Assembly Floor

The Assembly is now in session. Assemblymember aguiar curry notices the absence of a quorum. The sergeant at arms will prepare the chamber and bring in the absent Members. The Clerk will call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Members, a quorum is present. We ask our guests and visitors to in the rear of the chamber and in the gallery to please stand for the prayer in the flag salute in honor of today's Holocaust remembrance ceremony. Our guest chaplain today is Rabbi Scott Fox. Fox from Temple Israel, Long Beach, and he will offer the prayer.

Every prayer is a call to a. Great greater, a source of greater influence to be heard. And so I offer this prayer to this esteemed group of leaders and legislators of our beautiful State of California, one my family has called home for four generations, and yet we still check the date on our passports after every election, still quiet our speech in the coffee shop. When a hebrew word emerges, I ask, see us, hear us.

And if anyone can be Jewish, then let me offer that gift and burden to you today, just for, for a minute, your children carrying the load of generations wandering the earth because laws inscribed, no jews today. For us, a great fear rises again in the country we love and call home and will live and die for. But we need now those same laws to say, yes, Jews, you are home here. You are welcome here. We see you. We hear you.

Today is a day of remembrance because it's easy to forget. 10% of people under 40 in the US right now have never heard of the Holocaust. See us, hear us. Never forget. Gerda told me a few weeks before she died, her bright childhood spent in a dark space underneath the floorboards of a house because a small group of people allowed hate and media to mix and go too far.

And we know that Jewish hate is just another form of the same hate that charges fear into the hearts of so many of our sibling communities, including the Muslim community. I stand here today with the honor of this microphone and humbly add your voice to ours and lovingly say, too, I see you. I hear you. We remember because even the best of societies can devolve overnight.

We remember because the harmless words shared in private homes that now loudly joke and then question and then influence the world over tell that an anger towards the other lives strong and well in the hearts of the people across this beautiful state. We remember because we don't have a choice not to the traumas burned in our minds, our hearts, our bodies. And prayer is also a call to look up to something greater, an opportunity to voice a vision without the burden of how.

And so I offer all of us this hope at this sacred Assembly as we remember the very worst of what a world can fall into. I offer, too, the reminder of the very heights we can reach, one where every person lives safe and free can share and be proud of who they are and live peacefully and happily in this beautiful place we call home. Thank you.

Thank you. Rabbi Fox, Member Berman will lead us in the pledge.

Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag.

Thank you. You may be seated. Before we move on to our opening procedures, I just want to, we have some guests in the house today. I think it's important that we recognize them. Joining us today, speaker emeritus John Perez. But wait, there's more. Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal, former Assemblymember Jose Medina, former Senator Hanabeth Jackson, former Senator and congressman Alan Lowenthal, former Assembly Member Mark Levine, former Assemblymember Mike Fuhrer, also former LA City attorney, former Senator Marty Block and former Assemblymember Bob Blumenfeld.

I have also heard that Assembly, former Assembly Member Dionne Arener will be here if I don't see her. But, and then, of course, Senator, former, former speaker emeritus, former Assembly Member Senator Bob Hertzberg is somewhere in the building. That's all I can tell you at this point. So. All right, thank you very much, Members. We'll now move on to our reading of the previous day's journal.

Assembly Chamber of Sacramento Tuesday, April 23, 2024 the Assembly met at 730.

Miss Aguilar Curry moves Mister Flora seconds at the reading of the previous day. Journal be dispensed with. Presentations and petitions there are none. Introduction 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 will be deemed read and printed in the journal. Moving to our procedural motions, Majority Leader Aguiar Curry, you are recognized for your procedural motions.

Good afternoon. I request unanimous consent to suspend Assembly Rule 45.5 to allow Assembly Members Rendon and Calderon 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 assemblymember Bauer Kahan to have a guest seated at her desk and to allow Assemblymember Gabriel and Bonta to have guests on the floor today.

Without objection, such shall be the order.

At the request of the author, please remove item 122, AB 2107 from the consent calendar.

Clerk will note moving to business on the daily file. Moving to second reading file items one through 43.

[Second Reading]

Be deemed read and all amendments will be deemed adopted. Item 44 is a notice under reconsideration. File items 45 through 47. All items shall be continued now under Assembly. Third reading Assembly Member Bauer Kahan will present file item 84. ACR 176.

Thank you Members and Mister speaker. We will now move to the Assembly's observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day. I will take one moment of personal privilege and welcome my father to the floor, who is my guest, Bob Bauer, who is here. He is joining me for the 6th time on Yom Hashoah to commemorate the Holocaust, having been raised himself by survivors. Without objection, we will take up file item 84, ACR 176. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Concurrent Resolution 176 by Samara Gabriel and others relative to California Holocaust Memorial Day.

Mister Gabriel, you may open.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And first, let me say how meaningful it is for the Jewish caucus to have you preside over this important resolution as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who so proudly serves in this Legislature and represents our community so beautifully. So thank you for everything you have done. I am rising today on behalf of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus to represent ACR 176, our annual resolution for Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Known in Hebrew as Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the approximately 6 million Jews, including over 1 million Jewish children and countless others who were brutally murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Yom Hoshoa also honors Jewish resistance during the Holocaust and is observed annually on the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. This year, Holocaust Remembrance Day is different and for many in the Jewish community, the most painful in our lifetimes.

We gather today amidst the backdrop of a devastating war, hostages who remain in captivity, and the horrifying explosion of anti Semitism in the United States and around the globe. Many of us feel trapped between a generation of Holocaust survivors who are quickly passing away and a generation of young Americans who are unfamiliar with the lessons of genocide against our people. Many in the Jewish community and in the Jewish caucus grew up with Holocaust survivors.

They were our friends, our grandparents, people in our communities with numbers tattooed on their arms, who survived every imaginable and unimaginable form of physical, mental, and sexual abuse. They celebrated with us at Jewish holidays, and they spoke in our synagogues and community centers. Their stories have been seared into our collective memory, and their intergenerational trauma has become our own.

And yet, we are now confronting a generation where far too many young Americans do not believe that the Holocaust happened and who seem too willing to embrace the same hateful stereotypes that have consistently resulted in violence against our community.

The Rabbi mentioned this, but there was an economist poll that was done in December of last year, and it found that 20% of young Americans agree with the statement that the Holocaust is a myth, and another 30% are not sure whether they agree nor disagree with that statement. Which means that, taken together, 50% of young people in this country acknowledge that the Holocaust happened, but the other 50% do not.

Even more terrifying to me, a highly reputable national opinion poll conducted that very same month by Harvard University found that 67% of Americans ages 18 to 24 harbor antisemitic stereotypes. They believe that Jews are, quote, a class of oppressors and should be treated as such.

So, given such statistics, it is unsurprising that so many in our community also feel physically unsafe, trapped by the explosive hate that we can feel, that we can feel emanating from too many corners of American society, from Nazis, White Supremacists, and extremists on the far right who believe that Jews are behind a plot to diminish the influence of white people and extremists on the other side of the aisle who paint Jews as the worst example of white oppressors.

So, as we observe Holocaust remembrance today, amidst this rising hate, we are reminded that the Holocaust is both millions of individual traumas that happens to millions of individual families, but is also a lasting collective trauma for the Jewish people. A trauma that has deeply informed our community sense of security, but also our sense of purpose, one that has heightened our sensitivity to hatred and taught us that we must speak out fiercely and immediately against anti semitism, but also against all forms of racism, bigotry, and discrimination.

You see, for the Jewish community, the Holocaust isn't a distant memory in the 4000 year arc of Jewish history. It's a recent event, a particularly devastating chapter in a lengthy book filled with painsful stories of persecution and discrimination. Family histories and a communal history that is deeply personal to me, to my family, and to many people who are in this room today and ultimately, Holocaust remembers day. Yom Hashoah is a call to action.

It is the ultimate reminder of how quickly an advanced, educated, and modern society can unravel, of how easily hateful rhetoric can lead to deadly violence for both the Jewish people and for all of humanity. Today is a reminder of our collective obligation to do more, to bring the lessons of the Holocaust to all corners of this state, to speak out clearly and unequivocally against hate of all forms, and to rededicate ourselves to combating anti semitism, racism, and bigotry wherever and whenever we see it. In that spirit and on behalf of the Jewish caucus, I respectfully request your aye vote on ACR 176.

