Testing one, two, three.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Personnel Administration and Legislation Committee meeting for Monday, March the 23rd, 2026.

May have roll call, please.

Supervisor Portalado Bass.

Present.

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

May I have instructions on participation?

Of course.

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Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's start with the legislative update on the federal side from CJ Leak.

Good afternoon.

You've got Emily Bakay DeSilva here and John Assini as well.

Both the House and Senate are in session this week.

And then they're both supposed to go uh out of session for two weeks.

They'll be in the district or in the state uh for what they call the spring recess.

So hopefully they will get some things done this week, including potentially uh funding DHS, but they are um both in session this week.

Um one thing I know we've been reporting on is the beginning of the FY27 appropriations process, and of course the House side had issued their appropriations guidance a few weeks ago.

The Senate uh just released their guidance at the end of last week.

Um, even though uh Senators Schiff and Padilla had already issued kind of their own guidance.

We now know the um appropriations subcommittee deadlines, which um most begin in April.

Um also kind of what kicks off the appropriations process is when the president sends uh their budget request to Congress.

Uh it seems like it gets later and later.

Uh it's it should be kind of that first uh I believe Tuesday in February.

I can't tell you the last time that has happened.

Um John and I were both on the hill last week talking to appropriators.

Um they were hearing that it could come as soon as next week.

So again, they said that could slip, but I think we're expecting it to uh be released um uh hopefully by the end of next week.

And again, even though no matter the president, uh, you know, people say it's dead on arrival when it gets to Congress, it at least gives you an idea of the priorities for the administration, and so you can look at kind of what they are hoping to do um with various accounts and agencies.

So um hopefully we'll see that next week, and then that will kick off kind of appropriations hearings in both the House and Senate that would start when Congress comes back um after the April recess.

Um top of mind right now is homeland security funding and uh getting a homeland security secretary.

Uh the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced uh Senator Mullins nomination uh last week and the Senate held a procedural vote uh over the weekend, and so the full Senate is expected to approve his nomination tonight, um, which I think is uh good because at this point uh as it relates to DHS funding, um, you know, negotiators have remained uh far apart and the white house has now signaled they want to hold off on any further negotiations with Senate Democrats until Senator Mullen is confirmed.

So hoping that happens tonight, um, then you know there's potential for you know some sort of breakthrough this week.

Um, but up until now, we you know, different uh bills have come up.

The idea to pull out uh TSA and fund that it hasn't gone anywhere, fund everything, but ICE that hasn't gained any traction.

So again, hoping that once they get um a secretary in place, maybe things will be kick started.

John, I'll pause there.

I can turn it over to you uh for the remainder, but that's kind of where things stand on those issues.

And John, jump in on kind of the negotiations, et cetera, if you're hearing different things.

Yeah, the one thing that I would just add to that is there was an offer that was made by Democrats to fund all of the DHS bill with the exception of ICE and then leave ICE for a future reconciliation package.

It would allow the agency to still operate because of the funding that they received in HR one and then provide political cover um for Democrats for the rest of the package while also providing the essential services provided by TSA and other agencies to operate and end the shutdown.

This offer was um welcomed by a lot of the Republican senators, including Mr.

Thune.

Mr.

Thuon brought this proposal to the White House and the White House rejected it.

Um Mr.

Trump indicated that he wanted to continue the Senate's uh actions on the Save America Act and indicated that he would not sign a bill unless the Senate passes the Save America Act, which is still being considered by the full chamber um throughout this week.

Um so they are kind of in a holding pattern right now in between um the executive calendar and trying to get Mr.

Mullen um confirmed, which we expect he will be by a slightly bipartisan margin.

I won't say a full-throated bipartisan margin.

Um, and also their ongoing activity on the Save America Act, um, which will continue this week.