Assembly Floor

Members. The Assembly is now in session and Assembly Member Chen notices the absence of a quorum. Sergeant in arms will prepare the chamber and call the absent Members. The Clerk will call a roll.

[Roll Call]

Members, a quorum is present. Members, if you have guests on the floor today, we ask that you get situated. We are about to begin session.

We're going to ask our guests and our visitors in the gallery and in the rear of the chamber to please stand for the prayer and the pledge. Today, without objection, today's prayer will be offered by our guest chaplain, Rabbi Paula Marcus of Temple Beth El Jewish Community Center of Santa Cruz in Aptos, California. Rabbi Marcus.

Hana Senesh was born in Hungary in 1921, and in 1943, at the height of World War II, she volunteered to go into Nazi controlled areas in Europe to save Jewish lives. She was one of the 37 Jewish special operation recruits from Mandate Palestine who parachuted into Yugoslavia. Their mission was to organize resistance to the Germans and aid in the rescue of those who had been captured by the Nazis.

After staying with the resistance fighters known as the Partisans, she was seized in German occupied Hungary and executed by the Nazis in Budapest on the 7 November 1944, at the age of 23. She is known both for her courage and her poetry.

The words of this song, prayer, are from one of her poems and they speak to the universal understanding that we are all connected through our hearts, our appreciation for the beauty of creation, resilience, and the powerful ways we elevate the memories of all who have worked to spread goodness and peace in the face of evil. May they inspire us to continue this sacred work together.

Haile Eli Shalo Higa Merle Haleve Harish Rock Hasham TiLA Ham ahol the hayam Risho shall amay Mirac Shamayim TV O God, my God. I pray that these. Things never end the sand and the sea, the rush of the water, the crash of the heavens, the prayer of the heart. And we say together, amen.

We ask that you remain standing and join us in the flag salute. Please join Assembly Member Lowenthal as he leads us in the pledge.

Please place your hand over your heart and recite our pledge. I pledge of allegiance to the flag.

Thank you. You may be seated. Reading of the previous day's journal Assembly.

Chamber of Sacramento Monday, March 202023 the Assembly met at 01:00 p.m. The Honorable Stephanie Quinn, Assistant Speaker Protempori of the Assembly, Presiding Chief Clerk Sue Parker at the desk, Assistant Clerk Taylor Martin reading roll call.

Ms. Reyes moves Mr. Flora. Seconds of the reading of the previous day's journal will be dispensed with. Presentations and petitions there are none. Introductions and references of bills will be deferred. Reports of committees will be deemed read and amendments deemed adopted. Messages from the Governor there are none. Messages from the Senate? There are none. Moving to motions and resolutions the absences for the day for legislative Business Assemblymember Haney and Majority Leader, you are recognized for your procedural motions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I request unanimous consent to suspend Assembly Rule 45.5 to allow Assembly Members Ramos Rayes, Vince Fong, Calderon and Quirk Silva to speak on an adjournment in memory today.

Without objection, such shall be the order.

I request unanimous consent to suspend Assembly Rule 118 A to allow Assembly Members Gabriel, Lowenthal, Lackey, Bauer-Kahan and Holden to have guests and photographers on the floor today.

Without objection. Such shall be the order.

I request unanimous consent to withdraw AB 498 Aguiar curry from the governmental organization Committee and order the Bill to the second reading file.

Without objection. Such shall be the order.

I request unanimous consent to withdraw the following bills from the Appropriations Committee and order them to the second reading file. The bills are non fiscal, AB 171 Weber and AB457 Joe Patterson,

Without objections. That shall be the order.

Pursuant to Assembly rule 96, I request unanimous consent to re refer the following bills to Committee AB 1019 Pellerin from the Human Services Committee to the Judiciary Committee AB 1044 Gallagher from the Transportation Committee to the Jobs, Economic, Development and the Economy Committee AB 1291 Mccarty from the Transportation Committee to the Appropriations Committee AB 1311 Sodia from the Health Committee to the Higher Education Committee and AB 1538, Muratsuchi from the Natural Resources Committee to the Appropriations Committee.

Without objections. That shall be the order.

I request unanimous consent to allow the following committees to set bills pending rereferral from other committees. Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee to notice AB 1637 Irwin for their hearing on April 25 pending rereferral from the Local Government Committee. Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee to notice AB 1336 Low for their hearing on April 25 pending rereferral from the Banking and Finance Committee.

Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee to notice AB eight Friedman for their hearing on April 25 pending rereferral from the arts, entertainment, Sports and Tourism Committee and Local Government Committee to notice AB 965, Juan Carrillo for their hearing on April 26 pending rereferral from the Communications and Conveyance Committee.

Without objection. Such shall be the order. Members, we have a lot of guests joining us in the Assembly today. First, Mr. Rodriguez, I'd like to call on you if you'd like to introduce your guests with us today.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, I'm proud to introduce a group of 66 4th graders from Sierra Enterprise Elementary School here in Sacramento. It's an extra special to me to introduce this group as my scheduler's daughter, Maya is here with them today. Kids, remember that you are the future leaders of the world and if you work hard, you can achieve anything. They're seated. Upper deck, to my right rear. Let's welcome them on the state capitol. Thank you.

Thank you. Now, Members, we have a few birthdays to announce. We have three birthdays today. Please wish a happy birthday to Assembly Members Nguyen, Haney and Pacheco who all celebrate their birthdays today. And we can thank Assemblymer Nguyen. There are cupcakes in the Members lounge. We have with us a former Member up here at the Dais. Please welcome back Assembly Member and former majority leader Ian Calderon. Next, Assemblywoman Cervantes, would you like to provide your guest introductions?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to introduce students from home Gardens Academy which is a TK-eight school located in the district that I represent. These amazing young leaders. Young women are here to learn about the legislative process and also meet with their representatives here in our state capitol. Colleagues, please help me in welcoming our young students, our future leaders.

Thank you, Mr. Cervantes. We will be moving to business on the daily file. I'm going to ask that you please take your seats at this time.

Okay? Members, we will now move to the Assembly observance of Holocaust Memorial Day. Without objection, we will take up file item 50, ACR 43, Gabriel. For the purpose of third reading. The Clerk will read

Assembly Concurrent Resolution 43. By Assembly Member Gabriel and others relative to California Holocaust Memorial Day.

Mr. Gabriel, you may open the measure.

Thank you. Madam Speaker. I rise today on behalf of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus to present ACR 43, our annual resolution for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Known in Hebrew as Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the approximately 6 million Jews and countless others who were brutally murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Yom Hashoah also honors Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, and it is observed annually on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

In observing Yom Hashoah, the Jewish caucus has always been committed to centering the voices of survivors, the few among millions who, through extraordinary resilience and incredible luck, survived the Nazis attempt to exterminate the Jewish people. Unfortunately, due to age and the Covid-19 pandemic, our ability to hear directly from survivors has been diminished in recent years. But we are honored to welcome them and their descendants back to the Capitol, and we remain committed to telling their stories and honoring their legacy.

For those of us who grew up knowing survivors, the Holocaust is more than a historical event. It is a collection of deeply personal traumas. It is the numbers tattooed on the arms of friends and grandparents. The stories of relatives who endured every imaginable and unimaginable form of abuse, of children orphaned, of entire families and villages destroyed.

It's trying to figure out how to explain to my seven year old that the woman sitting across the table from him at Passover last week saw her entire family murdered before she turned 12. That his friend Liba's great grandma hid in the woods for two years as a child to escape the Nazis. That his friend Jack's great grandma buried her mom with her own hands.

That sweet Ayelet's great grandma survived because at the end of the war, the Nazis were willing to let her go free in exchange for a bribe. It's trying to figure out how to explain to your kids that the Nazis murdered over 1 million Jewish children. And also laying awake at night, wondering if one day someone will try to hurt them because they are Jewish. For the Jewish people, the Holocaust is millions of individual traumas and also a lasting collective trauma.

A trauma that has deeply informed our community's sense of security and also our sense of purpose. One that has heightened our sensitivity to antisemitism and also taught us that we must fight back fiercely and immediately against all forms of racism, hatred, and bigotry. You see, for the Jewish community, the Holocaust isn't a distant memory in the arc of Jewish history. It's a recent event, a particularly devastating chapter in a lengthy book filled with painful stories of persecution and discrimination.

