Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, Personnel Administration and Legislation Committee meeting for Monday, June the 1st, 2026.

May I have roll call, please?

Supervisor Fortunately Bass, excuse Supervisor TAM.

Present.

Supervisor Fortunately Bass will be arriving shortly.

She's running behind.

May I have uh instructions on participation, please?

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 TAM calls for public input on non-agendized items only matters within 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 that you wish you wish to comment on for dialed in participants.

Please dial star five to use to 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 instruction 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 DeSulva here and John Sini and the House and Senate are both going to be back in session this week after being gone.

It felt like longer than it was, but they were out all of last week to due to the Memorial Day recess.

Right now it's looking like kind of a two-month sprint between now and the August recess.

The House actually gets back this Wednesday.

But between now and kind of the beginning of August, they're talking about Congress taking up two reconciliation bills.

Of course, FY27 appropriations.

Surface transportation reauthorization, permitting reform is hanging out there.

There's talk of the farm bill, the annual defense authorization bill, um, all of that kind of uh coming to a head with some of these having September 30th deadlines.

Um when the Senate left right before the Memorial Day recess, they ended up canceling their vote a rama on the second reconciliation bill.

And I think we had PAL on that Monday.

Uh we thought they were going to be voting on it that week because uh President Trump was saying that he wanted it on his desk by June 1st.

That has not happened.

Um, they ended up pulling the bill and uh canceling votes.

And you may remember that's where the funding is for ICE and CBP, and that's what allowed Homeland Security to finally get funded.

Um was it April or May?

Uh, and so they're 70 billion dollars in this reconciliation bill for ICE and CBP.

Um, the bill stalled due to broad Republican opposition to kind of that anti-weaponization fund that President Trump announced um in May uh as part of the Justice Department settlement of President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS.

So then Senate Majority Leader Thune pulled the bill from the floor rather than risk passage of amendments targeting the fund during um the Votorama.

But earlier today, it sounds like there may be some shifting.

Um, I think the DOJ put out a statement saying it would abide by the district court ruling that blocked the weaponization fund.

So, you know, we may see some statements um from the White House.

I don't think we've seen anything just yet, but John, correct me if we have.

But this could be kind of the action that allows a path for reconciliation to move forward in the Senate.

Um Senate Republican leaders are targeting the end of this week to pass the bill.

But um, again, if if um it's true what what they're going to um to not move forward uh with the weaponization fund, that may be the way that they get that Republicans get the 50 votes.

Um, and then House Majority Leader Scalise has said the House will move the bill as soon as the Senate passes it.

Um, John, I'm not sure if you have anything to add there.

No, I mean I think you really nailed it on the head.

There are two outstanding items in the reconciliation package that prevented it getting passed before the memorial day break.

Um, the anti-weaponization fund that 17 1.776 billion dollars at the Department of Justice, and then additionally the one billion dollars that was supposed to be used for the White House ballroom.

Both of those provisions seem to be getting dropped from the ICE and CVP bill, which will then enable the Senate to move forward on it by the end of the week.

The House was supposed to be in session on Tuesday, and they canceled votes because of the lack of action from the Senate on the reconciliation bill.

So there's a chance that they get this across the finish line, and that will free up some of the congressional calendar for the rest of the work period and some of the outstanding issues that they still need to take care of beyond this.

Yeah.

And then as far as FY27 appropriations, the House has been moving forward on their spending bills, though mostly on party-line basis.

Subcommittees at this point have completed markups of 10 of the 12 bills.

The full committee has approved seven.

It passed 400 to 15.

That will probably be one of, I'm guessing that that will be the strongest bipartisan bill that gets out of the House.

The AG FDA bill heads to the floor this week.

And then we expect the full committee to take up interior environment and transportation HUD on June 3rd.

And in the notes, we'll have some uh kind of specifics as it pertains to HUD appropriations.

We still haven't seen the committee report.

We've just seen funding levels in the bill text.

And the committee report always gives like a little bit more color.

Um that should be released, I believe, tomorrow.

So as soon as we see that, we can provide uh more details on House THUD.

Um, as far as the Senate, that appropriations committee will um kick off its own work this week.

Uh, Chair Collins expected to release um ag FDA, ledge branch, and commerce justice science bills um on Thursday.