Thank you, Mister Gabriel. Mister Ramos, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker. Today I rise on behalf of the Native American Legislative caucus to urge an aye vote on ACR 176. We must never forget how easily the hate and bigotry that spawned 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 poisoned different groups. And that hatred spread. We should no longer stand for that hatred to spread in our communities and across our nation and across the world.

Native Americans share in that same thread, that thread of genocide. Here in the United States, we stand united with our brothers and sisters. We must teach respect and understanding to our children, especially during difficult times such as these, so that we eliminate the possibility of repeating a history over and over, of the sins that have been done in the history's past.

We have to stand together as this resolution reminds us of the great devastation and inhumanity that has occurred throughout this world and throughout the areas that we call home. But we also have to show the resiliency, the resiliency of the Jewish people to be able to overcome those areas, and that voice to be strong today on this floor in the State of California. For that, we shine on the resiliency of the Jewish people to continue their voices moving forward. And we do see you.

We hear you, and we stand united with you in these times. I ask my colleagues to vote aye on this resolution. And I thank my colleague from Los Angeles for bringing this resolution forward.

Thank you, Mister Ramos. Assembly Member Barrack Cahan, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker and Members. I have risen every year on Yohashoa to commemorate the atrocities of the Holocaust. One year adjourning in the memory of my grandmother, who embodied the resilience of survivors. I've told my family's story of living through Kristallnacht, of losing everything, and of surviving a story eerily familiar to the one you'll read in the book on your desk. But today, as our chair said, feels different. Anti Semitism is something that every Jewish person in the diaspora has experienced, myself included.

But in recent months, it has become unavoidable. Just this past Friday, listening to the videos of people at universities across this country chanting, go back to Poland, just puts an exclamation point on the antisemitism that now is so blatantly displayed. For those that don't know, 90% of the Jewish population of Poland was murdered during the Holocaust.

Jews across Europe were sent to Poland during the Holocaust to end their journey at Auschwitz Birkenau, the death camp that was the ultimate tool of the final solution to the Jewish problem. An extermination camp. Is that where they want me and my family to go? Permission to read Elie Wiesel's own words about his experience arriving at Auschwitz in front of us. Flames in the air, that smell of burning flesh. It must have been about midnight. We had arrived at Birkenau Reception Center for Auschwitz.

Not far from us. Flames were leaping up from a ditch. Gigantic flames. They were burning. Something Elohi drew up at the pit and delivered its load. Little children, babies. I pinched my face. Was I still alive? Was I awake? I could not believe it. How could it be possible for them to burn people, children, and for the world to keep silent? No. None of this could be true. It was a nightmare. Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp.

Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Is that what they want for us? Is that where they want to send me? The thing about Elie Wiesel's words that ring in my ears today is the silence in the face of the atrocities. How could that happen? And yet it did. And we.

We must learn from it. Let me remind you what the years preceding the Holocaust looked like. In 1933, Hitler established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and propaganda. There was a boycott of Jewish businesses, and the Nazi regime capped the number of Jews allowed in public schools. In 1938, Nazis blocked Jews from entering universities and destroyed Jewish businesses, synagogues and homes during Kristallnacht.

So today, as we watch anti semitic depictions of the Berkeley law dean that use the same blood libel that was used by the Third Reich in 1933. As we see a boycott of Jewish businesses in San Francisco, as Jewish students flee public schools in cities like Oakland because of the anti semitism taught in their classrooms, as Jews are blocked on campuses like Berkeley, as we witness the destruction of Jewish businesses like smitten in San Francisco, and the painting of swastikas on synagogues in Glendale.

We've seen this story before. And what is our role at this moment in history? Not for the world to keep silent. As Elie Wiesel so aptly described. We need you, the leaders of this great state, stand up for your Jewish neighbors to differentiate between the legitimate protest of a democracy one disagrees with and the demonization of a minority. I ask that as we move forward, you stand with every one of us against the disgusting rise of hate to ensure that never again rings true.

My grandmothers taught me more than the history of my family, the history that resulted in them fleeing from the only home they'd ever known. The history of them losing their businesses, being kicked out of school, hiding from the roundup of Jews sent to death camps, and finally making it here to this great country of surviving and of thriving. They taught me about resilience and hope. They believed so deeply in this country, the country that saved us, that gave us a second chance at life.

But this country can only fulfill that promise if each and every one of us stands up to hate every day, at every opportunity. Speak out, ask questions, just don't be silent. We don't have to have the answers, but we have to be strident in the face of hate and anti semitism. Thank you to those who have stood with us against hate. I don't want to thank the construction workers who've just started the construction. Thank you to those who will stand with us in the future.

Together we can ensure never again. May the memories of all those lost during the Holocaust be a blessing and a reminder of our holy obligation to stand up for hate every day and in every way. And with that, I respectfully ask for your aye vote on ACR 176.

Thank you, Assemblymember Bauer Kahan. Assemblymember Ward, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker and Members, I rise as the Vice Chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ caucus and a Member of the Jewish Caucus in support of ACR 176. Recognizing Yom Hashoah. Today we again remember the victims and the survivors of anti semitic and discriminatory targeted abuses carried out by the Nazi government. Among those targeted, persecuted, and harmed alongside the Jewish community, LGBTQ people also fell victim to the atrocities committed during the Holocaust.

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 our reproductive potential. In concentration camps, LGBTQ victims were kept in separate facilities for the fear that homosexuality would spread to other prisoners. Other heinous state sponsored abuses against LGBTQ individuals included medical experimentation, disappearances, imprisonment, sexual abuse, torture, murder.

Even after the war, the Allies, Germany, and surrounding countries refused to recognize LGBTQ prisoners as victims of the Nazi regime, a status essential for restitution. Even worse, many LGBTQ victims were forced to continue to serve their arbitrary prison sentences. During the Holocaust, homosexuals were forced to wear the pink triangle, the LGBTQ equivalent of the yellow Jewish star. Now we reclaim and uplift the pink triangle as a symbol of perseverance, which I, alongside Members of our caucus, proudly wear on the floor today.

And on a more personal note, we will soon recognize two survivors that reside in my county, Mike and Manya Wallenfels. Manya and her family were one of the few from Busk, Poland, now part of modern day Ukraine, to have survived the Holocaust. When Manya's ghetto was invaded by German soldiers, she recalls hiding in the attic and stables as she fled. Mike and his family were forced to move into Jewish only apartments when the Germans moved into Hungary.

As hungarian Nazis gathered families that were living inside Mike's building, his mother instructed him to hide in the attic and not come out. However, Mike and his sister were eventually forced into a ghetto strictly for children. Mike and Manya later met in Hungary as neighbors whose face families knew each other, where they would go on to get married. Words cannot explain the resiliency it took for them to survive the systemic abuses and the oppression that they experienced.

I'm forever grateful for them and applaud the work they do to support our Jewish community in San Diego and educate others of the struggles that they and other survivors of the Holocaust endured, speaking at schools or through online forums so that we don't forget or repeat these atrocities. Now, it's more than ever, it's imperative that we spread awareness of the stories of all those persecuted in the Holocaust, especially whose names, faces, and stories we will never know.

As we acknowledge the Holocaust as a time in history, we must also recognize that hate is still alive and present in modern day society and thus reaffirm our commitment to combating anti Semitism, anti islamophobia, Homophobia, Transphobia, racial racism, and hate. Above all, we must continue to stand in solidarity with all communities to collectively fight against anyone who claims that their identity is supreme and for a free, equitable, and safe society for all. I ask your support for ACR 176 today.

Thank you, Mister Ward. Miss Pellerin, you are recognized.

Thank you, miss. Speaker and Members, I rise on behalf of the Legislative Women's Caucus and a Member of the Jewish Caucus to support for ACR 176, declaring May 62024 as California Holocaust Memorial Day. 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 political annihilation under the Nazi regime.

During the Holocaust, women played a critical role in the resistance against the Nazis and in helping the victims of the Holocaust. Despite being discriminated against and marginalized by Nazi ideology, many women demonstrated extraordinary bravery and strength in the face of extreme adversity. For example, in the war 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 others persecuted individuals in their homes, often at great personal risk. Carolina Juszcikowska, a Polish woman, was executed for hiding two Jews in her home. Some women, such as Irena sendler, smuggled children out of the ghettos and concentration camps and placed them in Non Jewish families, saving them from certain death. Moreover, women in concentration camps demonstrate 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. Women in the Holocaust also faced 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 a powerful reminder of the human capacity for resilience and compassion, even in the darkest of times. Today, my honoree Gitta Ryle, who is here at the Capitol today, six years old when her mother sent her and her sister away from their home in Austria to live in France. Goethe's father was murdered by the Nazis and Auschwitz. But she and her sister and her mother survived to the end of the war. They arrived in the United States on Armistice Day, November 11, 1946.

