Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, Personnel Administration and Legislation Committee meeting for Monday, March the 30th, 2026.

May I have road call, please?

Supervisor Portonato Boss present.

Supervisor TAM present.

Thank you.

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Thank you.

Thank you very much.

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

Thank you, supervisors.

Of course, the big news, which I'm sure that you all have been following closely, is the ongoing funding impasse for the Department of Homeland Security.

It currently remains unresolved and will be expected to be the central issue throughout the Easter recess.

The shutdown is now extended beyond 40 days.

On Friday, March 27th, the Senate passed unanimously by voice a measure to reopen and fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, excluding both ICE and CBP from the bill.

Legislation that passes by voice in the Senate does not receive a formal recorded vote.

So there's no breakdown of support or opposition to the measure.

But as news of the Senate's work made its way to the House, there was immediate opposition, not only from House Republican leadership, but from the broader Republican conference.

Later that evening, the House set aside the Senate bill and voted on their own measure, which would fund all of DHS, including ICE and CBP through May 22nd of this year.

This passed along party line votes by a vote of 213 to 203.

A day prior to this vote, the House also passed along party lines a bill to fund the department for the remainder of 2026 through a continuing resolution.

Regardless of the bill bills passing out of various chambers, neither the House nor the Senate have yet to agree on a path forward, and DHS remains unfunded.

One of the public ramifications of DHS funding labs has, of course, been the hours long security lines at various airports due to uh reduced TSA agents and staffing.

Uh, but on Friday on March 27th, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing DHS to immediately restore pay of roughly 50,000 TSA screening officers, which will likely provide the House and Senate additional time to find uh an agreement on funding and also remove some of the political pressure from uh finding a solution to the DHS funding impasse.

Republicans in the House and in the Senate have floated the idea of providing the funds needed through an additional reconciliation package, which would negate the need for a bipartisan vote in the Senate.

Even just this morning, um, Senator Hoven, uh, who's a Republican from North Dakota indicated the possibility of a three-year uh funding bill through reconciliation, specifically for DHS, which would then take them essentially out of the regular appropriations cycle, um, which would be a pretty significant breach of the way that things are done in the probes.

Um, on the reconciliation piece, work on a second reconciliation bill is in the nascent phases, even as Republicans question whether they can unify on a large package this year.

Uh, budget committee chairs Lindsay Graham in the Senate and Representative Joni Arrington in the House have started coordinating on a budget resolution that would provide reconciliation instructions as a likely vehicle to fund immigration enforcement, the ongoing US Israeli war in Iran, um, and potentially an ag supplemental as well.

Uh last week, Errington indicated Republicans aim to get a reconciliation package in play within about 60 days, focusing on defense and homeland security, um, but then also additionally on ICE and CBP.

Budget Republicans are planning meetings with Pentagon officials to clarify the needs as they identify offsets in order to mollify some of the concerns that some House Republicans would have on the uh $2 trillion annual deficit and $39 trillion national debt.

The reconciliation idea has gained momentum as an alternative path to the ongoing DHS and ICE funding impasse after Democrats rejected offers from the House in particular, and even after the unanimous consent that was agreed to in the Senate.

Republicans are also exploring whether to fold elements of a voter ID package similar to the Save America Act into reconciliation, which would include proof of citizenship requirements for voter registration and voter ID requirements at the polls.

This would of course reflect President Trump's push to link election policy with homeland security funding.

However, Republican members and budget experts acknowledge that many of the election-related content unlikely to survive in the Senate birds rule.

And even key proponents, including Mike Lee of Utah, can see that the voter ID provisions do not neatly fit within reconciliation strict budgetary limits, which would push Mr.

Thune to a narrower, more targeted bill.

Additionally, Republicans are looking to fold additional aggressive Medicare and Medicaid anti-fraud policies into a second party line reconciliation bill, which would be used to help pay for priorities, including the ongoing war in Iran, additional ICE funding, and potentially funding that's attached to states adopting some of the rules that are put forth by the Save America Act.

They argue that mandatory and means tested programs are quote unquote leaking large sums of fraud, and they see reconciliation as the preferred vehicle to tighten spending, while Democrats, of course, counter that fraud is being used as a pretext to cut health care services, especially Medicaid.

Speaker Johnson has signaled openness to a second reconciliation package, calling fraud hundreds of billions of dollars and saying that, quote, everything is on the table.

And key committee chairs, including Brett Guthrie and Buddy Carter, want any new bill to go beyond Medicare and Medicaid, which would essentially revisit policies that were dropped from the first reconciliation bill.

And they hope to address specific concerns, such as skin substitute payments, DME, hospice, genetic testing, autism-related therapies, and non-emergency medical transportation.

