Senate Standing Committee on Rules

Well, good afternoon. Thank you all for joining the Senate Rules Committee on this Wednesday, March 5, 2025. We're going to establish a quorum in just a moment. I'd like to do a quick run a show update. Director Heller of CalRecycle will be rescheduled for a later date per the request of the Administration.

Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Quorum has been established. Thank you so much. We are going to invite Ms. Lee to be able to come forward at this time. And as Ms. Lee is coming forward, the table, if it's all right with Ms.

Lee, we're going to work through some of our administrative items, and we appreciate the patience of each and every one of you as we work through our administrative items here today. We'd like to be able to start with Committee with Governor appointees not required to appear.

We would like to be able to take two separate votes under Governor appointees not required to appear. I'm going to look to the Vice Chair. Is there a motion for. For 2C and D?

Not for me.

I'm so sorry. I apologize. Then I. We have. Mr. Laird, I do apologize. Thank you so much. We have a.

I appreciate the promotion.

We have a motion by Senator Laird, two C and D. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call] Three to two.

Three. Two. That motion passes. We're going to close the roll. So sorry about that, Madam Vice Chair. We're going to see look to the Vice Chair on if she'd like to advance under Governor appointees not required to appear. The motion for 2E.

So moved, Mr. President.

Thank you so much. We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Any discussion or debate? Hearing and seeing none. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

That's a 5-0 vote. That motion passes. We're going to close the roll. Thank you so much. We're now going to be moving on to bill referrals. Item number three. Is there a motion to approve bill referrals? Item number three. We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Any discussion or debate from Committee? Hearing and seeing none.

Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call] 5 to 0.

That's a 5-0 vote. That motion passes. We're going to close the roll. We're now going to be moving on to Committee appointments. These are for items four through six on our agenda. Committee appointments four through six on our agenda. Is there a motion for approval? So moved. We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair.

Discussion or debate from Committee hearing Seeing none. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

A 5-0 vote. Motion passes. We're going to close the roll. I say this every time. This is Leader Jones's favorite part of the hearing, the rule waiver request. Leader Jones, am I right?

Yes, absolutely. 100%. Yeah.

The rule waivers. Very exciting.

Actually, I do have a question. Oh, all right. I just wonder, why is there a. Why is there a vote on number seven and number nine? Why are they not together?

My understanding is, number nine, we're just going to be taking rule waivers, and then the floor acknowledgments are set. Are. We'll take separately, I guess.

Why does she require a rule waiver rather than be included in the. In the full 39? She's an advocate. Oh, okay.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Absolutely. Thank you so much. All right, so under rule waiver, we had the one question. Is there any discussion or debate? Any additional discussion or debate? Let's see if there's a motion to approve. Not all at once. All right, Hot take. I'll move it. Hey, there we go.

We got a motion by Senator Gonzalez. See, there we go. Let's call the roll. Mcguire, aye.

[Roll Call] 5 to 0. 5-0.

Chief Lee's thinking, what the heck is happening here? All right, we're now going to be moving on to floor acknowledgments. Floor acknowledgments. Is there a motion to approve? We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Is there any discussion or debate hearing? None. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call] 5 to 0. 5-0 vote.

That motion passes. We're going to close the roll. Madam Division Chief, welcome. We are back at you now. We are so grateful that you are here today. Thank you so much. We want to take a moment to also say thank you for stepping up.

You have risen through the ranks and have dedicated your career to the people of California, and we're very grateful for that. What we'd like to be able to do is have a dialogue with the Committee. We're going to start out with an opening statement. You have up to three minutes to be able to provide that opening statement.

I'll give you a 30 second heads up as you get close to the three minutes. During that time, we're going to invite you to acknowledge any individuals who may be here in the room rooting, yawn and or watching on the television or online. Madam Division Chief, the floor is yours. We are grateful.

Thank you and good afternoon. I hope I say this correctly, pro tem McGuire.

Yes, absolutely. And you can pull the mic a little closer, please. Thank you so much.

Thank you. And Members of the Senate Rule Committee, My name is Deborah Lee, Chief of Cal OSHA. I am honored and humbled to be before you today for my confirmation hearing. I am grateful to Governor Newsom for appointing me to this position.

I would also like to recognize my family and friends who are watching virtually and those who are here in the room with us today. I joined Cal OSHA as an industrial hygienist back in 1994, wanting to be an agent of change. I had no idea I would one day lead this agency.

