Good afternoon and welcome to the Alba County Board of Supervisors Personnel Administration and Legislation Committee meeting for Monday, February the 9th, 2026.

May I have roll call, please?

Present.

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Thank you.

Let's try this again.

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

Good afternoon.

You've got Emily DeSilva and John Assini here from CJ Lake.

Again, top of mind remains FY26 appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security.

Both the House and Senate are in this week.

They're both in recess next week.

Uh runs through this Friday.

And again, I know when we talked about it, you know, that when they pulled out Homeland Security out of the larger package, by the time it passed, it only gave them two weeks to figure things out.

And so we could be looking at another continuing resolution or potentially a partial shutdown for the department.

I think mentioned the fact that ICE has so much money from HR1.

That you know they don't really have a problem with funding, but the department itself, you know, includes TSA, it includes FEMA, it includes the Coast Guard.

Um, and so I think you know those are some of the kind of larger concerns.

Um Republicans had been saying that democrats needed to share kind of bill text with them, kind of what they wanted included.

Um, we did hear that Dems did share with Republicans over the weekend, but it's been very close hold, and they have not it has not been made public yet.

Um, you know, some of the demands I think we talked about last week from Democrats, but they want it codified in statute, kind of removal of masks and requirements of wearing body cameras by federal agents, requiring DHS to obtain arrest and search warrants from judges rather than administrative warrants, and then in general, more local and state oversight of immigration operations and investigations.

Um, I know you mentioned that a little bit earlier that you have a the letter that the Senate Dems uh released.

I'm not sure if you want to talk a little bit more about that as it relates to their demands.

Yeah, they just um Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer sent a letter to congressional leaders last week with 10 requests for policy riders that would be attached to the Department of Plum and Security full year appropriations package.

Um similar to the three that Emily just listed.

Um there are a couple more that have been mentioned and sort of the general conversation around the DHS bill.

Needless to say, the likelihood that any of these get attached to a defense of homeland appropriations bill is fairly low.

The White House is very strongly opposed to attaching any sort of restrictions that are codified on ICE or CBP.

Um they are looking to do things on an administrative level, um, which would provide or retain a lot of the flexibility that ICE and CPP have been provided uh under current law.

Um the uh chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee in the Senate, Katie Britt, uh, over the weekend said that she has not started negotiations with her Democratic counterpart, Chris Murphy.

Um, so the conversations that should be happening to extend funding um on this on this important uh agency is not really happening.

Um similarly, House Republicans have indicated their opposition to another continuing resolution saying that the House has already passed uh a homeland fully appropriation, and the only group of people that's opposed to that are Senate Democrats.

So they are almost welcoming uh a partial government shutdown because of the fact that the only agencies that will really be affected by this are the ones that are not CVP or ICE.

It would be FEMA, it would be uh TSA and Coast Guard, and their calculus is that that's something that they believe an argument that they can win uh in the event that the Coast Guard is not getting paid, regardless of their position on CVP and ICE operations in the in the country.

So it should be a pretty interesting week uh if they're able to come up with another CR or if we are hurling toward another partial government shutdown.

Um I guess kind of next up, just kind of what's happening on health care policy.

And honestly, I know we had talked about it last week.

Discussions really have not kind of um moved forward as it relates to the um expansion of the premium tax credit.

So uh, but um the House Energy and Commerce Committee continues to hold hearings focused on insurance affordability.

And so they're gonna continue kind of those hearings this week.

Um there's one focused on examining the prescription drug supply chain, um, and that's gonna focus on pricing dynamics and areas of potential congressional oversight as they try to kind of evaluate different strategies to reduce prescription drug cost.

So just wanted to flag that for you.

Um bill that we do expect um to pass this week is uh housing for the 21st century act.

Um I think the House could take it up under suspension of the rules.

It is a um strong bipartisan bill, uh in endorsed by NACO, and it includes proposals aimed at expediting home building, expanding affordable and manufactured housing, and broadening community banks' lending abilities.