And yet, at the same time, the survivors of the Holocaust and their children and their grandchildren and their great grandchildren are the ultimate symbol of the enduring resilience of the Jewish people. And it's also a call to action, the ultimate reminder of how quickly an advanced, educated, and modern society can unravel, of how easily hateful rhetoric can lead to unspeakable violence for both the Jewish people and for all of humanity.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is a reminder of our collective obligation to do more, to bring the lessons of the Holocaust to all corners of our state, to speak out clearly and unequivocally about past and current genocides, and to rededicate ourselves, to combating antisemitism, racism, and bigotry against any community wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head. In that spirit and on behalf of the survivors in the Jewish caucus, I respectfully request your support for ACR 43.

Mr. Lowenthal, you are recognized.

Thank you. Madam Speaker and Members, we come together today to honor the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust and to share their courageous stories of the survivors and of their descendants. It is especially painful to know that 1.5 million of those killed were children, and not only Jews. We remember the Roma, the Sinti people, the Slavs, the people with disabilities, the LGBTQ plus people, prisoners of war, and the Members of the anti Nazi networks across Europe whose voices of resistance were forever silenced.

I am particularly honored and touched to be in the presence of Galena and Lev Kozelov, residents of the 69th AD and originally from Ukraine and Russia, respectively, the Kozalovs endured bombing, starvation, and unspeakable atrocities of Nazi aggression. Like so many, we are inspired by their rediscovered beauty and meaning in life after enduring the very worst of humanity. Like so many survivors, they built families, careers, and futures in the face of profound trauma.

They reestablished the sense of safety, home, and belonging that had been ripped away from them in hearing of their triumph. Why, then, do we need to keep talking about the Holocaust? Why is it our moral imperative to remember what happened? To talk about it? Do we talk about it because with the passage of time, the rescuers and liberators and survivors are naturally dwindling in numbers that we're transitioning from a living memory to a historical memory and that places a great burden of responsibility.

That places great burden of responsibility on the rest of us. As the witnesses of witnesses, we carry on the moral obligation of memory. Or do we talk about it because today, nearly a third of all Americans and more than four in 10 millennials, believe that substantially less than 6 million Jews were killed, 2 million or fewer, during the Holocaust. Even more troubling, despite more than 40,000 concentration camps and ghettos built during the Holocaust, almost half of Americans cannot name a single one.

Maybe we talk about it as a vehicle to address the increasing attacks and violence against Jewish communities around the globe. Online and offline, hate speech is intensifying. 49% of us, millennials and Generation Z, have seen Holocaust denial or distortion posts on social media or elsewhere online. Undoubtedly and personally, we talk about it because, as Jews, we do it to conjure up strength within ourselves. We need strength.

2023, as we attend and send our children to synagogue or Jewish community centers, armed and alarmed with guards and heightened security measures, awaiting the next attack that will most certainly come to that end. In search of that strength, we don't gloss over the past so that we're prepared in the future. We remember not just the systematic killing in the Holocaust. We remember the worst atrocities, too, and we talk about them. We talk about the human experiments conducted on us.

Experiments in blood coagulation, in bone, in muscle and nerve transplantation. Experiments on twins, freezing and high altitude experiments and sterilization, fertility experiments conducted on us. We look at photos of lampshades that were made from our skin, the gold extracted from our teeth, our hair shaved and stolen, the numbers tattooed on our forearms. This happened. It happened. And because this happened, as Michael Berenbaum said, we understand the evil.

We must understand the evil, the systematic evil, the state sponsored evil, the industrialized killing, the mass murders that were the essence of the Holocaust. We must understand its emblematic invention. The death camp. And the people who served in these camps. Their assignment was mass murder. Some were sadists and criminals, people unlike us. But many more were ordinary men and women trying to do their best to fulfill their obligations. Some were even professionals, lawyers and doctors, ministers, economists who used their skills. They learned to become more efficient killers. Some were enthusiastic, others more reluctant. All became killers.

30 seconds.

We must equally and notably understand the indifference of neutrality in the struggle between powerless victims and overwhelmingly power killing machine, neutrality is anything but neutral. Indifference is a death sentence. The bystander is also an enabler with humanity, scarred by genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia. All of us share the solemn responsibility to fight those evils. Together. We must uphold the terrible truth of the Holocaust against those who deny it.

We must strengthen the moral commitment of our peoples and the political commitment of this government and all governments to ensure that future generations can understand the consequences of the Holocaust and reflect upon its consequences. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Ms. Pellerin. You are recognized.

Thank you. Madam Speaker and Members, I rise on behalf of the Legislative Women's Caucus to support ACR 43, declaring April 18, 2023 as California Holocaust Memorial Day. The Holocaust was a tragedy of unprecedented proportions, in which 6 million Jews were deliberately and systematically murdered by the Nazi regime as part of their final solution to the Jewish question.

While Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust, millions of other people were brutally murdered based on their ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, and sexual orientation while they were held in concentration camps as part of a carefully orchestrated, state sponsored program of cultural, social, and political annihilation under the Nazi regime.

We must teach our children and the future generations about the individual and communal acts of heroism during the Holocaust as a powerful example of how our nation and its citizens can and must respond to acts of hatred and inhumanity. We must remain vigilant against all forms of hatred, racism, persecution, and tyranny to prevent such atrocities from happening again. During the Holocaust, women played a critical role in the resistance against the Nazi regime and in helping the victims of the Holocaust.

Despite being discriminated against and marginalized by the Nazi ideology, many women demonstrated extraordinary bravery and strength in the face of extreme adversity. Women who fought against the Nazis were part of a resistance group and risked their lives to sabotage the regime's operations. For example, in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, women smuggled weapons and supplies to their fellow fighters and acted as couriers between different parts of the resistance. Women played an essential role in saving lives during the Holocaust.

Women like the Ukrainian maid Ludwiga Pukas and the Berlin housewife Johanna Eck, hid Jews and other persecuted individuals in their homes, often at great personal risk. Carolina Jess Kikowska, a Polish woman, was executed for hiding two Jews in her home. Some women, such as Irina Sendler, smuggled children out of the ghettos and concentration camps and placed them with Non Jewish families, saving them from certain death. Moreover, women in the concentration camps demonstrated remarkable resilience and strength.

Despite facing starvation, disease, and brutal physical and emotional abuse, many women supported each other and formed networks of mutual aid. For instance, women shared food and medical supplies, and some even risked punishment to provide education and entertainment for children in the camps. In addition to these acts of bravery. Women in the Holocaust faced unique forms of persecution, including sexual violence, medical experimentation, and forced sterilization.

During deportation operations, pregnant women and mothers of small children were labeled incapable of work and were sent to killing centers, where they were often the first group to be sent to the gas chambers. Despite these atrocities, many women refused to be broken by the regime and instead found ways to resist and support each other. Overall, women in the Holocaust demonstrated incredible courage and strength, both in their resistance against the Nazis and in their support for those who were persecuted.

Their stories serve as powerful reminder of the human capacity for resilience and compassion, even in the darkest of times. It is vital to include women's roles and bravery in the Holocaust, as we proclaim this day as California Holocaust Memorial Day. In the words of Anne Frank from her Holocaust diary, she kept while hiding how wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

As our nation is grappling with an alarming surge in antisemitism, it is more critical than ever for us to remember the lessons of the Holocaust and pay tribute to its victims and survivors to do our part to improve the world. Please join me to work to promote human dignity and confront hate whenever and wherever it occurs. I thank my colleague from San Fernando for his leadership as co chair of our Jewish Caucus, and I ask you all to join me in supporting ACR 43.

Mr. Ramos, you're recognized.

Well, thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I rise as the chair of the Native American Legislative Caucus and also on behalf of the California Legislative Latino Caucus, where the Latino caucus stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, and also stood where many of the survivors fled to Latin America to find safety. We must never forget how easily the hate and bigotry that spawn the Holocaust can occur anywhere, at any time. Throughout our human history.

We have seen genocide infect different parts of the globe in different eras and poison different groups. As California Indian people, we have seen atrocities and genocide come our way. As Native American people, we have seen clans wiped off this earth. So we stand in solidarity as native people in the Latino caucus, we join together as no one, no one should stand alone.

