Assembly Floor

The Assembly is now in session. Assemblymember Dixon notices the absence of a quorum. Sergeant Arms will prepare the chamber and bring in the absent Members. Clerk will call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Members. The quorum is present. We ask our guests and visitors in the rear of the chamber and in the gallery to please stand for the prayer. Reverend Oshita will offer today's prayer. Reverend Oshita.

Please join me in a moment of reflection. The aroma of family barbecues filling the air yesterday brought to mind a barbecue we hosted about 15 years ago. I planned a special dinner and wanted everything to be perfect. Our Bishop, Soto, Koshi Nogui, his wife and daughter were our guests. I had seasoned some prime ribeye steaks.

Bob's job was just to barbecue them. As I checked the table setting with fresh flowers and my good dishes, I could hear our guests laughter filling the next room. But I also heard the familiar laughter of my husband. I wondered who was watching the stakes.

I glanced towards the kitchen window and could see that in our yard there were flames leaping four to five feet into the air. I shouted, Bob, the stakes. Bob jumped up and ran outside and frantically covered the raging flames. The stakes were charcoal black. I could not believe it.

I thought he had one job to do and now my dinner was ruined. I could not speak, but everyone could see the look on my face when I saw Bob's plate of steaks. I remember well Bishop Ogui's smiling face cheerfully saying, don't worry, Patty, those steaks are so thick I can cut off the burnt part.

And he took them to the cutting board and carefully cut off as much of the smoking crust that he could. Then laughingly, he said, there, all good. That evening, I never received so many compliments on my vegetable dishes and salads. In other words, nicely barbecued steaks have a delicious spice smoky flavor. Steaks salvaged from near incineration.

Do not. Most importantly, Bishop taught me two things that day. One, that he really liked Bob a lot. Two, we have to try to keep a sense of humor and not let our absent minded husband ruin a fun evening. Today I share this lesson that I learned well in living through the challenges of life and marriage.

It helps to not take everything too seriously and to keep a sense of humor. Namo mi dabuzu. Let us live with kindness and gratitude beyond words.

We ask our guests and visitors to remain standing to join us in the flag salute. Assemblymember Demaio will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Members and guests, please face the flag.

Hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God.

May be seated. To our guests and visitors today, State law prohibits persons in the gallery from interfering with legislative proceedings or disrupting the orderly conduct of official business. Persons disrupting legislative proceedings are subject to removal, arrest or other appropriate legal remedies. Reading of the previous day's Journal.

Assembly Chamber Sacramento Wednesday, May 142025 the Assembly met at 7:00am The Honorable Juan Alanis, Assemblymember 22nd District presiding. Chief Clerk Superco at the desk, reading. Clerk David A. Bowman, reading.

Assistant Majority Leader Garcia moves and Mr. Lackey seconds that the reading of the previous day's journal be dispensed with. Presentations and petitions. There are none. Introduction and reference of bills will be deferred, reports of committees will be deemed read and amendments deemed adopted. Messages from the Governor? There are none. Messages from the Senate? There are none.

Moving to motions and resolutions. The absences for the day. For legislative business, Assembly Members Jeff Gonzalez for personal business. Assemblymember Nguyen. I think I. I think I see former Assemblymember, now Congressmember Adam Gray in the back of the chamber. Everybody. Welcome back, Congressman. Assistant Majority Leader Garcia, you are recognized for your procedural motions.

Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to suspend Assembly Rule 45.5 to allow Assembly Members Irwin Calderon, Michelle Rodriguez and Lackey to speak on an adjournment memory today. Without objection, Such shall be the order. I request unanimous consent to suspend Assembly rule 118A to allow Assembly Members Hoover and Lackey to have guests in the rear of chamber today.

Not objection. Such shall be the order. Announcement for the Members of the Rules Committee, including appointed alternates, upon adjournment today, please make your way to Capitol Room 126 for the Committee photo. Okay, moving on to guest introductions and announcements. Assemblymember Irwin you are recognized for your guest introduction.

Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker and Members. It is my pleasure today to introduce students and faculties visiting us at the State Capitol. From California Lutheran University, please take a moment to give him a warm welcome. Please stand up.

Welcome to the California Assembly.

Okay, Assembly Member Soria, standby. Assemblymember Soria, you are recognized from the Majority Leader's desk for your guest introduction.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members. Today I'd like to welcome this year's Cape Fellows to Sacramento. For those of you that don't know, the Center for Analytic Political Engagement, or also known as cape, is a program offered at UC Merced which is in my district.

It is a year long learning program designed to engage students and prepare them for professional roles in California politics and the state's Legislature. Up in the gallery today we have our 2025 Cape legislative fellows who are. Who are all at the moment attending UC Merced as undergraduates. So go Bobcats.

Thank you for being here today and we welcome you to the California State Assembly. Also with us in the gallery are three students with the Maddie Institute who by the way, just won the nonprofit of the Year in my neighbor's district who represents Clovis. So to the Maddie a shout out.

And then also I want to just personally welcome the Cape fellows. Arian De Leon, Noah Evgent, Gracie Jaime, Gabriel Vargas Buell, Jay Tirado, Mariel Garcia. And welcome to the three students from the Maddie Institute. Nayen Lepe, Kohar Chick from Bakersfield, Janelle Sicaidos from Stanislaus, and Leah Alonso from UC Merced.

I also want to note that one of these three students from the Maddie Institute will also be interning in my office this summer. So Leah, I hope you're ready to have fun and to learn a lot and get ready to work on behalf of Assembly District 27 constituents.

I want to thank all the fellows and the Maddie Institute students and welcome them to the State Capitol. Also want to welcome Congressman Adam Gray, who I know he's here with them today and has been instrumental in the CAPE Fellows program at UC Merced. So if you guys want to stand to be recognized, welcome to Sacramento.

Welcome CAPE Fellows. Welcome.

We are ready to move on to business on the daily file. Our second reading without objection. All items on second reading will be deemed read. Concurrence and Senate Amendments pass and retain reconsideration. All items to be continued, which brings us to the Assembly third reading. We're going to pass and retain on File Item 432 through 436.

That brings us to File Item 437, AB 1390 by Assemblymember Solache. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 1390 by Assemblymember Solache and others in applying to public school governance.

Assemblymember Solache, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, I am proud to present AB 1390, which will make long overdue updates to the monthly compensation thresholds for local and county school districts, ensuring opportunities to serve on school boards remain accessible.

Existing law authorizes members of County Boards of Education and school districts to receive compensation thresholds based on the average daily attendance from the prior school year. These compensation thresholds have not been adjusted in the last 40 years, not even to count inflation.

Like many of my esteemed colleagues, I had the privilege of serving as a local School Board Member. I represented my community of Lynwood for 10 years. Serving as a School Board Trustee is a demanding role that requires a great deal of time, research, training, public engagement, and commitment.

In my districts, the level of compensation makes it difficult for individuals who are supporting themselves and their families to consider serving on a school board. Importantly, AB 1398 preserves a public process that a school board must currently follow to adjust its compensation levels.

Any proposed change can only be made through an official board item discussed at a public meeting. AB 1390 aims to give members of the community, regardless of their income, an opportunity to serve their local school board and students. Thank you, Speaker and Members. I respectfully ask for your "Aye" vote on AB 1390.

Thank you, Assemblymember Solache. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes. "Aye's," 46. "No's," 1. The measure passes.

Going to pass and retain on File Items 438 through 445. Brings us to File Item 446 also by—AB 1338—also by Assemblymember Solache. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 1338 by Assemblymember Solache, an act relating to air pollution.

Thank you.

Assemblymember Solache, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, I rise to today to present AB 1338. AB 1338 would enable local air districts to recover costs related to the implementation of facility white fence lining air monitoring requirements every metal trading facilities.

This Bill passed through Committee with unanimous and bipartisan support. AB 1338 seeks to protect the communities in my district from harmful air pollution while preserving the efficiency utilizing air district's resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, I respectfully ask for your "Aye" vote on 1338.

Thank you, Assemblymember Solache. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes. "Aye's," 59. "No's," 2. The measure passes.

We're going to pass and retain on File Items Number 447 and 448. Brings us to File Item 449, AB 648, by Assemblymember Zbur. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 648 by Assemblymember Zbur, an act relating to community colleges.

Assemblymember Zbur, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Colleagues, I rise today to present AB 648 which will combat housing insecurity and homelessness among community college students, staff, and faculty, while also addressing California's broader housing crisis.