Those are really the two things that are sucking up all of the oxygen in DC, despite the fact that they're in recess for the next two weeks.

However, on the housing side of the world, we can't forget about the 21st century Road to Housing Act, which of course was passed by 90 to 10 in the Senate, and a similar bipartisan bill was passed out of the House.

The Senate version incorporates two notable additions, both of which are supported by President Trump.

The Senate provision, the Senate version rather, uh prohibits institutional investors from buying single-family homes.

It also puts a temporary moratorium on the Federal Reserve from issuing a digital currency until 2030.

The House bill contains a number of community banking measures that were excluded from the Senate version.

But at this point in time, ongoing negotiations between the House and the Senate remain at a standstill, despite the fact that they both passed measures of their own.

And the House is now seeking a formal conference between the two versions to settle the differences rather than the House just simply accepting what was passed by the Senate.

Many House Democrats and some House Republicans feel that they were cut out of negotiations in the Senate and they're not simply satisfied with passing the Senate's version of the bill.

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

Thank you very much for that update.

Questions or comments?

Thank you very much, John.

That was incredibly comprehensive.

Just so I'm clear, over the next two weeks, while both houses, the Senate and the House are on recess.

Do you expect there to be some level of negotiation and some continued work on these issues that are stalled?

I think that there will be negotiations at the leadership level, especially with the White House.

We're also expecting the budget released by the president by the end of the week, potentially Friday.

President Trump indicated in a Truth Social Post earlier today that he is re-engaging with negotiations on DHS spending.

Now, how much attention he's actually going to be put on this is going to be anyone's guess.

But I believe that they will continue at the leadership level to try to come up with some sort of impasse.

They will have pro forma sessions.

They will have pro forma sessions, um, so there will be a bill, the ability for Congress to bring up certain measures if some sort of breakthrough is made and all parties agree.

Um, but it's potential that they don't come up with an agreement and they'll have to wait until two weeks when they're back on April 13th to come up with something that's actually passes both chambers.

Okay, thank you.

Um just to clarify when you mentioned that um the Senate bill uh which basically funded TSA and all the other agencies uh except Border Patrol and ICE, that failed um at the House of Representatives level because of uh differences in how they viewed the bill, or because the president was already planning on funding back pay at least for TSA.

They the House voted it down because it did not include funding for ICE and CBP.

They felt like the House was left out of negotiations entirely, and this was a Senate agreement.

Um, and the House felt a little insulted that they were not really consulted on the overall agreement.

Um, that they simply felt that the Senate would jam them, they would accept it and they would move on.

Um, there are a number of House Republicans um that essentially rejected the deal that was reached by Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans, and frankly, the White House.

Um Speaker Johnson following his conference, um decided to agree with that rather than put it up for a vote um and then allow Democrats to cross the aisle and then essentially carry it.

Um, you know, if this was a previous speaker, I think that you could have seen this end um with significant democratic support.

Um, certainly that was essentially the undoing of what Mr.

McCarthy's speakership ended with is that he had to code Democrats too often in order to pass bills out of the chamber.

Um so rather than ending the crisis, um, Speaker Johnson chose in the interest of his conference, and of course, I think his speakership um to continue uh the shutdown.

Okay.

Um last week I know uh uh you and Emily had mentioned that um the president basically wanted to use the Save Act as a threshold before consideration of anything.

Has that uh changed?

Has that relaxed?

I think it changes day to day almost.

Um in this most recent tweet this morning or Truth Social Post this morning, the Save America Act wasn't a predicate for the president re-engaging on DHS uh appropriations.

Um so he may have kind of taken the foot off the gas on the threat to not pass any bills without the Save America Act.

They also may be looking to either an executive order that uh attempts to include some of the provisions that the Save America Act attempted, or also through reconciliation to include some of the provisions, at least in the House passed version.

Um so the pressure is a little bit different, but you know, I I do think that these two kind of outstanding items continue to suck up the oxygen in the room, and I think the Save America Act is also part and parcel of that.

Okay, thank you.

Well, at least they did move on the Affordable Care Act uh subsidies.

I think um last I heard at least uh 17 Republicans were um trying to restore the subsidies.

Is that your understanding this?

I mean, the the conversation around the ACA subsidies is basically dead.

Um there's almost no chance that the Republican Senate or House is going to be moving forward.

So there may be some co-sponsorships that have been added since then, but I would say that more as playing to November than playing to the floor or to to Congress um or congressional committees.

Um, you know, Mr.

Uh Crapo, who's the the uh chairman of the finance committee, um, and Jason Smith, who's chair of the Ways and Means Committee.

So they have jurisdiction over the tax portfolio in both chambers.

They have indicated that there's very little appetite to moving forward um on extended VACA enhanced premium subsidies.