This resolution reminds us of the great human devastation and inhumanity which we, as humans beings, are capable of committing, and how urgent it is for us each to remain vigilant and stand against hate. Today is no different. We need to stand united together in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, with our Jewish caucus Members. We stand with you today and forever. I urge your. I vote.

Ms. Bauer-Kahan, you're recognized thank you.

Madam Speaker and Members, I rise today as a testament to the resilience of good over evil, the triumph that was those who survived. I rise on behalf of my family. My permission to use props, Madam Speaker.

My grandmother, Catherine Bauer, who many of you have heard about, because I had the honor of adjourning in her memory during Holocaust Remembrance Day just a few years ago, and her parents, my father's beloved grandmother, Irma Hirsch, my great grandmother, my great grandfather, Otto Hirsch, my father's father's family, Theodore Bauer, Greta Bauer, and Herbert Bauer, who all made it to this country, but also my grandmother's grandmother, who she left in 1939.

She said goodbye, fled on her own in hopes for a chance of surviving, but never got to see again. And for the 6 million people who don't have a granddaughter to rise for them because their lives were cut all too short by the Holocaust. And I rise because we need to understand the stories of people like my family. They had a privileged life in Vienna. Both sets of my grandparents were shop owners. My grandparents were sweethearts in Vienna. They played tennis. They went to dance school.

They did well in high school until they were kicked out. They didn't believe the only country they'd ever known would turn on them, would expel them, would exterminate them if they stayed. But that's what happened. And they got out. But they got out because of the good grace and the gift given to them by this country and by the human beings in New York who sponsored them, the people who took a chance on my grandparents and gave them a second life.

Austria offered my grandmother her citizenship back, and she didn't want it. She was an American. This was the country that gave her life. And my grandmother lived to be 98 years old. She lived to see me be elected to this body. And she was never afraid that that would happen in this country. She was 18 years old. Everything had been taken from her. But she believed so deeply in this country that she never, ever believed it would happen here.

And just this morning, I was talking to another one of our honorees, a survivor. And I said, that changed in 2016 when my grandmother saw nazis boldly marching through the streets of the United States. And for the first time in my life, she wasn't sure anymore about this country and whether it could go the way her homeland had gone.

And I say that because as I've sat on this floor before and as we heard from our colleagues, the atrocities were committed by people more evil than any of us could imagine. But they were allowed to happen. By so many people who sat silent. And as they're called in Israel, the righteous among nations. Those that saved the lives of people like my grandparents were the ones who stood up, were the ones that saved the people here on this floor and their descendants.

And we need to be those people for every group that is facing genocide and hatred. And I want to remind us all that didn't start with death camps and death marches and gas chambers. It started with hatred and propaganda. And it is our obligation as the 80 Members of this esteemed body to stand up and to speak out for every group so that truly it never happens again. So that people like me aren't holding passports marked with Nazi Swastikas.

Remembering a time when their grandparents had to flee the only home they ever known and hoped they would reunite with their children and get a second chance at life. But my family did. My grandparents reunited in Brooklyn. They were married. They had my dad and my aunt.

And I stand here today, a testament of that resilience and of the goodness of their sponsors, the people who saved us, who we wrote letters to, that my grandmother thanked until the day she died, because without them, I wouldn't be standing here. So thank you for remembering. And thank you for being our partners in a more just world and one where there is no hatred.

Because I believe that day is possible, but only if every single one of us across every political spectrum stands up for every human being every time we see hatred. I respectfully ask for your aye vote on ACR 43.

Mr. Bryan, you're recognized.

Thank you. Madam Speaker, I rise on behalf of the legislative black caucus in support of ACR 43. To the survivors and their descendants who are here with us today, you are seen. You are remembered, you are loved, and you give us all the power of perseverance with your presence.

Thinking about what my colleague from Northern California just said, and if we asked the Clerk to read the names of Herma Hirsch and Otto Hirsch and the other 6 million people plus, who lost their lives, it would take over two years to recite those names in this body. It's a history that cannot be forgotten, it cannot be banned, and it cannot ever happen again.

This yam Hashoah, it's critically important that we don't just gloss over the details in symbolic remembrance, but deeply reflect on the state sponsored persecution and systematic violence during all parts of its escalation. Nazi Germany didn't just appear. The Nuremberg laws of 1935 were deeply modeled with influence from the black codes and the Jim Crow laws right here in our country. Laws that denied citizenship, stole the fundamental right to vote, banned people from participating in public office, denied pathways to higher education.

We've come a long way around the world, but we've got a long way to go because hate and anti semitism and those foundational core components that drove to the death of 6 million people still reside. And we see it manifested in flyers on our school campuses. We see it in shootings outside of our temples. We see it in the fear that our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community carry every day.

And so today, we don't just remember, but we recommit ourselves to actively fighting against hate and actively building a world built on love and solidarity. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Mr. Berman, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker, I rise on behalf of my constituent, Boris Kapilovich, who wasn't able to make it here today, but whose story is very similar to the story that my grandmother went through in Poland. And we talk about the 6 million Jews who were slaughtered, the 1.5 million children who were murdered. And sometimes it can be hard to grasp really what that means without diving a little deeper into individual stories. Boris was kind enough to write up his story for me, and I'd like to share with all of you. Permission to read?

No objection.

Thank you. Allow me to express my sincere gratitude for inviting me as a survivor of the Holocaust. I was born in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Since my early years, I have been a naughty kid. My search for adventures, which twice ended unlucky, kept my parents in constant worry. But I was still loved and spoiled. I was a typical boy, but my fate was not ordinary. When the Second World War, initiated by fascist Germany, reached our country, my father went into the army.

The city lost the substantial part of its population and looked uninhabited. The sensation of uncertainty and oppression felt everywhere. Now it was necessary to count every piece of bread. Stores were closed. The collective farmers did not arrive into the city anymore, and there was no market. The exchange of things for products was not always fruitful. We were frequently hungry. The light hearted and joyful sensation which I, not long ago experienced by greeting each new day disappeared.

Neither the clean blue sky nor the warm rays of the sun could take away the expression of hopelessness and presentiment of trouble on the face of my mother. Soon, German troops occupied Minsk, and we became prisoners of the ghetto. My mother, my older brother and I. To save the family from the hunger, our mother started to work on the construction site, getting, at the end of the day, one slice of bread and a bowl of soup for the family of three. We always were hungry.

My mother found that in some parts of the ghetto, Germans were taking people away. And nobody knew why they didn't come back. Later, she heard that all of them were killed. Germans usually carried out the extermination of not working population. After the labor columns left the ghetto. My older brother saved my life in one of the cleaning actions, as Germans called it, by hiding me under the bed. But himself. He could not and was taken away.

Since then, the tormented life and constant fear of perishing became the norm of our existence. We were not only deprived of the feelings and emotions inherent in the humans, but we were in the constant fear to be killed. Once, during the most extended action that lasted three days. Hiding in the attic, I witnessed a monstrous execution. Innocent children were pulled out from their mother's hands. And thrown inside the hermetic cabin of the mobile gas chamber. With the heartrending cry.

The mothers were rushing inside after their kids. Women with kids, old men and women loaded into the cabin. Knew they would be suffocated by exhaust gas from the car engine. During the actions of extermination in the ghetto. Miraculously or by lucky chance, my life was saved seven times. Three times by Russian man Ivan Bachmatov, my mom's Boss at work. Three times by German who led people to work. And the last time by the young German soldier.

We escaped to partisans just before Germans exterminated the rest of the ghetto population entirely. In 1944, we returned to the city, freed from the German occupation. For a long time, I kept dormant the visual and lifelike pictures of the executions. Time treats grief and pain, and life is going on. However, we will never forget those who perished in Holocaust. I would like people who listen to me now to realize that I am talking about the fate of the destroyed generation.

Generation deprived of the right to happiness, love, and life only because they were born Jews. Despite the possibility and the need for coexistence between the people of different countries and religions, the entire history of humanity knew only wars. My dear listeners, your life is the most precious phenomenon on our earth. Please do everything possible to make life beautiful. And for those values you create, the following generations will be forever grateful to you. Thank you for inviting me. I love you. I respectfully ask your support on ACR 43.