Um I think they could take it up as early as this evening.

Uh the Senate has its own bipartisan housing plan, and um it's a little broader than the House bill.

Um it shares some similar provisions to the House bill.

Um, so we're just not sure what will happen once house passage occurs.

Um, they may have some more leverage in negotiations over a final bill since the full Senate hasn't taken up its bill.

Um, but wanted to flag that.

We'll have some details um in in our notes.

And then one other bill that we're tracking for this week on the House side, um, is the Save Act.

And I believe we talked about it too in relation to the Homeland Security approbes package in the House when they were uh negotiating with a few different members.

But it would require uh proof of citiz citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

It would also eliminate mail only registrations and require photo ID in every state for the first time.

Most of the bill would go into effect immediately, but the requirement for photo ID to vote in federal elections would not kick in until 2027.

We do not think the Senate would uh would pass this it it wouldn't um get the 60 votes needed uh to break a filibuster but we do expect the house to pass it and so you may hear about it because if it were to be enacted um the legislation would introduce kind of significant new administrative requirements for counties responsible for election administration.

Again we will um have some specifics in the notes uh we do think it'll pass the house this week um but again uh we do not expect the Senate to take it up and John I don't know if you have anything else related to to the save act and the Senate side but uh I I do I just want to go back a little bit on the um health care policy update as well um the House Ways and Means Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee are working in tandem on the majority side to conduct these uh health care affordability hearings so of course they have the insurance companies they came in a couple weeks ago um the pharmaceutical companies are due in this second tranche um and then the hospital provider groups are likely to get a hearing on their affordability um question sometime in mid-March so they're gonna really try to hit all three um criteria for health spending in the country on the Save America Act the only other thing that I'll mention is that there is this push on the Senate side to change the way that the filibuster is implemented so there's this push by Mike Lee who's a you know very conservative member from uh Utah that would like to switch uh from the current way the filibuster is done which is basically they have staff sitting in the cloakroom and they say I object to a unanimous consent agreement which is the if you know effectively a filibuster because then they have to move to a 60 vote threshold rather than their unit was consent to a talking filibuster which would require active debate on the floor by the Senate in order for them to prevent moving from a uh cloture motion to um a final passage motion.

So this is interesting because Mike Lee and his ideological cadre really are the ones that revolutionize the way the current the current filibuster is implemented with you know folks just saying I object and then uh forcing a filibuster or a cloture vote on um any motion on the Senate.

And now he's looking to go back to where the things used to be before that that revolution took place about 20 years ago.

This is something that was revolutionized originally by the folks of like Jim Dement if that's a name that you can recognize.

At this point in time Mr.

Thune is not open to changing the Senate rules uh requiring a talking filibuster just to consider the SAVE Act.

He does not want to you know necessarily open up the way the Senate is being run at this point.

Potentially upend that uh in order to pass this bill.

The White House has been getting a little bit more involved in pushing for the um for the passage of the Save Act.

You know J.D.

Vance had some comments about this over uh last weekend I believe um pushing for Thune to take up the bill um this was again repeated by Mike Lee so uh and this is also part and parcel of the conversation that President Trump has had on nationalizing elections um or having the federal government have a larger role um in the determination and the administration of elections.

So I think that this is kind of one part of a larger story um that we'll likely see up until the midterms and likely um thereafter.

And that's our report for this week.

Thank you very much for that update.

Supervisor Fortunately asked questions, comments.

I appreciate the update.

Yeah, it's uh frustrating on several fronts, including um not having resolution on DHS or health care yet, but I don't have any specific questions right now.

Thank you.

Um just a couple questions.

The you mentioned um the housing for the 21st century, and then uh that's a house bill.

And I remember last year, you know, around the holidays, um, Senator Schiff had come to San Francisco and Oakland and did a number of press uh conferences to talk about the boom act, which is his version of the housing bill.

Where are those two bills?