Despite the horrors that Geeta and her family endured, she has used her experiences to teach others compassionate and perseverance. I'm so grateful that she has chosen to share her story with so many in my community, whether it be through speaking at local schools, juvenile centers, and rotary clubs, or by being here today. I had the honor of attending one of Geeta's talks, and I was so inspired of her life as a young girl living through the Holocaust. She was confused and traumatized.

Like, why was her family being torn apart? And why was she required to move? She spoke about simply existing for the first 50 years of her life. And now she is living. She challenges all of us to share her story that the Holocaust happened. And with your permission, I'd like to show a Prop.

Without objection.

This is Geeta's passport. You open it up, and there's a red j on it to designate that she is Jewish. And this beautiful, innocent photo of six year old Geeta, who lived through these horrific events. At 92 years old, Geeta lives her Santa Cruz life to its fullest and focuses on good news and loving oneself. She says, anger is a disease and reminds us that we can only change our ourselves. If I may, Miss speaker, also use a Prop and read from this incredible book written by Israeli born artist and author Myra Kalman.

Without objection.

This book is a beautiful, simple, yet profound page turner of beautiful images of women holding things on one page. The illustrator has her mother gathered in a home in a village in 1931. And Kalma writes about the family Members. They also loved holding things before half of them perished in Auschwitz. And on the back cover, it truly touched my soul. And it sums up the role women played in the Holocaust and the role that women play today. What do women hold?

The home and the family and the children, and the food. The friendships, the work. The work of the world, and the work of being human. The memories and the troubles and the sorrows, and the triumphs and the love. I thank my colleague from San Fernando for his leadership as chair of our Jewish caucus, and I ask you all to join me in supporting ACR 176. Thank you.

Thank you. Mister Patterson, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Members, I rise as a Christian man, and I rise to remind this body of the countless numbers of Christians who risked their own lives and many of them died in the very concentration camps that they were hiding Jews from being taken. One in particular, a family that was highlighted in the book the Hiding Place, and also in the movie was the 10 boom family.

And they hid Jews in their home knowing that they could be caught and hauled off to the very concentration camps. And yet they believed that it was their God given responsibility to take the risk and to do a dangerous thing. The book, we find that the Nazis broke down the doors of the ten Boom home. They hauled away the Jews hiding there and they hauled away the ten Booms.

And in the book there is this magnificent scene where Corrie ten Boom is with her sister in Auschwitz, and her sister is dying. Eventually, Corrie was killed as well.

And there is a line in this book that I think is probably apt for a time when we see the horror of antisemitism raising its ugly head again. And it was this. Corey was kneeling over her sister, passing, and she whispered in her ear, there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still.

So in the spirit of the ten Booms and so many Christian people who saved Jews and many who perished, we are committing ourselves as Christian people to stand with Israel and to speak and to act and to remember. As many of you know, I'm kind of a junior great historian.

You've seen my office as you've seen a portion of my history library, and to see the evil of then showing up on our campuses today and seeing on some of our most notorious universities, the phrase the final solution. This is a time for everyone, including Christian brothers and sisters of our Jewish friends, to remind ourselves that there was a time when we stood up for them, even when the danger was our own. And let's stand up for them again, even if the danger comes our way.

That's what God's people do in times when we have to stand, even at the risk of personal attack. There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still. I join with our Jewish friends and those who are here in the building to say the horror of that time is raising its ugly head today. And so the heroes of that time, Christians, Jews, and non believers, need to rise up and be heroes for this moment in time.

And with that, I'm asking you to join not only in commemorating, but also in remembering and thinking about those who stood in the way of the Nazis as long as they could, risking themselves, hiding people they cared about, neighbors they cared about in their own homes. The march of that evil is coming back again. It is rising. But when evil rises, God's people must rise above it and beyond it. And so let's take our witness of God's love in the deepest of pits is deeper than that pit. And that we can, through his goodness and grace, survive it, flourish in it.

Put our arms around our brothers and sisters. The times are calling us again to be the people of that age. The believers in the 1930s and the 1940s.

Thank you, Mister Patterson.

Who put themselves at risk and many died to try and save those they cared about. We must rise to that calling as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mister Patterson. We called those individuals the righteous among nations. Thank you for bringing them into the room. Mister Bryan, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker and colleagues. I rise this Yom Hashoah in support of ACR 176. I've been thinking for days that a lot of the struggles that many folks have is a lack of seeing themselves in other people. So I want to thank my colleagues in the Jewish caucus for these photos on each of our desks. I found out today that Edith Frank and I have the same birthday. And I imagine that coincidence is not just on my desk.

It's that humanity that I think grounds us. I've known for a couple weeks I was going to speak on this day, and I've thought over and over again about what I should say, what I need to say. What does my colleague from Menlo Park need me to say? What does my colleague from Long Beach need to hear from me in the black caucus? And I've just done a lot of thinking.

I think about the conditions in Germany that allowed for a tyrannical dictator to arise to power. I think about the way that power was used, with the consent of the governed and those in governing institutions to create a lower caste. I think about all of the laws that were mentioned by my colleague in the Bay Area. The Nuremberg laws that were based off of Jim Crow laws here in the states. Prevention from accessing higher education. A denial and erasure of citizenship. The inability to own businesses.

The inability to interracially marriage, to marry who you love. The creation of a racial identity for the purposes of enforcing this new caste system. You were Jewish if three of your grandparents were Jewish. Very much like our one drop rule for descendants of slaves here in this country. I also thought a lot this weekend about resistance and the war saw uprising and how that was snuffed out by SS officers who went block by block, killing Jews indiscriminately.

I think about the clandestine acts of disobedience, where folks practiced the high holidays in secret and continued to be proud and Jewish, under threat and under fear, but still an act of protest and disobedience nonetheless. And I think of the allies, the folks who created documents that allowed for their Jewish brothers and sisters to smuggle here to the states and to other places seeking refuge around the world.

I think of the folks who hid families in tunnels and under floorboards, who risked their own lives for the lives of others. And in thinking about all of those things, I still couldn't come up with perfect answers. But I know a few things. I know that the Holocaust is not a myth. It's absolutely not a myth. It is a moment in history that can and must never be, cannot ever be forgotten by anybody.

I also know that my pursuit of justice and fairness and equality are not at all in conflict with loving my Jewish brothers and sisters and standing in solidarity and calling out hate when we see it. I think here in California, we have created a special place for all people, from all backgrounds all around the world, to live and thrive and to love and to see one another. And I think in this body, we have a responsibility.

Like our colleague from Encino mentioned, today is not just a day of remembrance, a day of action. And that action is to see one another, as the Jewish caucus has reminded us, putting these pictures on our desk. And that action is to move with love and compassion and in solidarity. And with that, on behalf of the Black Caucus, I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Mister Bryan, Mister Muratsuchi, you are recognized.

Thank you very much. I want to thank my good friend from the San Fernando Valley for making sure that we always remember and that we never forget, you know, those of us in the Asian American community, you know, we always know that when there was a dramatic rise in anti Asian hate during the pandemic, the Jewish community was one of the first to come to our support.

Because, as our friend from the San Fernando Valley talked about, the collective trauma of the Holocaust will always remind all Jews of the importance of standing in solidarity with those who are being persecuted. And as we all know, I mean, this, these are such painfully difficult times now. And, you know, I was reminded of that when I was talking with one

Of our Jewish friends in this capital community this morning, and I asked him about, you know, what he thought about what's happening at UCLA. And I thought it was a simple question, but he just froze and just let out a huge sigh. And all he could manage to say is, it's complicated.

And to me, especially as I just came to this floor from a meeting with our Muslim brothers and sisters who are here to visit us in the capital to come to this Holocaust Remembrance Day, as I stood in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters to condemn the hate being directed against the Muslim community, and I'm standing here to stand in solidarity with our Jewish friends in solidarity to condemn anti semitism, we know that the common fight that brings us all together is to make sure that we condemn hate against anyone at any time as we struggle to live in this time, I wanted to acknowledge, I wanted to make sure that we knew and that we always kept in mind how painfully difficult this is, this period, especially for our Jewish brothers and sisters. And so I, on behalf of the API caucus, I wanted to rise to make sure that we see you. We hear you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Mister Mayor Muratsuchi, Mister Zbur, you are recognized.

