Senate Floor

Secretary will call the roll.

[Roll Call]

A quorum is present. With the members and our guests beyond the rail and in the gallery, please rise. We'll be led in prayer this afternoon by Senator Padilla. After which, please remain standing as we will be led in the pledge of allegiance to the flag by Senator Ashby.

Thank you, Mr. President, colleagues and guests, please join me in a moment of prayer and reflection from a poem by Jan Richardson. God of the generations, when we set our hands to labor thinking that we work alone, remind us that we carry on our lips the words of the prophets. In our veins the blood of martyrs. In our eyes, the mystics visions. And in our hands the strength of thousands. And together we might say amen.

Please join us in the pledge of allegiance.

Thank you, everyone. You may be seated in the gallery. Now we'll be moving to privileges of the floor. Up first is Senator Laird from the Majority Floor Leader's desk. I guess people notice that the Pro Tem is not on the floor because you guys are being very unruly today. Senator Laird, whenever you want to proceed, please do so.

Thank you, Mr. President. Colleagues, I rise today for the bittersweet purpose of saying goodbye to legislative legend, Tim Shelley, as he retires from the Senate after 47 years. I look around the floor and I wonder where you were 47 years ago, if you were anywhere. And I begin with a question. What do the following legislators have in common? Senator John Nejedly. Senator Dan Boatwright. Senator Adam Schiff. Senator Betty Karnette. Senator Christine Kehoe. Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, who is with us on the floor today. Senator Holly Mitchell.

Senator Toni Atkins. Senator Richard Roth. And Senator John Laird. Tim worked for each one of them in a major staff position over his 47 years. But with Tim, it's not just longevity. It has been his temperance and kindness while being effective in his work. In a political world that seems to have grown increasingly heated, Tim was an example of how to be better. Be competent, yes, but be kind as well. Be effective, certainly. But be empathetic as well. As is tradition, we have a resolution prepared to honor Tim. This resolution was originally going to be dated February 14 in honor of Tim's birthday. Then we were reminded that every February 14, he goes into his office hoping nobody would remember. But it's Tim Shelley, so of course, everybody remembers. Looking at his lengthy record of service, it's no surprise that one of Tim's colleagues once added to his resume, "Administrative Assistant, Legislative Aide Pericles 424-422 BC." "I was around then and Pericles would have hired him," another colleague said.

Tim's 47 years isn't so much about devotion, because that's how long it took the LDC to close all the open windows on his computer so he could actually get some work to done. And looking at the 17 Senators that Tim worked for, it's clear that Tim's career took him from one Senator to a better Senator to an even better Senator, until he reached the pinnacle of Senatordom, which is actually working for the Pro Tem.

And I was lucky enough, as was pointed out, to be his last boss. And speaking of the Pro Tem, she was really disappointed to miss this ceremony and sent some comments, so I asked, permission to read?

Permission granted.

She wrote: "Tim was Chris Kehoe's Chief of Staff, so he is like family two times over. When I was running for Assembly, Chris always welcomed me to her Senate office. But it was Tim who made me feel at home. And when I made it to the Senate and served on Rules, it was Tim who staffed me and helped me learn those ropes. Full circle, always family. And I am so fortunate and appreciative to have had the benefit of his decades of knowledge to fall back on.

Now, Tim is not the only Member of the Senate family in his own family. We all love Lori Shelley, our Senate photographer, who is with him in the back of chambers today and who is desperately trying to train a substitute to take pictures. And they were very efficient as parents because their three children were born within minutes of each other. And they are also here today, Cal, Jared and Miley, and we wish to welcome them as well.

Now, all three of them graduated from college a few days apart and then announced their intention to go to grad school, which I thought was the guarantee Tim was going to continue to work for a few more years. But he is retiring, and so we're here to honor his service and celebrate his future. One of the standard items at the end of a resolution is encouraging the retiree to enjoy full benefits of retirement.