Mr. Muratsuchi, you're recognized.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Asian American and Pacific Island, or left side of caucus. It was about five years ago that I had an opportunity with some of my colleagues that I see on the floor today to go to Israel, courtesy of the American Jewish Committee. And one of the most memorable trips during that trip was a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial.

And I remember when I was there that at 1.0 I had to break off from our delegation because I just started bursting out in tears. And I try to be a typical Japanese man, hold the pain on the inside and not on the outside. But I couldn't control myself. And the thought that kept going through my mind is, how can all the people, whether in Germany, whether in Austria, whether in Poland, how did all these people close their eyes while all this evil was taking place to their neighbors, their friends, their colleagues?

And so that question, we need to continue to ask ourselves that question as we continue to deal with all the hate that we see in the world. I know that when the pandemic, the COVID pandemic started and we started seeing Asian Americans being targets, scapegoats, pariahs for the pandemic, the first people that came to our support in our defense were the Jewish community, organizations like the Anti Defamation League community and organization, organizations that have fought hate as long as anyone.

And so I want to take this opportunity to not only thank our colleague from San Fernando Valley for introducing this resolution, as well as all the survivors, all the descendants of survivors for sharing your stories. And I want to thank the Jewish community for always keeping that memory of the Holocaust alive so that we never forget that we do need to stand up. We can't be one of those silent people when hatred and evil is taking place around us, that it's important. It's incumbent on all of us to rise up and to stand up and speak out against hate.

Mr. Jim Patterson, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker, Members, I rise in the solemn support of this resolution. Sharon and I had the privilege of living next door to Al and Arlie Geller for a long, long time. Al studied for the Jewish priesthood. He married Arlie, a Catholic who thought about possibly being a nun. The virtues and values of these two individuals and their faith lives created one of the most significant blessings to the Fresno community. They were very generous in time and money.

Al operated one of the most successful advertising agencies in Central California. I had a radio station at the time that was not too bad to be living next door to the biggest agent in town. We had a great friendship over the years, but Al lost family in the Holocaust. Now I don't have the kind of touching connection. The best I can do is open the history books. The best I can do is sit with Al Geller for long periods, either in our home or in his.

And I would talk with him about some of the books that I was reading about the Holocaust. And he would talk to me about his family Members and the pain of going through all of. So I rise to basically say that Al was an important influence in my life. And much of what I stand for, much of what I believe, comes from listening to his heartbreak. But it also comes from opening the history books. We try to ask ourselves, how did this happen?

William Shearer has written the definitive history, the rise and fall of the Third Reich. To sum it up in one sentence, he wrote, the gutter came to power. The gutter came to power. How often across world history have lives of the innocent been crushed and killed and exterminated because the gutter came to power? Second book is the autobiography of Martin Gray, called for those I loved. Martin Gray was a teenager in Treblinka who actually escaped and survived.

In his autobiography, there is a scene where he escapes by hiding in the German Nazi latrine. And if you recall the scene in Spielberg's movie where this little teenager was in the excrement, Martin Gray called it the excrement of the beast. And in his autobiography, he talks about climbing out of that with the beast clinging to him. He escaped. He went into the partisan in Poland and actually concluded that the Red army was another and the Communists were another version of the beast.

And he left the partisans and came to the United States and became well to do. But he started importing linen and going door to door in the tenement buildings in New York, selling the linen. He became successful, had wife and children. And it was for those he loved that they had their children, and they named them for those that they lost in the Holocaust. And.

And they also had a home in the south of France known for the wildfires. And his wife and his children were taken from him in one of those mistral fires. And in his book, he writes about how he felt losing that group of people for those I loved. And he had to fight the question, why them? Why me? Why did I escape? And they didn't. It is a remarkable book, and I commend it to you never, ever again.

When the gutter raises its ugly face, call it what it is, and tell it to go to hell. Saving lives means acting before the gutter comes to power and before the gutter starts to kill. If we remember the victims and we are reverently greeting the survivors, may we make a commitment here. How should we then live, given this host of witnesses?

We will fight the gutter every time it raises its head, and we will be doing it on their behalf and on the behalf of others who could very well be caught up in the hate and the murder and the despicable actions of the gutter. History has shown us the pain and the hurt, but it has also shown us the path to hope and healing. And today, we, as a body, are promising those we will take the path of hope and healing and resist the gutter ever coming to power. God bless you.

Mr. Ward. You are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise today on behalf of the California Legislative LGBT caucus in support of ACR 43. Today, we remember those who lost their lives during the Holocaust and to honor those who survived this heinous attempt at extermination. Many marginalized groups were targeted and persecuted in the Holocaust alongside the Jewish community, including, and especially the LGBTQ community.

Hitler and the Nazi Party targeted gay men because they believed that they were, quote, unfit to defend the nation in combat and would diminish the German reproductive potential. In concentration camps, LGBTQ inmates were kept in separate facilities for fear that their homosexuality would spread to other prisoners. Rudolph Brosda was one such survivor. Rudolph was interned in Buchenwald as pink triangle number 7952 until his liberation by us forces in 1945.

Before his passing in 2011, Brasda was the last known concentration camp survivor to wear the pink triangle, the equivalent for homosexuals that they had to wear in the Holocaust, the equivalent of the yellow Jewish star. While he made it a point to share his story, the story of LGBTQ victims and survivors of the Holocaust is often omitted from Holocaust literature and education. This modern exclusion is the natural evolution of the historical revisions across Europe due to global homophobia.

In fact, it was not until 2002 that Germany formally acknowledged and apologized for the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis targeting the LGBTQ community. We must spread awareness of Rudolph's story into all those persecuted in the Holocaust, especially those whose names, faces, and stories we will never know. In that spirit, we reclaim and lift up the pink triangle as a symbol of perseverance. We acknowledge the Holocaust as a time in history.

We must never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust, including the targeting and persecution of LGBTQ individuals, and work towards creating a world where this can never happen again. And above all, we must continue to stand in solidarity with other communities to collectively fight against anyone who claims their identity is supreme for a free, equitable, and safe society for all. I respectfully ask for your. I vote on ACR 43.

Is there any further discussion or debate on this measure? Seeing and hearing, none. Mr. Gabriel, you may close.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I want to just start by thanking all of our sister caucuses and everyone who spoke today for your very thoughtful words. And we are really touched for the solidarity, and we feel it and we appreciate it, and it means more to us and more to the Jewish community and more to the caucus than you will ever know. I also want to thank our colleagues.

I know that we're all very busy, and time is our most precious resource here, and we appreciate very much the way that everyone allows us and supports us in doing this every year to focus attention. And we're very grateful for your efforts to join us in taking a moment away from all of the really, really important work that we're all doing, to pause for a second and reflect on the millions and millions of people who lost their lives in the Holocaust.

I want to offer two final observations. One is, on some level, the Jewish community has never really recovered from the Holocaust. As enduring as we are, we are an incredibly small percentage of the world's population. We make up less than one half of 1% of the world's population. There are more Latinos in the State of California than Jews in the world. I'll say that again. There are more Latinos in the State of California than Jews in the world.

California is actually one of the only places on the globe where there's any meaningful Jewish population. Really, the United States and Israel are the only two places that have any meaningful Jewish population. And so it means a lot to us that the State of California would take a moment and officially proclaim Yom Hashoah. Officially honor Yom Hashoah.

And we are grateful for the work that all of you will do with all of us to go to all of our diverse communities across the state and make sure that so many young people who don't know the Holocaust might pick up a book, might read something, might inquire a little bit about this seminal event in human history. I also want to thank all of the survivors and the descendants of the survivors who are with us today.

One of the things that I have often thought about for my community and so many of the other communities that I've been blessed to come into relationship with is the intergenerational trauma that many of our communities carry that so powerfully influences all of us. And I have seen this and lived this and felt this in my community, sitting in rooms of Jewish community nonprofits, where we may not be talking about the Holocaust, but it is present with us in the room.

And it influences the way that we think about the world. It influences the way that we react to the world. It influences the sensitivity that we have to anti semitism and to hatred and to hatred directed against our community and also against other communities. And part of that is what we are fortunate to have with the survivors is not just models of intergenerational trauma, but also models of intergenerational resilience.

That so many of the survivors and their children and grandchildren have gone on to do incredible work in social justice spaces, in positions of Jewish community leadership, that they have showed us through their lives what the answer is to genocide, what the answer is to trauma, what the answer is to hatred and bigotry.