Although community colleges have become an integral part of of California's higher education system, community college students often face uncertainty about whether they will be able to provide for their basic needs. Last year, the Legislative Analyst Office found that roughly 60% of community college students face housing insecurity and almost 25% have experienced homelessness.

AB 648 will address this crisis by allowing student and staff housing to be built on property that is owned or leased by a community college district and located within a half-mile radius of a main campus or an existing satellite campus, regardless of how it's zoned.

Community colleges will still be required to comply with CEQA to consult with local planning department and follow other land use regulations. The Bill will provide housing security for countless community college students, staff, and faculty.

It's sponsored by Santa Monica College, LA Community College District, Abundant Housing LA, and Student homes Coalition, and supported by community colleges across the state. Respectfully ask for your "Aye" vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Zbur. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes. "Aye's," 53. "No's," 5.

The measure passes. Going to pass and retain on File Items 450 through 453. That brings us to File Item 454, AB 1207, by Assemblymember Irwin. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 1207 by Assemblymember Irwin an act related to climate change.

Assemblymember Irwin, you are recognized.

Good afternoon, colleagues. We have to ensure that our climate policies are science based, affordable and provide tangible benefits to all Californians.

And AB 1207 will achieve this by setting the price ceiling in California's Cap and Trade market to correspond to the social cost of carbon, which reflects the real world impact of greenhouse gas emissions as assessed by the US EPA in 2023.

At a time when the Federal Government is dismantling environmental programs and defunding scientific research, this Bill ensures that California's Cap and trade program continues to be informed by the best available science. This bill passed out of Natural Resources Committee with bipartisan support and has received no no votes. I respectfully ask for your aye vote on AB 1207.

Thank you, Assemblymember Irwin. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to. Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes. Ayes, 53. Noes, 1. The measure passes. We're going to pass and retain on file item 455.

That brings us to file item 466, ACR 66 by Assembly Member Dixon. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Concurrent Resolution 66 by Assembly Member Dixon and others, relative to Skin Cancer Awareness Month.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today in partnership with Assembly Member Petrie-Norris to present ACR 66, which recognizes May as Skin Cancer Awareness Month. As you know, skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States.

In fact, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation, one in five Americans will develop skin cancer by the age of 70. Tragically, the American Cancer Society estimates about 8,400 people are expected to die annually due to the most serious type of skin cancer, melanoma.

The this issue is deeply personal to me, as I've recently undergone treatments myself to remove skin cancer and have friends who have lost loved ones to melanoma. Fortunately for me, treatment has gone well and the cancer has been removed for now. We must always remain aware and watchful of how our skin changes.

While the statistics I mentioned are bleak, the risk of skin cancer can be mitigated through responsible self care. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, about 90% of non-melanoma skin cancers and 85% of melanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

You can greatly reduce your risk for skin cancer by just wearing clothing that covers you from harmful UV rays, wearing wide brim hats to protect your ears and face, and using sunscreen. While prevention is important, it is also imperative to be vigilant and in detecting skin cancer. While many individuals will be diagnosed with skin cancer, it remains one of the most treatable cancers if detected early. The Skin Cancer Foundation estimates a 99% five year survival rate when melanoma is detected early.

I encourage all of you to be extra safe when you are in the sun and to make sure you are attentive and taking care of your skin. Please join me in highlighting this important issue and vote aye on ACR 66. And Mr. Speaker, I'd like the first roll to be open to co-authors, and thank you very much.

Thank you, Assembly Member Dixon. Assembly Member Dixon has asked for the first roll to be open for co-authors. All debate having ceased, Clerk will open the roll. Members this is for co-authors. All Members vote who desire to vote. Members, this is for co-authors. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes. There are 66 co-authors added. Without objection, we'll now take a voice vote on the measure. All those in favor say aye. I'm going to ask again. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed no. The ayes have it. The measure passes. Going to pass and retain on file item 457. That brings us to file item 458, AB 49 by Assembly Member Muratsuchi.

The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 49 by Assembly Member Muratsuchi and others in APP. Relating to education and declaring the urgency thereof to take effect immediately.

Assembly Members Muratsuchi, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Members, Assembly Bill 49 is an urgency bill to do everything within our power to keep ICE out of our public schools. For decades, we have had bipartisan support to respect schools as safe havens for all of our immigrant students, including undocumented students.

Since 1991, the former immigration and Naturalization Agency, now Homeland Security, recognized schools as a place where children should not be afraid to come to school, should not be afraid of having their families separated, and parents should not be afraid to drop their kids off at school.

But unfortunately, in January of this year, the Trump Administration changed their policy. They issued a memoir that is no longer recognizing schools as safe havens. We should do everything we can to make sure that schools are safe learning places for all kids, including our immigrant kids.

That is why this Bill is seeking to establish our schools as safe havens schools are one of the last remaining places for immigrant students to feel safe. This bill is supported by teachers, principals, administrators, superintendents, and the California State PTA. With no registered opposition, I respectfully ask for your Aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Muratsuchi. Just a moment, Mr. Demaio. Members, can we have decorum, please? Thank you. Mr. Demaio. You were recognized.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to AB 49. This bill is once again part of the fear mongering that we are seeing by those on the left to try to scare our children.

We have not seen a single instance, not a single instance of ICE raids targeting children in schools, and yet we have a number of children terrified. Why? Because they're being told by adults that they should be terrified and afraid. And so I am very concerned about the basis, the lack of basis, the politicized agenda behind AB49.

Second, the language in AB49 commands and directs government staff at the local level to violate a duly issued warrant. The language in this bill specifically says that it would be a violation of state law for a school district employee to comply with a duly issued court federal warrant.

Why are we putting our teachers, our school staff in legal jeopardy? This is unconscionable. Because you want to pursue a political agenda. This is not appropriate. Leave them out of it.

And third, this entire resolution creates the specter that our school personnel may be subject to both civil or criminal sanction from the Federal Government, as well as penalties. In terms of federal funding. Again, for what? There is no justification.

I challenge the backers of this law to cite specific instances of Ayes going into a California school to target a child. To target a child or a student, a minor. You will not be able to cite a single instance in the Trump Administration of that action.

Again, this is going to create great legal liability, great legal risk, and put federal funding for schools in jeopardy. Why? Because of fear mongering. It's a shameful bill and it does not deserve passage. Today, I urge a no vote on AB 49.

Thank you, Assemblymember Demaio. Assemblymember Elhawary, you are recognized.

Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. And I'd like to cite two instances that happened in our schools, in our district, where the exact thing that my colleague from San Diego is claiming did not happen, actually did.

Immigration officials came to Lillian street and Durazo elementary schools in South Central Los Angeles, in the Florence Firestone District, where our students are there every day to learn, every day to feel safe.

And in fact, the immigration officials lied and Said that they had spoken to the family and they had given permission to come into the schools and speak to those students to do what they are now claiming are wellness checks.

Let's be honest, ain't no ICE official trying to do a wellness check on our young people, trying to take care of them, make sure they're safe. That's not what they were intended to do. That's not what they are doing. So it's not fear mongering, it's real life. It's every day.

It's how they feel going to school when their parents drop them off. And what we're doing and what we're ensuring that we do is protect our students and make sure they feel safe so that they don't show up to class and fear that they might be taken out of class and put on a plane, deported back.

That's not okay. We have to protect our young people. We have to continue to stand with our students. We have to make sure we protect our schools.

And the principals of Durazo street and Lillian Elementary School have done exactly that, have protected the students and we are here to support them in ensuring that they protect these children every single day, which is what we've asked them to do and how we've put them, what we've charged them with. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Assemblymember Elhawary. Assemblymember Carrillo, you are recognized.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. I rise as a proud principal sponsor, co author of this bill. As an immigrant myself, I know the value our communities add to our state. As Californians, we remain steadfast in protecting the rights of immigrants and ensuring that all have access to basic rights.

We will not allow harmful federal policies infill fear in the hard working immigrants of this state. We will not allow schools that have been historically safe havens for weaponized against hardworking Californians and their families. I respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Thank you Assembly Member Carrillo. Assembly Member Ortega, you are recognized.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I too rise in support of this legislation as a joint author and as my colleague stated, terrorizing our communities are not myth. There are not things that are happening in our dreams or even in our worst nightmares. They're literally happening every single day.

And the people that are having to bear the threats in the State of California are children. The day that these welfare checks were done, they weren't there to look for criminals. Unless in the eyes of the federal Administration, you now consider children and get grades one through six as criminals. Because that is what is happening.