As we wrote that resolution, Tim and Lori were in Hawaii, so we think he's already good with that part. And Tim, as you leave the Senate, know it's with the respect and affection of all these Senators as well as those who came before in the last 47 years. I really want to thank you, my friend, and note that we will be honoring Tim at a reception from 3:00 to 4:30 at room 8010 at the O Street building.

So please join me in helping us recognize this fine person and his outstanding career.

Following the photos with Senator Laird, all are encouraged to join and do a group photo with the Shelley family.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, we're going to welcome all members to be able to join Mr. Shelley in celebrating 47 years. I think we need to have Lori Shelley in that picture as well. We're going to ask all members to please squeeze in. If all members can please squeeze in. All right, ladies and gentlemen, if we can just all look here, please.

On behalf of the California State Senate, let's give Mr. Shelley a round of applause, and a thank you for nearly a half century of service to the people of California.

All right, continuing with privileges of the floor from the Majority Floor Leader's desk. Senator Grove, floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'll give these wonderful ladies a chance to come over to the back of the chamber. Again, thank you, Mr. President. Colleagues, today I'm proud to welcome the students of the Taft Oil Technology Academy. This academy's vision is to guide students to their full potential, emphasizing high standards of academic excellence and personal growth. This also helps the students think about their careers and learning options that they have available in their field of interest.

Career Academies give students direct experience in the professional world as well as postsecondary education partnerships, show students opportunities for their future. The academy's goal is to develop relationships with the petroleum industry and high school students and what they want to explore in their careers in petroleum science, math and engineering. Even though the oil industry pays for their full ride scholarship to any university of their choice, it is not required for them to participate in oil endeavors.

It's a foundation and a support system put up by a small community with about 8000 people, where individuals are very generous to make sure that the students that come from this small town, where it's evident that shows small town people are severely disadvantaged. And so the community has come together to make sure that these students have an opportunity to do whatever they choose to do. Like I said, a full ride scholarship paid by the oil industry.

But it's not required to go into oil to get this scholarship. I want you to notice that every one of the people that are here today are women. Three years ago, they were all men. No offense, guys. Two of these young women behind me are going into nursing. One's going into criminal justice and the other wants to become an environmental engineer. And it's just incredible that these women had the opportunity to come to Sacramento and stand on the red carpet floor.

With us today is Ryan Bracken. Raise your hand. Athena Campos. Where are you at? This young lady is also going to be probably in the Olympics for water pollo, and her mom and dad gave up everything to drive her 5 hours north every week for practice. Incredible parents. Athena Campos. Right. And then Liberty Gregory, and then Macy Barrett, Natalie Pence, Sonia Velasco, and, believe it or not, Lorena Gonzalez. Okay. She's like, why are they laughing at me? I wanted to make sure she knew.

So all of these young women have excellent GPAs, of the highest at 4.8. These students, accompanying them today is George Harmer, Ted Pendergrass, and Crystal Bracken as their chaperones. These young women are not only the future of California's engineering and petroleum industries, they also are well rounded individuals involved in AVID, cheer, water polo, and other after school activities. Please give them a warm welcome and welcome to the State Senate floor.

Thank you, Senator Grove, for sharing that. It's been a very exciting program, and it's great to see all those beautiful young ladies that are going to get into engineering. Okay with that, she's already been introduced, but never hurts to do it again. Our favorite Senator from Santa Barbara, Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, again with us on the floor today. All right. On behalf of Senator Wiener, I am pleased to recognize eighth grade students from St. Brendan School in San Francisco.

And let's give them a warm Senate welcome. And I apologize to the four students who just walked in. We thought you were all seated, so that's on me. Okay. With that, we're going to be moving on to messages from the Governor, which will be deemed read. Messages from the Assembly will be deemed read, reports of Committee will be deemed read, and amendments adopted. Now we're going to move to motions, resolutions, and notices.

Without objection, the Senate journals for March 6th, 2023 through March 9th, 2023 will be approved as corrected by the minute clerk. Now, Members, we're moving on to the consideration of the Daily File. Up first is the Second Reading file, Item One.

Senate Bill 27 with amendments.

Thank you so much. Now moving to Governor's Appointments. Senator Laird, are you ready to present?