And so, on behalf of the survivors who are the ultimate symbols of resilience, on behalf of their children and grandchildren who have done so much work in our community and in so many social justice spaces, I respectfully request your aye vote on ACR 43.

The Clerk will open the roll for co authors. On ACR 43 Members. This is for co authors. The Clerk will close the roll. There are 76 coauthors added without objection. We can take a voice vote on ACR 43. All those in favor say aye. Opposed say no. The eyes have it. The resolution is adopted. As we reflect on the lessons of the Holocaust, there's no more important voice than those who personally experienced this terrible moment in human history.

To mark Holocaust Memorial Day, the Members of the legislative Jewish Caucus have invited survivors and descendants of survivors to join us today. We have extended them the privileges of the floor, and our honorees are seated at the desks of the Members who represent them. Shaped by their personal or familiar experiences, many of our honorees have devoted their lives to teaching the lessons of the Holocaust, to serving vulnerable communities and working together towards social justice.

So I ask the Members and their survivors, or descendants of survivors to move to the rear of the chamber to Mr. Ward's desk for special recognition. We'll be moving to the introduction of honorees for California Holocaust Remembrance Day for 2023, and the Clerk will read.

Our first honoree is Leora Riken. She is represented by Assembly Member Friedman. She is a descendant of survivors. As the founder of the David Lepkovsky project, educator, artist and author, she co developed a project based multidisciplinary educational program to teach students about Jewish life in Eastern Europe before, during and after the Holocaust through the art of lithuanian Israeli artist David Lepkovsky. Please welcome Leora Reichen. Our next honoree is Paul Wolff. He is represented by Assemblymember Addis. Mr. Wolf is a survivor of the Holocaust.

He was born in Germany in 1929. In 1939, Paul was stoned on the way home from school by classmates as all Jewish children were expelled. He and his wife, Marion, also a survivor, escaped on the first Kindle transport. They spent time speaking to students in California and Germany to share their histories of escape from the Nazis. As an architect, Paul became a tireless advocate of universal access for people with disabilities.

Paul has also helped to improve services for unhoused people in his community, serving on the board of the Prado Day center. Please welcome Paul Wolff. Our next honoree is Rabbi Nolan Liebovitz. He is represented by Assemblymember Gabriel. He is a descendant of survivors. All four of his grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Rabbi Liebovitz is known for his teaching, leadership, warmth and community service.

He served as a volunteer chaplain for the Santa Monica Police Department and as rabbi in residence for Cafe Europa, which provides support services to Holocaust survivors in Los Angeles. Please welcome Rabbi Nolan Liebotz. Our next honorees are Galena and Lev Kosalov. They are represented by Assemblymember Lowenthal. They are both survivors of the Holocaust. Galena Kosalov was born in Ukraine in 1939. When Galena was a child, the Nazis bombed her neighborhood without warning.

In the aftermath, a kind man that the family did not know lifted Galena onto his horse and led Galena and her mother, along with two siblings in tow, on a long journey where the family was able to board a train. However, the train was then bombed by the Nazis. Miraculously, Galena still managed to escape. Les Kozalov was born in 1937 in Russia. He and his family escaped the siege of Linenrad. He and his family also experienced being bombed and starvation.

Galina and Lev met and married when they were in their 20s. They have been married for 58 years. They have one son and two grandchildren. Please welcome Mr. And Mrs. Kozalov. Our next honorees are Leonard and Olga Gershon. They are represented by assemblymember Pellerin. They are both survivors of the Holocaust. At his home in Leningrad, Russia, Leoned remembers wartime air alerts running for shelter and people dying around him. He evacuated via Lake Ladoga, graduated from medical school and married Olga. Olga was also in Leningrad.

She was sent to dig trenches. Olga's mother kept her warm by laying her among the recently deceased victims. She was evacuated via Lake Ladoga and later became a chemical engineer. In 1989, Leoned and Oga came to California after 10 years as refusnix. A refusnik is a person, typically Jewish in the former Soviet Union, who was refused permission to immigrate. Please welcome Mr. And Mrs. Gershon. Our next honoree is Beth Keane. She is represented by Assembly Members of Burr. She is a descendant of survivors.

She has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles since March 2017. Previously, she served on the museum's board as treasurer and then chair while she worked in the finance sector. Please welcome Beth Keane. The following guests were unable to make today's ceremony. Rita Clancy, a descendant of survivors, is from Assemblymember Bauer Cahan's district. She is a licensed social worker and Director of adult services at Jewish Family and Services, overseeing the Holocaust survivor programs for over eight years.

She also specializes in counseling with older adults, families, couples and people who have experienced trauma. Boris Kaplovich is a survivor and is from Mr. Berman's district. Boris survived the German occupation mins Belarus through the heroic acts of his brother. He witnessed a mobile gas chamber execution of children before escaping. And Sandra Scheller is a descendant of survivors and is from assemblymember Ward's district. Her parents were Ruth and Kurt Sachs.

She is the author of try to remember, never forget and she created the Ruth remember us the Holocaust exhibit. She also assists Holocaust educational teams throughout the nation. We also wish to acknowledge the survivors and descendants who will be honored in the Senate later today. They are survivors Charles Stevens, Eva Nathanson, the late Zelda Trinuski and the late Sedona Lewin Lax, and descendants of survivors Clifford Lester, Lena Romano, and Jennifer Faltafich Rosenthal.

At this time, I ask our honorees and the Members of the legislative Jewish Caucus to retire to the rear of the chamber for a group photo prior to their exit from the chamber. Members and guests, please join me in a nice long round of applause. For our very special guests and their families. You may be seated.

Members, we are joined by additional guests for our observance of Holocaust Memorial Day. In the gallery are diplomats from Israel. So we want to welcome Marco Sermonetta, the consul General of Israel, based in San Francisco, and Alex Mitresky, Director of government affairs. And Ms. Bauer Kahan, you are recognized for your guest introduction.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It's an absolute privilege to welcome my dad. He doesn't know this is happening. Robert Bauer to the floor. He has joined me for every Holocaust Memorial Day that he's been able to. He wasn't here during COVID but it's really a privilege and an honor to be able to share this day with him and tell our family story together. So please welcome him.

We also welcome Members of the California State Senate and guests seated throughout the chamber. And on behalf of Assembly Member Gabriel and the Members of the legislative Jewish Caucus, we want to extend our appreciation to you for assisting us in our efforts to help future generations to never forget, as a memento, a copy of the book, the choice embrace the possible by Dr. Edith Eva Eager is on your desks. And this concludes our ceremony. But Members, please do not leave the chamber. We have other business on file.

Okay, Members, we're going to move back to business on the daily file. And just for some expectation setting, we have a few more resolutions, so bear with us. Today we're going to begin with second reading. The Clerk will read

[Second Reading]

All bills will be deemed read all amendments will be deemed adopted.

Members will be moving for Mr. Kalra to file item 46. This is HR 20. Clerk will read

House Resolution 20 by Assembly Member Kalra and others relative to Vaisakhi.

And Assembly Member Kalra. You may open.

Thank you Mr. Speaker and Members. House Resolution 20 is this body's official recognition of Vaisakhi, which was on Friday, April 14. Vaisakhi is celebrated annually on April 13 or 14th across the world and by many Californians with Sikh and South Asian heritage.

For Sikhs, Vaisakhi holds special religious and historical significance because it commemorates the creation of Kalra and initiated the five k's tradition of the Khalsa that continues to be the basis for the unique Sikh identity whereby Sikhs wear Kesh uncut hair Kanga a wooden comb Kara, an iron or steel bracelet worn on the wrist Kirpan, an article of faith taking the form of a sword and kachera short breeches.

In parts of northern India, especially in Punjab, Vaisakhi is also known as an ancient harvest festival to celebrate the agricultural year and pray for an abundant rabi crop in the next season. California is home to many Sikh with Punjabi roots who were the first among South Asians to migrate to the United States in the latter half of the 19th century, many bringing with them their rich Sikh heritage and faith.

HR 20 expresses California's deep respect for all who observe and celebrate Vaisakhi in this state and throughout the world. Respectfully ask for an aye vote on HR 20.

Thank you, Mr. Kalra and Mr. Gallagher, you are recognized.