Madam Chair. Today I rise on behalf of the Latino caucus and as an affiliate Member of the Jewish caucus in support of ACR 176. In the memory of Rose Orenstein Toren. Rose was born and raised in a traditional family in a small village in the southern part of Poland. When she was 18. She was 18 when the war began, and in 1939, the Germans came in the middle of the night and rounded up her family. She and her sister Edda each fled.

Their father, brother, and another sister were executed in a field near their home. Their mother was sent to Treblinka, where she was murdered. Rose never learned of the fate of her younger sister Etta. With the help of a non Jewish family who had held onto their humanity, Rose was given false documents and passed as a displaced Polish Christian. Rose hid in the open for four years, forced to deny her Jewish identity and her family.

She was later betrayed by a co worker who she had entrusted with the truth. She was then sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp, where she survived for two years before escaping, fleeing into the forest while on a death march just days before the liberation of the camp. At the end of the war, Rose came to the United States, married, and settled down in Beverly Hills, and later wrote two books about her life after her escape from the concentration camp.

Rose is survived by her daughter, three time Beverly Hills Mayor Lily Bosse, who is here with us today, as well as her husband John and their two sons. Lily has made it her mission not just to tell the stories of the 6 million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, but of those who survived as well, including her own mother.

We are living in a time when our commitments to those who survived and were murdered in the Holocaust, our commitments to the Jewish community, are being tested. I think about Rose when I see statistics that Jewish hate is on the rise in our communities and that anti semitic hate incidents are more common than any other. I think about Rose when Jewish homes and Jewish owned businesses in my district have been targeted with anti semitic graffiti.

I think of Rose when I hear from Jewish young people that they feel more and more unsafe about being open about their Jewish identities. I can imagine how horrified Rose would be to know that the slogan Jews should go back to Poland has become acceptable on American college campuses, including at UCLA. In my district, in these times, we're being tested. We're being called upon to demonstrate that the promises we made to never forget that the promise of never again is not empty rhetoric.

As Mayor Lilly Bosse has said many times in the past few months, never again is right now in the memory of her mother, Ruth Rose Orenstein Toren. And on behalf of the Latino caucus, I respectfully ask for your aye vote on ACR 176.

Thank you, Mister Zbur, Mister Gallagher, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker and Members, it's an honor to rise in support of this resolution. And this morning, I'm thinking on when I was a young man in college and had the opportunity to go and tour the Holocaust memorial in Washington, DC. And one of the images that still sticks with me from when I went to the museum is at one point you're brought to a place where there are all the shoes of victims.

There's a lot of little shoes, men and women and children who were exterminated, millions in those shoes, or what was left. And I remember that image really stuck with me. And I remember, you know, one of the most treasured possessions that I have, and I have it in my office, is this polished stone that I got from the museum that day. And I keep it in my office. And it says, simply remember, I committed myself on that day that I would always remember.

It was something that was very much a part of who I am. And I've carried that, I think, all the way through these two decades later, never thinking that we would have this moment in time right now, where anti Semitism is clearly rearing its ugly head once again. And so it's important that we remember. And one of the things that I learned is that antisemitism can come in a very subtle way. We learned that from history.

Subtle at first, and then work its way through society until it becomes ordinary and status quo, or as Hannah Arendt would call it later, the banality of evil, to a point where ordinary people would do horrendous things to their fellow human beings. And that is what we stand against today, and it's what we need to continue to call out. Unfortunately, today, people aren't being very subtle. They're actually being very clear about their intentions. Hamas is very clear about what they intend. It's written into their charters.

Hezbollah is very clear about what they want, and it is to destroy Israel. They're very clear in their goals, and we should be very clear in our resolve to stand down this evil ideology. And it's clear that we have more work to do. There's a lot of great work that has been done over many years, but it's clear that we have more work to do when our own youth don't know what the Holocaust is.

We have more work to do when people don't understand the need for a Jewish homeland and don't understand that Jews didn't just show up in the Middle East in 1948. We have a whole lot more work to do. When people misrepresent and distort the term genocide, we have a whole lot more work to do. And so I stand here to say that I stand committed to stand with my Jewish brothers and sisters, to continue that work, to stand against that evil. And my colleague is right.

We need to make the distinction, and I don't think it's that hard to make that distinction between peaceful protests and expression and hateful acts, harassment, intimidation, and force. Some of the things that we are seeing on our college campuses and in our City Council halls, where the same tropes that were said back then are being said again today, they need to be called out, and we must stand against them. We can disagree on geopolitical politics and still be able to universally condemn October 7.

That's not that hard. So I stand here today in solidarity and to continue that work and to remember and put that remembrance into action. And I long for the day. I think we all long for the day in Zechariah, where there will be peace. In Jerusalem once again, where the old will sit in the streets and the young will play in those streets, and there will be peace. And there will be from many nations coming to that holy mountain, we long for that day. And so today, Members, I join you in solidarity and ask that we pass this resolution. Thank you.

Thank you. Mister Gallagher, Mister Lowenthal, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And Members, rise in support of ACR 176. And I need to apologize in advance for the emotion that will inevitably come in my remarks. It's an emotional topic. It's heightened by the extraordinary times we find ourselves in. For Jews, the world today isn't just surreal, it's eerily familiar. Despite how intentional we are to ensure the past is never repeated, we're currently faced with hate toward us at an epic scale. And sadly, we've seen this movie before.

We know too well how it may end. So, to no surprise, we are people deeply obsessed with survival. Our sensitivity around survival is founded not only in emotion and generational trauma, but actually in data. While we all consider Judaism to be one of the five major religions of the world, we are actually only a tiny fraction of the world's population. Buddhists outnumber jews 33 to one. Hindus outnumber Jews 77 to one, Muslims outnumber jews 127 to one, and Christians outnumber Jews 159 to one.

And moreover, while each of the other major religions grew roughly four times since 1933, the population of Jews is less than it was 90 years ago. We have still not recovered from our pre Holocaust population numbers, with only 15 million Jews globally. And why? Why is that? Because we are continually blamed. That, my friends, is what antisemitism is all about. It's about blame.

Blame for economic downturn, blame for spreading disease, blame for killing Christ or starting World War one, blame for controlling media or financial paradigms, blame for moral and social deterioration. Blame is what forced us to live segregated and walled cities within cities. The origin of the term ghetto. Blame gave rise to Nazism and the Third Reich and the systematic extermination of Jews. Blame has denied us from practicing our religion or even exiled us from dozens of countries since the Holocaust.

Blame gives oxygen to organizations, governments, movements that to this day, openly call for our destruction. And that blame is indeed unique. It transcends cultures, boundaries, and somehow never, ever dissipates, not for decades, not for centuries, but for thousands of years. This blame naturally puts us in a defensive posture and somehow requires us to justify our strength, justify our achievement or our resilience. It's tiring. It's tiring for us individually, collectively, historically, and in respect to this unique phenomenon.

Jews can be deeply offended and triggered beyond measure when any individual or organization compares the genocide we've endured with tragedy of any form elsewhere, whether deliberate or not. Because our pain or anybody's pain, cannot be negotiated or debated. Loss cannot be negotiated or debated. Grief cannot be negotiated or debated.

The totality of the scope of intent of the Nazis, the goal of killing every last Jewish man, woman and child throughout the reach of the Nazi empire, using the administrative, bureaucratic, and technological capacities of a modern nation state and western scientific culture deserves no comparison. Nor does it require us to use that pain as a form of compassion. Yet, remarkably, so many Jews do. Colleagues, many of you remember me speaking at our observance of Yom Hashoah last year, and I spoke on top.

That, rightfully, should make us all very uncomfortable. Specifically, of the experiments that were conducted on us by the Nazis. The lampshades used from our skin, the gold extracted from our teeth, the dehumanization, the torture, murder, rape, all done with precision and audaciously documented, as if history would reward not only the outcome, but the process that would result in our complete elimination. I spoke of that not only to educate and certainly not for politics, but for strength.

Strength for myself, strength for my family, strength for my Jewish community. Strength as we face the past head on, and strength as the only way to survive in the future. I need strength as I remind myself that had the Nazis been successful, I would not be standing here. Before you look around at the Jewish caucus Members in here, none of us would be standing here. We would not be here.

