Senate Standing Committee on Appropriations

You. The Senate Committee on appropriations will now come to order. We are holding our hearing today in room 2100 of the swing space. And I ask all Members of the Committee to come to the hearing room. And it looks like we have a quorum, so we shall take a roll call.

[Roll Call]

We have a quorum. Before we begin, I want to recognize and thank our former chair and good friend Senator Portantino for his diligence, hard work, and commitment to this committee and the State of California. And we wish him the best. Wanted to make sure that I acknowledged his leadership.

Also have a birthday celebration, but since she's not here, we'll wait until she gets here so we can embarrass her. But we are ready to begin our hearing, and we have one.

Well, and the other thing is that I've been asked if I intend to continue the trivia discussion that my predecessor, and all I have to say is more on that later. I'm going to leave you in suspense, so we're going to begin our hearing today.

We have one urgency measure on today's agenda, so this should be a short hearing. The Department of Finance has indicated that they do not have a file on the measure, so they will not be present to testify.

Before we begin, I want to remind any witness to limit their testimony to the fiscal aspects of the bill and to please refrain from lengthy policy discussions and repeating prior testimony in your comments. And we're going to have the testimony there at the mic at the podium.

So we have a quorum and we're ready to get going, and we'll take up the one item on our agenda, AB 1887, by Assemblymember Cervantes. Welcome.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair and Committee Members, for the opportunity to present Assembly Bill 1887, which will extend the application deadline for state financial aid programs from April 2 to May 2. As you know, this bill is a response to the ongoing issues with the Federal Government's implementation of the new federal Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as FAFSA.

This bill will allow the Federal Government to have more time to solve the ongoing issues with FAFSA implementation, including the barrier preventing students with undocumented parents from completing the FAFSA.

Most importantly, this bill will help more California students complete the FAFSA, allowing them to access the financial resources they need to begin their college career. The committee analysis notes that this bill may result in a savings for the General Fund.

Any additional workload imposed on the Student Aid Commission in our higher education segments should be minor and absorbable within the existing resources. With me to testify or answer any questions is Jake Brymner with the California Student Aid Commission, as well as Marcos Montes with the Southern California College attainment Network.

Very, very good. This issue has some urgency in getting it to the Governor, so we'll be entertaining a do pass motion. We're ready for your testimony today.

Thank you, Chair Caballero and Assemblymember Cervantes, for your leadership in bringing this measure forward. California Student Aid Commission in support. Happy to answer any technical questions you might have about the issues with the financial aid applications or how this measure would impact our expected expenditures on state financial aid programs. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Thank you. Chair, Members of the Committee, Marcos Montes with the Southern California College Attainment Network. Yeah, we're grateful for this bill and making sure helping students get access to the financial aid they deserve. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. Others in support.

Thank you. Chair and Members, Ashley Walker with Nossaman, on behalf of North Orange County Community College District, Citrus College and Mount San Antonio College in support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, chair and members. Jessica Dong with the University of California in strong support.

Good afternoon. Silvia Solis Shaw here. On behalf of the over 29,000 faculty, professors, librarians and coaches of the 23 campuses of the CSU system, California Faculty Association, all in strong support. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in support? Saying none. Is there anybody in opposition? Like to welcome you to come forward. Seeing no one rise in opposition, we'll bring it back to the committee for comments, questions, concerns.

I'll move the bill. No, I have the mic on.

All right. Well, I said I'm going to have to get in the middle of this. Ladies first. Senator Wahab moves the bill. If there are no further questions, saying none, you may conclude.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Respectfully asked for aye vote for AP 1887.

Very good. We do have a motion. So the motion is do passed to the Senate Floor by Senator Wahab. Please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Current vote is five to zero. We'll put that on call for the remaining members. It will pass. So thank you very much for being here today.

The Senator probes committee is back in session. We are on AB 1887. And we're going to finish up the roll call. Please call the roll.

The motion is do pass to the Senate Floor.

[Roll Call]

Seven to zero. That bill is out. Thank you for participating in today's hearing. We have now concluded the agenda, and the meeting of the Senate Committee on appropriations is adjourn. Thank you, everybody. Very nice.