And that is why we must protect all of our Members in our community. And the reason that these children are safe today is wasn't because of the welfare checks. It was because we put resources to ensure that our teachers, our administrators, know exactly what to do when these agents arrive at their schools without a warrant.

And that is why our children are protected today. Because we as a Legislature, prioritize those resources to ensure that everyone in the State of California knows their rights.

Thank you, Assemblymember Ortega. Assemblymember Bains, you are recognized.

Thank you. Colleagues, I rise in support and in regards to fear mongering, I'm going to read a headline that just hit the L A Times this morning. Four year old Bakersfield girl facing deportation could die within days of losing medical care.

In 2023, a Mexican girl with a life threatening medical condition was allowed to enter the US legally on humanitarian grounds. The Trump Administration has now ordered the girl and her parents to leave the country. One of the girl's physicians says that if her treatment is interrupted, this could be fatal in a matter of days.

You want to talk about fear mongering?

Thank you, Assemblymember Bains. Assemblymember Mckinnor, you are recognized.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of AB 49 and for my colleague from San Diego, I just wanted to make sure that we answered his questions and gave him incited the two schools, they're both from LA Unified School District.

It's Durazo Elementary School and Lillian Street elementary school where the ICE officers came in in April of 2025. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblymember Mckinnor. Assemblymember Quirk-Silva, you are recognized.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of AB 49. When we talk about terror and threats and targeting, who are we talking about? We're talking about our Latino community. This seems to be the fascination of our President who even on Memorial Day wrote horrible things on his message about illegal aliens.

This is a bill to protect ICE agents from coming onto campuses where our students are supposed to be there to learn. And yet we know even before they get to campus they're being targeted. So when we say this is not happening, it is indeed happening. It's happening on their way to school.

We have seen the photos and the pictures of children being left in their cars while their parents are taken away. This is real, this is happening and it's true. So as much as we want to say it's fear mongering, I guess my question to the Member of San Diego would be by who? By who?

Who is instilling fear across our country for hard working Americans. I've said this before and I'm going to say it all day long every time I can. Who is building America and the construction in our homes? Who's working in the restaurants? Who's cleaning the rooms and hospitality? Who's taking care of our children?

And yet they are being threatened all day, every day. But we've decided to make the Latino community the community that we're going to make an example of. Even though California is the fourth largest economy, we won't be for long if we continue to tear down our structures.

But this Bill focuses on Ayes agents going on to campuses, a place where kids should go to school to learn to read and write and do the work that we know that is important for academic success. And yet we know that our, through Ada numbers, our numbers are down. Why are they down?

Because parents are afraid to send their kids to school. So when we talk about fear, yes, there is a lot of fear, but it's coming from the highest office in our country and this needs to stop.

Thank you, Assemblymember Quirk-Silva. Seeing and hearing no further debate. Assemblymember Muratsuchi, do you wish to close?

Thank you very much. I want to thank all of my colleagues either for or against this bill. To express your experience, your thoughts, what is happening in districts throughout the State of California. I want to highlight especially our colleague from Delano.

She has been working on a bill that she'll be bringing forward that is highlighting the fact, the fact that Enrollment in public schools throughout the state, but especially in schools that have the highest percentage of immigrant students, have seen a dramatic drop off in Enrollment.

And that is because it's not just the actual enforcement as we heard from from my colleague from South Los Angeles, you know, the actual incidence of Ayes Asians coming to public schools looking for kids. It's not just the impact on those kids, but it's the fear that is being weaponized to attack all of our immigrant students.

Not just the Latino community, but the Asian and Pacific Islander communities, all of our immigrant communities that are being subjected to this fear. And so this bill, this bill is supported by teachers, by school administrators. They are not concerned about being criminally prosecuted. This Bill does not criminalize protecting students at our public schools.

And this bill, most importantly, is for all of our kids, as shown by the support from the California State PTA. The California State PTA. If he can get more all American than California State PTA, then what organization can we look to? I respectfully ask for your Aye vote.

Thank You Assemblymember Muratsuchi. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. Members, this bill has an urgency on it. It is a 54 vote bill. All those vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes. Ayes 59.

Noes nine. The measure passes. Excuse me. Ayes 59, noes nine on the urgency. Ayes 59, noes nine on the measure. Brings us to file item 459, AB 317 by Assembly Member Jackson. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 317 by Assembly Member Jackson, an act relating to housing.

Assembly Member Jackson, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Presenting AB 317 to make homeownership more accessible for first time buyers by placing a CEQA exemption for new single family homes to make it easier to and more incentivize smaller homes being built. However, we are still working on some language to ensure soil testing and protection of Native American remains. But at this time, I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Jackson. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes. Ayes 62. Noes zero. The measure passes. Brings us to file item 460, AB 527 by Assembly Member Papan.

Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 527 by Assembly Member Papan and others, an act relating to environmental quality.

Assembly Member Papan, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Well, this is a bill you've all been waiting for. It deals with geothermal energy. Why have you been waiting for a bill on geothermal energy? Because it's a great source of renewable energy. You don't need wind, you don't need the sun to shine. It's just based upon what? Steam coming out of the ground.

So what this bill does is it streamlines the process for exploratory wells. In order for us to get up to speed on geothermal as a real, viable, and abundant source of renewable energy, we need to explore for more wells. So this bill streamlines the process for permitting for those wells.

Before the development of a geothermal project, developers need to drill a small number of exploratory wells to understand what's underground. These early phase wells are low impact and temporary, but they're treated as separate projects under CEQA, triggering a full environmental review. And then what happens is, let's say you do find a great source of geothermal steam.

You have to go through CEQA all over again for an entire field of geothermal dwelling. So what this bill does is it says we have a narrow exemption for CEQA for exploratory geothermal wells that also though at the same time meet strong environmental standards, cutting the green tape while maintaining stewardship. This bill is about speeding up clean energy and giving geothermal developers the regulatory expediency they need to invest in California.

Thank you, Assembly Member Papan. Assembly Member Rogers, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of AB 527 and want to thank my colleague for leading on geothermal. Sonoma County and Lake County actually is the only place in the United States that can currently deliver 24/7, 100% renewable energy because of the geothermal plant that's there.

We need more of that baseload if we're going to hit our energy goals. And being able to move forward projects faster, not waive all of the environmental protections, but explore to make sure that that potential is there is really critical for meeting those goals. So I ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Rogers. Seeing and hearing no further debate, Assembly Member Papan, would you like to close?

Well, I want to thank my colleague from Somona for... From Sonoma for his civic pride and his ownership of geothermal. I just respectfully request an aye vote. We are preserving our environmental standards and at the same time fully achieving the promise of green reliable geothermal energy. Respectfully request an aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Papan. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes. Ayes 67. Noes 0. The measure passes. Gonna pass and retain on file item 461.

That brings us to file item 462, AB 665 by Assembly Member Chen. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 665 by Assembly Member Chen, an act relating to financial institutions.

Assembly Member Chen, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to present AB 665. This bill simply requires the DFPI to include information about the activities of its Office of the Ombudsman in its annual report under the California Consumer Financial Protection Law. This is a support support. There's no opposition. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

That's how you do it. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes. Ayes 66, noes 0. The measure passes. We will pass and retain on file items 463, 64, 65, 66. That brings us to file item 467, AB 940 by Assembly Member Wicks.

The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 940 by Assemblymember Wicks and others, an act relating to local government.

Assemblymember Wicks, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members, for allowing me to present Assembly Bill 940. AB 940 allows two or more cities and counties to establish themselves as a Quantum Innovation Zone, encouraging California's rich ecosystem of Quantum stakeholders to more effectively collaborate, leverage resources, and share information in order to bolster the state's Quantum computing economy.

Although California has long been the national leader on technology, other states are now making direct investments in this, in this space, including Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, and Maryland. This means California has a limited time to continue to be a national leader in this space and as I've learned, Quantum computing is a critical part of our technology infrastructure.

Whoever owns Quantum owns the future. It's important that California put our flag on the ground and say, we want Quantum here in California. We're going to do everything we can to keep it here. And with that, respectfully ask for an "Aye" vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Wicks. Assemblymember Hoover, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in proud support of this legislation. Want to thank my colleague for her work on this important issue. You know, Quantum is very far out in the future, and I'll let my other colleague explain more of the technical side of it, but it is really critical that California continues to be a leader in all types of technology.

And I think this Bill will allow us the ability to do that in quantum. So, respectfully ask for an "Aye" vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Hoover. Now that Mr. Alanis has fixed your tie, Assemblymember Ellis, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members. I rise in support and a proud co-author of AB 940. Quantum computers are a billion times a billion faster than your classic computer. I'll give you a quick example. All of the algorithms for protein folding in your DNA, which is cancer, have already been written by Harvard Medical University.

