Senate Floor

Allen. Alvarado-Gil. Archuleta. Ashby. Atkins. Becker. Blakespear. Bradford. Caballero. Cortese. Dahle. Dodd. Durazo. Eggman. Glazer. Gonzalez. Grove. Hurtado. Jones. Laird. Limon. McGuire. Menjivar. Min. Newman. Nguyen. Niello. Ochoa Bogh. Padilla. Portantino. Roth. Rubio. Seyarto. Skinner. Smallwood-Cuevas. Stern. Umberg. Wahab. Wiener. Wilk.

Members, a quorum is present. Will the members and our guests beyond the rail and in the gallery. Please rise. Before we begin before we begin, I ask everyone to observe a moment of silence for the victims of the mass shooting in Monterey Park. Our hearts are broken, and we send our condolences and ask for healings for the family, friends and community. Thank you. We will be led in prayer this afternoon by our chaplain, sister Michelle Gorman, after which please remain standing. We will be led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag by Senator Min.

And let us recall that we are always in God's presence. Gracious and loving God, we know that we may speak plainly to you because of your intimacy with our every thought. You are completely familiar with our life, our successes, our failures and our frailty. None of us is made of stone or steel, of alabaster or ivory. We are people of flesh and blood. Flesh that carries scars and blood that pulses with passion to bring truth, justice and prosperity to the people we serve. You know us well. So in your presence, we need not be formal. Beloved, mystery, then be near. Without our faith in your caring, we would lack the hope that helps us continue day in and day out, building on the successes and failures, too, of those who have preceded us. We continue to trust in you. Amen.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which we stand...

Privileges of the floor, Senator Weiner.

Thank you. Madam President, colleagues, it's my honor today to introduce and welcome Ahmed Abozayd to the floor of the Senate. Ahmed recently retired from SCIU Local 87 after serving in various leadership positions for the past 25 years. He most recently served as vice President before retiring last year. You may notice we have a full gallery today. We have a gallery filled with SCIU Local 87 members here to see Ahmed be honored. SCIU Local 87 is and organization in San Francisco, we're very proud of this organization. It's one of the first SCIU locals and was founded in San Francisco in the 1930's. It's our local janitor's union, and has a long history of immigrant justice and political mobilization. I will say, having worked with Local 87 for many years, this is membership-wise a relatively small union, but it is a union that punches way above it's weight class. Ahmed graduated from Nasar High School inn Yemen in 1969, and came to the US that same year. He began his career in labor in 1970, volunteering for Cesar Chaves in Delano and organizing Yemeni farmworkers. In 1972, he moved to San Francisco, he began his education at the amazing San Francisco City College and worked in a travel agency. After returning to Yemen to get married and run a successful travel agency there, he decided to move back to the US in 1982. He's worn many hats through his career, working as a restauranteur, as a building maintenance manager for Glide Memorial Church, as a grocery store owner, a project manager, and as a janitor. He's also one of the founders of the first Yemeni American Associations and has served as its vice President and President from 1999 to 2010. Please join me in welcoming and congratulating Ahmed Abozayd.

Excuse me. Excuse me. Members of the gallery, we're real excited you're here. I know you're excited to be here as well, but other than the clapping, we don't allow demonstrations in here in our chambers. And so we appreciate you being here, and we know you appreciate being here as well. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you Senator Weiner. Moving on to messages from the Governor will be deemed read. Messages from the Assembly will be deemed read. Reports of committee will be deemed read and amendments adopted. Members, we're going to move on to motions, resolutions, and notices. Without objection, the Senate journals for January 17, 2023, through January 19, 2023, will be approved as corrected by the minute. Clerk introduction and first reading of bills will be deemed read. Members, we're going to move on to consideration of the daily file under governor's appointment, Senator Grove.