I am.

Please proceed.

The first appointment, Members, and Mr. President, is File Item Five: the confirmation of Jose Gonzalez for appointment to the Boating and Waterways Commission. He is currently a partner at the Avarna Group, previously served as a Pisces Foundation Fellow. He was approved by the Senate Rules Committee on March 1st. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Any comments? Seeing none, let's call the roll.

[Roll Call].

Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call].

The Governor's Appointment is approve. 30 to seven. With that, we'll move to Senator Laird in Item Number Six.

Thank you, Mr. President. File Item Number Six is the confirmation of Yana Garcia as Secretary for the California Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to this role, she was serving as Special Assistant Attorney General at the California Department of Justice. She was approved by the Rules Committee on March 1st. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Any comments? Seeing none, Clerk, call the roll.

[Roll Call].

Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call].

Ayes: 30; noes: seven. The Governor's Appointment is approved. Now we'll move on to our last governor's appointment, Item Number Seven: Senator Laird.

Thank you, Mr. President. File Item Seven is the confirmation of Dr. Diana Ramos to serve as Surgeon General. Prior to this role, Dr. Ramos was serving as a public health administrator at the California Department of Public Health Center for Healthy Communities. She was approved by the Rules Committee on March 1st. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Any comments? Seeing none, Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call].

Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call].

Ayes: 30; noes: six. The Governor's Appointment is approved. Now moving on to Senate Third Reading, Reading Item Number 17.

Senate Resolution 17 by Senator Archuleta, relative to stiff person syndrome awareness.

Senator Archuleta, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Senators, I know we all have family members and friends that we make early in our lives, and some stay with us, and then you'll meet a constituent, and you've only known them for a few years, but they've touched you some way, somehow. And I'd like to share a story about someone that I just met about four years ago.

So once again, Mr. Chair--Mr. President--I rise to present SR 17 to support a rising awareness and educating the public on stiff person syndrome, something I've never heard of. Stiff person syndrome. I want to applaud the efforts and advocates to encourage awareness, promotion, research, and provide education, support, and hope for those impacted by this crazy, crazy disease. It's terrible. Wednesday, March 15th, is International Stiff Person Awareness Day. Let us use this opportunity to learn about and commit to improving outcomes and awareness of this disease.

Stiff person syndrome, SPS, as it's known, is extremely rare neurological autoimmune disorder affecting about one in one million. One in a million. We've heard that before. It is a terminal condition with no known cure, affecting all ages, races, and ethnic groups. It is believed to be more prevalent in women than in men. Because it is extremely rare, many people with stiff person syndrome never receive a proper diagnosis or learn about available treatment options.

It takes an average of seven years to diagnose the disease after the onset. This is why it is our duty as public servants to commit to a rising awareness and continue our support for those impacted by stiff person syndrome. It is also our duty to recognize the individuals and their families confronting the disease for this extraordinary resiliency and courage. It is truly an inspiration and I'll share that with you shortly.

Raising awareness of this condition is a matter of which is near and dear to my heart, and due to the personal friendship with someone affected by stiff person syndrome, I have seen firsthand how terribly it has affected the family, and her condition deteriorates every single day. It is amazing how it's taking such a toll on the family.

So when I think of people who exemplify strength in the face of adversity to inspire me and others around us, I think of my new friend only a short while, four or five years, but a friend from East Whittier School Board. East Whittier School Board, Wendy Carrera, Wendy, who is battling stiff person syndrome. And here is a young lady, 45 years old, under 50, raising her children on the school board, thriving life, and then things started deteriorate slowly. They thought she had cancer.

They thought she had fallen down. And as her body is deteriorating, it is now a point that the family is now very, very close to her, thinking and hoping that someone will discover a cure. So when I think of Wendy and her family and her tight-knit community that surrounds her, it is amazing how she's got the strength to stand up every single day. She's lost her hair. Her weight is down to just a mere 98 pounds.

I encourage everyone to learn about stiff person syndrome and to be supportive, like Wendy's family. She's been there for others, and she still takes phone calls to some of her students. And she will keep fighting. So with this, and for many other reasons, I ask that we support SR 17. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Any other comments? Okay. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call].

Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call].

Madam Secretary, can you call the roll one final time?

[Roll Call].

Ayes: 37; noes: zero. The resolution is adopted. Moving on now to Mr. Bradford and File Item 19.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 24 by Senator Bradford, relative to cobalt mining.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm here to present SCR 24, which declares that the Legislature should pass laws that halt the importation of cobalt or any product using cobalt mined in Africa using child labor. Child slave labor, to be exact. We all walk around with our cell phones, have our computers. Some of us even drive electric cars. And it's the symbol of modern day progress. And it's operated by these rechargeable batteries that are currently being.

Cobalt is being mined by underage children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the source of over two thirds of the world's cobalt. Children as young as six years old are being lured in a bucket right now, in a dark mine, damp mine, to scavenge for rocks containing cobalt, wash and sort the ore before it's sold and manufactured into the products that we use each and every day.

Chronic exposure to cobalt dust can result in fatal hard metal lung disease and has been linked to causes of asthma and decreased lung function. We all talk about exposure to automobile admissions. This is 10 times worse than any automobile admission. The United Nations Children's Fund, better known as UNICEF, estimated in 2014 that approximately 40,000 children worked in all the mines across the southern Democratic Republic of Congo being controlled by China. California is the world leader in environmental protection and innovation and justice.

But it can't be just about California. It can't be just about the US. It has to be about Africa as well. SCR 24 affirms that we have an obligation to end our participation in the cobalt supply chain that perpetuates human rights abuses and child slave labor. California is home to some of the country's strongest environmental regulations, and we have set high goals for clean power in our energy sector.

However, we cannot pat ourselves on the back while turning our backs on the devastation of the Congo and the exploitation of the children that we're enabling to be exploited. At this moment. Large deposits of lithium and cobalt can be found right here in the United States. Matter of fact, right here in California. Places like Salton Sea.

If we mine cobalt here in California, in the United States, it would greatly reduce the price of many of these products and many of these working people that we're encouraging to have an electric car might be able to afford one. Might be able to afford a computer. Members. If we're serious about 100% electric. Zero emission goals. The time to move away from reliance on child slave labor law for cobalt is now. It's time to walk the walk. I respectfully ask for an aye vote on SCR 24.

Thank you, Senator Bradford. Any other comments? Seeing none. Oh, I'm sorry, Senator Grove.

Thank you, Mr. President. Colleagues, out of the dozens of resolutions that we'll hear this year, I think this is one of the most important ones. And I want to thank the author for bringing it forward. SCR 24 calls for the halt of importation of cobalt, which is used to create lithium ion batteries, because much of the mining that's done in Africa uses child slave labor. According to UNICEF, Amnesty International and other organizations that have actually done the research on this.

If you look up some information called Red Earth, it actually will show you, as my colleague described, videos of young kids that look to appear to be seven or eight years old being lowered down in mineshafts. I don't know how far they're lowered, but the shaft is about 2ft by 2ft. And these children are on a makeshift piece of rope with a piece of wood, and they're sitting on it.

And the person pulling him up is a full grown man, and he is literally putting his hands like this. So you figure 3ft per pool. The kid comes up out of the shaft. He's barely hanging on with his little bag of cobalt that he's dug out in that shaft. They take it out, they kind of just discard him to the side. And they have another group of children that run that bag up the hill to the guy at the top that's collecting all the cobalt bags.

Then a little bit later, the kid that was in the mineshaft, he wakes up and he gets oxygen because he's above surface ground now, and he goes right back down on that mineshaft. Well, the State of California, Cal/OSHA, United States of America, Fed/OSHA will not allow you to operate like that. There's labor protections that are required. Number one, you can't have slave labor with children. And as my colleague said, there's over 40,000 kids that have estimated to be working in these cobalt mines.

If you look at some of the video, there are also hundreds of thousands of adults. It almost likes little ants just trying to find everything that they can on the ground, because it's a resource that they found out that this very poor country has. And individuals feel like it's a job. And when you think about it, it's the demand that policies like in this building and where we're going place on the supply chain.