But our classic computers cannot function. When our quantum computers meets—meet—their functionality, we will actually solve those algorithms and design specific medications for each individual protein folding. That means if you have lung cancer, it's one medicine. If you have brain cancer, another. If you have leukemia. It goes on and on and on.

And then, when you talk about optimization, you get into fusion, which is energy. When we optimize fusion, we will control the world in energy. It's not only—and also aerospace and composites, AI. You think AI is cool now? You wait till the Quantum computer gets a hold of it. It's going to turn this world upside down.

So, we have people in the State of California that have the intellect, and we have the resources. Our, our universities, we have the most abundant resources in the world. Let's take advantage of them. And I really commend Assemblymember for this Bill. I respectfully urge your "Aye" vote for AB 940. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblymember Ellis. Seeing and hearing no further debate, Assemblymember Wicks, would you like to close?

Just appreciate the comments from both my colleagues, especially my joint author, who actually knows intuitively and inherently about Quantum computing. So, with that, respectfully ask for an "Aye" vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Wicks. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. "Aye's," 68. "No's," 0. The measure passes.

Before we go to the next bill, we're going to recognize Assembly Member Soria from the Majority Leader's desk for her guest introduction.

Thank you again, Mr. Speaker and Members. So today I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to Madera High School's MadTown Robotics Team 1323. They're in the gallery. Members, for those who don't know already, we want to recognize these famous faces. There's a few of them that have are returning back to Sacramento.

So this is Team 1323 who has achieved remarkable and historic success this year on the global stage, securing three FIRST Robotics World Championships in 2019, 2023, and more recently in April of this year. So they're three times world champions. They have competed against 600 teams across the world. These students have a lot of grit.

And so for those of you that don't know, FIRST Championship is a culminating international event for youth robotics competitions recognizing innovation in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM. MadTown Robotics Team 1323's most recent victory was this past April at the Houston Championships, where they solidified their status as a dominant force in STEM education and youth innovation.

I will say very proudly, as someone that represents the Central Valley, they beat out Silicon Valley teams that were sponsored by Google and Apple. These are students that are sponsored by their local community businesses. This team was founded in 2004 by math teacher Alan Hollman at Madera High School.

MadTown Robotics began with just four students and a wooden robot built in a classroom. Today it has grown into a complete powerhouse in the FIRST Robotics competition, now representing four high schools in Madera, Madera High, Madera South, Matilda Torres, and Sherman Thomas Charter School.

Beyond competition, MadTown Robotics is deeply committed to outreach in Madera and throughout the Central Valley. They host an annual MadTown Throwdown, an off season event that brings together teams from across California. Additionally, they spearhead Robotics Advancement Program aiming to introduce Lego based robotic clubs in every Madera Unified elementary school, fostering early interest in STEM fields for their younger peers.

The MadTown Robotics team are champions in their STEM field and today they join us in the gallery. So I want to offer our congratulations to all our students that are here. Members, these are the faces of our future scientists, our future engineers, future mathematicians, future mechanics, and much more in the Central Valley. I also want to recognize Vern ValMonte, who is the head coach, RC, their senior mentor, and Elias Avila, who is also a mentor of the team.

I ask that we all take this moment to honor them, celebrate them, recognize their incredible strength through adversity, and congratulate them on the massive of success they've already achieved at their young ages. Thank you, MadTown Robotics Team 1323, for being here, for putting Madera County on the map. Congratulations, world champions.

Congratulations. Welcome to the California Assembly.

Okay, we are going to continue on. This is on the daily file. Thank you, Members. File item 468, AB 1021 by Assembly Member Wicks. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 1021 by Assembly Member Wicks and others, an act relating to housing.

Assembly Member Wicks, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members. I'm proud to present AB 1021. It's a very simple bill. It will make it easier for local education agencies to help solve the problem of a lack of housing by allowing them to build workforce housing on the land that they own.

It builds off AB 2295 from our former colleague, Assembly Member Richard Bloom, by addressing the remaining issues that have been identified by school districts to proceed with with building housing. The bill has no state cost, no opposition, and bipartisan support. Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Wicks. Assembly Member Muratsuchi, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, Members. You don't see too many Wicks Muratsuchi housing bills, but we got one here. AB 1021 is a bill that I'm proud to be a joint author, not only joining our colleague from Oakland, but also as Chair of the Education Committee.

I want to say that I hear from school districts throughout the state, but especially in communities that have the highest cost of housing. And more and more increasingly our teachers are telling all of us that they can't afford to live in in the communities that they work in.

AB 1021 is a common sense bill that will allow school districts that want to build housing. It's not a mandate, but it's providing for that valuable land that they have to help them build education workforce housing for our teachers, for our classified employees. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Muratsuchi. Seeing and hearing no further debate, Assembly Member Wicks, do you wish to close?

Just appreciate my colleague from Long Beach. I think this goes down in history. It's the first time we have jointly authored a bill on housing together, so it must be great. With that, respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Wicks. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes. Ayes 51, noes 3. The measure passes. Pass and retain on file item 469. That brings us to file item 470, AB 1112 by Assembly Member Wallis.

The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 1112 by Assembly Member Wallis, an act relating to property taxation.

Assembly Member Wallis, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, today I rise to ask for your aye vote on AB 1112. This is a district bill that simply strikes a provision of the Red and Tax Code that apportions property tax between the City of Rancho Mirage and Riverside County. The city and county are working on a plan to address the change in distribution of the property tax in an equitable manner. This provision predates the end of redevelopment and is no longer necessary. I ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Wallis. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes. Ayes 64, noes 0. The measure passes.

Brings us to file item 471, AB 1318 by Assembly Member Bonta. Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 1318 by Assembly Member Bonta and others, an act relating to public social services and declaring the urgency thereof to take effect immediately.

Assembly Member Bonta, you are recognized.

Members, our nonprofits need us. I'm proud to present AB 1318, which clarifies that nonprofit organizations with either federal or state tax exempt status that provide services to undocumented immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are eligible for public funding.

Nonprofits is currently defined through the Welfare and Institutions Code as an organization that has federal tax exempt status under section 501C3 of the Internal Revenue Code. However, California also has its own definition of a nonprofit organization for the purposes of state tax exemption in Section 23701D of the Revenue Taxation Code.

Unfortunately, recent federal legislation has targeted the federal tax exempt status of nonprofits serving vulnerable populations. Additionally, executive orders and messaging from the White House have have mirrored this strategy and rhetoric. These measures are designed to block legal and social services to immigrants and asylum seekers by attacking the nonprofits that serve them. AB 1318 represents minor and absorbable cost to the state while providing critical clarity and protection to our nonprofit sector and to our immigrant community. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Bonta. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. Members, there is urgency on this bill as a 54 vote bill. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes. Ayes 56, noes 11, the measure passes. On the urgency, ayes 56, noes 11 on the measure. We're going to pass and retain on file item 472. Brings us to file item 473, AB 1470 by Assembly Member Haney.

The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 1470 by Assembly Member Haney, an act relating to public post secondary education.

Assembly Member Haney, you are recognized.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker and Members. I rise to present AB 1470, a strategic effort to strengthen the presence of our colleges and universities in our state's downtowns and commercial districts by supporting the development of affordable housing at no additional cost to the state.

AB 1470 builds on the California Student Housing Revolving Loan Fund by allowing California's State University, University of California, and community colleges to use up to 20% of their loan funds to to construct affordable student, faculty, and staff housing in downtowns or main commercial or cultural districts.

The student housing crisis in California has worsened in recent years, with more than half of community college students experiencing housing insecurity. We have to build more student housing and we can also do so in places that can revitalize our towns and cities and bring significant benefits to students and their learning experiences. It will encourage revitalization and support the affordable living of our students. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Haney. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes. Ayes 65, noes 0. The measure passes. Going to pass and retain on file item 474 through 477. That brings us to file item 478, HR 40. File item 478, HR 40 by Assembly Member Lackey.

The Clerk will read.

House Resolution 40 by Assembly Member Lackey, relative to Rosenda's Day.

Assembly Member Lackey, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, I rise today to present HR 40 declaring May 25th as Rosenda's Day. Before I begin, I would like to first welcome in the back of the chamber Dr. Fillmore Smiley and Glori Smiley, her parents, who have traveled to Sacramento from quite a distance from the district.

Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start to summer. We all know this. It's a period notoriously known for camping, floating the river, but unfortunately also drunk driving. Rosenda Rose Smiley, a 14 year old girl, much like all of her friends, wanted to spend a three day weekend on the beach.

However, on May 25th of 2024, her life was stolen in an instant when she was crossing the street and a drunk driver struck her. Her parents will tell you she was a miracle from the start. After being told they would be unable to have children, Rose was miraculously born on December 5, 2009. She was full of life.

She traveled the world, loved to laugh, and enjoyed having fun. She believed in fairness and justice for both animals and people, as she would often volunteer at her local animal shelter. Her parents would describe her as intelligent, spirited, sweet, funny, beautiful, and witty with a sharp tongue.

They would tell you that her life was contagious and her smile was like sunshine. Rose had plans. She had lots of plans. She knew which college she wanted to attend, she knew she wanted to travel and the experiences that she wanted to enjoy. Last year, the California High Patrol called for a maximum enforcement period starting May 24 through May 27 in an attempt to curb drunk driving.

When that enforcement period ended, just the CHP made 1,106 DUI arrests and reported a total of 42 deaths from drunk drivers, including Rose. Her story is tragic, but it's a reminder of a preventable choice. Alcohol abuse is the fourth leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States, and two out of three people will be impacted by a drunk driver in their lifetime.

Rosenda's legacy lives not only in her family and friends' memories, but in the lasting tribute of Rosenda's Gift, a charity founded in her name for grieving families to memorialize their loved ones. This HR, HR 40, declares May 25 as Rosenda's Day to raise awareness of the deadly impacts of drunk driving and to honor the short 5285 days of a 14 year old girl named Rosenda Smiley. I respectfully ask for the first roll be open for co-authors.

Thank you, Assembly Member Lackey. Members, Mr. Lackey has asked for the first roll to be open for co-authors. The Clerk will open the roll for co-authors. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll. Tally the votes.

There are 75 co-authors added. Without objection, we'll now take a voice vote on the measure. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed no. The ayes have it. The measure is adopted. Assembly Member Lackey, you are recognized for your guest introduction.

Yes, as I mentioned, we have the parents, Dr. Fillmore Smiley and Glori Smiley from my district in the back of the room. We wanted to express to them our condolences. Thank you.

Members, we will be continuing on business on the daily file. File item 479, HR 42 by Assembly Member Elhawary. The Clerk will read.

House Resolution 42 by Assembly Member Elhawary, relative to Behavioral Health Awareness Month.

Assembly Member Elhawary, you are recognized.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker and Members, I rise today to present HR 42, recognizing May as Mental Health Awareness Month. This resolution means a lot to me because I know what it's like when mental health struggles hit close to home. This issue is present in our families, our neighborhoods, and in my own story. Therapy has helped me.

Access to healing spaces have helped me. And I say that openly because we need to normalize it. We can't keep acting like mental health care is a luxury because it's not. It's essential.

One of my two pillars in our office is wellness equity, because I want us to get to a point where when we talk about strengthening mental health, a solution comes to us as naturally as the gym comes to mind for our physical health. It should go without saying that's the future we're building toward.

But I also know what happens when people don't get that support. My cousin, who was like a brother to me, died of a fentanyl overdose because he was trying to manage mental health struggles on his own. That loss still lives with me, and I know I'm not alone in that.

Too often when folks don't have access to resources, they turn to substances just to cope. And in black and Latino communities, they the stigma is real. We're told to be strong, to keep it moving, to keep quiet, especially our men. That silence is killing us.

My friend Mike De La Rocha is writing a book about this very thing because the silence is costing lives. And I'm grateful that he's naming that truth. Let's use this month to raise awareness. Let's break the stigma. Let's fight for real access. Let's remind folks that they're not alone and that healing is possible.

I respectfully request that the first roll be open for co authors and for your Aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblymember. Assemblymember Pellerin, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker and Members, I rise today in strong support of HR42, which proclaims May 2025 as behavioral health Awareness Month in California. This month is about awareness, yes, but also about honesty, about courage, and about connection. For me, behavioral health is not an abstract policy issue. It's personal.

I lost my husband to suicide six years ago. He was my partner in life, a loving father, a successful attorney, and someone who made everyone laugh until the pain he carried silently became too heavy. His death shattered our world. But it also opened my eyes to how deeply our society fails people who are struggling.

It made me realize how often we encourage people to reach out without making sure there's actually someone on the other end of that reach, ready to listen, ready to help. Since then, I've had countless conversations with people who've walked their own paths through depression, anxiety, trauma and substance abuse.

I've seen up close how strong and brave people are, not because they have no struggles, but because they live through them. Sometimes just getting out of bed is an act of resistance and hope. Behavioral health is not a luxury. It is not something we invest in only when we have the extra funding.

It's essential to who we are as a community. It impacts our students trying to learn, our workers trying to stay afloat, our parents trying to hold it all together. And for far too long, we've treated mental health as separate from physical health, less visible and too often less urgent. This month is a reminder. We can change that.

We must change that. It starts by breaking the stigma, yes, but it also requires action, access to care, support for providers, prevention and early intervention, crisis response systems that are compassionate and effective.

But even more than that, it means reminding each and every day that nobody is alone, that what someone is going through is never a weakness, never something to be ashamed of. HR42 is a commitment to continue investing in prevention, early intervention, crisis response and long term recovery.

It's a recognition that healing is possible, but only if we build the systems, the funding and the compassion and to make that healing accessible.

And it's a call to action to break that stigma, to talk openly about mental health and substance use and to remember that behind every statistic is a story, a person, a family, a life that matters.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis, please do not wait, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and crisis lifeline. Help is available and recovery is possible.

So let us honor those we've lost, uplift those still struggling, and recommit ourselves to the work of building a state where everyone, every single person can get the help they need without shame, without delay and without barriers.

I'm proud to stand with my colleague from South Los Angeles to support this important resolution and I respectfully ask for your aye vote on HR 42.

Thank you Assemblymember. Assemblymember Marsucci, you are recognized.

Thank you very much. I rise on behalf of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus in support of HR42. Ask thank our colleague from South Los Angeles for bringing this forward you know, I want to share with all of you an experience that I had a year or two years ago with my colleague from Monterey Park.

You know, we were notified of a categorical denial of mental health grants for Asian American teenagers because we were told, you know, there was a social service agency that was told that, well, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, you know, you don't qualify because you're not considered to be, you know, an impacted community.

And, you know, for me and for my colleague from Monterey Park, I mean, this really hit home because we know that, you know, too often the Asian American community, you know, is the.

Has the unfortunate stereotype of being the model minority, you know, that especially when it comes to our kids, our students, that somehow, you know, all of our kids are studying hard, they're doing so well. But, you know, why.

The reason why so many of the kids, you know, are doing, you know, definitely not all kids, but, you know, the reason why there are so many kids that are doing so well is because, you know, especially in the immigrant communities, there's so much pressure put on the kids, you know, to study hard and do well and to get into a name brand college.

And, and, you know, and I know this as a father of a teenage daughter, you know that.

And so I want to make sure that we all recognize, especially those of you that have, you know, Asian American Pacific Islanders in your districts, in your communities to know that, you know, the need for mental health clearly does not have any barriers or lines of color.

And that unfortunately, we talked a lot about stigma, but in the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, there is also that strong stigma of seeking help.

You know, it goes back in many cases to our mother countries where, you know, often if you sought mental health help, you know, somehow it was seen as like a moral or a character flaw and that, you know, it would impact anything from your. Your job opportunities to your marriage prospects.

I mean, so many different facets of our lives. And so I want to make sure that all of you know that, you know, for all of our communities, but including the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, the need for mental health treatment and support is real.

The stigma of seeking help is real, and that we need to overcome that stigma so that, you know, everyone that needs help seeks out the help that they need. Thank you.

Thank you, Assembly Member Jackson. You are recognized.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Certainly this resolution is a crucial acknowledgement of the persistent behavioral health crisis affecting Californians. Although it is no longer in our news cycle every single day, that does not mean the crisis is over, particularly among our youth, underscoring the urgent need for comprehensive, inclusive and equitable mental health initiatives across the state.

The behavioral health crisis is one of the most urgent and complex challenges we are currently facing, impacting individuals and families who are struggling with mental health conditions, substance use disorders and a lack of accessible coordinated care.

This crisis not only affects the well being of those directly impacted, but also places immense strain on on our health care system, public safety, social services and of course, as you continue to hear on this floor today, the family units themselves, many of us on this floor have been impacted by mental health, whether through our own lived experiences, but also through the deaths of our own loved ones.