Thank you. Madam President. Members, the first appointment actually, the only appointment confirmation that we have today is Nancy Farias, she's the Director of the Employment Development Department. Now, before you cringe because of all the issues that we dealt with under the Pandemic, I want you to know that in a very tough interview that I had with Ms. Farius, I asked questions about EDD fraud. I asked how so many people committed fraud like those in prison that got extra dollars that were actually due to hardworking taxpayers that actually lost their position because of the response government had to COVID. I asked about technology that has been put in place. I asked about iDMe. I asked about legislation that was passed to cross reference Social Security numbers with CDCR inmates so people in prison that had been in prison for decades or whatever would not be eligible for benefits. We asked some very tough questions, and every single question that she answered, I felt was truthful forthcoming, where she felt like there were vulnerabilities, she stated those, and she said she would move forward. She has a plan to make sure that if something like the Pandemic or a large unemployment issue happens in our state again, that she has things put in place to mitigate and minimize the damage that was caused by all by the EDD office, to most all of our constituents. I mean, I don't think there's one of us that wasn't on the phone with our constituents almost on a daily basis trying to either obtain benefits or deal with the fraudulent benefits that were being paid out. So she was recently confirmed on a 5-0 vote for the Rules Committee, and I would ask for your aye vote on this confirmation. I think she is duly qualified and she will do an outstanding job. No guarantees it can be 100% stopped, because there's always scammers out there that are always one step ahead of us in some cases. But some of the things that she has instituted to put in place will keep us in a better position moving forward for the EDD office. So I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Is there any discussion or debate on this item? Any discussion or debate? Seeing none, please call the roll.

Allen, aye. Alvarado-Gil, aye. Archuleta, aye. Ashby, aye. Atkins, aye. Becker. Blakespear, aye. Bradford, aye. Caballero, aye. Cortese, aye. Dahle, aye. Dodd, aye. Durazo, aye. Eggman, aye. Glazer, aye. Gonzalez, aye. Grove, aye. Hurtado, aye. Jones, aye. Laird, aye. Limon, aye. McGuire, aye. Menjivar, aye. Min, aye. Newman, aye. Nguyen, aye. Niello, aye. Ochoa Bogh, aye. Padilla, aye. Portantino, aye. Roth, aye. Rubio, aye. Seyarto, aye. Skinner, aye. Smallwood-Cuevas, aye. Stern, aye. Umberg, aye. Wahab, aye. Weiner, aye. Wilk, aye.

Ayes 39, noes zero. The appointment is confirmed. Members, we're going to move on to Senate third reading. We have one item. Senator Skinner, the floor is yours. Madam Secretary, please read.

Senate Resolution Nine by Senator Skinner relative to reproductive health.

Senator Skinner.

Thank you, Madam President and Members, I rise to present Senate Resolution Nine. Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the Roe vs Wade decision, which ensured the legal bodily autonomy of women and pregnant people across the country. And that decision, 50 years ago eliminated the need to pursue an illegal and potentially harmful back alley abortion. It also eliminated the situation where, feeling she had no other options, a woman might attempt to self inflict her abortion, sometimes resulting in permanent injury or even death.

The Road decision also eliminated having to endure a pregnancy that was the result of rape or incest or was a threat to one's life. But unfortunately, we don't get to celebrate what should be an empowering and joyful 50 year anniversary recognizing a woman's right and her our personhood instead. Last June, the conservative Members of the Supreme Court, the extreme conservative Members of the Supreme Court decided in the Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization decision to turn back the clock.

And instead of celebrating, we will use this anniversary to strengthen our purpose and to reinvigorate the dialogue about our fundamental right to bodily autonomy. Women are not chattel. We do not deserve to have our reproductive choices, our lives, and our futures dictated by hostile forces that have imposed their view on how we conduct our lives and the determination of our future. This is more than an issue of choice.

The fact remains, and it is well substantiated by past and current data, that pregnant people across our country will continue to end their pregnancies, whether doing so is illegal or legal. And as we experienced before the Roe v. Wade decision, there were over a million abortions every year in this country. Unsafe ones caused as many as 5000 and upwards annual deaths.

There was also many that resulted in permanent injury and women of color and Low income women were disproportionately those that either died or had that permanent injury and are at risk today. The Dobbs decision has now unleashed 24 states to enact or prepare to enact full or partial abortion bans that affect tens of millions of people across this country. Women and people who have the ability to get pregnant.