I am the daughter of two hardworking and loving parents who cleaned office buildings, worked on the factory line and in construction to provide for our family. I get a little emotional when I think about my parents no longer here with us. I grew up in South Central Los Angeles and attended the LA Unified School District.

I grew up knowing that people deserved to be paid for their labor without sacrificing their health or well being. I saw how preventable accidents and harmful exposure at work change families lives. I wanted to be part of an institution that ensures workers receive justice regardless of their skin color, immigration status or level of education.

As chief, I am fully committed to building a better, stronger Cal OSHA that is more effective, efficient in educating workers on their rights and employers in how to to provide a safe work environment. Preventing workplace hazards before they happen is critical. The entire Cal OSHA team is committed to the mission, but we cannot do this work alone.

I am committed to Cal OSHA engaging with employers, workers, advocacy groups and sister agencies to improve how Cal OSHA works. That's why my top priorities are hiring and investing in the Cal OSHA team, making the agricultural unit fully operational, changing opportunities or creating, I'm sorry, opportunities for collaboration, leveraging technology and embracing innovation.

I would like to recognize the entire Cal OSHA team who do their work with integrity and strive each day to make a difference and finally, I would like to thank you, the Legislator, for its continued support of the Cal OSHA mission. And I'm happy to take your questions.

Chiefly, thank you. I'm very grateful and know how emotional this is. When it's personal, it's very emotional. So very grateful. Thank you so much. I'm sure your parents would be proud. Thank you. Let's open it up for questions. Comments, Senator Laird.

That was Senator Groves. I'm teasing. Hey, there you go. Thank you. And thank you for your willingness to serve and how wonderful it is to watch how you have risen through the ranks to be where you are now.

And if I can make a snarky comment that's not about you, it's so nice to see a Cal OSHA nominee that has lived in California and worked in California. So thank you. A few questions about just your agency right now. There's a tremendous number of vacancies in positions.

How do you deal with being able to implement the mission and vacancies? And what kind of do you have any way that you can affect sort of the number of vacant positions there are to fill them and help you achieve your mission?

Thank you for the question. And I would like to try to answer it in two parts. The first part would be the short term, what we're doing now. But I think what's important that we talk about is the long term. And so I'll do that in those two parts.

And so dealing with the first part, our challenges facing us right now. And so we are aggressively recruiting. We have developed a new unit within our enforcement branch to help with the hiring.

That unit focuses only on our enforcement branch and working and taking the administrative challenges away from management so they can better focus on on the mission of OSHA and focus on having their staff out in the field and focusing on those cases and things of that nature.

This unit that we have created is taking on the administrative task of going out and doing recruitment at some of the universities. They're also recruiting with some of the associations, industrial hygiene associations, safety associations. They're also networking with colleges.

We're trying to think outside of the box if there's any activities that are going on with CBOs or any activities going on with any employers. We're trying to be there to have that present to try to recruit in more people. We're also launched and put out bulletins.

You might have seen some on Highway 99, encouraging people to join our team. We've also developed an outreach unit through Dir that is. And let me slow down a little bit I talk a little fast, so you're doing fine.

So what we also are doing is that there's a lot of people that have no idea how to get on board with the state. And so we put webinars together for people to be able to listen in, learn about the process and to join our team.

We've also worked with our own staff to reach out to their alumni, if they're a part of any associations, to also get involved with that as well. So long term, I feel that some of the things we need to do is also reach out to our high schools, reach out and grab people at the early stage.

I think back with myself growing up in South Central, I had no idea about Cal Osha. I didn't learn about it until I got into college. And so there are great jobs. It's a great job. I committed over 30 years of my life to it.

I think it's something that we need to share with many others and so that that would create another pipeline for us in bringing people in. I also think that some of our challenges is that some of our classifications are outdated. I do know that the Director is working on those challenges.

Some of the job specific go as far back as 1987. We are updating them, we are reassessing to evaluate the minimum qualifications that are needed. I do feel, and working with the Director that we do need to focus in on the trades and bringing in more people from the trades and how do we go about doing that?

We do need to reassess our classification and evaluate that. And so looking at those avenues, those are some of the things that we're doing to bring up more and more people and also looking at it from the long term as well.