Senate bills, I know we've talked about this in general, are largely bipartisan, and they were last year, um, which sets up a contrast with the House's more partisan approach.

Um there is concern that uh Chair Collins and ranking member Patty Murray have been unable to reach a bipartisan top line agreement.

Um, and so they are proceeding right now with markups without that top line.

So it's bipartisan for now, but it could get tricky.

And again, you know, we're facing September 30th.

We all expect um a continuing resolution.

I can pass it to you if you want to take um FISA.

Uh sure.

Uh the FISA section uh section 702 uh expires on June 12th, which gives Congress less than two weeks to act.

Um this provision uh is the surveillance law that allows the intelligence community like the NSA and the FBI to conduct targeted warrantless surveillance on foreign nationals located outside the United States.

Um, it's often been controversial and it's been difficult to pass over the past couple of years with reauthorizations taking a pretty Herculean effort in both the House and Senate to get over the finish line.

The last time that they went through this was during the Biden administration, where the House was able to extend it for two years, and now that extension um has been extended or has been made a couple times now on a short-term basis.

Over the weekend, Senate negotiators um have been reported to be close to a bipartisan three-year reauthorization deal.

Um, the emerging agreement is expected to include a provision that narrows the definition of the electronic communication service provider, which would be a reform sought by privacy hawks as a condition of their support in the Senate.

Senate Republican leaders are also hoping to hold a procedural vote on the extension this week following the Votarama on the reconciliation bill.

Um, and then they would send it over to the House, where the House could take it up.

The House has been much more difficult in passing that uh bill because there are concerns on both the far right and the far left about the authorities that the NSA and the FBI have when it comes to uh surveillance um intelligence gathering for individuals who are citizens in the United States, um, which has made this three-year extension um difficult to get across the finish line.

And I'm happy to just finish out the service transportation reauthorization as well.

Emily, um, the House TNI committee completed a bipartisan markup of the service transportation reauthorization bill uh last month, which authorizes approximately 580 billion dollars uh in transportation funding over five years, but the bill faces a difficult road to the House floor.

As many conservatives in the House have objected to the price tag, which includes 130 annual registration fee for electric vehicles, which has drawn pushback from both Republicans and Democrats, and a White House-backed rail safety provision that has complicated leadership's floor strategy.

This is the same bill that was advocated for by now Vice President Vance when he was still uh Senator from Ohio.

For local governments, the most notable provisions include the Service Transportation Block Grant Program, which is a grant program that continues to suballocate a significant share of funding to regionally and locally identified projects.

There's a new program that is being authorized by the bill, the Surface Transportation Accelerator Grant, also known as a STAG program, which consolidates several existing campaign grant programs, including the build program and provides $2.4 billion per year.

About 50% of the Stag funds are directed towards local and regional projects and the reauthorization for the Safe Streets for All Grant Pro, which is open to only local governments and regional planning organizations.

The bill also represents a significant significant rollback for many of the climate-related programs from the IIJA and the IRA, including the carbon reduction program, the Healthy Streets program, and the low-no emissions vehicles set aside, amongst others.

As you might imagine, there's some special difficulty in the Senate, uh, as the Senate EPW committee may move to finalize its own version of the bill in the coming weeks, which would set up uh bicameral negotiations over EV fees, climate program appeals, and other contested provisions.

Um, and naturally that would also have to be a bipartisan package that comes out of that committee, in addition to the Senate Banking Committee and uh the uh the Commerce Committee.

Um Congress faces a very hard September 30th uh deadline to have these programs extended and with the short-term uh time that they have left in terms of floor allocation, it's difficult to see them getting this across the finish line uh with any sort of certainty.

So we will just continue to monitor and provide updates on the program.

And then finally, um, on the NDAA, uh House Armed Services Committee will hold its markup on the NDAA this Thursday, uh, which will be a marathon session, likely going late into the night.

Um, the bipartisan draft was released last week.

Um, it includes language on critical mail minerals acquisition, renewable energy technologies, nuclear power, environmental cleanups, and a new requirement for the Pentagon to report to Congress on the impacts of rising energy costs on service members and on installations.

Uh the Senate Armed Services Committee plans to release and markup its version of the bill next week, uh, and then they will conduct a markup the week of June 12th.

Um, but that markup is always done in closed session.

Um and historically, both chambers have been able to pass their bills and reconcile differences before the end of the year.