So do we get triggered when someone tells us to go back to Poland, where we went from 3 million Jews to 45,000? Yes, we do. Do we get emotional when we learn that most young people have seen Holocaust denialism online and social media? Yes, we do. Do we activate when someone sends swastikas online to our kids to remind us that they are vulnerable? Yes, we do.

Do we respond to support and understanding by others that are not of our faith, like so many of you in the chamber today? Yes, we do. On a scale that I can't possibly articulate. We live and teach and perpetually reflect on our past as a means to survive. We gain strength on days like today, supporting each other and feeding off the empathy from the larger community. Cross generationally, we remain steadfast in our philosophy of healing the world, but never at our own peril.

Given the reality that we face, we repeat the words of those that survived to stop the slippery slope of antisemitism so that one day we may also grow the way that other peoples have grown. We say today and every day, never forget. Never forget. Colleagues, I respectfully ask for your. I vote on ACR 176.

Thank you, Mister Lowenthal. Seeing and hearing no further debate, Assembly Member Gabriel, would you like to close?

Thank you, Madam Speaker. First, let me thank everybody who spoke today for their beautiful and heartfelt words. I am deeply grateful, and I know that our caucus is incredibly grateful for the solidarity that you have shown. And I want to thank him for particular, our sister caucuses, for your beautiful allyship. As you have observed, the last several months have been incredibly painful and difficult for our community.

And your allyship, your solidarity, your sensitivity, the way in which you have checked in with your Jewish colleagues, has meant the world to us. And I want to make sure that I impress upon all of you how much that has meant. And thank you for all of that, because it does mean the world to us. And to see all of our sister caucuses rise today and speak so beautifully, as so many of you have done, it really does give us strength.

I have had the incredible honor and privilege of visiting Yad Vashem, Israel's national memorial to the Holocaust, with many of you in this room. And what has always struck me about that museum is that when you enter, it begins well before the Holocaust. Because we know that the Holocaust didn't begin with guns. It didn't begin with gas chambers. It began with rhetoric. It began with language. It began with dehumanization.

It began with discriminatory policies, the discrimination that was at first subtle and then mainstream accepted into societies. And I think that is why you are hearing today the concern that we have about the lack of awareness for young people about the Holocaust, about what seems to be more broader acceptance of subtle anti semitic stereotypes in American society, that those are things which are so deeply worrisome to our community.

But what we also know is that if rhetoric and language and dehumanization can foment a genocide, can create the conditions for genocide, can allow people to wake up one day and believe that it's acceptable to kill their neighbors, acceptable to kill people that they have lived with for hundreds of years. We know that language can do the opposite, and we know that rhetoric can do the opposite.

We know that people who are willing to stand up and tell the truth, who are willing to stand up and push back against hate, not when it becomes violent, but well before it precipitates violent, that that can save lives, that that can create a fairer and more just society.

And all of you in this room are incredibly fortunate, all of us in this room are incredibly fortunate to be in a position where we can speak and people will listen, where we can talk to the various beautiful, diverse communities that make up the State of California.

And so our ask of you today, which you have so beautifully done in supporting us in this resolution, is to speak out to teach your community, to teach your community, whether it is a community of faith or not, an ethnic community, a community that is formed by geography to speak about the Holocaust and to speak out against hate and violence of any form.

And that is why, as our colleague from the south may mentioned, the Jewish community felt a moral imperative to speak out when we saw rising hate against the API community, not at the point at which it was widespread violence, but well before that, because that is a solemn obligation that we all have to each other. So I want to thank you for the incredible sensitivity and allyship that so many of you have shown for us.

And I want to thank you for what I know will be the solidarity that you will show going forward. Because the lesson of this day is that we are all in this fight together. And the way that we will prevent another genocide against any group of people. The way that we will prevent targeted violence against any group of people is by all of us standing shoulder to shoulder and condemning that. Thank you. And on behalf of the 6 million victims of the Shoah, I respectfully ask for an aye vote on ACR 176.

Mister Gabriel would like the first roll be open for co authors. Speaker one, thank you. All. Debate having seized, the Clerk will open the roll for co authors. This is for co authors on the resolution. All Members vote who desire to vote. This is for co authors in the resolution, all Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll and tally the vote. There are 75 co authors added. Without objection. We will take a voice vote on this resolution.

All those in favor say aye, although say nay. The ayes have it. The resolution is adopted. To commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day, the legislative Jewish Caucus has invited survivors and descendants of survivors to join us on the Assembly floor today. We honor these individuals for their work to teach the lessons of the Holocaust, uplift undeserved communities, and work toward social justice for every community. Mister Gabriel, you are recognized for your introductory remarks.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. And, yes, as you so beautifully mentioned, the Jewish caucus. In conducting this ceremony, we're very fortunate to have a number of distinguished Members of the Jewish caucus with us today. We have always worked to center the voices of survivors, and for many years, we were able to bring up survivors from many corners of the state so folks can meet with them. Today. Unfortunately, as with the passage of time, that is no longer possible.

But we have brought up a few survivors who have bravely made the journey with us, and also some descendants of survivors and educators who are working to spread awareness of the Holocaust. And as you will see, so many of those who come from families of survivors have devoted themselves to social justice, have devoted themselves to standing up for marginalized communities, and we are grateful to have them with us today. I do want to take a moment, Madam Speaker, just to explain to you a few of the things that you have on your desk today.

Without objection.

So, one is that each of you has a frame tweet from the Auschwitz memorial. This is the official memorial associated with the concentration camp in Poland, where over a million, 1.1 million people were murdered, including about a million Jews. And every day, the memorial will tweet out five or six biographies of people who were killed that day.

And so each of you have a frame tweet from a victim of the Holocaust that shares your birthday as a way to try to maybe bring a little bit of a personal connection to this. When you hear that 6 million people were killed, that's an abstract thing that's difficult to process. But we'd ask you to take a moment to reflect, to look at the name and the story of the person who shares your birthday.

I'm looking at a Dutch Jewish girl, Frederica, who shares my birthday, who was murdered when she was four years old. And I can't happen but look at her and see the face of my four year old Noah. And so I'd ask each of you to take a look at this and be reminded of those who were victims.

We also are very fortunate to have the opportunity to share with you a wonderful book called what Rosa brought, tells the story of a young woman from Vienna whose family was forced out of Austria under Nazi occupation, and, as you heard, has some interesting parallels to our presiding officer today, to this family of her story.

And we're very fortunate to have with us as one of our honorees, a really wonderful, prominent literary agent, Jen Rophe, here in the State of California, who was helped, helped to represent the illustrator of this book, and also Jen's family, the pictures of her family and who there, she's a descendant of Holocaust survivors, actually helped to inform the illustration of this. So this is, I hope as you read this, we'll know that this and share this with young people, with people in your family.

This is the personal history of many people in our community. It may not be exactly the history, but this is the family story of many of your Jewish constituents, friends, relatives, neighbors, and of people your colleagues here at work. So we're honored to be able to share that with you. And finally, let me just say, a huge thank you to our colleague from Long Beach, Assemblymember Lowenthal, who was instrumental in organizing today.

And a huge thank you to our former Members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, so many of whom took time out of their busy schedules to join us today. So, thank you, Madam Speaker, and we appreciate this moment to remember those who are victims of the Holocaust.

Thank you, Mister Gabriel. I, as I said, I'm the descendant of survivors. Today I'm wearing a pin that my grand, that was my grandmother's, who, when you read that story, you'll know much of what she experienced on her way out of Austria. I will be appointing an escort Committee to bring our honorees onto the floor for our ceremony. Members should retire to the rear of the chamber, as I call your name. Assembly Members Gabriel Lowenthal, Pellerin Ward, Friedman, Zabur and Addis.

Additionally, as you heard we have many former Members of the legislative Jewish caucus with us today. Thank you all for being here. It means a lot. And they will also be escorting our distinguished honorees to the front of the chamber. I ask that Speaker Rivas and leader Gallagher move to the front center of the aisle to receive our honorees. Members, it is now time to introduce and welcome our 2024 Holocaust remembrance honorees. The closing Clerk will read.

Escorted by Assembly Member Gabriel and former Speaker of the Assembly John A. Perez is Jennifer Rolfe. Jennifer is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and Cuban Jewish and refugees. Her grandparents met at a displaced person's camp in Germany where they married and gave birth to Jennifer's father, Larry. As a literary agent for authors and illustrators of children's literature, Jen's clients include award winning and bestselling creators such as the illustrator of what Rosa Brought, a powerful picture book about a young Jewish girl fleeing Nazi occupation. Please welcome Jennifer.