Last year I talked about the death of my own brother last year due to this and that I heard about his death while myself and my dear colleague were on the way to a field hearing for the Mental Health Select Committee.

These are issues that if we don't continue to work on, continue to prioritize, and I don't just mean checking off the box, but doing things that will actually solve the problem itself.

After decades of neglect of our mental health system, we know that particularly with LGBTQ individuals, Black and indigenous people of color, particularly those at the intersections of these identities, face disproportionate challenges and accessing quality mental health care and support.

And as a Member of the LGBTQ Caucus, one of our core initiatives have been visiting rural parts of the state as well and tribal nations that are in the surrounding areas to better connect with diverse communities who all too often feel underserved and overlooked. These are systemic barriers.

These are issues of medical racism and implicit bias that further exacerbate these disparities for so many of our historically marginalized and oppressed populations.

By recognizing the unique struggles faced by those with behavioral health disorders and their loved ones, this resolution calls us to continue the groundwork for targeted interventions, increased funding for cultural competent care, and the dismantling of systemic barriers within our mental health infrastructure. California must get this right.

And as California has led on so many other issues, let this be an issue that California can lead on to ensure that people have access to timely and individualized services to meet their needs, to get them and their families in a place where they are stable and be on a pathway to thrive.

Let this be our North Star for California. Let this be our call to action as we continue to try to find ways to to prevent the needless and preventable loss of lives. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember. Assemblymember Bonta, you're recognized.

Thank you. Members, I join my colleague from Los Angeles in supporting and asking your support of HR42.

I get to represent the beautiful people of Oakland, Alameda and Emeryville every single day and many of them have expressed to me their need to make sure that we are centering mental health and behavioral health in the work that we do here.

And as Chair of Health Committee, I'm also aware of the importance of valuing our mental health as well as the long road ahead for properly addressing our ongoing mental health policy challenges and making sure that we build the infrastructure to support every Californian.

Our youth are struggling to thrive in school and their extracurriculars with over 287,000 youth across our state battling major depression without receiving treatment.

And it is the case that black, Latino and indigenous youth have higher rates and our API youth have higher rates of diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorders and our Trans youth face higher rates of depression, anxiety and youth and suicide Members, now is the time that we act.

I'm very grateful to my colleagues for continuing to center our mental health as we move forward.

Thank you. Assembly Member Ransom, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Colleagues, I rise today on behalf of the Legislative Black Caucus in strong support of HR42. I want to thank the Member from Los Angeles for sharing her story and for bringing this resolution to the floor. In 2024, more than 3.4 million children in the US reported six serious thoughts of suicide.

To say that the United States is in a mental health crisis is an understatement, but for Black youth it is a State of emergency.

Suicide is now the third leading cause of death for black Americans age 10 to 24, and the rate of suicide among Black youth has increased by 60% over the past two decades, according to the Congressional Black Caucus Emergency Task Force on Black Youth, Suicide and Mental Health.

As someone who has spent the better part of two decades working in this space ensuring free access to mental health services in our public schools, I can tell you from firsthand knowledge that it is important that we address the amount of stigma that exists.

It is important that we tell people that mental health care is just the same as health care. It is imperative that we have access to those services, and it is also imperative that we work to protect the vulnerable and uplift prevention and early intervention programs as well as treatment that is necessary to address these issues.

In California, Black youth are nearly twice as likely as their peers to experience a mental health crisis resulting in hospitalization every year. This body claims to work on support of the mental health of all Californians. We pass legislation, we fight for budget allocations and we place measures on the ballot.

But despite branding ourselves as a national leader in health care, we've been ranked only 17th in mental health in America's 2024 Report on Access to Services and health care.

I can tell you that we have a proliferation of young people and adults who are represented in in the carceral system, in homelessness, in suspension and expulsions, and with co occurring substance use disorders who should have and could receive services for their mental health concerns. For black Californians, access is even more limited.

According to the Health Care Foundation, we are significantly less likely to receive adequate health care than the counterparts despite equality and or greater need. Colleagues, we must work hard to improve our mental health care systems and clearly our work is far from finished.

Behavioral Health Crisis do not discriminate based on political party or zip code or race for that matter. Every Member of the Chamber knows someone or may be someone who has faced a behavioral health struggle. Together we must stand in the gap on everyone's behalf.

And with that I respectfully ask for your aye vote today not just for HR42, but for the lives and the futures of black youth and families and others across our state. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblymember Addis. You are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise today on behalf of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus in support of HR42, recognizing May as Behavioral Health Awareness Month. And I want to say thank you to the author for her genuine investment as well as to the co chairs of the Select Committee for their work and deeply personal commitment.

The Jewish community faces mental health issues and works to overcome stigma alongside many of our sister communities, which leads us to support this very important resolution.

One of the deeply prevalent mental health issues experienced in the Jewish community is the intergenerational trauma from the 6 million lives lost to the Holocaust and the many horrors of those who survived who witnessed all that happened.

And I will say it's been said on this floor that the Holocaust is a guest that is always at dinner, at every family function, at every cell celebration for Jewish communities and that studies have shown that mental health issues from generational trauma shows up in children and grandchildren and great grandchildren of survivors.

So beyond the heightened vulnerabilities, there is strong evidence that on a scientific level that cortisol levels and cortisol metabolism is affected among the descendants of survivors. And in this moment in particular, Jewish students are deeply vulnerable to the mental health impacts of bullying and harassment both in schools and online.

And we want to say thank you to those of you who have supported legislation to address these issues. This month, the Jewish Caucus joins in the fight to uplift those who live with behavioral health challenges.

We are proud of the many Jewish organizations that have made it their mission and to provide crucial services to those who experience these challenges through services like primary care, aging services, and other resources.

And we are honored to support this resolution and to support the work of California to strengthen and access quality care and to destigmatize the challenges that so many across our communities face. So, on behalf of the Jewish Caucus, I respectfully ask for your Aye vote on your HR42.

Thank you, Assembly Member Castillo. You're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker and colleagues. Today I stand in strong support of HR42, and I thank my colleague from Los Angeles for this resolution. I am a dual licensed psychotherapist, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and a licensed professional clinical counselor.

I always knew, since I was probably in middle school, that I wanted to be a therapist, actually a psychologist. So this is something that, to me is very important. I tell everyone that no matter who you are, what you do, it's always important to get the help that you need.

Sometimes mental health is not visible, and it's challenging every day. So I like to describe it as a little bag, and. And you put rocks in it, and eventually that little bag is going to burst. That's the same thing.

If you don't have that safe space to go and process whatever you're dealing with, you're going to put it in that little bag until it gets to the point and it explodes. I lost my brother in 1993. He was 26 years old. He put the gun in his mouth and he pulled the trigger.

And I lost him back then. So I respectfully ask everyone to support this. And thank you again.

Thank you, Assembly Member seeing and hearing no further debate. Assembly Member Ahari, would you like to close?

Yes. Thank you so much to my colleagues who spoke on behalf of and in support of this resolution. Stigmatizing, destigmatizing mental health support means that we also, in this room, take the time that we need to ensure that we are accessing mental health supports. So I go to therapy once a week.

I'm actually going later tonight after all the receptions, because it's so important that we take that time for ourselves, especially in this new world, for some of us who just got elected, to really think about what it means for us to take care of ourselves in moments like these, because that's how we better take care of our communities.

That's how we better represent our folks. And. And I respectfully ask for your Aye vote.

Thank you. Assemblymember, Would you like the first roll to be open for co authors? Absolutely. Thank you all. Debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll for co authors. All Members vote who desire to vote. All Members vote who desire to vote. Members, this is for co authors. All Members vote who desire to vote.

The Clerk will close the roll. There are 65 CO authors added without objection. We will now take a voice vote on the resolution. All those in favor say aye. Opposed say no. The ayes have it. The resolution is adopted.

We will pass and retain on file item 480. File item 481, AB 408 by Assembly Member Berman. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 408 by Assembly Member Berman, an act relating to healing arts.

Assembly Member Berman, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. AB 408 is a perfect follow up to the the really poignant conversations that we just had on the floor about mental health. AB 408 is sponsored by the Medical Board of California and would allow for the creation of a physician health and wellness program that aligns with nationally recognized best practices for protecting patients and connecting doctors with the help that they need to continue practicing safely. Fundamentally, this bill is about protecting patients and encouraging doctors to seek and receive care before their condition impacts their practice. This bill has received broad bipartisan support, and I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

All debate having ceased, 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. The Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. Ayes 56, noes 0. The measure passes. Item 482, AB 546 by Assembly Member Caloza.

