Senate Standing Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs

We'll come to order. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We have six bills on today's agenda. Before we hear the presentation of the bills, let's establish a quorum. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Okay. Madam Secretary notes that we do have a quorum. And as I mentioned, we have six bills on the consent calendar. So, Madam Secretary, let's get a motion. First motion. Tom Umberg his motion. So let's go ahead and. Madam Secretary, please call the roll on the consent calendar.

[Roll Call]

Okay. What do we get? Three I. And we'll hold that on call. Thank you. Okay. Next item we have. I don't see the Assembly Member. Ta. Can we give the Assembly Member a call, please? The Committee on Military and Veterans affairs will go on recess for just a few minutes. The Senate Committee on Military and Veterans affairs will come to order. And we will open up. And we will have our first presenter on AB 1793. Welcome, assemblymember top. And you can present your Bill.

Good afternoon and thank you, Chair and members of the committee. I'd like to thank the committee staff for their work on this bill. AB 1793 will ensure that dependence on active duty military members deployed outside of California, but maintaining California residency will be eligible for cow rent and middle-class scholarship program.

Military service members who are California residents may sometimes receive government orders requiring them to relocate outside of the state for a stand period. And their families often accommodate them. Since the parents are still resident of California, the students qualify for each state situation rate at our college and universities.

However, under current law, students are ineligible for Cal Grant of the middle-class scholarship program. If they temporarily preside out-of-state due to deployment. AB 1793 would only apply to a very specific group of active duty service members. This bill does not appropriate any additional funding for the Cal Grant program. It simply allows dependent active duty California military members to access the rent, and respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you very much, Senator. Is there any lead witnesses in support of your bill? Okay, I see none. Anyone in opposition of your bill? And I see one, none. Okay. Let's go ahead. And members of the committee, any questions or comments? No. Move the bill. Okay. And that was. Oh.

Public Richard Maher from America First policy in support.

Okay. Appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And I have a motion from Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil. So let's go ahead and proceed. Madam Secretary.

[Roll Call]

And we have three. We'll hold that Bill open. Assemblymember, thank you. I think it's a great Bill and I thank you for presenting it.

I really appreciate that, Senator. Thank you.

Yeah.

Or. Senator. Senator Menjivar, do you want to add one to consent? Yes.

Okay. Good.

Go ahead and call it? The consent calendar. [Roll Call]. Do we want to still hold that open, sir?

We will hold it open. One more.

One for Grove.

Yeah. Okay. And any word on our next presenter? Schiavo. Recess for the next 5-10 minutes until we get the author down.

The meeting on the Senate Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs will reopen. And Assembly Member Schiavo, welcome. And I understand you're going to present Assembly Bill 1994, so you are welcome to present.

Thank you so much, Mister Chair and Senators. Good afternoon. I am thankful for the opportunity to present AB 1994. This is a committee bill that will establish in statute, in state statute, the position of Deputy Secretary of Minority and Underrepresented Veteran Affairs at CalVet.

There is an increasing understanding and recognition that veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, who come from communities of color or unrepresented groups, face structural inequalities that are not mitigated by their military service. Minority veterans are less likely to receive benefits and often live in areas where there are service gaps.

Native American veterans in particular, whose representation in the armed forces is double their proportion of the General population, are less likely to receive benefits that they were entitled to or could have established eligibility for.

The position of Deputy Secretary of Minority and Underrepresented Veteran Affairs was created administratively, and the secretary lacked direct staff until the budget of 2019 to 2020, when the Assembly advocated for the addition of three positions within the Department reporting to the deputy. The bill makes.

The bill is important to make permanent the position of deputy secretary of minority and underrepresented veteran affairs and to signal the state's commitment to underrepresented veterans and to ensure their continued representation in CalVet. Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation. Now, do you have any witnesses in support?

I see none. Any witnesses in opposition? I see none. Let's bring it back to the Committee. Questions or comments?

No.

She said move the bill.

Oh, and I have Senator Menjivar to move the bill. All right, so, Madam Secretary, call the roll.

AB 1994, do pass, but first re-refer to Appropriations. Sir, we need to leave that open.

Alright. We'll hold that bill.

Thank you, Assembly Member, for presenting that. Thank you. Yeah. Now she got them all.

She's on all of them. Grove and Umberg are not on. Oh, no. Umberg's on the consent. Yeah. It's on call.

Yeah. Okay. Senator. Let's open the row once again for Assemblymember. Let's see, what did we got?

1793.

How about 1793?

[Roll Call]

Yeah, we'll wait for Senator Grove. And then we have this Senate Bill. Assembly Bill 1994.

[Roll Call]

Hold that one open. Okay. Thank you, Senator. All right, so now. So we're going to go. We'll go on recess for just a few minutes. The Senate Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs will reopen, and we will open the roll on the consent calendar.

Okay. I will wait until she's ready. That's okay. No rush. Ready?

Okay, Madam Secretary, call the roll. And we're. This is on the consent calendar.

[Roll Call]

Five zero. Okay. And then let's give the Senator a chance to vote on Assembly Bill 1793.

[Roll Call]

Okay. And that's five zero. And I think we'll. That'll do it.

One more. AB 1994.

AB 1994. Okay, an Assembly Bill 1994. Madam Secretary, call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Okay, that's four. We'll wait for her.

I don't know if she's gonna come back or not.

She said she was coming back. Okay, so we will go on recess. All right, let's open up the rolls and begin. Open up for the Senate Subcommittee on Military and Veterans Affairs. And we have one vote. One vote. Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil, I think. Did she do? Did you vote for consent?

She did. She just needs one bill, sir.

So one bill. Which one was 1793?

1994.

You did that one. Bill AB 1994. Madam Secretary, read.

[Roll Call]

Okay, that's it. And before you go and while we're still rolling and on the record, I'd like to thank everyone for being here today and our patience. And I'd like to take this opportunity now to thank everyone for being here, but I want to take a moment to congratulate Cindy Baldwin, who served the State Senate for over 24 years. And during that time, she made and maintained numerous connections with the military and veterans community to help better the lives of those here in California.

She loves our veterans. And on top of that, her official duties in her free time, which she calls her official duties, Cindy is an advocate for veterans and foster children. She is a veteran treatment court mentor, helping veterans and those involved with veterans and their families with the justice system to go through a process to connect with necessary services, better their lives, and reduce men and women from going back into prison. Men and women going back and having problems. That's something very important to her.

So Cindy is also a court-appointed special advocate helping children in the foster system here in Sacramento County. She is a mother of two, a grandmother of one, with another little mustang on the way. And that's what I call my grandchildren, mustangs. And I would like to wish her farewell and hope that she will find all the joy, love and happiness, peace that she deserves and always upward and onward.

And I know that she's very proud of working with all of us on the committee, but I know she is so proud of her daughter, who's a doctor in Los Angeles, and I've been following her career for a good number of years. But on that note, I would like to thank her and publicly acknowledge her service.

Thank you, sir. It's been an honor.

Thank you. If we had another 20 minutes, I'd keep reading. But again, so on that note, the Senate Military and Veterans Committee will be adjourned. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, sir.