And with the supply chain being predominantly from the Democrat Republic of the Congo, it creates a huge problem, especially with, like my colleague said, slave labor. There's no ventilation. Like I said, I would ask you, if you look at it, my colleagues said that there are cobalt and lithium mines here in the State of California and in the United States. There's actually a lithium mine that's a byproduct of the borax plant.

The boron plant is a labor town, a labor company that actually is only thing out there. You guys gave us additional dollars in the budget. I'd like to thank the budget chair again for letting us get a swimming pool for this small community where these kids can have a place to play, and then they produce lithium. It's a byproduct, but we don't get it from here. We get it where they pay pennies a day for slave labor and kids to work in these horrific, horrific conditions.

Why not produce it here, colleagues, where we can control the process, why we oversee the labor process and the environmental process. We need to start looking at nimbyism, where we export a lot of our products that we use every day. You often hear me say that California uses 1.8 million barrels of oil every single day, and we import it from Ecuador.

Why not do it here, where we have the process that we oversee and control and use as strictest environmental protections ever in any part of the world. The same with this cobalt situation. It truly is, as my colleague says, slave labor. There are 6000 items every day that we use that are produced from the oil industry, the petroleum industry, and the cobalt industry.

Colleagues, when you look at these children and these videos of these people just making a living because there's finally a place or a demand that they can go and go to work, if that's what you want to call it. When they make pennies a day, adults make a few dollars a day, but all of that comes back here to go into our Iphones, our cell phones, our laptops, and $100,000 vehicle. And I'm not discounting anybody who drives an electric vehicle.

I'm just saying that we should seriously look at the supply chain and see where these things are coming from so that we make sure that we have protections and we're not creating a bigger world problem based on the policy that we passed. I want to thank the author again for introducing this piece of legislation and bringing awareness to something that I had no idea even existed until about four months ago when it started coming out on the news channels.

And Amnesty International released this huge data project with UNICEF that actually highlighted the 40,000 children in modern day slave labor operating in a chemical plant with a field with no protections whatsoever, covered in green dust from the cobalt, I respectfully ask for aye vote on this resolution.

Thank you, Senator Groves. Senator Wiener.

Thank you, Mr. President. I was definitely not expecting this resolution to lead to an argument for more oil production in California. I will say I urge an aye vote on this resolution. We need to take a firm stand against child slavery and exploitation everywhere in any industry where it arises. We need to make sure we're moving away from fossil fuels, and we know that electrification and battery technology is critical.

Nothing in this resolution in any way reduces California's commitment to electrification and to moving towards zero emissions. And we absolutely need more production here in California and the United States. And so I urge an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator. Senator Caballero.

Thank you, Mr. President. I didn't expect to get up here today and speak either, but coming from a copper mining community, I just feel very strongly that we have to look at how we extract ore and how we treat the people that provide that really important resource. And so I'm very familiar with company towns and the abuses that occur when you have a company town, when you're extracting something that's a really precious resource. It expedites that ability to take advantage of the workforce.

This is a terrible situation, and I've seen specials on it. I've seen the pictures of the children, and their life expectancy has got to be next to nothing, in addition to the meager salary, if anything, or if you even call it a salary. But let me just say that the other issue really has to do with importing these products. We have banned the importation of animals, really important animals, to the world and to our country as well.

And if we're going to ban the importation of animals, and we should, then we ought to be banning the import of products that do great harm to families and to children where the rights can be violated. And so I respectfully ask that we support this very important measure and that we stop exploiting the children of the world and dumping our products on other people as well.

Thank you, Senator. Any other comments? Senator Bradford? You may close.

Thank you, Mr. President. And I want to thank my colleagues who lent their voice to this important measure. Members, this is a crisis, and it's easy to ignore it when it's thousands of miles away on probably one of the poorest continents in the world, but one of the richest as it relates to resources. This country is being raped every day for its resources, resources that we use daily. Children are being exploited.