Thank you. That's a helpful and comprehensive answer. On a similar note, you've had to implement standards around heat and indoor heat and indoor. How. You mentioned the outreach you're doing on employment. How are you doing outreach to employers so that they understand their responsibilities and what your policies are on safety and indoor heat?

So within Cal OSHA, we have our consultation services unit. This unit focuses on employers and what we do there. We do outreach with employers by directing them to our website where we have webinars. We also go out and do on site inspections with these employers upon the request and let me stop there.

In my 30 years, I do. My goal is to enhance that process, to do more outreach to small employers as well as to, you know, medium sized employers. But I feel that we need to do more outreach to employers to make them aware of the service that Cal OSHA offers.

And so with that reaching out to like the Chamber of Commerce associations and making it known to employers that Cal OSHA is here to help. Our goal is to educate you on the hazards in your workplace and please take advantage of our consultation services unit. And so there.

Perfect, thank you. And then one other question. We've had fires and in my own district we just had a rather horrific battery storage fire. And mercifully no employees appear to have been hurt. In an incident like that, how, what do you learn from it?

Or do you go in in a way that there's a way you can inform employers going forward how to protect safety and how to deal with what you might have learned from that incident?

Yeah, if you mind, I just have some notes on that I like to bring up. So I'd like to start with that. We have several regulations in place that address safety at battery storage facilities and also that we're in the process of developing fact sheets and educational materials for workers and employers on hazards associated with batteries.

What we have too, within Cal OSHA is the Research and Standards Unit. And you know, when we see these things that are happening and investigating, I can't comment on the investigation now because it's ongoing. But with each one of these cases we learn something, right?

And from there what we want to do is educate employers because it's important to educate employers on the hazards. There are employers that may not know what is the hazard. And so we try to get this information out to employers. We try to develop webinars or videos that we can share with employers on.

Here are the hazards that are associated with your establishment and here are the things that you can do in order to abate that and to make your place safe.

We also offer our consultation services where the employer could reach out and the consultation services will go out and provide that assistance and walk them through the process, identify the regulations that are applicable to them so that they can have that safe workplace.

And it's key that we educate and train employers and provide them with these tools so that they can have a safe workplace.

I appreciate that and I think I would be interested. You mentioned some fact sheets and some other things at the beginning.

I'd be interested in getting a copy of those and if you could provide them to our office because we are doing follow up work, at least legislatively on safety and I would like to make sure that we're in concert with what you're doing.

Thank you. One of the key things, as I mentioned, that we have already regulations in place. What's really important is looking at that emergency response, which is the regulation that we have that covers that. And in there, it outlines all of the requirements that the employer would need to put in place.

But once again, I'm going to say it's really key that employers recognize and understand that Cal OSHA is here to help.

Well, I did a Bill not knowing that there was going to be this incident on safety plans and evacuation plans for battery storage that was not fully being complied with at the time this fire happened, because it was a way to get everybody together and submit it to either the city or county where it is and work with the fire districts and other people.

And so I would just hope you're in concert with that. And then one last question. It's a difficult one, but it should be easy. There was a story in the Los Angeles Times last August about a couple of workers in Cal OSHA and some investigations.

And I just want to give you the chance to answer the question about whether there were any substantiated violations of policy or state law about you that came out of those investigations.

Once again, thank you for that opportunity. Just made a little note here. So let me first state that within DIR and Cal OSHA, all personnel matters and issues, including open and closed investigations, are private and confidential. I became aware of the matter in the Sacramento Bee upon their request from information from the Department.

And so let me state that we are committed, and that includes me, to ensuring that our staff can release, I mean, raise concerns without fear of retaliation. If staff do not feel comfortable bringing complaints to their immediate Cal OSHA supervisor or heads or even to DIR, they have the option to file a whistleblower complaint.

And all employees are provided the Cal OSHA State Auditors whistleblower Hotline information annually every year. And it's also informing them of their rights and safeguards upon the Cal OSHA Whistleblower Act. And so once again, I want to repeat that I only became aware of this upon their request and that I'm actually not asking.

Oh, sorry, excuse me. I'm not asking you to comment on any of the other investigations because they are, in fact, private, but you can comment on whether you had any substantiated violations against you in the investigations. And I am just asking if you did. Sorry, no, I did not know. That's fine. That's fine.

Thank you so much. Madam Vice Chair.