Gitta was seven years old when her mother sent her and 10 year old sister Rene from their home in Vienna, Austria, to France to hide from the Nazis. What followed was seven years of separation, fear, hiding, and constantly hoping they would not be caught and killed. Geta's father was killed in Auschwitz. Now Goethe tells her story and reflects on what it means in our time and how therapy helped her want to live and shed the anger that was weighing her down.

She recently celebrated her 92nd birthday and finds purpose in telling her story so no one can deny history. Please welcome Gitta Ryle, escorted by a summer Member Ward and former sub Member Mike Fuhrer is Mike and Manya Wallenfels. Mike is a secretary and Manya is the Vice President of the New Life Club under the Jewish Federation of San Diego. Founded in 1953, the New Lifes Club is an organization of survivors of the Holocaust. The new life Club's monthly meetings include speakers, films, theater, and musical performances.

Mike and Manya speak at schools throughout San Diego and around the world to help drive Holocaust education. Please welcome Mike and Manja Wallenfels. Friedman and former submer Bob Blumenfield is Carolyn Siegel. Carolyn is the founder and Executive Director of if you heard what I heard, a nonprofit documenting stories of grandchildren of Holocaust survivors after an anti semitic incident in Los Angeles in May 2020.

Carolyn thought if more people today heard what she heard her whole life, there wouldn't be such high amounts of anti Semitism in the world. There are now 47 interviews on the organization's website with more on the way. If you heard what I heard has an extensive waitlist of grandchildren of Holocaust survivors who are ready to share their stories. Please welcome Carolyn Siegel, escorted by Assembly Member Zbur and former Assembly Member Alan Lowenthal is Lily Boss.

Lily is the only child of Holocaust survivors who met in Israel shortly after World War two and immigrated to the United States. Her mother, Rosa, wrote two books about her experiences after escaping Auschwitz. Lilly is the former mayor of Beverly Hills and has long been an education advocate. In 2022, she joined municipal leaders from 53 cities and 23 countries to sign a historic declaration committed to fighting anti semitism in all of its manifestations via cooperative education, raising awareness, and promoting interfaith relationships.

Please welcome Lily Boss and escorted by Assembly Member Addis and former Assembly Member Jose Medina is Kate Daniels. Kate is the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Kate work as an educator and public servant, especially in areas of human rights injustices, equity and climate change is the direct result of her family's legacy. She has spent a lifetime helping communities at home and abroad. On March 5, she was elected to the district five seat on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. Please welcome Kate Daniels.

On behalf of co chair Gabriel and the Members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. Thank you all for your words today, your solidarity, and for helping us observe Holocaust Remembrance Day and recognizing the inspirational work of this year's honorees. Thank you each for everything you do in our communities to help educate about this atrocious part of our history. This concludes today's ceremony.

Members, we have additional business before the house. We will be moving back to Assembly third reading and get your respectful attention for your colleagues. Members, Members, we are moving to file item 66, excuse me, 56 AB 3024 by Assemblymember Ward Members, your respectful attention to Assemblymember Ward.

The Clerk will read

Assembly Bill 3024 by Assembly Member Ward and others an act of civil law declaring urgency thereof to take effect immediately.

Assemblymember Ward, you are recognized.

Thank you Mister speaker. Members appropriate for today. According to the Anti Defamation Nation League, last year had the highest number of reported hate incidents in the United States since 1979. This includes a staggering 38% rise in hate motivated propaganda efforts, including hate littering in the form of racist, anti semitic, and anti lgbt flyers placed directly on a victim's personal property with the intent to make them fear for their safety, to encourage neighbors to hate their neighbor, and to tell you, I know where you live.

This has rapidly become a preferred tactic by hate groups because it is effective, it allows for increased personal impact, and it exists in a legal gray area, making it extremely hard for law enforcement to prosecute. While California does have some of the strongest hate crime statutes in the country, these activities often do not rise to the level of a hate crime or trigger California's anti hate prohibitions on activities such as cross burning.

AB 3024 the Stop Hate Littering act, will make necessary improvements to existing law by strengthening the Ralph Civil Rights Act of 1976 to ensure that victims are provided adequate protections against hate littering and creates new legal tools to hold offenders accountable. The Ralph act states that all Californians have a right to live free from violence or intimidation by threat of violence.

And this Bill clarifies that the definition of intimidation by threat of violence under the Ralph act includes the distribution of hateful materials with the intent to terrorize. For these reasons, I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Seeing and hearing no further debate, I'll ask the Clerk to open. Excuse me, Mister Essayli, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker. Well, I appreciate the intent of the Bill. My concern is this law, as written, is too broad and it encompasses constitutionally protected free speech. I would note hate speech is protected free speech. Without such protections, we would not have free speech. I would say the anecdote to free speech. I'm sorry, the anecdote to hate speech is to engage in debate, protest, questioning, silence, or walking away in the fair marketplace or free marketplace of ideas.

The government cannot weigh in on the scales and regulate speech. So without substantial amendments to this that clarify that only speech that incites imminent lawless action, or that constitutes a true threat or otherwise fighting words, unless it's one of those three things, it cannot be prohibited by the government. So I respect the author and where he's coming from, but as written, it's too broad, it's unconstitutional and it will fail in court. So I implore my colleagues to uphold the First Amendment and to vote no on this Bill. Thank you.

Thank you, Mister Essayli, Mister Ward, would you like to close?

Yes. Thank you, Mister speaker. Members, if you read the text, you would notice that this law simply updates a 50 year old, nearly 50 year old civil rights act already on our books here today. The update itself is meant to include the definition of what hate littering is to include, and basically direct it to be included in the definition of the intimidation with the threat of violence, and that very narrow definition, and will be responsive to what we are seeing on our streets, in our neighborhoods.

The very targeted and very specific activity that is directed towards terrorizing Members based on certain protected classes. For that, we have had a tremendous amount of legal consult that understands that free speech is an important institution within our country. But it does not, when it comes in competition with the threat of violence or terrorizing somebody else's right to be able to exist, stand up in the test of courts as well. So for those reasons, I ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Mister Ward. This is a 54 vote Bill. The Clerk will open the roll. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who decides desire to vote. Will close the roll and tally the votes. Ayes 57 nos. Three measure passes on the urgency. Ayes 57 noes 3 on the urgency. Ayes 57 Noes three on the measure. The measure passes. Moving to file item 60 AB 1778 by Mister Connally.

Assembly Bill 1778 by Assembly Member Connolly an act relating to vehicles.

Mister Connolly, you are recognized.

Thank you. Excuse me, Mister Speaker and Members. AB 1778 would authorize Marin county and its cities to establish a voluntary pilot program prohibiting individuals under the age of 16 from operating class two electric bicycles. If an ordinance or resolution is adopted, the county must submit a report to the Legislature by January 1, 2028 that includes traffic stop and citation data. This Bill is grounded in the commitment to safeguard our youth from potential hazards associated with these bicycles in our communities.

We believe that setting an age limit for operators and collecting more data on this issue will significantly reduce crashes and help ensure that our streets remain safe for everyone. Our priority is to strike a balance between encouraging the use of sustainable transportation and ensuring the safety of our community Members, particularly our young riders. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Seeing and hearing no further debate, the Clerk will open the roll. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. Ayes 64 no zero measure passes. Moving back to guest introductions, Assemblymember Bonta, you are recognized.

Thank you Mister speaker and Members. I am so very excited to welcome some very special guests from my district to the Assembly chamber this afternoon. Joining us today are the 2024 California high school basketball champions, Oakland High School and Oakland Technical High School. On March 8, the Oakland High School girls basketball team beat Montgomery of San Diego 56 to zero with their best performance of the season. Go Wildcats.

On March 9, the boys basketball team from Oakland Technical High School beat Centennial of Bakersfield 79 to 55. This victory is the first state championship for the team. Go Bulldogs. I'm incredibly proud of both the Wildcats and Bulldogs for such an amazing, hard won skateboarding season. To my colleagues from the 80th and 32nd Assembly districts, better luck next time. Now, if you are all experiencing a little deja Vu, this is because last year, Oakland also took home the California State high school basketball championship.

Yes, you heard it. Oakland has dominated the basketball scene at the high school level for two years in a row. Now, several of the students athletes will return next season, and I am so excited to see what you achieve as a team next year because supporting and lifting up the achievements of young people in Oakland is important. I want to highlight some of the colleges that our champion seniors will be attending in the fall or have been accepted to.

