Good afternoon and welcome to the personnel administration and legislation committee of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for Monday, January the 12th, 2026.

May I have a roll call, please?

Supervisor Fortunatabas.

Supervisor Tim.

Present, thank you.

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Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Let's start with the legislative update from CJ Lake.

Good afternoon.

Um as well.

Quick update kind of on where things stand with the schedule.

I know we've been focused on appropriations uh in December, and then when the House and Senate came back last week.

You know, the current CR does uh run through Friday, January 30th.

Um both the House and Senate are in session this week and next week.

And then the House is supposed to be in recess the week of the 26th, so leading up to the expiration of their continuing resolution.

The Senate is expected to be in, but all that to say, you know, at this point, if they're going to try and wrap up these remaining bills, they've got two weeks to do it or end up passing some sort of continuing resolution for the bills that they aren't able to negotiate on um year uh year long spending or at this point, what eight months worth of spending.

Um so we we do have some kind of positive uh momentum, and I know we talked about that last week, um, in that the house passed or was putting together a bipartisan three bill spending package, um, which included commerce, justice, science, interior, environment, and energy and water.

Um, and that did pass with broad partisan support.

Um, and the Senate is expected to take up that package this week.

Um, and then at the end of last week, the house was trying to put together a third package that um was to include financial services, state foreign operations, and homeland security.

And they ended up pulling uh homeland security out of it uh for a number of reasons, but certainly uh with what happened in Minnesota last week um with ice and I think just uh it's it's so politically charged right now that they could not reach a deal uh between Republicans and Democrats on the homeland bill.

So the House is set to take up that two-bill package.

Um the thought that they could then uh send it to the Senate, uh, but that still leaves defense, labor HHS education, transportation HUD, and homeland security.

Um, so again, kind of given the scale and complexity of these accounts and just the politics of it.

Leadership has signaled that there could be um, you know, either a short-term CR or even full year CRs um as a potential possibility if an agreement can't be reached on those remaining bills.

Uh John, not sure if you have anything to add on approbes.

No, I think that covers it.

Okay.

And then, you know, we can switch gears to um health care.

I know you've been kind of taking the lead on that one.

John, if you want to jump in there.

Uh, sure thing.

So last week the house passed legislation that would extend the ACA's premium tax credits for three years by a vote of 230 to 196.

There were 17 House Republicans that joined all Democrats.

Um, this, of course, came after the successful discharge petition uh that was passed in the House before the end of last year.

The bill is unlikely to advance in its current form.

However, a group uh bipartisan senators uh are continuing negotiations around a narrower health care package that could include a shorter extension, likely two years of the credits with a retroactive provision allowing individuals that qualify for the credits to continue that.

Um of course the credits would not be a straight extension like we'd see now.

There would be policy changes such as eligibility gaps, minimum premium contributions and potential adjustments to health savings accounts, where is individuals could have the opportunity instead of receiving a premium subsidy, they could have that money diverted to uh NHSA.

This would likely take place in the second year of the uh extension.

There's no clear agreement on a path forward that can secure the necessary votes, however, uh if they do choose to move forward with this package, um they would likely use the House passed extension bill as a vehicle and then uh include a um a substitute amendment that would include this package.

Um, of course, the elephant in the room, um, as is all things when it comes down to health care is the future of the Hyde Amendment.

Um, this is an amendment that was included many years ago um into federal legislation that prohibits the use of federal funding to go towards abortion, the affordable care act, um, because it was passed um through the reconciliation process during the Obama administration, does not include Hyde language.

However, Republicans have been eyeing to include um hide language into the Affordable Care Act for many years, and this continues to be a priority for many members in both the Senate and House.

Um, this is of course a red line for many Democrats as they are opposed to the Hyde Amendment and would not want to see um the additional uh creep of Hyde into the Affordable Care Act subsidies.

So this is creating a bit of an issue uh on the future of the tax credits um as this conversation kind of happens in the House.

Um beyond the ACA subsidies, lawmakers in both chambers are expected to continue broader health care policy conversations this month, uh including efforts to contain rising health costs of potential reforms to insurance markets, as well as renewed attention to pharmacy benefit manager legislation.