The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 546 by Assembly Member Caloza and others, an act relating to health care coverage and declaring the urgency thereof to take effect immediately.

Assembly Member Caloza, you're recognized.

Good afternoon, Madam Speaker and colleagues. I rise to present AB 546, a bill that I'm proud to introduce with Speaker Robert Rivas as a principal co-author. This bill will require healthcare service plans to provide coverage for effective HEPA purifiers for enrollees who are pregnant, diagnosed with asthma, or have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD. The January wildfires in Los Angeles County severely worsened air pollution and released dangerous pollutants like lead, asbestos, and silica, all of which cause long term respiratory harm.

Personally, I've experienced firsthand the health effects of wildfire smoke when I visited many of my constituents and surveyed the impact of the LA wildfires. AB 546 is a common sense measure that will protect the health of our constituents after a disaster has been declared from wildfires and respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member. All debate having ceased, the Clerk will open the roll. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. There is an urgency clause on this bill. All those vote who desire to vote. The Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. Ayes 56, noes 0 on the urgency. Ayes 56, noes 0 on the measure. The measure passes. Pass and retain on file item 483. File item 484, AB 967 by Assembly Member Valencia.

The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 967 by Assembly Member Valencia. Applicating the professions and vocations.

Assemblymember Valencia, you're recognized.

Buenas tardis, Madam Speaker and Members. AB967 would allow out of state physicians. Who already have an active life and. Have accepted employment at a healthcare entity in California to apply for an expedited license. This bill is critical now more than. Ever since we do have a medical workforce shortage. With that, respectfully ask for a yes vote.

Thank you all.

Debate having ceased, 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. The Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. Aye's, 62. No, 0. The measure passes. File item 485. AB968 by Assemblymember Boerner.

The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 968 by Assemblymember Boerner. Healing arts.

We will pass temporarily on item 485. Returning to item 485. AB 968 by Assembly Member Boerner. The Clerk will read again Assembly Bill. 968 by Assembly Member Boerner and acclaim the healing arts. Assembly Member Burner, you're recognized.

Good afternoon, Madam Speaker and Members. AB968 covers a pharmacist's ability to prescribe non hormonal contraceptive contraception. Currently, the law specifies that a pharmacist may only supply hormonal contraceptives.

At the time the law was created over 10 years ago, the goal was to increase access to the most popular method of contraception, the birth control pill. For individuals who cannot safely use hormonal contraceptive contraception, such as cancer survivors, individuals manning managing complex medical regimes.

Non hormonal options are the only not are not only a necessity, they are sorry. They're not only a necessity. They're a necessity, not a preference. California has long been a trailblazer in progressive public health policy.

Passing AB968 would position California as the second state to formally include non hormonal contraceptives in pharmaceutical care, setting a standard for equity, access and innovation in a contraceptive policy. AB968 enjoys bipartisan support and I respectfully ask for your Aye vote.

All Debate having ceased, 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. The Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. Aye, 68. No, 0. The measure passes item 486. We will pass and retain item 487.

AB 1056 by Assemblymember Bennett.

The Clerk will read Assembly Bill 1056 by Assemblymember Bennett. And active in their commercial fishing.

Mr. Speaker, Members mile long fishnets are not good for California or California's wildlife. That's why gillnet fishing has been banned in all of off the California coastal waters except for the counties of Ventura and Santa Barbara. This bill is a common sense gradual reform to phase out gillnet fishing.

It blends fairness with conservation, aligning the best practices in California's fisheries management focused on long term sustainability. The bill will allow any current fisherman to continue to fish for as long as they want. But it restricts the transfer of their permit after 2027, except they can one time transfer their permit to a family Member.

So that's two generations that continue to do this. As we gradually phase this out, this is an important measure for California. I respectfully asked for an Aye vote.

Thank you. Assembly Member Macedo, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Colleagues, I rise in respectful opposition to AB 1056. This bill would effectively shut down a long standing California based fishery that supplies fresh halibut and sea bass. Voters demand affordability, but this bill does the opposite.

It eliminates a local source of fresh seafood and and forces us to rely more heavily on foreign imports, driving up costs. Let's be clear. The Fish and Game Commission did not support the reduction nor the elimination of the industry. The existing regulatory process already reviewed this issue and made a decision which this bill would override.

This bill will have real human consequences. One fisherman in Santa Barbara, now in his late 60s, has worked these waters full time for more than 30 years. His boat gear and permits are his retirement plan. But this bill makes all of it worthless. He has no family in the industry, so if he can't sell, he can't retire.

Another fisherman recently passed away. His family doesn't fish and under this bill they likely won't be able to sell his business. 40 years of hard work gone with nothing to pass on. This is unfair policy. Most of these fishermen don't have pensions. Their permits are their legacy.

This bill will eliminate these jobs and cause a loss of over £400,000 of local halibut a year, forcing dependence on imports that increase carbon emissions. For these reasons, I respectfully urge a no vote on 1056.

Singing and hearing no further debate. Assembly Member Bennett, would you like to close?

appreciate the issues raised by my colleague. I simply want to emphasize that no fisherman will stop fishing today, this year as a result of this bill. This is a gradual phase out until 2027. The fisherman that she refers to could sell that permit to anybody that fisherman wanted to and that permit would continue.

It basically says if you're in the business now, you can stay in the business. You can do a one time. You can, you can sell the business before 2027. You can do a one time transfer to anybody in your family to pass on this.

If there is ever a time for us to finally end mile long drift nets that can capture all kinds of by catching and cause all kinds of environmental damage. This is the most modest reform that you could possibly come up with. I respectfully asked for an Aye vote. Thank you very much.

Thank you all. Debate having ceased, 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.

The Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. Ayes 47. No 16 the measure pass.

Returning to Item 448, AB 1376 by Assemblymember Bonta. The Clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 1376 by Assembly Member Bonta and affiliate the juveniles.

Assembly Member Bonta, you are recognized.

Good afternoon, Madam Speaker. Today I rise to present AB 1376 which seeks to end endless probation for youth in California. AB 1376 accomplishes this in three key ways.

First, it establishes a presumption that probation ends at nine months unless a court finds by preponderance of the evidence that the youth should remain on probation. Second, if probation is extended, AB 1376 ensures accountability and progress by requiring review hearings every six months.

I will be making clarifying amendments in the Senate to ensure the public's best interest along with awards is considered when a court extends probation. Third, it mandates that all probation conditions be developmentally appropriate, tailored to the individual and reasonable Our youth probation system is broken.

Currently, youth on probation may not have regular check ins with the court and are subject to in some instances between 30 to 50 probation conditions as part of their wardship probation.

These conditions can be hard to follow and can result in youth being incarcerated for technical violations such as missing an appointment or being late to class or crossing over a county line if they tend to visit grandma in the Bay Area.

Evidence shows that limiting the length of time on probation and requiring individualized conditions of probation increases outcomes for youth and the public and reduces costs without compromising public safety.

AB 1376's nine month presumption gives youth a clear attainable goal helping them stay focused and motivated and allow service providers and the court and our probation officers to re evaluate and adjust their support. This bill provides consistent statewide guidance to help our counties focus on rehabilitating our youth.

Importantly, this bill only applies to youth on non custodial wardship. Non custodial worship words of probation is only granted to children where a judge has already determined that the youth is safe to be supervised in the community.

With over 10,000 young people placed on wards of probation in California in 2023, most of whom were youth of color, we have to make sure that our probation system is working for youth. That's what AB 1376 does. With that, I respectfully request your aye vote. Assembly Member.

Assembly Member Elhawary. You're recognized.

I rise in support of AB 1376. Studies suggest that beyond six months of probation there are little public safety gains to keeping youth on probation and a review of juvenile probation conditions reveals that youth are still burdened with excessive and arbitrary probation conditions which research has shown harm their development and prospects for rehabilitation.

Prolonging a probation period is also disadvantageous for youth, as extended probation time further increases the risk of more violations and thus perpetuates a continuous cycle of justice system involvement. This is particularly harmful for youth who are in a vulnerable developmental period.

Keeping kids on probation for too long interferes with healthy development, compounds trauma, limits opportunities for positive activities like leadership arts, volunteering work, and sports, and increases the likelihood that kids on probation will recidivate. AB 1376 supports rehabilitation by establishing essential safeguards to protect kids on community probation from unnecessarily long probation terms.