New data shows that for those who live in states with supposed partial bans, meaning those that supposedly have exemptions, for example, rape, incest or life threatening emergencies, that those exemptions are not being granted. The New York Times just this weekend did an investigative journalism and showed in multiple states where these exemptions supposedly exist, you cannot get it. But bans do not stop abortions. Bans just push people into dangerous circumstances.

Senate Resolution Nine marks the contributions the road decision had in improving women's health and our economic well being over the last 50 years. It honors the work of the state Legislature led by the Legislative Women's Caucus and California voters, to ensure California's reproductive freedom state. And it calls on our President and the Congress to act with urgency to restore full bodily autonomy to all pregnant people and ensure the legal right to abortion and contraception nationwide.

And I would like to invite my co-author, our Senate pro-tempore, to speak to the resolution.

Madam President, I will just say I doubt I could be as eloquent as my colleague from Berkeley. So in the interest of Tom, and because I would say a lot of the same things, I think you know how I feel about this issue, having been a Director of clinic services for clinics in Los Angeles and San Diego before my time in office. So I will just thank her for authoring this resolution and urge your support. Senator Rubio.

I also wanted to stand here in strong support of SR nine. First, I want to take a moment to acknowledge all the women that came before us, all the warriors who fought for the next generation to have it a little easier. I want to acknowledge that in organizing, these women didn't have the power of social media text and they were able to organize, be heard. They had to be three times louder to be respected, to be taken seriously.

So I do want to take a moment to acknowledge those that we lost in the fight for all of us and we walked away with less rights. 2022 but we didn't walk away without the desire to fight even harder. So to all the women across the country, we say, we stand in solidarity with you, and we will continue to fight. Thank you.

Is there any further discussion or debate? Any further discussion or debate? Senator Menjivar. Good afternoon, President. Know as a queer woman. Yes, of course. I've been in a same sex relationship for over a decade, so accidental or inconvenient pregnancies haven't been top of mind for me. However, I can't tell you how many times throughout my life men have said, well, you're a lesbian because you haven't slept with the right man or been with the right man.

And for too many lesbians and trans men, that comment is taken a step further. So today I think about them as I urge you all to vote yes on this resolution. Thank you. Is there any further discussion or debate saying none. Senator Smallwood-Cuevas?

I rise in support thank you so much, madam President and I rise in support of this resolution. I think it's important for us to recognize that this issue affects all women, but some women more deeply. The racial disparities in maternal health are all too real for the black community. The maternal mortality rate in the US. Continues to exceed the rate in other high income countries. In 2020, the maternal mortality rate in the US. Was 24 deaths per 100,000 births.

And the pregnancy related mortality rate for black women with at least a college degree was over five times that of their white counterparts. Indeed, the insignificance of this landmark protection that we lost is in fact, the ability for women to control their bodies, but also the health of their families. And we need to be clear that abortion restrictions do not decrease abortion rates. Abortions will always happen. They just will not always happen safely.

And so I ask all of my colleagues here to support this resolution and that California continues to be a place where all women and all families have this vital protection of abortion rights.

Senator Ashby.

Thank you. I, too, rise in support of Senate resolution nine and thank Senator skinner for her leadership and the pro tempore for her leadership on this topic. At 20 years old, I decided to have a child and was a young single mom in this city. I navigated the social systems that many of you have fought so hard for. I used food stamps and subsidized childcare.

I lived in low income housing, and I raised my little boy by myself, working full time while I put myself through UC Davis and McGeorge law school at night. The most important thing that I just told you is that I made the choice that I had a choice. And so I ask you all to please support Senate resolution nine for all of the women, not just in California, but because we know that California is a beacon of hope to the rest of the country.

Thank you, Senator Blakespear.

Hello, I'm Senator Catherine Blakespear, and I rise for the first time on the Senate floor to speak. And I want to say that I am so grateful to be a Member of this body because I come from having been a mayor of a very progressive city. And we endured multiple hours of testimony about people who were opposed to Proposition One.

And the fact that Proposition One passed in this state and allows women the protections in the Constitution to decide the most fundamental decision that they'll make when, whether, and with whom to have children. That decision should always sit with the woman and her network, her family that she chooses. That decision is not enhanced by having the government in the middle of it.