Uh that's unfortunate.

Okay.

Thank you for that clarification.

Appreciate it.

Um, do we have any public comments on the federal update?

There are no public comments on the federal update.

Okay.

There's been a request from Alameda County Health to support HR 5439 and Senate Bill 2834 to provide a pilot program for medically um tailored home delivered meals.

And this has broad support, and we are uh asked to advance it to the full board for a support position.

I concur.

Um definitely want to support this request, and I will move to you forward this support request for these um two bills, one in the House, one in the Senate to the full board.

I will second that motion.

Roll call, please.

Supervisor Fortunato Boss.

Aye.

Supervisor Tab.

Aye.

Motion passed.

Thank you.

Let's move to the state legislative update from Full Moon Strategies.

Good afternoon, Supervisors.

Gile Dentus here with Fulmin Strategist to provide a few updates on your state legislature.

As we mentioned last week, the legislature is currently on uh its spring recess, which uh they will return to Sacramento on April 6th.

This time allows members to engage in district work and prepare for upcoming legislative activity.

Once they are back here in Sacramento, the pace will accelerate.

We will have a plenty of a policy committee hearings resuming, increasing after the bill movements, and the early budget discussions will start as well.

This time right now marks the transition into the high intensity uh phase on the legislative session for this year.

Uh some of the updates that we have to provide this week is related to the attorney general actions from last week.

The first one is related to medical data sharing.

The Attorney General Rob Bonte is leading a multi-state coalition to enforce a federal court order related to the data sharing.

The order blocks HHS from sharing medical recipient data with the ICE concerns arose after a report that HHS they were sharing large and complex uh data set with the ICE agents, potentially including data from lawful uh residents.

The coalition is requesting clarification on what uh what was the data that was shared and uh transparency on how ICE is using that data.

Uh this case underscores uh the ongoing state and the federal tensions around immigration and the data uh privacy protections.

Also last week, uh Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a 21 states uh filing a lawsuit challenging the conditions uh that the US uh DA, the Department of Agriculture funding, uh the administration is attempting to tie uh funding for for programs such as the SNAP, school meal programs to policies related to immigration, gender identity, and the diversity initiatives.

Uh more to come on that.

We will keep tracking this issue.

Uh and as they state gets more guidance, we will share with the county as well.

Also from last week and now emerging with the return of the legislature on April 6th, we got to start having tougher conversations uh related to budget, think having in mind that the next step for the state budget is going to be the May revised, which we anticipate to be around May 14th.

Uh the LAO, the legislative analyst office, uh released a res uh a report last week uh examinating some of the tax policy scenarios, you know, uh giving some recommendations, for example, tax increases that would generate some extra revenues or you know, uh some larger revenues options.

So this report, which is included on the POL report that we will share in a little bit, uh provides pretty much a framework for upcoming fiscal and budget discussions that the legislature and the administration will be having, especially uh, you know, that this year is going to be a little more tough uh the negotiations after uh may revised towards uh the the final budget in June.

Uh with that, um happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for that update, especially all the things our attorney generals doing.

Um Supervisor Fortunately Questions, comments?

Uh thank you for the report.

I think that was pretty comprehensive coupled with the email updates on the bills, so I don't have any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, I just need to understand something specifically when it comes to ICE agents uh and the use of medical information or access to medical information because we've had this issue come up with our Alameda Health Systems, especially in the emergency room.

Um where does HIPAA fall into play here and what are the consequences of violating HIPAA?

So that's actually interesting because we have a conversation uh later this week with the department as well.

Uh, as uh the the latest action from uh attorney general.

Uh they state we don't have a clarity yet which or what kind of information uh HHS that you were sharing with the ICE.

So I do believe that we will have a little bit more guidance after Wednesday this week to share with the U supervisor.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Uh we have do we have any c public comments on our state legislative update?

There are no public comments on the state legislative update.

Okay, we have a request from uh Al May County Social Services Agency.

It's a request for uh think twenty million dollars in general fund statewide, sustained the emergency response stabilization efforts, and this will help um the counties throughout the state, including Alameda County, um, stabilize our child welfare social workforce.

And we have a support position for that that's recommended to the full board.

We also have a request from Alameda County Health to support AB 1607.

This um bill would remove the sunset on the Maddie EMS fund to um sustain the reimbursement for uncompensated care.

And it's there's also a request for a support position.

Do we have concurrence on this?

Yes, I definitely concur, and I'm happy to move both of these items forward to the full board.

I will second that motion.

Roll call, please.

Supervisor Portonato Bass.

Aye.

Supervisor Town.

Aye.

Motion passed.

Thank you very much.

Do we have any comments on items that are not on today's agenda?

There are no public comments on non-agendized items.

Thank you very much.

This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.