Yes, thank you Mr. Speaker and Members. I also rise in support of HR 20 to celebrate Vaisakhi and commemorate the contributions of our Sikh community to California. I wanted to note a great historical rendition by my colleague, but one of the other things about Vaisakhi is by the Sikh faith. They celebrate with religious prayers and hymns, colorful processions and communal mules called longers, which are open to everyone regardless of their faith, caste or social status.

One of the most notable Sikh communities in California is located in my district in Yuba City, home to one of the largest Sikh populations in the United States, which hosts the annual Nagar Kurtan in November, which is the largest Sikh parade in the country, drawing over 100,000 attendees in 2022. The recognition of Asaki through HR 20 is an important step towards promoting cultural understanding and acknowledging the contributions of the Sikh community.

The Yuba City Sikh community is just one example of the many vibrant Sikh communities throughout our state, and we should celebrate and recognize that as much as possible. That's why I ask that we respectfully recognize this and pass HR 20. Thank you.

Thank you, leader Gallagher and Assemblywoman Bains, you're recognized.

I voted instead of putting the mic. Sorry, I wanted to first say Vaigrujika Khaza Vaigrujiki Pate to all of our guests that have attended today. As the first sick American on this floor, the first and only Sikh American to represent in the California Legislature is a super honor.

But over that last week when I had the support of over 60 colleagues who co authored and voted yes on acceptance of the Sikh Delhi riots, being a Sikh genocide made it a truly, truly happy Vaisakhi for all of us in the Sikh community. An event that happened 40 years ago had no acceptance or acknowledgment, but the gift that this floor gave our community makes our Vaisakhi even bigger and better this year.

This year we claimed that what happened was a Sikh genocide, and that gift to our community means so much because the first step of healing from trauma is to accept what happened to my community. So thank you to all of my colleagues that unanimously co authored and co sponsored something that was one of the biggest gifts to our Sikh community. And I can truly now say, happy. Happy Vaisakhi.

Thank you, Dr. Bains. And seeing no other Members wishing to be recognized, Mr. Kalra, you may close.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and to my colleagues for your support. And as mentioned by a colleague from Nicholas, there are many celebrations that are happening around the state. And I guarantee in your district or very close by, you can find either a gurdwara or other celebration. And I guarantee you if you go there, you'll be welcomed with open arms. So I strongly suggest you look around and find these Vaisaki celebrations that are happening somewhere near you to really get a sense of this glorious celebration.

This is the 6th time that I've had the privilege of introducing a state resolution to recognize Vaisakhi, to raise awareness and uplift the sick community. However, this year is particularly meaningful to do so with my colleague from Delano as the first sick Member of the Legislature. And I think it demonstrates how far the sick community has come, how far we have come to recognize the importance of the leadership in our sick community and with Sikh leaders like our colleague.

As was mentioned, California is home to many with Punjabi roots who are pioneers among immigrants from South Asia. Their contributions to California's history is truly an American story, and Members can learn more about their story, struggles and ultimate triumph. In a recently released book, California's Pioneering Punjabis, my colleagues, myself, and my colleagues from Nicholas and Delano made sure that every Member got a copy courtesy of the Punjabi American Heritage Society. So please take a look at it.

Keep it on your coffee table in your office so others can also peruse it at their leisure. But this is a great opportunity to learn more about your constituents and folks in your community that you serve and their history. With that, I respectfully ask for your aye vote and would ask that the role be open for co authors.

Thank you, Mr. Kalra. Clerk will open the role for co authors. Members for co authors on HR 20. All those wishing to be a co author, please signify by casting your vote. Clerk will close the roll. There are 67 co authors and without objection, we'll take a voice vote on the resolution. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed say nay. The ayes have it. Resolution is adopted. And leader Gallagher, you are recognized for guest introductions on this resolution.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to introduce some of my constituents who are present today in the gallery to celebrate today's Vaisakhi resolution. Dr. Jasper King and Members of the Punjabi American Heritage Society played a significant role in putting together the book that my colleague was telling you all about. You should have all received copies of California's pioneering Punjabis and American story, so please join me in welcoming Dr. King and his guests from the Punjabi Heritage Society.

Hardeep Singh, Amrik Dugga Tajinder man Gerda Jinder Rondawa Suki Kang Kulwant Joel Jazz Paul Joel Aman Sagu, Dr. Karkarat Sagu, Dr. Narendra Singh hit Paul Diol Devender Dual Resham Rai, Amarjeet Rai Ravine Rai Jatinder Singh and Dr. Kanwarjeet Singh Kara.

Thank you, Mr. Gallagher. Members next, by Mr. Lowenthal, we will take up file item 56. This is HR 27. Clerk will read

House Resolution 27 by Assemblymember Lowenthal relative to Cambodian Genocide Memorial Week.

And Assemblyman Lowenthal, you may open.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members. Good afternoon, colleagues. I rise today to present House Resolution 27, which would recognize the week of April 27 to the 23rd as Cambodian Genocide Memorial Week. Of course, you heard me speak earlier on genocide that happened within my own culture, and of course, the difficulties of remembering as we pass on from generation to generation.

Well, the Cambodian Americans that are here in the State of California, concentrated in the 69th Assembly District, are first generation witnesses of the atrocities. There is virtually nobody that was left unscathed, no families left unscathed. Throughout Cambodia between April 171975 and January 1979, the Khmer Rouge of Democratic Capucha under the leadership of Pol Pot committed acts of genocide and crimes against humanity against the Cambodian people.

This genocide resulted in the deaths of over 1.7 million Cambodians, nearly a quarter of the country's population at that time. If we were to extrapolate the same math in the United States, that would be 75 million people in the United States. The Khmer Rouge also sought to eliminate any trace of Cambodian culture. They systematically killed those with education alongside artists, dancers, religious leaders and their institutions. Families were torn apart.

Many ultimately fled the country, and California, as mentioned before, is now the home to the largest population of Cambodian Americans and the City of Long beach in my district, the home to the largest community of Cambodians outside of Southeast Asia. We also just celebrated Cambodian New Year in my district with parades and cultural festivals that I was honored to attend. I am so thankful for these celebrations and traditions in our diverse community that help us deepen relationships and broaden our cultural understanding.

HR 27 honors those lost during the Cambodian genocide. It ensures that we continue to remember the impact of this tragedy within the Cambodian community in recognition of Cambodian genocide Memorial Week, on your desks there are silk wallets and silver pins in the shape of a symbol important to the Cambodian people. Both of those come from Cambodian businesses in Long Beach. Here today, representing the Cambodian community from my district and standing in the rear of our chamber, Ms. Susanna Siim, Executive Director of the United Cambodian community.

We'll have guest introductions after we've adopted the resolution. Thank you for acknowledging this historic tragedy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like the first roll to be open for co authors and respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. Flora, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Members, a number of years ago, it's actually 23 years ago now, early 2000 to 2005, I had the privilege of going over to Cambodia a number of times doing ems over there.

And nothing will put a face on the genocide until you've walked the killing fields outside of Botanbong, until you went to the prisons outside of just scenery. Penalt Penn in 2005. The last time I was over there, we're walking on a rice patty in one of the killing fields outside of Bot and bong. And in that moment there was a human jawbone still on the ground.

There was long bones that they would ask you to pick up and lean up against a tree so they could collect them at night. There was a tower of skulls, friends, it's graphic, but we can't sugarcoat genocide Rules Committee last Thursday, there's going to be another genocide awareness. The Armenian genocide. And one of the opposition was questioning the numbers because somehow 70,000 people was better than 1.1 million friends. We have a job as a society to bring these to light. Today's a heavy day.

Our friends from the Jewish caucus, the Holocaust, the Cambodian genocide. We don't experience this in America, and we better not make sure it never happens again. But to this moment, if you truly want to see the face of genocide, go to Cambodia. Talk to those people, because it's only 44 years ago.