And my hope is that we are able to take this to the rest of the country, because while we have these protections now in California, the rest of the country does not. And California has been a leader in so many ways. And this is yet another example of the incredible leadership we have on this floor. Who has spoken today? All of the people who supported this, who put it together so that it could get to the voters.

And I'm just so grateful to be a Californian today and to be on the floor of the Senate. So I also urge your support. Thank you.

Any further discussion or debate, seeing none, Senator Skinner may conclude.

Thank you. Madam President, in closing, while I referenced the very important right of a pregnant person to make this decision, I did not include, or I did not yet. And I want to now express how essential this legal protection is for our medical healthcare professionals. They are being put in the most untenable situation right now. They are being put in those states that have acted to either fully ban or partially ban abortion.

They are being put in a situation where they may have a pregnant person who is diagnoesd with cancer and for whom the very life saving cancer treatment could kill their fetus. And do they advise that patient with a fear that that meant that that killed that fetus?

Thus, they and the patient could be criminalized when, by not giving the treatment, the patient could die with no legal consequence, or the fact that the patient could have the other complications of the pregnancy that could threaten their life, or a person could come to them in the situation of rape or other circumstances. And the horrible circumstance we have put our healthcare professionals in, they do not deserve that.

So the resolution, in addition to everything we've spoke about, legitimately asks our President and our Congress to act now to give us all the protections that we deserve. There is no imposition on such a right that anyone utilize it, only that we have it. And our sponsors of this resolution are Black Women for Wellness, Narel and Planned Parenthood affiliates of California, and without I ask for your aye vote.

Madam Secretary, please call the roll. Allen? Aye. Alvarado? Gill? Aye. Archuleta? Aye. Ashby? Aye. Atkins? Aye. Becker? Blakespear? Aye. Bradford? Aye. Caballero? Aye. Cortesi? Aye. Dally? No. Dodd? Aye Durazo? Aye. Eggman? Aye glazer? I. Gonzalez? I grove? No. Artado? I. Jones? No. Laird? Aye. Limon? Aye. Maguire? Aye. Menjivar? Aye. Min? Aye. Newman? Aye. Nguyen. Niello? No. Ochoa Bogh? Padilla? Aye. Portantino? Aye. Roth? Aye. Rubio? Aye. Seyarto? Aye. Skinner? Aye. Smallwood-Cuevas. Aye. Stern? Aye Umberg? Aye. Wahab? Aye. Weiner? Aye. Wilk? No.

Please call the absent Members. Becker. Wynn. Ochoa bogh. Aye 31, no six. The resolution is adopted. Members, we're going to move on to committee announcements. Senator Laird.

Thank you very much. Madam President, the Senate contingent of the Joint Committee on Rules will meet upon adjournment downstairs in room 112. I know a lot of you are going to the vigil. Just walk down the stairs in the room. We have one consent item. We'll bang it to order, and we'll get you out in a minute, providing you come. So, room 112 upon adjournment.

Very good. The Senate contingent of the Joint Rules Committee. Room 110. 112. Moving on to our returning to motions and resolutions. Senator Skinner. Come on, turn it on. Get that mic on.

Thank you. Thank you. Madam President and members, I ask that we adjourn in memory today for Fred Ross, Jr. A legendary organizer for social justice. For more than half a century, Fred Ross Jr. Was a champion for working people, working alongside Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, and helping elect the most consequential House Speaker in our nation's history, Nancy Pelosi.

My constituent, Fred Ross, Jr. Died of cancer November 20 at his home in Berkeley just weeks after receiving tributes from hundreds of friends and colleagues for his 75th birthday, former US. Labor Secretary Robert Reich told Fred, your boldness and vision have been a source of inspiration to me and many other people working for social justice, Labor Unions, and the hopes and dreams of so many people for a better life. Fred began his work as a full-time organizer for the farm workers at age 23 during the historic 1970 Salad Bowl strike in Salinas.