So that is uh likely to remain on track before uh the close of 2026.

So happy to close there and answer any questions.

Thank you so much for that report out.

Um let me start with surprise fortunata about any questions or comments.

Uh no, not at this time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I just had a couple clarifications.

So the um I thought the anti-weaponization or and the billionaire ballroom um uh issue was basically um a parliamentarian ruling that said it um was not appropriate or it didn't meet the criteria to be heard.

Was it necessarily um something that the Senate uh leadership had ruled on, right?

Uh it had been originally stripped out uh by the Senate parliamentarian, but after the parliamentarians ruling, Senator Thune had expressed interest in rewriting the provision to get it included in the package ultimately.

Oh but it wasn't until Senator Cassidy uh with his opposition um publicly stating that he would not vote for the ballroom to be re-added.

Um, but with the ruling from the Senate parliamentarian is not necessarily the B L end all.

Uh, they can redraft those provisions and have them go before the Senate parliamentarian and then re-argue their case with a newly written provision.

But uh it no longer has a support of a majority um in the Senate Republican conference, therefore it's not going to be included because of that.

Okay, thank you.

That's helpful.

Um, and then you mentioned that um prior to September 30th, there's with that hard deadline that the House tends to be much more partisan.

Do you expect um any critical votes that will be happening that would be need Congressional District 14 representation from the Democratic side?

It you know, it really depends on whether a couple of things need to happen.

The ways and means committee also has a hand to play when it comes to service transportation reauthorization because they have the gas tax component, um, which has a tax income or a tax element, therefore it needs to go to that committee.

Um they need to draft their part of the bill, and then it gets incorporated at the rules committee level in one package with some of the other uh smaller provisions from other committees, and then it goes to the floor.

Um, there's also being a there's a proposal out there to have a gas tax holiday, which could be part and parcel of this ongoing debate.

Um, and then it has to pass muster with the entire house um on the floor.

So if you know our members of Congress who do not serve on energy or not serve on T and I have a role to play, would be uh weighing in on ultimately a floor vote, potential amendments that would be offered at the rules committee level and on the floor.

Umly I don't know if you have any other uh uh advice.

Yeah, I mean, as far as surface transportation, it's generally bipartisan.

And in fact, it passed out of the House T and I committee um in strong bipartisan support, and um Congressman De Salnier uh was in favor, Huffman was in favor.

They're both on the committee.

Garamendi um wasn't there for the final vote, but in general, it passed out a committee in a strong bipartisan fashion.

I think the bigger issue is just kind of the calendar, as John was saying, and um it is rare that the surface transportation authorization bill passes on time, like I can't remember the last time it did.

So there's usually extensions.

Um, and so I I foresee some sort of extension because the Senate hasn't even started on their bill.

So I expect some sort of extension beyond September 30th.

Okay, that's helpful.

We are facing the election tomorrow, a primary.

I appreciate all the updates.

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

There are no comments.

Thank you, Emily and John.

Uh let's go to our state legislative update from Full Moon Strategies.

Good afternoon, supervisors Giel Dantes with Fulmone Strategy should provide update on your state legislature.

So last week marked the first house uh policy uh deadline.

This is a major milestone for 2026.

Now all the bills are starting uh to go through the process on the second house.

The assembly moved roughly 400 measures last week, and the De Senate did approximately 130 bills.

Uh over the last two weeks before the the fiscal deadline, the assembly advanced uh 565 measures and the Senate roughly 330 uh bills.

We have on the report a tracker with all the priority bills for the county and their status.

Uh now switching gears, taking all the oxygen uh in the room right now is the state budget.

We shared a little bit uh last week.

The Senate has completed its budget subcommittee process through a vote vote-only hearings, and uh they continue to rely on the corporate revenues tied to employers whose workers use the safety net programs.

We talked a little bit about this uh idea earlier in the year.

Uh, this is what the Senate called the fair share contribution.

Uh the Senate budget plans generate a new special fund revenue by requiring the state stop between one and two percent larger largest uh corporations to contribute to MadiCal costs for for their workers.

Uh this uh their assumption is that this would generate between five billion and eight billion dollars annually in the special fund revenues, uh, and which would be dedicated to offsetting Medical costs uh to taxpayers assisting struggling hospitals and a supporting county health and human services programs uh and the workers.