I think Latifa Simon from our area was also supportive of the housing bill and the Senate side.

I mean, excuse me, on the House side, right?

Yeah, so that's a separate bill that is not included in this kind of larger package.

And um, I have been in touch with Congresswoman Simon's office on that bill.

They have not introduced it yet.

The House version of the boom act.

I think they're still having some conversations with labor on it, so they haven't introduced it yet.

And it again, it would be separate from this housing package that's moving this week.

Okay.

Do we know where um our California delegations are on this bill?

Um, I need to look, but I'm don't quote me.

Uh, we will double check and let you know if they have co-sponsored this larger package, but it is uh strongly bipartisan.

Um I think the whole uh House Financial Services Committee supported it out of committee, but we'll double check our delegation on it and include it in the notes.

All Democrats supported the bill on committee.

The only one that voted against it was Ralph Norman of South Carolina, who is a Republican.

Okay, thank you.

Um on the SAFE Act, I I think you're familiar that California had passed the voters' choice act and uh the county is part of that effort that basically enabled uh a vote by mail, especially during uh the pandemic.

So how does that um I mean how does the the state law and and this potential federal legislation uh reconcile itself if it's going to ban mail-in ballots?

Well, I think it'd be subject to a lawsuit if it were to pass, and that would be determined by the courts.

So I think that they're directly in conflict, um, between the state law and the federal law, if it were to pass, of course, which is the point.

You know, they would want to un, they would they would the federal government, Congress, Republican Congress would want to undo state law related to voter ID related to mail-in voting, related to early voting, um, you know, all the voter access laws that California has passed.

They are looking to basically preempt and supersede.

So it would have to work through the courts to affirm or not affirm that.

Okay, thank you.

Appreciate that.

Are there any um public comments on our federal legislative update?

There are no public comments.

Thank you.

Let's go to our state legislative update.

Good afternoon, Supervisor Shail Denvers here with film winning strategies to provide a few updates on your state legislature.

Starting with the California Attorney General uh Rob Bonta, he secured another court order blocking the Trump's administration a lawful attempt to freeze the 10 billion uh dollars in federal authorized funding for child care and a family assistance programs.

We talked about this earlier uh in the year after the US Department of Health and Human Services imposed some target freeze on the California and the four other Democratic led states basing some claims of fraud.

Uh, the attorney Generals of California, New York, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota sued HHS in January.

But the ruling now became a primary injection injunction.

So that preserves the funding for while the case is moving forward.

So good news on that, at least some good news coming on our way from California as of right now.

Also from last week, the California Department Healthcare Services, they hosted a first webinar to review the implementation plan of uh for new federal eligibility and enrollment changes under HR 1.

Uh they outlined some of the guided uh principles that you know the state is finally putting out there.

Uh is worth to share that we're still waiting for more guidance from the feds.

Um the plan details some upcoming changes and provide resources for members and stakeholders to prepare for the transition, uh, while highlighting some that approximately two uh million uh medical members are risk right now of losing uh health care coverage as results of this uh federal changes.

Uh during the webinar, the department also explained that this issue uh they're going to issue some guidance to counties on the HR provisions uh throughout the implementation, clarifying some existing policies, updating process and the systems changes as well.

Uh the department noted that this guidance will serve as a foundation for a statewide training for counties and uh um uh you know involving all the new work uh requirements and the six months previous renews.

The department also shared that they are going to be uh convening target uh county uh work groups to facilitate uh the communication.

Uh they also suggested some monthly policy webinars to provide to the counties uh the updates on the implementation and some trainings as well.

Um as we uh the budget activities in California is ramping up, the sub we have already some uh subcommittee uh hearings uh populating our calendars uh in both houses is worth to share that the Senate Democrats.

They held last week uh budget uh retreat on the assembly side and the policy retreat on the assembly side where they had a higher level discussions and how the legislature is going to respond to all this new federal uh changes.

Uh we also already shared with the county that on the assembly side for any budget requests.