We have a child labor law here in California and United States because of an actor who was being exploited. The Jackie Coogan Law. He was an actor. He wasn't working in a mine. He wasn't digging ditches. He was acting, and his parents were stealing his salary. These kids are not even making a salary. They're making it possible for us, though, to have our cell phones, to have our computers, to live a life of modern technology. But they're dying at our expense.

And we should be all concerned about this. This Legislature, this state led the way 40 years ago to end apartheid in Africa by boycotting products and investments in that country, in South Africa. We can do the same today in ending the exploitation and child slave labor by ending the import of cobalt that is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo or anywhere on the continent of Africa or any other country.

If it's not good enough for us to do it here in our country, when we have reserves, we shouldn't be doing it in other countries, exploiting their environment and especially their children. The time is now, Members, to stand up and do the right thing. I respectfully ask for aye vote.

Thank you, Senator Bradford. This resolution is actually eligible for a unanimous roll call vote. Any objections? Seeing none. Ayes, 37. No, zero. The resolution is adopted. Before we go to Committee announcements, I want to take this opportunity to recognize the birthday boy that we have on the Senate Floor today. It is Senator Ben Allen's birthday, so you can wish him a happy birthday. Oh, look, he brought a gift. Say hi to Ezra, everybody. Alright now moving to Committee announcements. Senator Ashby.

I don't have. Oh, yes, you're right. Sorry. I'm like, what announcement do I have? So sorry. Yes. The Joint Committee on Emergency Management meets at the end of this hearing. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Senator Roth.

The Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee on Cannabis will resume 15 minutes after close of session.

Thank you, sir. Now we'll be returning to motions and resolutions. At this time, it is appropriate to address adjourning memories from those Senators who have submitted paperwork. Up first is Senator Portantino.

Thank you, Mr. President and Members. It's with sadness and also with celebration that I rise to ask us to adjourn in the memory of Mary Ann Parada. Mary Ann was one of those larger than life people who just affected all of us around. And so I certainly miss her, but want to give her the respect and remembrance that she deserved. She was born October 30 in Los Angeles to Bernardino and Maria Stasolla, two Italian immigrants. She grew up in Highland Park and was the youngest daughter of five.

There she met the love of her life, Armand Bob Parada, in their second grade at St. Ignatius Catholic School. Bob and Mary Ann married October 30 in 1954 in Highland Park, and in 1963, Bob and Mary Ann moved to South Pasadena with their six children. Mary Ann and Bob ended up having nine children in total. John, Judy, Joan, Jimmy, David, Danny, Ronnie, Robert, and Tommy.

Marianne was an active parishioner at Holy Family Church with her family and helped organize the Italian Catholic Federation and the wonderful St. Joseph's table that they had, which I have been to many, many times. Ensuring her own children were active and engaged with their community, Mary Ann supported her children in the activities. She helped establish the South Pasadena Little League Softball Program so young girls could play softball in the City of South Pasadena, and she was one of the organizers ahead of her time.

Her devotion to her family and faith extended to her surrounding neighborhood, as she was deeply engaged in her community. Mary Ann was one of the original founders of Citizens United to save South Pasadena, which was commonly called one of the Freeway Fighters. She was one of the original Freeway Fighters to help stop the 710 freeway, and she fought that battle for over 60 years. And I was very pleased that she lived long enough to see that freeway finally go away.

And Mary Ann was one of the original leaders, and that's how I met her when she took me on a tour of the 710 corridor back in 1998. Fortunately, she was preceded in death by her husband and her eldest son, John. She leaves to celebrate and honor her legacy. Listen to this. 25 grandchildren and 23 great grandchildren. A quote from Helen Keller sort of captured who she was. "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart." And Mary Ann Parada was felt with the heart by such a broad community in South Pasadena and beyond. And it's my honor to ask us to adjourn in her memory.

Thank you, Senator Porntino. Up next, we have Senator Wiener.

Thank you, Mr. President. Colleagues, it's with great sadness that I rise today to ask that the Senate adjourn in memory of Bill Longen, who passed away in January at the age of 75. Bill was born in 1947 in Pennsylvania. In 1966, he graduated from Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. He continued his education at Eastman Kodak Film School with technical courses in film editing, photography, printing and sound. He went on to attend Temple University.

