Assembly Standing Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs

Good afternoon. We are going to be opening up the hearing of the Military and Veteran Affairs Committee, so we'll go ahead and call it to order. Thank you to the Members for being here right on time. And we'll go ahead and get started. There are five bills on file today. Four of the bills are on consent. We usually hear Bill presentations in file order. If the author of the next Bill on the file is not in the room, we immediately move to the next Bill.

However, today we have a little bit of changes. One of the additional bills that was set to be heard for today got pulled, SB 783, and it got pulled by the author. So we just have SB 73 by Senator Seyarto, and then we have our consent calendar. So we do have a quorum. And so what we're going to do is call the roll at this moment. So, Secretary, if you can call the roll.

[Roll Call]

We have established a quorum. We'll go ahead and get started with SB 73 by Senator Seyarto. This is employment policy, voluntary veterans preference, and the motion is do passed to the Judiciary Committee. Please, Senator, you may begin. So we have a motion in a second.

I'll give you a very brief presentation. First, I want to say thank you to the Committee for Working with my staff on this Bill, 73s California, to 38 other states that have clarified that businesses are allowed to follow the state Federal Government's example in creating hiring policies that give preference to veterans. Experts support that stable living conditions, coupled with purpose, often derive from work, provide the best transition stability for veterans and their mental health. And thank you for allowing me this opportunity to take a break from housing. I super appreciate that we're trying.

Thank you, Senator, for that presentation. Okay, great. Thank you so much for presenting. So we do have a motion by Assemblywoman Boerner and then a second by Assemblymember Ta. Are there any questions? Oh, we do have, actually someone here for support. Just talk loud.

Madam Chair, Chris Micheli, on behalf of the Society of Human Resource Managers, and Cal SHRM, its sister organization, in strong support of the Bill. Thank you.

Perfect. Are there any other Members of the public in support of opposition? This is your opportunity. Great. So, seeing none, are there any questions or comments from Committee Members? Perfect. So you may close. Great. Secretary, please call the roll.

SB 73. Seyarto. Motion is do passed to Judiciary Committee. [Roll Call]

So what we'll do, because I do believe we have a couple of Members missing. You do have the votes, but we'll hold the roll open for those absent Members. Thank you, Senator.

So now we will move on to the consent. We have SB 82 by Senator Seyarto, do pass to the Revenue and Taxation Committee. SB 228 by Senator Roth, do pass to appropriations, SB 726 by Senator Archuleta, do pass to the Revenue and Taxation Committee. And lastly, SJR 4 by Senator Ochoa Ba to be adopted. And so Secretary. zero, yeah, sorry. Motion by Assemblymember Mathis and second by Assemblywoman Davies. Secretary, please call the roll.

On consent. [Roll Call]

So currently, consent has seven votes. We will hold the roll open for the absent Members. So if we could make the call to see if we can get the Members to come by. But thank you, Committee Members, for being here and making it an expeditious Committee hearing.

Can you please explain that to me? What just happened right here?

We just voted on consent calendar. We had a series of bills that were included in the consent. They move on to the second. It depends which Bill. Yeah, yeah. So, sir, if you want an opportunity to speak on them, I can give you an opportunity. The recommendation is do passed to the next. There's different bills going to several committees. So right now, there's seven votes in favor to continue with the legislation and support.

When is that Committee going to happen? When do we come back?

It's okay. Christian, who is our consultant, give you more details in terms of the dates for the next hearing. But today, essentially, they're being recommended to continue on in the legislative process.

This is where it kind of gets confusing with everything online. It does say that the state already has. If you're permanent and total disabled, it says that it already is. Clearly it's not. But also, here in the public footer, it says you can't call. See, it's very confusing to the public. And that's just why I came here today. And then all of a sudden, it's five minutes and it's over. And I think the good news is the reason it was put on our calendar is because there's support that financially.

Thank you, Assemblywoman Addis. So we have taken up both the first Bill and then consent. So we'll go ahead and. Secretary, please call the roll.

SB 73. Seretto. [Roll Call On consent. [Roll Call Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

Welcome Assembly Member Valencia. So, Madam Secretary, if you could please call the roll. So we'll go ahead and do SB 73. Madam, call the roll.

SB 73. [Roll Call]. On the consent calendar. [Roll Call] Thank you.

Great. So the consent calendar is passed and then SB 73 is passed. Thank you so much. And we'll go ahead and adjourn.