I thought I was being rude if I said it was a yes or no question. No. But you got there. You got there. So thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Thank you. Mr. Chair, good evening or good afternoon. Ms. Lee, thank you very much for being here. Thank you for your 30 years of dedication to this. You may not know in the real world, I'm an employer in the State of California. So OSHA is one of the agencies we deal with.

We do access the consultation agency every now and then, but we have an eight Member safety team that, that does all that. And I don't get into those details, but I did have some questions. I know the Senator, the good Senator, former Secretary of Natural Resources, asked this, but you've been on the job for about eight months.

I know that's just long enough to get your feet wet, but you do have extensive experience in Calosha in different positions. There is a 25% vacancy in over 200 positions that are not filled in the last eight months. Have you been able to change that number? Because this number is about seven months outdated.

So have you filled some of those positions? And if so, I'm assuming that the recruiting efforts that you identified when you talked to Senator Laird was responded to his questions is part of the reason those things happened. And am I correct or not?

Yes, and I'm our now is down to 23%. Okay. And so we're going to continue on that trajectory. And unfortunately I don't have with me now. I did try to get it though how many are currently in the pipeline of being processed for hire. But I could get that number to you.

Thank you. No, thank you for decreasing that number by a few percentage points. I think that's awesome. It's a lot of work to recruit people to go to work that are going to show up at go to work if that makes sense and not want $1.0 million to start. Yes. Yes. Gotcha. No, absolutely.

He also asked another question. I think he took my notes because I was going to ask about the indoor heat illness standards that were being addressed. And so I'm going to skip what's on my notes and ask you, in your comments, you said that you're following the mission of Cal OSHA and your mission.

What's the mission of Cal OSHA and your mission? Are they one and the same?

I'm going to say yes, they're one and the same. And so the mission of Cal OSHA as I look at it, is in two parts. One is as I stated earlier, to educate employees on the hazards in their workplace and to the fact that they have the right to work in a safe environment.

But second, the other part is educating employers and giving Them the tools that they need in order to provide that safe work environment and is also to educate them on the fact that Calosha is here to help. That's my mission, and I believe that is the mission of Calosha.

Thank you. When you talk about educating the employees and educating the employers specific to the battery storage facility fire that we just recently had and also Otay Mesa and other locations, but staying specifically on this one, that was just questioned on.

When you look at respiratory issues for long term, it's cumulative trauma or long term trauma, not just an immediate trauma. Sometimes things like. Sometimes things like, let me find it, Neurological effects, obviously cardiopulmonary disease effects. Those will be developed after a few years of breathing in the toxic, actually hazardous substance that are caused by these fires.

Chemicals released like cobalt, lithium, have neurotoxic effects, potentially leading to neurological disorders and exposure. And that's generational as well. So if the father or mother was exposed, exposed, has a child that could pass through.

I mean, all of that's proven by the chemicals and stuff that come out of lithium and cobalt when it's been burned in this way. That's one of the very high risk issues of this type of storage.

So I guess my question is that, did Calosha go out specifically for this plant to educate the employees on the hazards of that job? Do you rely on somebody's own policy, like a company, their own policy to set the standards and safety risk of that job and train the employees?

I know we do on our jobs, but I didn't know if battery storages were held to the same standard as other employers in the state.

So number one, just to give you a background, when we roll out and under what conditions we roll out, and so we do roll out on accidents that happens and complaints and things of that nature.

When we get information, it could be through the media where we see that a disaster explosion where employees could have been potentially, you know, injured by that, by the labor code, we do have the discretion to go out and conduct an investigation.

And so in other words, what I'm trying to say is that let's say if there was no injury, the employer did not have to report. But we see and deem this to be an issue and we need to go out and look, we have the authority to go out and do that investigation.

And so I won't comment on our. I can't comment on the Moseland because it's an active investigation. Okay?

So I guess maybe I asked the question wrong. So thank God there Were no lives lost and no injuries. But every one of those employees exposed to this for less than three minutes, which was long enough for every one of them to be exposed unless they were provided with a, you know, mask and all.

And I'm talking the ones we wear, Covid. I'm talking about a real mask. Yeah, the exact term escapes me. We're exposed to that for more than three minutes and there are long term effects. So you, you do have injuries under Cal OSHA's code of accumulative trauma or long term effects.

Is there anything being done about that for these employees?