They already put out there a guidance that all the letters need to be submitted by March 6.

Um, on that end, on this week, we already have the Senate budget fiscal committee that is scheduled for Wednesday where they're going to do a diving on the impacts of HR1 and the same on the assembly side uh next week, where they're going to, you know, like do a diving on the defending health care for the ability access.

So we are going to share all this notes with the county uh and you know keep you updated on the upcoming uh sorry.

Can you hear me?

Emily, are you able to hear JLS?

I can hear him.

Yeah, we can hear you.

Can you hear me?

Oh, I can hear you, Joe.

Yes.

Oh, perfect.

Yeah, so uh lastly uh we have a few uh budget subcommittees scheduled already for this week.

We will be attending this hearings and provide uh to the county a few notes and also uh it we will be there us uh you know uh providing a few comments on behalf of the county.

As a follow-up uh from last week, uh I remember Supervisor Cam was asking about the uh bill that oh, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you now.

Yeah, oh perfect.

Uh Supervisor Tam asked about the policy by Assemblymember Bond uh related to health care coverage, which we're calling uh uh big employers, the Walmart uh health care.

We haven't had access to the language yet, but considering the deadline, which is February twentieth, we anticipate that in the upcoming two weeks we will be able to share more information on that with the use of the supervisor.

And also, Supervisor Bass uh on the Alameda governance bill.

We are on the last stages right now.

Uh, you know, we are in communication with uh Senator Edigin's office, which is our author.

We're just finalizing some documents documentations, you know, to share with the uh with the possible supporters, and uh uh we're expecting the bill to you know to be introduced in the upcoming two weeks as well.

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

Thank you very much.

Um Supervisor Fortunately asked questions, comments.

Thank you for the update.

That was very thorough.

Um I actually don't think I have any questions.

Thank you for that update and also the the status of some of our county initiatives.

Do you also have an update on uh the EMS uh initiative?

Uh the EMS initiative, we're having a conversation with Senator Edigin uh on Thursday this week.

We already had engagement with the uh the sponsors of uh SB 81 version from last year.

Uh they are a little bit more conservative to include uh our request on the uh the EMS, but if that's going to be the principal topic of the conversation with Senator Edigin to request inclusion of our concerns on the language, uh he's already going to share some cleanup language.

So uh we'll more to come on that, and after our conversation on Thursday, we will be able to share an update.

Sorry, Supervisor, I cannot hear you.

Can I hear it?

I can't hear it either.

Yeah.

Oh, there you go.

Now we can hear.

So the question I had was uh Ergin carrying both the HS governance and oh uh I could hear your question, so um I hope you can hear me.

Uh no, uh Senator Edigin, as of right now, he's carrying the our governance bill, and uh uh we're still having conversations with the sponsors of the SB 81 from last year to see if he's already confirmed to sponsor that bill as well where we would uh ask him to address our concerns.

But if for the EMS, he's not it is not confirmed as an authority, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you for that clarification.

Um do we have any public comments on the state legislative update?

There are no public comments.

Okay, so uh the only action item that's requested is from Alameda County Health is to oppose the provision in the governor's proposed January budget that would make mobile crisis response an option and thereby shifting the non-federal.

We lost you again.

Yes, yes, yes.

Now we can hear you.

Oh nice.

We didn't say any.

But thank you for confirming.

Okay, should I make the motion again?

Yes, please.

Okay.

Um I move to adopt an opposed position on the community-based mobile crisis services proposed benefit changes in the governor's FY twenty six twenty-seven proposed budget.

I'll second that motion.

Supervisor Fortunato Bass.

Aye.

Supervisor Camp.

Aye.

Motion carries.

Okay.

Um at the risk of making sure our technical audio still works, I will just go directly to public comment on items that are not on today's agenda.

There are no public comments.

Or non-agendized items.

Okay.

Should I risk asking for participation?

No.

Okay.

Thank you very much for your participation today, and I apologize for the technical difficulties.

This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.