UC Berkeley, Howard University, Northeastern University with a full ride, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, CSU, Cal State, East Bay, Drake University, University of Michigan, Los Medranos, Community College, Loyola Marymount and many more. Congratulations to our student athletes. Your determination and hard work is paying off, and you are all here have proven yourselves as leaders both on and off the courts. These students do this for themselves, their teammates, their family Members, their fellow students, for their community Members and for Oakland.

They do this while they have to endure gun violence and community violence. They do this while they have to endure people telling them all, many times, more often than they should hear it, that they are not worthy. They do this enough and so well because they rise despite it all, and because they are strong and they are proud. And they make Oakland proud of who they are and what they are able to do.

They show California and the country what the town is, all heart, all spirit, all resilience, all love. Joining us on the floor are their coaches. Captain and co captain. From Oakland High School and Oakland Technical High School. From Oakland Technical High School, we have Kariga Hart, Zinmeyer pletner, Ahmed Gullyed, Asher K. Kramer, Ardarius Grayson, Sadiq Al Arbash. From Oakland High school girls team, we have Nita Simpson, Ojugo Iganu, Tylena Velasquez, Kyla Smith. Remember cheat. And deja Teague. Thank you so much.

The rest of the team, coach, parents and school administrators are up in the gallery. Members, please join me in arousing support and applause for these beautiful young people, the champion teams of California. zero, so sorry. 56 to 50. Sorry, sorry. Okay. All right, all right.

Thank you, Assembly Member Bonta, and congratulations to these amazing athletes.

Thank you Members. Moving on to file item 63. AB 1842 by Assemblymember Reyes. The Clerk will read

Assembly Bill 1842 by Assemblymember Reyes an act relating to healthcare coverage.

Thank you Mister speaker. Thank you Mister speaker. Members, California is dealing with an overdose crisis and treatment options do exist. AB 1842 prohibits commercial health insurers from imposing prior authorization rules that create barriers to accessing medication assisted treatment. Medications such as buprenorphine or naltrexone can significantly improve treatment for many substance use disorders by treating craving and withdrawal symptoms.

However, it is underused due to prior authorization requirements which create unnecessary barriers that delay or interrupt access to effective treatment. This measure is urgently needed to address the current overdose crisis in our state. I respectfully ask you aye vote.

Thank you Assemblymember Reyes. Assemblymember Waldron, you are recognized.

Thank you Mister speaker. And Members, life saving medications should not be subjected to the bureaucratic hurdles of prior authorization or step therapy that can delay access to care.

Overdoses and drug addiction are critical health issues, with almost 11,000 Californians dying in 2021 alone as a result of preventable substance use disorders, mat or medication assisted treatment has been shown to work well in helping people avoid going back to addiction and overdosing by reducing their strong desire for using drugs. When someone is ready for treatment, the time is now to give them access to life saving help. I urge an aye vote. Thank you Assembly Member Waldron.

Assembly Member Joe Patterson, you are recognized.

Thank you Mister speaker. If somebody finds themselves in a situation in which they need naloxone potentially almost dying, they should not need prior authorization and shouldn't have to wait time to save their lives. Unfortunately, in my own family, family Member had to witness the death of a family, another family Member of mine who didn't get proper access, immediate access to this type of treatment. So with that, I'm happy to support this measure and encourage an aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblymember Patterson, would you like to close? Assemblymember Reyes,

I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Seeing and hearing no further debate, the Clerk will open the roll. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote, vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. Ayes 66 no, zero measure passes. Moving back to guest introductions, Assemblymember Soria, you are recognized.

Good afternoon, Mister speaker and Members.

Today I rise to introduce students that I have in the gallery. They are the girls soccer, boys basketball and girls basketball of Carruthers High School, a small unincorporated community in Fresno county in my district. And so they are here today very excitedly. I think they packed the room. There's about 85 students. They are here because all three of the teams became championship winners. The girls soccer team won the division six a section title.

The boys basketball team won their first central section division six titles since 2015, and the girls basketball team came out on top and won it all, bringing home the trophy for the division three state title. These three wins are a huge accomplishment for the small community that I represent in the Central Valley. I want to give a shout out to all the students for their grit, their determination, and the toughness that they showed out either on the field or out on the court.

Obviously, it is representative of their greatest accomplishments, which was being champions in our community and in the state. So I do want to thank the head coaches who are also here with us, Jonathan Allen for the girls soccer, Anna Almeidia with the girls basketball, Jordan dancer with the boys basketball, and principal Barry Watts, who are here also very proud to represent Carruthers and to bring the students, because I think it's important that we highlight, especially from these small rural communities, that we too are winners. And so I want to congratulate them and acknowledge them and welcome them here to Sacramento, to the state capitol, and they are up in the gallery.

Thank you, Assemblymember Soria, and welcome to your guests. Welcome to the Capitol. Moving back to file item Assembly Third reading file item 64, AB 2037 by Miss Papen. The Clerk will read

Assembly Bill 2037 by Assembly Papan and others an act relating to weights and measurements.

Assemblymember Papan, you are recognized.

Thank you so much, Mister Speaker. I rise to present AB 2037.

This Bill is about making sure you get what you pay for. And what it does is it ensures that municipally owned EV chargers are regulated. It will give county sealers the authority to test and to verify municipally owned EV chargers. County sealers are tasked with testing and verifying commercial measurement devices in things like grocery store scales and gas pumps. Well, this modernizes their job. They make sure you get what you pay for. Generally, their jurisdiction covers privately owned equipment.

But this Bill says that no entity in charge of a publicly owned EV charger can operate without being regulated. To ensure confidence, impartiality and consumer protection, it's imperative that county sealers have clear authority to test and verify municipally owned EV chargers. When every dollar counts, it's critical that you get what you pay for. Respectfully request an aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Papan. Seeing and hearing no further debate, the Clerk will open the roll. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote, Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. Ayes 63 no zero measure passes. Moving to file item 81. AB 1805 by Assemblymember Ta Clerk will read

Assembly Bill 1805 by Assemblymember Ta and others and after link to pupil instruction.

Assemblymember Ta, you are recognized.

Thank you Mister speaker. I'm honored to present AB 1805, a bipartisan measure which I care deeply about to ensure California students learn the trail blazing civil rights story of Mendes v. Westminster in 1943, the children of Gonzales and facilitators Mendez were denied entry into the 17th Street School in Westminster, California because they were Mexican American. The children were told instead they would have to attend the segregated Mexican only school.

Nine years old, Sylvia Mendez had to walk past the white school to the school for Mexican children further down the street. The Mendez family, along with other Mexican family, successfully challenged this ruminatory policy in court in the case now famously known as Westminster versus Westminster. Two months after the 9th Circuit's core rule in favor of the family, Governor O'Warren site Bill that made California the first state to outlaw or public school segregation.

Mendes versus Westminster was the first federal lawsuit to openly challenge separate but equal segregation in K-12 school. This landmark case led to California becoming the first state to outlaw or public school separation. The Anna segregated school for Mexican-American children arose in the American Southwest and paved the way for nationwide school desecration by setting the legal and strategic precedent for Brown education. As a former mayor of Westminster, I know the power of Mendes versus Westminster case.

It's important for California students to learn the civil rights challenge faced by Mexican Americans in this state. Sadly, many Californians do not know this important story. AB 1805 will elevate the awareness of Mendez v. Westminster by requiring the instructional Quality Commission to consider including the case of Mendez v. Westminster into new instructional material for California students. This legislation will help get the story of Mendes versus Westminster into California history social textbook where can have the rectors ability to read teacher, student and classroom across California.

California student would benefit from learning the historical link between Mendez v. Westminster and Brown versus Board of Education and of how California led the way as a first state to outlaw of public school separation. This legislation has no opposition is supported by the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the California Federation of Teacher, the state PTA, various city and school district from across the state and enjoys support from a broad coalition of co authors.

Before I conclude, I want to thank Sylvia and Santra Mendez, the daughters of Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, for their partnership on this legislation. Sylvia Mendez has spent years advocating to raise awareness of the Mendez v. Westminster case and was awarded the presidential war of Freedom by President Obama for her work. This has been an honor to work with them on AB 1805.

Look forward to AB 1805 becoming law and California student learning the story of the man that's family in California preferred a role in the civil rights moment. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Ta, Assemblymember Bonta, you are recognized. Good afternoon, Members.