We're in the middle of investigating and we will take all of that into consideration. And then we take a look at what our regulations have and then from there we would determine what citations would be appropriate to issue. Those citations will address the hazards that are found and discovered during the investigation and at the plant.

I appreciate that. I mean, I appreciate that if there was wrongdoing by the employer and not providing the stuff to the employees. And that's one thing that should be on everything, regardless of what type of business you have.

But I guess my thing is that is Cal OSHA reaching out to for specifically there's an urgent for public education on safe handling charging of storage lithium ion batteries, which includes recognizing the signs of battery failure and understanding the immediate evacuation protocol in case of fire.

Cal OSHA is responsible in the State of California to ensure the employers keep employees safe. What is Cal OSHA's plan to educate the people in this new industry to make sure that if something happens, this is how you respond and respond.

For example, oil companies employees wear an H2S monitor and if the H2S monitor goes off, there's a standard out there. And OSHA says go up when immediately, notify your supervisor, so on and so forth in these 10 steps you have to follow. What's Cal OSHA's plan for this new technology that we are seeing problems with?

And how are the employees going to be protected for imminent life and death and the hazardous steps substances that are in the air? Because it's measured and it's on every report that it's whatever that acronym is, Imminent threat to health and life or life and health or whatever it is. So that's out there.

Every person that has investigated these things says that's there. We have long term liability for these employees who were in that environment for more than three minutes. Is there some standard how CALOSHA is going to educate these employees to make sure that they are taken care of.

So As I mentioned earlier about the outreach from our consultation services and the fact sheets that we're working on, those fact sheets will identify for that industry, that emergency response.

And in our standard, it outlines if you're going to have anyone responding to this, anyone exposed to this, here are the steps that you must take and you must train people on this prior to it happening. And so in that, that is all spelled out in our emergency response.

The other, and I'm sorry I didn't catch on earlier what you were saying. I'm sorry I asked it wrong. The other training, there's a list of training that the employer would need to do here and provide to their workers.

The key here is prior to this happening, so there should be systems in place that would alarm and let workers know, evacuate, you know, there's something going wrong with this system. And those are the standards that we currently have now.

And so when we, the outreach material that we would put out would identify that these things should be in place prior to something happen. It should also prevent it from happening when we talk about this procedure in place.

The other thing the employer is required to have, no matter what in the State of California is an injury and illness prevention program. That program is for the employer to identify the hazards that are located in their establishment and take action.

And so what Cal OSHA can do, as I said earlier, reach out, they can reach out to our consultation services and we will be there to provide them. Our consultation services will physically go on site and work with the employer and identify these hazards so that they can come into compliance.

Yeah, no, absolutely, that's. And I apologize for not asking it correctly the first time. I was just trying to figure out if there was exactly what you said. I know they have to have an IAPP. I know they have to follow it, but I was wondering what Cal OSHA's response was. I mean, because of the incident.

And again, thank God no one died, no one was injured that specific day at the time of injury. But every one of those employees that were exposed more than three minutes have long term illness, injuries and potential generational issues with kids. So I just was curious about that.

I apologize again for not asking it the correct way the first time. Thank you for your 30 years of dedication of service to make sure employers operate safely in our community. And that in talking to employers, there are some agents out there that are, you know, representatives that are really heavy handed on the fine and penalty side.

And there are some people out there that work, truly do work with employers to make sure that everybody is cohesive and they make a safe working environment. Their IAPP is up. They provide PPE, all of those things, personal protective equipment for those of us who don't talk in acronyms and stuff. But.

And I know that you are that person that is in the middle that makes your employers and employees are both protected under Cal OSHA and educated. And I appreciate your 30 years of service. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Madam Vice Chair. We're now going to go to the majority leader. Madam Majority Leader, floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Pro Tem. And thank you, Chief Lee, for being here and for your work as well. I actually represent a part of South Central, so it's great to see another South Central native here.

All right, I have a question as it relates to EMA immigration concerns, obviously, it's top of mind for many workers here in California, on top of the threats of deportation and potentially retaliation at the workplace. How are you navigating that in this time now?

And then also, what is Cal OSHA doing above and beyond what has been done before? It's a new time for the workforce, and, you know, employers are feeling a certain way. There's also the DALE Program, the Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement. So I wonder how you foresee that program evolving under this new Administration at the federal level.