Uh we have included uh in the POW report uh all the budget items uh in the assembly and the Senate plans, uh all the items off interest for the county.

And now we're heading towards this very peculiar moment where all the negotiations start to intensify.

The administration had the May revised the assembly.

So following the constitutional deadline, which is June 15th, now is when all the three uh powers are going to have negotiations to decide what is going to make uh the enacted budget in June 15th.

Just a reminder that that's a constitutional deadline, but other negotiations can happen uh after that deadline as well.

For the assembly priorities released this morning, uh, and again, we included all those items in the POW report item by item.

I would like to highlight a few.

Uh the assembly plan uh includes funding for county indigencare.

Their proposal is 250 million uh general fund over two years for their emergency services only county programs.

And the assembly supports the continued MADICAL implementation and the work workload funding, uh including additional 139 million uh in general funds for county eligibility workload tied to HR1 implications in this day.

Uh the assembly also rejects the governor proposal to automatically terminate IHSS eligibility when medical eligibility is lost.

Instead, uh it proposes uh notice and a retention improvements to help recipients to maintain or restore services.

Uh the assembly also proposes uh substantial county support to manage federal HR1 impacts and of reduced uh CalFresh disenrollment.

Uh the package includes 220 million dollars in general fund, one-time investments for county workload in administration and retention efforts.

Uh lastly, uh it was very interesting too that the assembly supports the HAP funding and the proposed additional 300 million investments in homelessness response efforts.

Uh again, all these items are going to be reflected on the POW report with a few other items uh of interest for the county.

Uh just highlighting on the Senate plan released last week.

You know, it was the Medi-Cal implementation, diapers access, the county administration, uh IHSS cost allocation, and the CalFresh workload.

All of those items are the priorities.

What are happening?

What is happening right now with the Senate releasing their priorities last week, the assembly releasing earlier uh today.

Now we're expecting the assembly to have a hearing for voting for all the priorities that were presenting to them by tomorrow.

That way we got to have the final proposal from the assembly, Senate, and the administration.

And again, they're gonna start meeting probably by the end of this week and uh all throughout next week to decide what are going to be the priorities and what is going to be reflecting on uh the enacted budget.

Uh switching gears uh tomorrow, we have the California primaries.

Uh the attention now is increasing around the 2026 statewide constitutional races, including uh governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, uh, you know, and we also have a special election coming up for Alamida for Congressional District 14 happening happening on June 16th, and a special, a special uh uh uh general election if it's needed in August.

Uh the open governor's race remains very competitive with the recent polling showing Javier Barcera and the Tom uh Steve Hilton uh leading with uh Tom Stire remaining as a very strong candidate.

Uh outside spendings, uh some groups outside here in Sacramento, they are uh saying that this is historical levels on on the IE side for for governor uh exceeding 79 million dollars in spendings, and uh, you know, they also flag the Tom's Tire contributing with more than 200 million dollars in personal campaign funds.

Uh it's a lot happening right now.

We have uh you know switching gears for the policy, budgeting the final initiating the final negotiations and also elections happening.

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

Thank you.

Uh Supervisor Hortonada.

Questions, comments?

Yes, thank you for the update.

Um on legislation, thanks for the update regarding the um the bill that would require employers to sort of contribute their fair share to health care.

Um, assuming that does move forward, it's signed by the governor.

What's the implementation plan?

You know, obviously to receive five to eight billion dollars to support our health care systems across the state would be very, very welcome.

Uh, do you have a sense of what implementation and its timeline looks like?

Sure.

This is actually not going through the policy avenues.

This is going to be a budget uh play.

The Senate, uh, it was quite interesting that the Senate they proposed a new uh revenue uh and then their plans with their priorities, they are already counting with this five way billion dollars.

Uh this is going to be an item uh for consideration for the assembly, the administration, and the Senate to decide if they're going with this fair share contribution, which was identified by the Senate.

But this is going through the budget process, Supervisor.

Great.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Um and you know, certainly the Senate and the Assembly have priorities that are aligned with the counties.

We've got about two weeks left uh before the state budget is finalized.

Um any additional advocacy that we can do or um any additional insights into how we can advocate for our safety net.

Absolutely.

Uh so last week, right before uh we heard the assembly leadership, they were meeting to discuss their priorities.