Bill spent the next 12 years working for CBS, traveling from Philadelphia to New York and LA, where he met his longtime partner, Stan Schaffer. Along the way. Bill and Stan ultimately settled in San Francisco in 1977, where Bill worked with KTVU, one of our TV stations, as an editor and producer for 30 years. He was a supervising editor for the 10:00 Evening News. For the last three years at the station, Bill was an Emmy winning editor and producer with eight additional Emmy nominations.

He also was the winner of multiple gold, silver, and bronze awards from the International Film and Television Festival in New York. Bill was an activist and an advocate for the LGBTQ community. Bill and Stan were both diagnosed with HIV at the height of the epidemic. In the 1980s, Bill and Stan became founding Members of Positives Being Positive, an early HIV AIDS peer to peer support group in 1998. Unfortunately, Stan passed away peacefully from HIV in 1995.

Bill became a long term survivor of HIV for over 40 years and remained one of only four people of that 25 person support group support group to survive. Bill continued his activism, and in 2006, he donated more than 20 years of raw footage documenting LGBTQ life in the Bay Area to the GLBT Historical Society. He set aside raw tapes of news segments that reported on LGBTQ topics so that the segments would be preserved and the tapes would not be recorded over.

He wanted the footage to help future generations of LGBTQ young people learn about the past. Bill moved to Palm Springs after Stan's passing, but he eventually returned to San Francisco for his love of film. He became the manager of the beloved Castro Theater in the Castro neighborhood for nearly a decade, from 2005 to 2011, bringing his creativity and knowledge of film to the Castro community. He was also a projectionist, film editor, and owner operator of Ironwood Cinemas.

He helped bring the Castro Theater into the modern age of filming with digital and 3D technology and coordinated many, many special events. He survived by his siblings, Regina, Mary and Joe, and extended family in Philadelphia and on the East Coast. He was preceded in death by his beloved sister Susie, his parents, and of course, his partner, Stan. I personally knew Bill for many years in the Castro community. He was a wonderful human being. This is a major, major loss to our community. Mr. President, I ask that the Senate adjourn in his memory.

Thank you, Senator Wiener, and I'm sorry for your loss. Senator Skinner.

Thank you, Mr. President. Members, I rise today to ask the Senate to adjourn in memory for Judy Heumann, a longtime Berkeley resident, but who has been based in Washington, DC for the last 30 years, who is widely regarded as the mother of the Disability Rights Movement. And I hope in doing this aim that I can do justice to Judy's remarkable life and contributions. As I referenced, Judy was a pivotal and forceful national and international leader in the Disability Rights Movement. But her contributions benefit us all. I am constantly reminded of while disability may come early for some, it is something each and every one of us could experience at any point, whether permanent or temporary.

And thus the physical changes such as curb cuts and other things to make it easier to get around, whether you're in a chair or other device, or the civil rights changes that enable you to attend school, to work, to travel, to be housed with appropriate accommodations, and the right to be fully accepted and respected in our physical world, our societal world.

All aspects of it is something that is necessary for all of us, and it's something that Judy was one of the key leaders to fight for. And I'll explain that in a second. I first met her in the late 70s when I moved to Berkeley to go to Cal. She was active in the local political coalition that I joined, and I was blown away because I had never been exposed to strong, outspoken people with disabilities. I think you probably remember my journey memory for Hale Zukas.

Hale Zukas was the disabled resident of Berkeley who could only, his mobility was pretty much limited to his head, and yet he communicated, and he was an activist. And along with Judy and Ed Roberts, founded such organizations as the Center for Disability, excuse me, Berkeley Center for Independent Living and also the, I got to get the name of the organization that Ed Roberts and, the World Institute on Disability. So this is what I'm referencing as both being national and international.