Okay, let me see. So I just want to take a minute to absorb your question. Sure. So I'd like to start off by saying that Cal OSHA has been a leader in protecting immigrant workers. And our mandate at Cal OSHA is to enforce state regulations and rules with a focus on workplace safety.

And employees can call in complaints and understand that we do not ask about their immigration status. What we ask about is the unsafe workplace and the conditions that are there. If there is an injury that is reported to us, once again, we do not ask about their immigration status.

Our goal, our mission, is the concern of workers and their safety at work. And so we will continue with that focus if that answers your question.

Thank you. And do you foresee any. I mean, again, we're in a new day here with the Federal Administration, but do you see any differences and changes with the Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement program and how Cal OSHA handles that program? How do you foresee that panning out?

If I could get back with you on that, I would like to consult with our legal team and get an update on that, but I can get back with you.

Thank you. And then one last question for you on domestic workers. I know obviously one of our Senators had been a champion, Senator Durazzo, to bring this bill forward. How do you see this campaign sort of rolling out? What do you envision?

How have you been involved in terms of like the fact the FAQs, how has it been working out?

So. Right, the FAQs. That's my note here. So I see us continuing working with the FAQs. We're also working with our team to get them prepared, you know, because this will take effect on July 1st of 2025. And so public awareness campaigns we're working on as well to make sure everyone is aware of these changes.

But I would say that with it, we're preparing our staff. We're also going to be doing some outreach as well to employers as well as to employees.

Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Thank you so much, Madam Majority Leader. All right, I'm going to look to Lisa Chin on this, who is the lead consultant for Rules Committee. I think we have two questions that are going to need to be answered before we look. Obviously we're going to need to be able to see where the Committee is here today.

But on Senator Grove's question on hiring and then on Senator Gonzale's question on immigration will need to have those follow ups distributed to the Committee before consideration on the floor. Just making sure that works for the Vice Chair as well as to met a majority leader just so that we're doing that follow up and appreciate Ms.

Chin on that. And Chief, obviously we'll work with you and your team on that as well. We're very grateful. We'd like to be able to see if there's any additional comments or questions before we open it up for public comment. All right. Hearing seeing none from the Committee.

What we're going to do is we're going to invite folks to be able to step forward here to the podium. We're going to be taking individuals who are in support of the chief taking support only at this time, we're going to ask you to please list your first last name organization in your remarks. The 30 seconds.

We're grateful that you're here. Thank you so much for hanging with us. Welcome.

Kimberly Rosenberger with Service Employees International Union. Proud to support.

Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Hey. Hey.

Hi. Sarah Flocks from the California Federation of Labor Unions in strong support of the appointment of Chief Lee. We're very excited to have 30 years of expertise and experience leading this organization.

It's good to see you, Ms. Flocks. Thank you. Hi. Good afternoon.

Hello. I'm Amy Heinshiek. I'm a board Member with Worksafe in strong support of Chief Lee. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Appreciate you being here today. We're going to take a moment to see if there's anyone else who is in support. If you could please step forward at this time in support. If you could please step to the podium. Seeing no one rise, we're now going to look for those who may be opposed.

If you could please advance. We're looking at opposition only at this time. We're going to do a last call for opposition. Seeing no one rise. We're going to bring it back to Committee. All right, ladies and gentlemen, Committee, any additional please of Madam Vice Chair.

No comments, sir. Just would like to move the full nomination of Ms. Lee to the floor.

Thank you so much. Very grateful for that. We have a motion on the floor by Vice Chair Grove. Any additional comments, questions from the Committee hearing? Seeing none. We do have a motion on the floor by the Vice Chair. Madam Secretary. Let's call the roll.

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

It's a 5-0 vote. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Chief. Thank you so much for working. Now start making me cry. So. oh my gosh. All right, so we are grateful for your work. And again, like you said, I'm starting to cry, so. Yeah, it's good, it's good. Good tears, right? Happy tears. Yeah. So let's just talk about next steps.

So next steps will be is that Ms. Chin is going to work with yourself, Madam Chief, and your team to be able to get the questions that will come back in writing. We'll distribute them to Committee and then of course, we'll look at advancing on the floor. And that will be our next step. Chief, congratulations.

We're going to take a two minute pause, allow the Chief to be able to see friends and family, and then we'll adjourn. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Two minute. Two minute recession.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to conclude today's agenda. To all of those who were here, thank you so much for your testimony today. We are going to be adjourning until next Wednesday. Thank you so much.