Thank you, Mr. Flora. And seeing no other Members wishing to discuss this resolution, do you have anything further to close, Mr. Lowenthal? We'll do that in a second. I believe Mr. Lowenthal has asked that the first roll be open for co authors. Clerk will open the roll. All those wishing to be a co author on HR 27, please signify by casting your vote. Clerk will close the roll. There are 68 co authors. Without objection, will take a voice vote on the resolution. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed say nay. The ayes have it. Resolution is adopted. And, Mr. Lowenthal, you are recognized for your guest introductions with this resolution.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Here today, representing the Cambodian community for my district, I have Ms. Susanna Steam, Executive Director of the United Cambodian community, Mr. Nareth Mwang Chimer, language specialist for the City of Long Beach. Ms. Maya Lath, CEO and founder of Modern Apsaraco. My good friends, Ms. Chan Hobson and Mark Hobson. I believe Mark's up in the gallery. I saw.

CEO and founder of Khmera Parents Association, Ms. Chan Wanta Sam Limon, human Resources branch manager for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services Chair on the board of Los Angeles County Cambodian Employees Association. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Lowenthal. Welcome to the Assembly. Our next and final item for business today, this is file item 45, ACR 41. Clerk will read

Assembly Concurrent Resolution 41 by Assembly Member Lackey. Relative to Special Olympics Day

And Assemblymember Lackey, you may open.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I rise today to present ACR 41 which recognizes April 18 as Special Olympics Day in California. Approximately six and a half million people in the United States and as many as 200 million people globally have an intellectual disability. And Special Olympics Day celebrates 55 years of empowerment this organization has created for the IDD community.

Special Olympics is the largest sports organization for youth and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities with over 5 million athletes, 1 million coaches and volunteers and more than 100,000 competitions each year in more than 190 countries. Special Olympics is so much more than sports. Through their unified champion schools programming. They've worked with more than 8300 schools to build socially inclusive schools that support and engage all learners, with a goal of being over 10,000 schools by 2024.

Globally, the Special Olympics Healthy Communities program is the largest health organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, operating in 68 countries and working to improve health and access to quality health care for the IDD community. I have personal connection with this organization in that I started a chapter of Special Olympics back in 1985, and this team is still going anyways.

I'm currently a volunteer at Special Olympics in the southern section, and I challenge each one of you on this floor to please attend a Special Olympics competition and spend time with the IDD community. This experience will open your eyes to the pure joy that individuals with open hearts offer the world. As legislators, we should always remember the contribution of this population to our communities and protect the resources that enhance their quality of life.

Special Olympics is a never ceasing force for positive change in this world, and I'm honored to have the chance to recognize their incredible work. And I ask for your aye on this measure.

Thank you, Mr. Lackey. And Assemblyman Grayson, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to my colleague from Palmdale. I do rise today to support ACR 41, honoring Special Olympics. Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year round training and competitions to more than 5.3 million athletes and United Sports partners worldwide. Through the power of sports, children and adults with intellectual disabilities discover new strengths, abilities, confidence, and success in the playing field and in life. But Special Olympics does not. They do more than just sports. They also support the IDD community through health programs.

It's the world's largest public health organization for people with intellectual disabilities and offers a wide range of resources and services. Friends and colleagues, thank you for your attention and your recognition of this incredible organization. I respectfully ask for an aye vote in support of ACR 41. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Grayson. And seeing no other Members wishing to discuss this resolution. Mr. Lackey, anything further to close? Clerk will open the roll. Members, for co authors on ACR 41, all those wishing to be a co author, please signify by casting your vote. Clerk will close the roll. There are 71 co authors. Without objection, we'll take a voice vote on the resolution. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed say nay. The ayes have it. Resolution is adopted. Members, we will now be going on to the second day consent calendar before we vote, sir. zero, my mistake. Mr. Lackey, you're recognized for your guest introduction.

Yeah. Thank you. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, we are honored to be joined on the floor today by three representatives from Special Olympics Northern California. With me today, we have David Solo in the back, President and CEO of Special Olympics Northern California, Elisa Kessler, the chief operation officer of the Special Olympics Northern California, and Evan Milburn, a Special Olympics athlete leader. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator and Lackey. Now, Members, we will be moving on to the second day consent calendar. And before we vote, we're going to first take up resolutions on the consent calendar for the purpose of adding co authors. Clerk will read the resolutions on the consent calendar.

[Consent Calendar]

Clerk will open the roll to allow any Members to add on as a co author to the resolutions. All those vote who desire to vote. If you wish to be a co author, Clerk will close the roll. There are 74 co authors moving to a vote on the consent calendar. Does any Member wish to remove an item for the consent calendar? Seeing and hearing none will read. Clerk will read the second day consent calendar.

Assembly Bill 1043 by Assembly Member Essayli an act relating to real property

and Clerk will open the roll on the consent calendar. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. This is on the consent calendar. Clerk will close roll tally the votes. I 73 no zero consent calendar is adopted. Clerk will read the remaining items on the consent calendar.

[Consent Calendar]

Members at this time, the quorum call is lifted. We will be moving to adjournments in memory and I know we have a lot of Committee hearings, so on your way out we're going to have some announcements. Transportation Committee will be meeting upon adjournment of session at swing space, room 1100. Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee Committee meets upon a German recession in Capitol Room 126 the Natural Resources Committee meets upon a German session. Capital Room 447 our emergency management Committee meets upon adjournment of session.

Capital Room 444 the budget Subcommitee one on Health and Human Services meets upon a adjourn in memory, Capital Room 127 and there is a Joint Hearing, budget Subcommitee five on public safety and Budget Subcommitee two on education finance upon a German session in Capital Room 437. Our session schedule is as follows. Tuesday, April 18 check in session Wednesday, April 19 check in session Thursday, April 20 we got a lot of business coming up on file.

Be here Thursday, floor session at 09:00 a.m., Members, we respectfully ask at this time that you take your conversations off the floor so that we can move to our adjournments in memory. Members, please take your conversations off the floor and Assemblywoman Quirk Silva, you are recognized at your desk for your adjournment in memory.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members. Today I adjourn in memory of Gertrude Trudy Mossarella, former Rosary Academy principal and founder of the Christ Cathedral Docent program. Trudy grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated St. Mary of the Woods College with a degree in education. She earned a master's degree in religious education from the University of San Diego. After moving to California, Trudy taught religion at Marywood High School in Orange until the campus closed in 1980.

It was at Rosary Academy in Fullerton where she held many positions, religion teacher, counselor, assistant principal and President until she retired after 31 years of service. Trudy was a lifelong educator and deeply involved in public service. As Mother Teresa once said, love cannot remain by itself. It has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service. Shudy was a powerful influence in our community and embodied the spirit of service defined as love in action.

In 2012, after the Diocese of Orange purchased the Crystal Cathedral campus, Trudy founded the docent program for the property that became Christ Cathedral. Trudy served on a variety of boards and committees in the church diocese, and her hard work in the community was recognized over the years with various awards. Trudy lived in Anaheim Hills and passed away January 26 after a brief illness. She is preceded in death by her husband, Richard, survived by her five sons and their families, Richard, Paul, Gregory, John and Peter.

She will also be survived by seven grandchildren and one great grandchild. Thank you for joining me in honoring the legacy of Trudy Mozzarella.

Thank you. Ms. Quirk-Silva and Assemblywoman Calderon, you're recognized at your desk for your adjournment in memory.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker. I rise to adjourn in memory of Sandy Baldonado, who peacefully passed away on March 10 with her four children at her bedside. Sandy was born in Shanghai in 1935 and grew up moving around the world with her family. After spending most of her formative years in New York City, Sandy attended Smith College in Massachusetts where she graduated with a degree in economics in 1956.

Upon graduation, she moved to Washington, DC, where for two years she worked as an analyst for the CIA before taking a job in the office of then US Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1959, Sandy married Arthur Baldonado in Washington, DC, and then the newlyweds moved west to Southern California. There they raised their four children, first living in West Covina and Covina before settling in Claremont. In 1972. Sandy returned to school and completed a master's degree in education from the Claremont Graduate School.

She also graduated from Whittier School of Law in 1983 and began to practice family law. Sandy took pride in representing women and children, regardless of their ability to pay. She was first elected to the Claremont City Council in 1999 and would go on to serve as mayor of the city. She also was elected to be a board Member of the three Valleys Municipal Water District. As a strong supporter of the arts, Sandy spent her final years devoted to the Claremont Museum of Art.

Sandy lived an incredible life filled with family, community and a love for public service. She is survived by her four children and six grandchildren. I respectfully request that we adjourn in the memory of Sandy Baldonado. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Calderon and Assembly Member Vince Vong, you are recognized at your desk for your adjournment in memory.

