shutdown that lasted 35 days, and then I think 9596, um, was a partial shutdown that lasted 21 days.

So, you know, you all know what the issue is.

It's, you know, the expiration and the enhanced uh ACA premium tax credits, which sunset at the end of this year.

Um, you know, people keep saying maybe now November 1st is uh the next kind of pressure point.

That is when um open enrollment occurs, and that's when folks will start to see uh premiums increase quite a bit.

Um today the Senate is back, and they will vote for the 11th time on the House Pass CR.

Um, you know, again, the House is on 48-hour uh recall um for any scheduled votes.

Uh Majority Leader Thune did say that potentially Wednesday or Thursday of this week, um, he could put up some standalone legislation to retroactively pay federal employees who are working during the shutdown.

Um, you know, as of now, we do not expect enough Democrats to support that uh in order for it to pass.

If it does pass, speaker Johnson has said he would bring back the House to session to take a vote on that standalone legislation.

At the same time, I think uh majority leader thune made some comments earlier today and he basically said hey, maybe the house should come back and pass um a CR with a different deadline because November 21st at this point will be here before we know it.

And, you know, they will need uh, you know, quite a bit of time once the government does reopen to negotiate.

Um, so again, we're just kind of at an impasse.

Um, you know, not much new to report.

John, I just kind of ran through where things stand, but you know, again, happy to answer any questions.

I know we um wick came up in POW last week, and um, you know, I realized after our PAL call, and so I sent a quick email that as of now the admin is using um funding from or revenue from the tariffs to uh to pay for WIC, but you know, for now, um, I think SNAP is covered uh short term, John.

We were talking about it a little bit earlier.

I can't remember kind of how long we have on the SNAP front.

Um, but those are go ahead.

But I was gonna say that's it's gonna depend state by state because state the states allocate SNAP money after it's been provided by the federal government.

Most SNAP administrators on the state level have indicated that they will expend their funding at the end of the month.

So they've start some other states.

I know that New Jersey sent out a notification, I believe, today, saying that EBT recipients may see a slowdown or a reduction in their benefit or in their benefits to recipients for SNAP.

Um, so at this point in time, um, and I'm sure that you went over the lapse uh for and salaries and full paycheck, so that's going to be a continuing issue.

Of course, members of the military were provided their uh salaries on October 15th, but that November 1 paycheck is coming up pretty quickly.

Um, and it's unclear how OMB, the defense department will be able to provide funding for um service members come November one.

Um, so it seems unlikely that we'll see a breakthrough this week, but there's always always next week.

Thank you.

Supervisor Fortunato Bass.

Questions, comments?

Yes, regarding SNAP.

So if it's if if the impact is going to be state by state, and maybe this is a question for Yale, maybe I would like to hear more about how California will be handling this and what the impact will be here in Alameda County, but if that's more of a state update, I'll wait until then.

I think the only other thing that I would mention, and maybe Emily mentioned this already.

So apologies if this is redundant, but the Senate will likely be taking up a vote sometime this week, either way, Thursday, um, on providing uh money for the salaries for active duty military troops and then those that are still working without pay, but that bill is expected to fail because of course it doesn't reopen the government.

So we will continue to see if there's any sort of breakthroughs.

Um I think all our eyes are on President Trump on deciding when he wants this to end because he ultimately holds the keys, particularly in the House.

Maybe just one more question, Chair Tam.

So given the um numerous No Kings protests that just happened over the weekend, do you have a sense of whether that will have impact on the president or the Republican majority?

The No Kings rallies we've had over the weekend.

Probably not.

Yeah.

I think from some of the just comments I've heard from Democrats, I think they feel even more kind of dug in, and because they're they're hearing from their constituents that they want them to stand up.

So um, but not necessarily, you know, any kind of feedback from the Republicans as a result of the protest.

If anything, both sides have dug it dug in even further.

You know, you have all the social media activity from the presidents over the weekend, which I will not detail here.

Uh so you can see kind of what the White House's perspective is.

There was a press conference this morning with Speaker Johnson that had a couple signs that he found to be offensive.

So, you know, it doesn't seem to be that the Republicans in Congress were particularly uh persuaded by the protests over the weekend, but you know, I think that we'll see kind of what happens over the next couple days and weeks as the Senate continues to vote and tries to reopen the government um while the house remains out for another five days.

Thank you.

I just wanted some clarification.

Um you just reported and also mentioned in your weekly memo that um there'll the house passed the Senate will be voting on the continuing resolution for the 11th time today, and then but the Senate will also be voting on a measure to pay federal workers um who have been required to work without pay, including members of the military.