It was his father, Fred Ross Senior, who introduced then-25-year-old Cesar Chavez to the power of organizing. In early 1975, Fred Ross, Jr. conceived of and organized a 110-mile march against Gallo Wines that began in San Francisco's Union Square and ended with at least 15,000 farm workers and supporters at Gallo's headquarters in Modesto.

I have a framed photo on my wall at home of then Congressman Ron Dellams, of the first African American Alameda County Supervisor John George, Cesar Chavez, Fred Jr., and many others who were on that march. One of the motives for the Gallo march was to put pressure on then-Governor Brown to push through the Agriculture Labor Relations Act, the first law of its kind in the nation. But the impact of Fred's work went well beyond labor organizing.

He also played pivotal roles in pressuring Congress to change policies towards oppressive governments in Central America and accelerating the naturalization of immigrants in the US. And in 1987 Fred worked to elect Nancy Pelosi to Congress in a special election. And after learning of Fred's passing, Pelosi said without his early support and his brilliant leadership organizing the ground operation of my first campaign I would never have become a member of Congress.

A hallmark of Fred Jr's approach in terms of his organizing of volunteers and his running campaigns was his savvy use of the media to put pressure. It was also building one-on-one relationships to exercise what he called collective power. Fred's mother, Francis Ross, was an original Rosie the Riveter. She was a shop steward in a World War II plant in Cleveland who helped work to help Jewish doctors immigrate from Nazi Germany.

And shortly before he died, Fred said in a speech for an award he received from the National Center for Race Amity, "Fighting and organizing for racial and economic justice is in my DNA." Now, Fred Ross did not, he encountered much as you would imagine being the organizer that he was for so many years. He recalled being knocked unconscious by a grape grower during a farm worker election being shot at by a security guard at a supermarket and equipped, luckily, the guy was a bad shot.

And in John Lewis's tradition of good trouble he said he was arrested some 39 times mostly for good causes. Recently, Fred was working on a documentary film about his father that underscored the critical role of organizing. And the United Farm Workers said in a tribute as with his father, Fred Jr's labors were never about himself. He was always about empowering others to believe they were responsible for the progress that they won. Fred Jr's nature was ceaselessly positive.

He always thought things could get done. He is survived by his wife Margot Feinberg who is here with us on the floor who is a prominent labor attorney, their two children Charlie and Helen Ross, and his brother Robert Ross, and his sister Julia Ross. And I know we have some other colleagues who knew him well who want to speak.

Senator Derozo.

Thank you, Madam President. And I want to thank the Senator for introducing this adjourn in memory. I rise also in support of this adjourn in memory. Fred Ross was a beloved union brother across the nation across, anybody in the labor movement. The son of two highly regarded, highly regarded activists, organizers and advocates, Fred Ross Sr. and Francis Ross. Like his parents, Fred also answered the call to help advocate and organize for social issues and causes in his own right.

During his initial five year effort in the farm workers, he had the unique opportunity to learn directly from organizing powerhouses Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and his own father. Fred built on their lessons, including the infamous house meeting strategy in which he would seek to build direct relationships with people one by one, visiting the homes to build their trust. He built his own profile as a brilliant organizer.

Just a few months ago, Fred was making calls to get support to modernize the Farmworker Agricultural Labor Relations Act while he was already feeling ill. Fred and my husband Miguel were close friends in the farm worker movement as organizers, especially because Miguel had the privilege of living with Fred Ross Sr.

In 1985, he founded and served as the Executive Director of a national grassroots organization called Neighbor to Neighbor with the goal of challenging the Reagan's Administration contra war in Nicaragua and its support for the death squad regime in El Salvador. This was my first chance to work with him as an organizer. There were several Members of my Executive board who he asked to endorse the boycott.

There were several from El Salvador, and I was a little nervous bringing a non-sort of labor issue to them for the first time. But he was so brilliant about explaining the connection between the death squads in El Salvador and here, this country, that he won unanimous support. He went on to work with SCIU in the healthcare and service workers industry. But most recently, he began with he was with IBEW 1245.