Thank you Mr. Speaker, Members, I ask the Assembly to adjourn in the memory of John Brock, an iconic pillar of the Bakersfield business community and a remarkable individual. Earlier this month, John lost his battle with cancer. Surrounded by family, leaving a strong legacy of community service, John's journey started in Bakersfield, born into the Brock family that ran Brock's Department store, leaving only for a short time to attend Stanford and USC, John returned to Bakersfield to work alongside his father at their family store.

True to the community spirit of Bakersfield, John served on boards of directors and councils for numerous local organizations, including the Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and United Way of Kern. county. His community service also expanded to the Bakersfield Rotary Club. Lori Brock Discovery Center, Kern Community foundation the John Brock Award for community service, named after his father and countless other worthy causes. Outside of his extensive service to Bakersfield, John was an active athlete, traveler, reader and historian.

He even published a book titled An Illustrated History of Kern County featuring 150 cartoon strips he created by pulling together the history of Kern County and his family store. Following his service at Brock's Department store, John joined Bynum Incorporated, where he championed real estate and development projects across Bakersfield, helping create the growing community it is today. A tremendous community leader, he will be greatly missed by so many.

John is survived by his wife Jeanette, his children Lauren, Carrie, John, his stepdaughter Brooke, and numerous grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews. To honor his lifelong commitment to Kern County and the Central Valley, I ask the Assembly to adjourn in his memory today. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Fong and Assembly Ramos, you're recognized at your desk for your adjournment in memory.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Today I rise along with my colleague, the majority leader Alois Reyes. I rise to request that we adjourn in memory today of Dr. Ernest Garcia, a lifelong educator, arts activist, Korean War veteran, National Guard Member and dear friend. He passed on April 6.

He taught k through 12 schools in Barstow, Redlands and Rialto and later joined the faculty at the University of Redlands as a Professor in the education Department. During his time at Rialto Unified, he played a key role in introducing foreign language and gifted and talented education programs in the district and serve as a respected and beloved mentor to many educators. In 1979, he became dean of the School of Education at California State University San Bernardino. Until his retirement.

A Colton elementary school was named in his honor that bears his name. Dr. Garcia's education career also included service as a Rialto Unified School District trustee and was selected by University of California, Riverside as one of the 40 graduates who made a difference. His love of music and the arts led him to serve as President of the National Orange show board of directors and in 1996 and President of the San Bernardino Valley Concert Association.

Several times his talents included singing in choruses, playing the saxophone, dancing and acting, and he was named in the San Bernardino Valley College hall of Fame. The San Bernardino Garcia Center for the Arts is named for him and his wife, Dottie Garcia, who married in 1952. The center, which opened in 2015, is a cultural hub in our community. I've known Dr. Garcia for many years and have fond memories.

One stands out when we served on the home Enabler service in Mount Vernon where Dottie also served on the board, they sent myself and Dr. Garcia to go get the food to serve to the people. And on our way back, we were going through Mount Vernon, an area, a community of a Latino community, the audio in the area, and we noticed that a lot of dogs were following our truck, and we started to smell something good.

And it was then that we realized that the meat that we had in the back of the truck actually spilled over and was dripping down the street. That's what draws so many people to us. Me and Ernie looked at each other and continued to move forward and brought the meat to the home of neighborly service. Those are fond memories that will always stick in my mind. Dr. Garcia is survived by his wife Dottie, and three children and five grandchildren.

Dottie remembers him as a proud Mexican American with a servant's heart and an artist's eye. His contributions to our community will live on for eternity. We extend our condolences to his family, and we ask that this body adjourn in his name.

Thank you, Mr. Ramos and Majority leader Reyes. You're recognized for your adjournment in memory.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Members, I rise to adjourn in the memory of Dr. Ernest Garcia, a community icon, lifelong educator, a patron, and participant of the art community in the Inland Empire, and a beloved personal friend of decades. Ernie was from my hometown, Colton. In fact, he was from the segregated South Colton area, where I lived also. He came from immigrant parents and lived there with his older siblings starting in the 1930s.

At a young age, even at a young age, he was passionate about learning, about teaching and about art, and these would become his life's calling. After graduating from Colton High School, or Colton Union High School, as it was called then, he began his higher education with an associate's degree from San Bernardino Valley College, where he majored in Spanish.

His life in service then took an unexpected turn as his college career was interrupted by the Korean War, during which he served as a Member of the United States Air Force stationed in Japan. He returned and married his sweetheart Dorothy in 1952 and then completed his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Riverside, and he was in one of the first classes, graduating in 1955. He earned his master's degree from the University of Redlands and finally his doctorate from UCLA in 1966.

As a Trojan myself, I had to take his ribbing about my degree from USC, he used to call it. It was from the University of South Colton. I always enjoyed introducing him and returning the favor about him being a Bruin. He was so proud of me for pursuing higher education and was a strong supporter and encourager while I was practicing law and also when I ran for office. He was well aware of the statistics and encouraged multitude of young Latinos and Latinas to pursue higher education.

Many professionals attribute their success to his continued encouragement. Dr. Garcia was truly an educational icon in the Inland Empire where he first taught at an elementary school in Barstow with his wife Dottie and then became a vice principal at the age of 26 and later joined schools in Redlands and Rialto. He transitioned into an administrative role with the Rialto Unified School District, where he was responsible for introducing foreign language and gifted and talented education programs.

In 1967, Garcia joined the faculty of the education Department at the region's newest University, Cal State San Bernardino. While teaching at Cal State, he was elected to the Realtor Unified School board, serving from 1970 to 1979. At that time, he became dean of Cal State San Bernardino School of Education, retiring in 1990. Educating came naturally to her husband, Dottie would share he had that urge to really mentor kids to continue their education so they could be a bigger part of society.

His impact is so great that he became the first Latino namesake of a school and we now have the Dr. Ernest Garcia elementary School in Colton dedicated in his honor. Dr. Garcia was also honored as an inductee into the San Bernardino Valley College hall of Fame in 1997, the same year I was inducted. He was passionate and incredibly impactful in the art community.

He and Dottie recruited some young artists and together transformed an old building into a cultural arts center, which was named the Garcia Center for the Arts in 2015 and continues to serve as a home for creatives and art organizations in the Inland Empire. He served as the center's volunteer Executive Director for its first five years before retiring in 2020. Ernie loved every part of the arts. He sang in choruses, played the saxophone, danced and acted. Dottie's description of Ernie sums it up best.

He was a proud Mexican American with a servant's heart and an artist's eye. For years, Ernie served on the board of the National Orange show. He nominated me to join the board where I served with him for many years. When he discovered that there were art pieces on the grounds of the 40 acre fairgrounds, he took on the task of gathering the pieces from abandoned buildings, closets and rafters.

He became the curator of the National Orange show permanent art collection and worked to dedicate a permanent home at a dedicated building to display the art. According to Dottie, he was very appreciative of whatever kind of art anybody came up with, and this is why he'd host art exhibits and welcome local artists. When Dottie and Ernie moved to Redlands, Ernie was quick to tell me that he was so proud that for the first time, he'd get to vote for me.

I would now be his Assembly Member, Dr. Ernest Garcia. My friend Ernie died on April 5 at the age of 93. He is survived by his wife of over 70 years, Dr. Dorothy Garcia, his sons, Patrick, Steven, and Tim, and his grandchildren. Dottie did describe him best. A servant's heart and an artist's eye. He believed in the arts education community, but more so its people.

Truly a mild mannered giant of a man, Dr. Ernest Garcia was a true community icon and had a profound impact on the countless minds that he mentored in education, the arts, and through his work in the community. He will live forever through lives that he has touched. I am fortunate to be one of the lives that he touched, and I'm proud to call him my friend and mentor and would dearly miss him. Members, I ask that you please join me in adjourning in his memory.

Thank you, Ms. Reyes. Members, please bring the names to the desk to be printed in the journal. All requests to adjourn in the memory will be deemed read and printed in the journal. All other items remaining will be passed and retained. All motions shall be continued. And seeing and hearing no further business, I'm ready to entertain a motion to adjourn. Ms. Reyes, and Ms. Walden, seconds that this house stands adjourned until Thursday, April 20, at 09:00 a.m. We are adjourned.