But you said that it's likely to fail to meet the 60 vote threshold.

Um, I guess it's gonna be this week.

Is that a separate um measure?

That's a standalone measure.

And why would that one fail?

I can understand the continuing resolution, but to pay the military.

Well, it's a political vote.

Um, of course, it wouldn't reopen the government or provide authorizations that are needed in continuing resolution, and it doesn't solve the problem of reopening the government.

It would just kind of take the pain pressures off of uh Congress uh by paying members of the military.

Um, unlike previous shutdowns where members of the military were paid uh because the defense appropriations bill was passed previously.

This is a full government shutdown.

The previous ones were partial government shutdowns.

Um because it does not reopen the government, doesn't provide full year appropriations and various reauthorizations that are required under a continuing resolution.

Most members of the Democratic caucus will likely vote against it in the Senate.

There might be some moderate members that will vote for it.

So they can say that they continue to pay the military in the midst of the shutdown.

Um, but Senator Schumer will oppose it and and as will most of the Democratic caucus.

Emily, I don't know if there's anything else that I may have missed, but I think that's kind of the political calculus as it's.

Yeah, yeah, and I do think supervisor Tam to your point, it's gonna make it difficult for some members.

So I think we will see a few more Dems voting for it, but as John said, I don't think they will get to 60.

Okay, that's very helpful in terms of understanding.

Sounds like it's an all or nothing type situation on both sides.

Um, because locally, like in the city I represent in Alameda, um the Coast Guard is under, I think homeland security, right?

They're not part of the military, but they are also, I mean, we're we're finding uh personnel there who obviously uh are in need of food, they're in need of uh diapers, and so we're we're trying to get resources um to the families that are part of that effort.

And it sounds like there's not really an end in sight at the moment for them.

You're all nodding depressively.

Unfortunately, I mean, I think yes, and kind of the all or nothing piece.

I think because you know, back in March, Democrats did not stick together, and I think they feel like no matter what, they they need to stick together.

It could start to break off like the longer we go and kind of the ripple effects that happen.

Um, but as of now, I feel like that the caucus is very united as never before.

And so for now, I think Schumer is holding them all together for the most part.

Okay.

And it's possible that that Senate Democrats walk away with this without any policy wins at all, right?

The reason why that this started in the first place was to the extent extension of the enhanced tax credits.

And I think that House Democrats in particular want to see some sort of extension included in a continuing resolution passed by the Senate and jam the House.

It's entirely possible that the Senate walks away without any sort of policy wins in their pocket and then reopen the government with the House pass bill without any changes made.

Um it's just a matter of when Schumer and the moderate Democrats and the retiring democrats that have that voted for the previous continuing resolution decide enough is enough, the message has been received, the political point has been made, and we are reopening the government, but we haven't reached that point yet.

Thank you for that update.

Um we have a request from uh our Alameda County Health Department to oppose the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development's uh recent NOFOM notice on um basically the permanent housing cap, which would compromise the availability of resources for us to um provide the shift from transitional to permanent supportive housing, and if we have concurrence on their recommendation to oppose, we'll push it to the full board.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

So we will move that recommendation of opposition to the full board um as part of their consideration.

And do we have any public comments on the federal legislative update?

No speakers.

Thank you, Emily and John.

Appreciate it.

Um let's move to the state legislative update from full moon strategies.

Good afternoon, Supervisor Gilead Dentis here with Foom Money Strategist to provide a few updates on your state legislature.

Last week, the governor released the final round of bills signing and vetoes, officially marking the end of the legislative activities for 2024, 2025.

I'm sorry.

During this first year of the true year session, lawmakers introduced just over 2800 bills.

Of those, roughly 1100 have been uh decided to be a two-year bill.

And uh they all will be up for reconsideration in 2026.

More than 1200 measures advanced to the governor's desk where he signed 1,124 bills and vetoed 123 bills.

Alameda County opposed to SB 404 by Senator Caballero on the grounds that this bill would exempt matter shredding facilities from compliance with the hazard due to waste control law.

Uh the governor uh vetoed this bill last week, uh sharing some of the concerns regarding the lack of a clear definitions for hazard due to waste.

This concern was one of the concerns that we shared from Alameda County.

Uh the county staff worked closely with us to ensure that all our concerns were effectively communicated to the governor's office and to the relevant agencies, contributing for a very successful outcome for Alameda County.

For the second uh year of the 25-26 California legislative session, key deadlines will begin once the legislature reconvenes on January 5th.