We were able to reach out to uh members of our delegation, and it's been very helpful to have the updated letters from the counties departments, just showing base uh you know all the needs and uh all the priorities for the county.

Uh right now, uh what we're doing, we were working pretty closely with the county associations with the urban counties, CISAC, just to make sure that you know we're going to have a proper funding for the priorities for the counties.

Thank you.

And for health care in particular, outside of the revenue portion that the Senate has put forward as a priority, are there proposed reductions that would help help to fund the health care uh portions of a future budget?

So the assembly they haven't uh identified.

So this is uh a portion that the Senate they did and the assembly they didn't.

So now it's going to be on this closed doors conversations to see what is going to be the pathway as of right now.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Um can you help me understand?

Is it behind closed doors where the Senate version of their budget bill to the May revised and the assembly?

When do those converge and and when will we know what that looks like?

Yeah, so we will have an agreement prior to June or June 15th.

This is the constitutional deadline uh for California to pass its budget.

Uh as like I said, before that deadline, we can still have some work being done through uh, you know, uh budget trailer bill juniors and the trailer bills.

Uh so I would assume that before or by June 15th, we will have a clear, clear idea what are going to be the priorities of the three parties agreement, supervisor.

Okay.

And and how likely do you think the one to two percent billionaire corporation for health care tax is going to uh survive in that convergence process?

This is the talk of town right now because that was such that was something that, like we shared earlier in the year, we all thought that would have happened through policy.

Uh, you know, assembly member Bonta, she was very vocal about the issue.

But uh you know, at this point, uh they state needs more revenues.

So we're just waiting to see uh what is going to be the direction that the governor will decide to agree up in with the Senate proposal.

Uh, but we don't have any other indications.

The assembly, they haven't uh pro they haven't reported, they haven't released a blueprint like the Senate did with all the intentions and the with one more revenue like the the Senate did.

So this is very unclear for us right now.

I do believe that by June 15th, we would have actual picture if uh that's going to be the pathway that we will follow.

that the governor will decide to agree up in with the the Senate proposal uh but uh we don't have any other indications the assembly they haven't uh pro they haven't reported they haven't released a blueprint like the Senate did with all the intentions and the with one more revenue like the the Senate did so this is very unclear for us right now I do believe that by June 15th we would have actual picture if uh that's going to be the pathway that we'll will follow okay um last question I had is just it's more of a clarification in the May revise I think there was like 33 million dollars uh that was dedicated for um for counties to deal with the the eligibility uh workload uh for medical and but you said it's a hundred and thirty million under the uh assembly version of the bill yeah so the county uh uh the county's request prior to May revised was a hundred and three for uh Cal Fresh eligibility but in the the governor's proposal just came with the 30 uh 30 million and that the assembly request is uh uh let me just check right here the assembly request would be uh additional 139 million dollars in general fund for supporting the counties with the workload okay and and how likely do you think that would survive I mean we are all hoping this is a very high priority for the counties I do believe that on the Senate and the assembly side we were just able to get you know uh both houses uh prioritizing this issues because of all the advocacy you know from the counties and the the association of counties up here in Sacramento to make sure that you know they do understand that we need to be proper funded to to be able to provide for for our residents uh you know we have a good leverage right now since it is reflecting both houses so uh we gotta continue to talk to our uh delegations and the members of both houses just to make sure that that's going to remain as a main priority for them uh during these negotiations okay thank you that's very helpful appreciate it um do we have any public comments on our state legislative update there are no comments thank you so we have um three requests uh from social service and health care on uh legislative action items the first is to oppose the 70 million dollar cut um in adult protective services uh that is in the May revise and the second is to um get sufficient funding to stabilize the child welfare investments that have been made that includes like the 20 million dollar general fund investments for emergency response in our child welfare programming and then the third is a request from healthcare agency to look at a two-year pilot uh to mitigate the impacts of hore HR one and to um ensure that this pilot project is adequately funded um do I have concurrence on the request from the departments absolutely I will make a motion to bring forward these three action items to the full board of supervisors I will second the motion supervisor for doesn't a pass aye supervisor cam aye motion passed thank you um I should have asked for public comment on the legislate positions but are there were there any public comments no okay do we have any public comments on non-agenda items that are within the purview appel there are no public comments on non-agendized items thank you very much this meeting is adjourned