Today I rise in support and as principal co author of AB 1805, first I want to thank my colleague, our Assembly Member from Westminster, for bringing forward this incredibly important piece of legislation and actually for having the Mendez family testify in hearing on this. The Mendez v. Westminster case stands as a landmark in the struggle for educational equality and civil rights in the United States, an opportunity for Latinos to be able to lead in the educational space as well.

Through this pivotal legal battle, California became the first state to outlaw all public school segregation and paved the way for nationwide school desegregation by setting the legal and strategic precedents that Brown v. Board of Education was based on. Its legacy resonates beyond the courtroom, inspiring generations to advocate for equality and inclusivity in education and society as a whole.

We must ensure that our children are taught about Mendez v. Westminster so that they can learn and understand the ongoing struggle for civil rights and the importance of challenging systemic discrimination. I respectfully urge your aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Bonta, Assembly Member Wendy Carrillo, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker and Members, I rise in strong support of AB 1805 as a proud co author, and I thank the Member from Westminster for introducing this very important piece of policy into the Legislature and the importance of learning and knowing about Mendez versus Westminster when it comes to education and when it comes to the history and story of California, it is not a partisan issue.

It is something that we can all get behind to really learn and understand that people from all walks of life in California made such a significant and important history and change in our education system when we celebrated or commemorated, I should say, the HR 68 by our colleague from Redondo Beach.

When it came to Japanese American concentration camps, I talked about what happened in Westminster, and in order for us to recognize the history behind Westminster, the Mendez versus Westminster case, we also have to understand and bring into the space Saima, Monemitsu, Mosaka, Moriaka, their children, Saiko and Ceylo, and their girls, Kasuku and Akiko, who were the Japanese family that were removed from their farm and put in a concentration camp.

And it was their friends, the Mendez family, who moved into Westminster to take care of that farm and take care of the land. And it was their ability for their children to be able to go to a school that had not been desegregated at the time for this to even occur and for this to even be part of our now California history.

That case was held in 1947, and the attorney that tried that case was Thurgood Marshall, who a few years later went on to the Supreme Court. And we have the now famous case, Brown versus Board of Education, which desegregated all schools in the United States. And it started in California. It started with the Japanese American family, a mexican American, Latino family, that later on went to change all of the education desegregation of all schools with an African American family leading the way.

And so that is the history and story and beauty that we are commemorating and that we are honoring and putting into the books with AB 1805. And with that, I respectfully request, an aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblymember Carrillo. Assembly Member Quirk Silva, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker and Members. I also rise in support of AB 1805 as an elected official that lives in Fullerton and very close to Westminster. This piece of legislation means a lot personally, as Sylvia Mendez, the daughter of Gonzalo and Felicia Mendez, lives right in Fullerton. Sylvia, who is now in her mid eighties, really didn't even know the story of what her parents had done until she was much older. And one of the reasons she started telling the story is she realized not only did she not know the story, but in fact, her siblings and of course, other people knew very little about Mendez versus Westminster.

So she took it upon herself to begin to tell this story. She went to local elementary schools, including my own classroom, to share her story. She worked with others to create a children's book on Mendez versus Westminster to really get youngsters to understand that at 1.0 in the 1940s, there were schools for children of Mexican background, but they could not go to other schools. So this separation of schools was really the basis for the landmark case that we know at our Supreme Court.

This story has been now shared, but what we know for sure that this piece of legislation will do, it will allow it to be in our instructional curriculum, and then all California students, students will be able to know about this story.

But I'll end with, think about what it would be like to be living in the 1940s, parents who spoke Spanish, to actually go and say, I want my own children to go to the school that is nearest to me, not the Mexican school across the other side of town. And they took that on. Think about that courage. Think about that effort that they took on, and they really changed the landscape of America forever. So with that, I'm proud of this legislation, being a co author and I ask for your support for AB 1805.

Thank you. Assembly Member Quirk Silva, Assembly Member Ta, would you like to close?

I really appreciate all the comment about AB 1805 and a response. And I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you Mister Ta Clerk will open the roll. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote.

All those vote who desire to vote, Clerk will close a roll and tally the votes. Aye 66 no zero measure passes. Moving on to file item 85. AB 3277 Assembly Member Juan Carrillo, you are recognized as soon as the Clerk reads

Assembly Bill 3275. By the Committee on local government an act relating to local government.

Now you are recognized.

Thank you Mister speaker and Members, this is the Assembly Local Government Committee's annual billing related to Local Agency formation Commission or LAFCO. This Bill makes a minor change to LAFCO law to ensure the efficient and effective use limited resources. I respect ask for an aye vote. Thank you.

Seeing and hearing no further debate, the Clerk will open the roll. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote, Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. Ayes 65 no zero measure passes. Moving to file item 92, AB 3090 by assemblymember Maienschein.

Assembly Bill 3090 by Assembly Maienschein an act relating to drinking water.

You are recognized, Mister Maienschein.

Thank you very much Mister Speaker and Members. Under existing law, public water systems are required to provide emergency notification within 24 hours following the discussion.

Discovery of contaminants in public drinking water sources that may possibly be hazardous to human life, AB 3090 aims to address a gap in response time by authorizing and encouraging public water systems when updating their emergency response plan to incorporate various urgent notification practices, including text messages, email or social media. Thank you and I respectfully request your aye vote.

Seeing and hearing no further debate, the Clerk will open the roll. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote, Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. I 69 no zero measure passes. Moving on to Senate third reading, pass and retain on items 111 and 112 Members. We will now move to the second day consent calendar. Before we vote, we will take up a resolution on the consent calendar for the purpose of adding co authors.

The Clerk will read the resolution on the consent calendar

Assembly Concurrent Resolution 147 by Senator Alvarez relative to California's first generation college celebration day.

The Clerk will now open the roll to allow any Member to add on as a co author to the resolution. Members this is a vote for co authors. All those vote who desire to vote all those vote who desire to vote for co authors, all those vote who desire to vote Clerk will close the roll and tally the vote. There are 71 co authors added moving to a vote on the consent calendar. Does any Member wish to remove an item seening and hearing none. The Clerk will read the second day consent calendar.

Assembly Bill 2232 by Assembly Member Maienschein an act relating to emergency services.

Clerk will open the roll on the consent calendar. All those vote who desire to vote all those vote who desire to vote all those vote who desire to vote on the consent calendar, Clerk will close the roll and tally the vote. Ayes 72 noes zero measure passes Clerk will read the remaining items on the consent calendar.

[Consent Calendar]

Members of quorum call is still in place. We have a Member who has been previously granted permission to speak on an adjournment. Memory ask you to give your respectful attention to Assemblymember Calderon. Assemblymember Calderon, you are recognized.

Thank you Mister Speaker. I rise to adjourn in memory of Yolanda Peru, affectionately known as Yoli. Born in 1955, Yoli spent most of her life in the City of Pico Rivera while working as a warehouse Clerk and serving as a proud Member of the International Brotherhood of Team Teamsters.

Yoli raised two sons, her eldest Gabriel Robbie and her youngest Kenny. She was an active community Member, volunteering with the local PTA, fundraising for the El Rancho High School band boosters and serving as a Cub Scout parent. Yoli was a person of great faith and for nearly a decade served as the head of hospitality for her church. On February 5, 2024 she passed away peacefully in Whittier surrounded by her family.

Her generosity, love of family and passion for making the world a better place will be greatly missed. Yoli is survived by her husband Julian her sons Gabriel, Robbie and Kenny her stepchildren Julian, Lupi, Rena, Johnny, Sandy, Bobbie and Brittany, her 19 grandchildren and a great grandson. Members are respectfully request that we adjourn in the memory of Yolanda Yoli Peru.

Thank you, assemblymember Calderon. Members, please bring the names to the desk to be printed in the journal. All requests to adjourn in memory will be deemed read and printed in the journal. Moving to announcements. Committee hearings Budget Subcommitee one on Health meets upon adjournment in Capital Room 127. Revenue and Taxation meets upon adjournment in Capital Room 126. Session schedule is as follows. Tuesday, April 30 check in session Wednesday, May 1 check in session Thursday, May 2 floor session at 09:00 a.m. All other items will be passed and retained. All motions shall be continued.

Seeing and hearing no further business, I'm ready to entertain a motion to adjourn. Miss Aguiar Curriy moves. Mister Lackey Seconds that this house stand adjourn until Monday or. Excuse me. Thursday, May 2 at 09:00 a.m. The quorum call is lifted and the house is adjourned.