The Personnel Administration and Legislation (PAL) Committee met on Monday, May 18, 2026, at 9:30 AM. The meeting began with a federal legislative update from CJ Lake (presented by Emily DeSilva and John Assini) and a state legislative update from Fullman Strategies (presented by Jayel Dentis). The committee then considered several legislative support requests from Alameda County Health and voted to endorse three bills. Public comments were taken on the legislative updates and on a specific bill.
Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Personnel Administration and Legislation Committee meeting for Monday, May 18th, 2026. May I have roll call, please? Supervisor Fortunato Boss. Present. Supervisor Tim. Present. We have a quorum. Thank you. Can we go through instructions on participation? For all participants, please state your name for the record prior to your presentation. If you wish to speak on an item not on the agenda, please wait until Chair Tem calls for public input on non-gendice items only matters, but then the committee's jurisdiction may be addressed. To notify the clerk you wish to speak for in-person participants, please fill out a speaker card and hand it to the clerk. The speaker cards are at the front of the room, and I am the clerk. For online participants, please use the raise hand function when we are on an item you wish to comment on for dialogue in participants. Please dial star five to use the raise hand function. Dialing it again allows you to lower your hand. The clerk will call your name when it is time for public comment. If you are in person, please come to the podium to speak. If you are online or dialed in, the clerk will call your name and allow you to unmute. That concludes the clerk instructions for public comment. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's start with the federal legislative update from CJ Lake. Good afternoon. You've got Emily DeSilva and John Assini here with CJ Lake. But the House uh changed their vote schedule somewhat. And so they are not coming in this week until Wednesday for votes at uh 12 noon, I believe. And um there's a chance that they could be in uh well, I should say leadership is threatening that they could be in uh through part of the weekend because there is a push to get a reconciliation bill to President Trump um by June 1st. Um so uh we'll move to budget reconciliation now. The Senate is moving this week to pass the 72 billion dollar reconciliation bill, which of course would fund ICE and border patrol. And once the Senate passes that bill, it would then go to the House for passage. Um, the central complication remains the one billion Secret Service funding provision tied in part to security for the White House ballroom project. Um over the weekend, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the provision was out of order under the bird rule. And Senate Republicans are working to redraft the language so that it fits kind of within the parameters. Um Senate Democrats have pledged to challenge any revised version of the provision. Now the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee uh will mark up its portion of the bill tomorrow, and then the Senate budget committee is set to report the bill on Wednesday. Um it would then go to the full Senate for what's known as a voterama that would take place on Thursday. Um, and of course, Senate Democrats will plan to force a number of recorded votes on affordability related amendments. Um, and they will also focus on issues tied to the ballroom provision. If the bill clears the Senate, um House leaders will then need to navigate kind of the thin margin that they're dealing with ahead of the recess. So again, um, it wouldn't go to the House until at least Friday. And so um that is why the House isn't even coming back for votes until this Wednesday. John, I don't know if you have anything to add there on reconciliation. No, I think the one thing that I would just mention is that the Senate is just trying to jam the House, and they're using all the control of the schedule that they have to their advantage, and then using that as a wedge up against the Memorial Day recess, knowing that there are campaign events that people are going to, there are vacations that are being planned, and they're really just trying to provide a little as little opportunity as possible for the House to do what the House has done in the past, which is totally screw things up. So we'll see some fireworks at the markup at His GAC. Um judiciary, interestingly, has the other part of the bill. Um, they are not marking up at the committee level, nor are they supposed to be marking up at the budget committee level. They are likely to incorporate the Homeland Security and the judiciary bills on the floor. So that will shorten the amount of exposure that the judiciary parts have to uh examination, and also provide Democrats fewer opportunities to uh poke holes and make you know political points on the judiciary part. So they're really rushing this process on budget reconciliation and trying to get it done before the June 1st deadline, which uh President Trump set several weeks ago.