With IBEW, Fred was also a part of a team that focused on recruitment and training of future organizers on our issues. I had the privilege of speaking several times to his union rank-and-file shop stewards, where he taught them the basics so that they could go on and become our next generation. A humble man, Fred only cared about one title: Organizer. Over the course of his career, he worked and mentored hundreds of people during his 50 year career.

He taught his passion and commitment to equity and empowerment. He printed his father's axioms for organizers. My favorite of which is "organizing is providing people with the opportunity to become aware of their own potential and capabilities." I am so proud that I had the opportunity to work with him. He was always full of laughter and just positive about everything that he did. He is survived by a friend, his wife, Margot Feinberg, herself a deeply committed union labor lawyer.

His children, his siblings, his brother, his sister, and a legion of loving friends, family members and organizers. Rest in power, brother Fred. You will be missed but not forgotten. Thank you

Senator Allen.

Members, I want to join in these tributes to the extraordinary life and legacy of Fred Ross Jr. Fred, as you've heard, was a passionate and tireless advocate throughout his life. He's going to be remembered as one of the most remarkable, prolific organizers in our nation's history. As was mentioned, he followed in the footsteps of his father, who was a trailblazing organizer and someone who inspired Cesar Chavez.

In fact, his father has literally appeared in some of the children's books that I read to my son about Cesar Chavez. When you know you've made it into a children's book, you know you've made the big time. But one thing that folks don't always talk about is that his dad was also involved much earlier with efforts to assist Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II, helping them find jobs and housing. He also organized civic unity leagues to combat segregation in the 1950s.

His mother, in addition to some of the things that was mentioned, supported refugees of the Spanish Civil War, aided Jewish doctors that were fleeing Nazi Germany. They organized coworkers at a World War II manufacturing plant to integrate a racially segregated workforce at the time. And he clearly was so inspired, took all of those stories, that inspiration, that commitment, that deep commitment of his parents, and it helped to fuel his own career and his deep commitment to justice.

As was mentioned, he believed in the power of the grassroots, cultivating one-on-one relationships to bring together people of very different backgrounds to build collective power in their communities. And he never shied away from an opportunity to fight for anyone who was marginalized or exploited.

Our colleague mentioned his work in Latin America, leading the Neighbor to Neighbor organization in the 1980s that supported refugees from Central America, urging Congress to end support for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, organizing this boycott of Salvadorian coffee to pressure the US.-backed government in El Salvador to end atrocities that were committed during their civil war. Fred Jr. had a real commitment to justice in Latin America.

And, in fact, I was over at his wonderful wife Margot's house just shortly after he passed, and she was receiving letters from people who had traveled with him to Latin America when he was a very young man in his 20s as they were working on projects there, trying to help uplift people. Fight and combat poverty. Fight for justice.

And people who read of his passing were writing her about what an extraordinary person he was, even if they had lost touch with him over the years, what a natural leader he was, the natural charisma that he brought to the work even when he was a young man in his early 20s. He and Margot devoted their lives to making the lives of working people better, while they also at the same time, were raising a wonderful family of their own.

They love their son Charlie and daughter Helen. And in fact, as was mentioned before his death, he was working very closely with Margo and many of us on producing a documentary about his father. Many of us went to the event at MYOL just as he was ailing at the time. But he helped to lead this wonderful event as we're trying to build some momentum and some resources to help fund this documentary about the work of his father. And Margo's now taking up the mantle.

He's an understated person. An approachable, caring person. All my conversations with him, I always was struck by his warmth and his deep compassion and his deep knowledge and experience. And I know I speak on behalf of all of us when we just extend our deepest condolences to you, Margot. It's such a loss. We mourn his loss. But we take comfort in knowing that his family legacy lives on in you, lives on in your children, lives on in your work.

And the work that we're all going to continue to do. This impact that he had on the lives of so many will continue on. Rest in peace Fred Ross, Jr.

Please bring his name forward to the desk so that he may be appropriately memorialized by the State Senate if there is no other business, Senator Atkins, the desk is clear.

Madam President. Thanks so much. Our next floor session will be this Thursday, January 26, 2023, at 09:00 a.m.

The Senate will be in recess until 3:30, at which time the adjournment motion will be made. We will reconvene Thursday, January 26, at 9:00 a.m.