Uh bills introduced in 2025 must pass their first house by January 31st and to remain active and the new bills for the 2026 year will be need to be uh submitted to the legislative council by uh January 24th and being uh introduced by February 21st.

The California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Public Utilities Commission joined a multi-state coalition to sue the US Environmental Protection Agency for unlawfully terminating the $7 billion for the solar for all program, which aimed to bring solar power to low-income communities.

The coalition argues that the Trump's administration uh violates a federal law and a breach of contractual obligations, cutting off uh critical funds that were already approved by Congress.

California alone uh stands to lose probably around 250 million in funding for community solar and a workforce training.

The lawsuit seeks to restore the program to reinstate the funding uh nationwide.

Uh Governor Nielsen also this uh during the weekend, he announced that California Cal RX insulin uh glar gene pens will be available beginning uh January 1st, 2026, an affordable price, no more than $50 per uh five pack, which would be around 11 per pen.

At the uh as the first state to produce and distribute uh its own insulin, California is taking a major step for lower prescription drug costs and expanding access to essential medications.

Uh, in a press conference, Governor Newsom shared that no California should get in debt to stay alive, highlighting the state's commitment to affordable health care.

Uh, just right now, and uh I'm pretty sure you might be aware of supervisors.

Um, attorney general Rob Bond addressed in a press conference the possibility of a President Trump uh deploying uh the nation National Guard to San Francisco.

During the press conference, attorney general he said that San Francisco is not asking for the National Guard to come here.

And he also clarified that only after uh the uh Donald Trump takes an action uh that California can answer and uh in court against the decision.

Uh from the past week, I also wanted to follow up in information request.

I do believe that was from the Treasurer Tax Collector staff that had a question uh asked about if the governor would issue a executive order to extend the property taxes for federal employees impacted by the shutdown.

As of right now, we haven't heard anything on this.

Yeah, we haven't received received any guidance, but we will keep tracking uh the issue and uh we'll make sure that uh the county will be updated.

Uh on the question from uh Supervisor uh Fortunato on, let me just get right here on the snap.

It's not clear yet.

Uh, they state still uh we are still waiting for uh guidance from the federal government.

Uh I know the California Department of Social Services has put out a FAQ page about HR1 impacts on CalFresh, and uh uh it states that we already have some changes that are scheduled already, uh especially starting in November 1st.

Uh but a California is still waiting for uh federal guidance before implementing changes related to work requirements and the lawfully present uh non-citizens, for example.

Uh, we will be including all the guidance from uh CDSS on our notes as well.

And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Comments.

Um I don't have any questions uh as of now.

Um I assume that we can find a list of all the bills that were signed or vetoed by the governor online soon through the state legislature.

Is that correct?

Yes, we also are adding, yeah.

Sorry, we are also adding a table with all the bills that Alameda took a position with the bills that are going to be reconsider uh up for reconsideration for 2026, and all the outcomes of the bills of 2025.

Supervisor.

Great.

Thank you for updating that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um we had heard uh through CJ Lake that the Office of Management and Budget Um had basically been instructed to pause 11 billion dollars in Army Corps of Engineers infrastructure projects to the states, basically the blue states, the ones that voted for Kamala Harris.

Do we have a sense yet at the state level uh which projects will be impacted?

Because there's several flood control projects in Alameda County that are also federally and state financed.

Yes, of course, we haven't heard anything, yeah, but we're happy just to circle back with the agencies and get any less uh updates to share with the supervisor.

We will be adding that to the notes for today as well.

When do you think we would know?

Because I obviously we're we're also trying to make some adjustments with our infrastructure budgeting.

Yeah, so what I can uh tell you is that we can circle back with the agencies right after uh this meeting and just get a sense of the deadline, the timeline, and if we're having any uh specific projects that would be impacted in Alameda, and then that way we can have a sense on timing and a share with it with the you.

Okay, that would be very helpful.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comments on our state legislative update?

No speakers.

Okay, um, are there any public comments on items that are not on today's agenda that's within their purview of the PAL committee?

We have no speakers for public comment.

Thank you.

Um, for those online, can you identify yourself so we can appreciate you for your participation?

Yes, good afternoon, everyone.

Uh Valerie Arkin, Supervisor Miley's office.

Good afternoon, Jessica Blake Moore, Alameda County Health.

Elvi Quiroga, Alameda County Treasurer Tax Collector's Office.

Edith Cuevas, Supervisor Hubbard's office.

Thank you all for your participation and for your updates.

This meeting is adjourned