Anyway, Judy was dedicated to building a more inclusive world for all of us. She served in senior positions in the Clinton and Obama administrations. She was featured in the 2020 Oscar nominated documentary Crip Camp, a Disability revolution, which I recommend to all of you and is on Netflix. And it was made by her friend and fellow camper, Jim Lebrecht.

And in Berkeley, there is a giant, larger than life photo of Judy in the rotunda of what's known as the Ed Roberts campus, which is a campus located right at the Ashby BART station in Berkeley. And it is the heartbeat of California's disability rights community. Judy was born in Philadelphia, but she grew up in Brooklyn. She was the daughter of Jewish immigrants who fled Nazi Germany. At the age of two, she contracted polio, and her doctor advised her parents, just like the parents of Hale Zukas.

They advised to institutionalize them because she was never going to be able to walk. But her parents refused, and in her memoir, being human, Judy wrote that institutionalization was the status quo. In 1949, kids with disabilities were considered a hardship economically and socially. So when she attempted to enter kindergarten, the school said no, she would be a fire hazard. But her parents fought back and demanded that she have access to a classroom. She eventually attended a special high school.

She earned her bachelor's degree from Long Island University and then later went to Cal and received a master's in public health. In the 60s, and now I am back to referencing Crip Camp, she became a counselor. She attended and became a counselor at Camp Gen Ed. It was one of the only summer camps designed specifically for disabled youth. It was in the Catskills, and it attracted young people from around the nation, several of whom, along with Judy, became the national leaders in this Disability Rights Movement.

Now, after getting her bachelor's degree in New York, Judy wanted to be a teacher at the New York City schools. But the state board of Education refused to give her the letter to become a teacher again, citing she would be a fire hazard. So she sued them and won, and became the first wheelchair using teacher in New York history. When President Nixon vetoed the 1972 Rehabilitation Act, Judy led a demonstration that shut down Madison Avenue in Manhattan.

She moved to Berkeley to get her master's degrees, and she continued her fight for civil rights. And she led a major protest in San Francisco to force the then Carter Administration to fully implement Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which was finally signed by Nixon in 73. But that protest in San Francisco at the federal building became the longest such protest in the nation, lasting for over a month. And if you watch the movie Crip Camp, there's parts of that demonstration that are featured in it.

They won. In Berkeley, Judy co founded, as I mentioned, the Center for Independent Living and also the World Institute on Disability and served on the board of Berkeley's Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund. Nationally and internationally, she served on the American Association of People with Disabilities Board, Human Rights Watch, the US International Council on Disability, Save the Children, and more.

And as I mentioned, she served in the Administration of both President Clinton and President Obama, and she worked as the first special advisor for the International Disability Rights at the US State Department. She loved musicals, movies. She traveled the world. She made new friends, she hung out with old ones. She had many dinners she organized.

After she died, President Obama tweeted, "Judy Heumann dedicated her life to the fight for civil rights, starting as a young organizer at Camp Gen Ed and later helping lead the Disability Rights Movement. Michelle and I were fortunate to work with her over the years and think of her and her family as our friends." President Biden memorialized her calling Judy a "trailblazer and a rolling warrior", acknowledging her role in federal and international disability rights.

In her own memoir, Judy wrote, some people say that what I did changed the world, but really I simply refused to accept what I was told about who I could be, and I was willing to make a fuss about it. She died March 4 in Washington, DC at age 75. She is survived by her husband, Jorge Pineda, along with her many family members and many, many dear friends who all miss her dearly. And I want to welcome, there are members in the gallery of the Disability Rights Movement who are here also today to honor her. Thank you, Senate.

Thank you for sharing that amazing story. If the Senators could bring up their paperwork so they will be properly memorialized by the Senate, I would appreciate that. And if there's no other business, Senator Grove, the desk is clear.

Thank you, madam or Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. The Senate will be in recess till 03:30 p.m. At which time the adjournment motion will be made. We will reconvene Thursday, March 16 at 09:00 a.m. Which is Senator Scott Wilkes birthday.

Again, the Senate will be in recess until 03:30 p.m. At which time the adjournment motion will be made. We will reconvene Thursday, March 16 at 09:00 a.m. Have a great week, Members. Bye.