And I ask for your Aye vote.

Assembly Member DeMaier. You're recognized.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Speaker. Members, I rise in strong opposition to AB 1376. Let's review the bidding here. We have a failed approach to criminal justice reform that the left has been advancing for years with absolutely devastating and dangerous impacts on our communities.

It's time that folks who've backed bad policies that have led to a crime wave, it's time that they be held accountable for their bad policies. It's time that we stop listening to their point of view in trying to water down our criminal justice reforms.

We have the backers of Proposition 57, the early release, the reckless release, saying, well, if we release people early, they're going to be on probation and we will monitor them and we're going to make sure that when they're out there in the community on probation, monitored, that they will get the sort of help and adjustment that they need.

Now you come along hoping that the voters don't notice to water down the probation requirements. That's what this Bill would do. Again, at a time when we have a crime wave and we see an increase in recidivism, now is not the time to be taking tools away from law enforcement and the courts.

Other states, by the way, are not doing this. So I don't think California needs to be a trailblazer here. I don't think we need to sit there and say that these kids somehow are victimized.

I think what we need to have is a law and order approach, because if you don't have a law and order approach, you have lawlessness and you have more crime victims. And what would you say to the crime victims that May result from AB 1376? Blame it on some other factor in society?

No, it's the policies from this body for the last decade that have led to a more dangerous society. We need to reverse the tide. I urge you to a no vote on AB 1376.

Assembly Member Sharp-Collins, you're recognized.

Okay. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. I'd like to thank the author for bringing forward this measure. This bill recognizes that probation is supposed to be temporary and that it also should be a place where youth, in particular, they are connected to services and also resources. Probation should not be indefinite.

This Bill strikes a reasonable balance by allowing for detention of up to nine months at a time when a review of our youth progress is being made.

I had a chance to speak with some youth in regards to this and hear how they have been truly impacted by this, meaning that they have been held into this system as to no fault of their own.

So many of our youth has been putting on extended, endless probations based on where they live, just because of that, just because they are in the wrong area at the wrong time. And that's not okay. If the youth is determined to be advancing in their rehabilitation, then they should be removed from probation.

But we do know, as the author has already stated, that there are ways to keep them longer if doing so is an interest of justice. I must say that I am standing here proud in support of this bill because this bill really has carefully balanced the rehabilitation and also public safety.

Our youth truly deserve to know that we believe in them. Our youth deserve to know that we also believe in second chances. We also have to stop victimizing the victims as well. I do urge an Aye vote on AB 1376.

Assembly Member Callra, you're recognized.

I wasn't planning to speak on this, but it's tiresome hearing fear over facts time and again on this floor in the media, in social media.

The reality is that when we did it their way, locking up a bunch of poor black and brown people, when we had the highest incarceration rates in the world, our communities were less safe because we were spending money on locking up people, on policing working class neighborhoods, and we weren't spending money on our youth.

We weren't spending money on jobs. We weren't spending money on uplifting neighborhoods. So the continued rhetoric that is repeated time and again is flatly false. Violent crime rates in 2023 were less than half of the peak in the 90s. All crimes have gone down significantly over the last two or three decades.

When I was a public defender, that's when we had some of the most aggressive criminal justice policies in the world, certainly in the country, and that did not make us safer. What this Bill is about is simply giving young people an opportunity to uplift themselves, an opportunity to get on the right track.

We're talking about young people Here that may have gone off course. Don't we all want them back on course so that we can uplift them and make sure that they don't recidivate? That's what this is about.

The continual cycle of keeping young people on probation for years and years and years on end, just because you can not because of any evidence based policies is what creates folks getting locked into a system they cannot get out of. And that's what this conversation should be about.

Not repeating the same old tired talking points that resonate well, that resonate well publicly at times, but don't actually speak to truth and speak to the facts of what we need to do to make our community safe. True public safety.

True public safety is about making sure our young people can get back on track, that we give them all the support they need and so that they can be successful contributing Members of our community, which is what all of us should want.

Assembly Member Macedo, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And my colleague made some really good points that I would like to speak some truth of what has been my experience in a very short time in the state Legislature, which is calls from parents telling me about Juvenile crimes that are happening and making their children feel unsafe.

And I understand that this bill is not looking at things like the murders that have happened in my district, that's juvenile crime. But we have a major concern with our culture right now with our juveniles. And I don't know how to fix that. I don't claim to know how to fix that.

I'm not their parents, I'm not them. But what I will tell you is as a Legislature, we have to come together to figure out how we can better protect our children. Because the juvenile crime that is happening, I'm sure not just in my district, but in many districts, is creating issues that we have to address.

Because it may not be a child on this floor that we can identify with, but one of our constituents can. So I do oppose this Bill and hope that we can work towards getting juveniles the help that they need to rehabilitate and change the culture of juveniles committing crimes like this.

Assemblymember Patterson, you are recognized.

Great. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I can't really speak to what happens in every county, but I know what happens in both of the counties that I represent is the probation departments are the areas where people, where the dedicated chief probation officers and their teams are committed to ensuring that the youth actually don't end up in the system for longer than they need to end up in the system.

In fact, our county and Placer county just rolled out a program for individuals convicted of fentanyl type crimes that involves the community colleges, the adult systems, the youth programs, all, all those things, all with the goal that they don't end up incarcerated.

So I would say that Probation is the 1 area in our criminal justice system with the goal of keeping people out of prison. And now we want to take that tool out of the hands of the people that are tasked with that exact job of keeping them out of prison.

So we should actually be encouraging the length of probation terms necessary to ensure that these young men and women don't end up in prison. And I'd like to quote from one of the supporters letters.

They say here that the average term on probation, the average of less than 20 months for a white youth, while black youth were on probation an average of nearly 21 months, and Asian youth for more than 22 months and Latino youth for more than 25 months, in every instance, nine months would be less than half of the terms of probation that these youth would be on.

Less than half would be cutting off the majority of the time that they sent on probation. In other words, we'd be cutting out a majority of the time that we're trying to help these individuals stay out of the prison system when they get older.

And so with that, I have to respectfully request a no vote because I want to see the youth succeed, not fail, and end up in the system.

Assembly Member Lackey, you're recognized.

Unfortunately, what is being characterized as a punitive set of circumstances is actually a guiding influence, a reliable guiding influence through probation. Probation officers, let me just tell you from a law enforcement aspect, have the Rodney Dangerfield situation. They're not embraced by law enforcement. They're not embraced by custody. They're caught in the middle. You know why?

Because they try to help these people adapt to society. Don't forget, we're talking about youth here. We're up to 25 years old now. I don't know that that fits my definition of youth, but nonetheless, I will tell you what these people deserve are positive influencers.

And I know it seemed by many people, and it's considered a punitive aspect, but this is what these people need, guidance. These people need people to help them adapt. And they have to be pushed. They have to be pushed because their trust levels are so low that they deserve at least an opportunity to have this positive influence.

So I laid off of this in public safety, but I am actually going to vote no because I think what it really, really does is it does damage to these people that really, really need help. So I ask you to consider my remarks.

Assemblymember Jackson, you are recognized.

Thank you very much. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of AB 1376 for the simple reason that no matter, number one, you should always limit the amount of time that a young person spends engaging with the criminal justice system. It actually creates ripple effects. It actually creates more instances in which they may actually recidivate into the future.

So you should absolutely, just from a child development standpoint, limit the amount of time that young people spend in any type of institution.

To be honest, the second thing which is important about this Bill though, is that at every time, once they get to that limit, it still goes before a judge, it still looks at the preponderance of the evidence, and it still looks at the entire circumstances that a young person finds, finds themselves in, which also includes the type of support systems that young people have been able to be created for them so that they can be able to not go back into the system, such as were they able to get enrolled in extracurricular activities, were they able to be able to pursue a job which is the ultimate elimination of any type of recidivism, were they able to get the drug or alcohol counseling that they needed, were they able to get any mental health support that they needed?

All of that is taken into consideration. And if in fact it is deemed that this young person needs to continue to have any type of additional supervision by any means, the judge is still able to use that as a part of their own discretion.

Anything that does not allow for timely and individualized support systems and decision making on behalf of the youth is actually overall harmful to the majority of young people.

So if you care about supporting young people, putting them on a steady foundation where they're able to be stabilized and then on a path to be able to thrive, you want as many evaluations of their status as possible in the shortest amount of time to ensure that they are not receiving an intervention even longer than what they are supposed to.

Because even the most well intentioned intervention, if it's put on the wrong person, can also be harmful as well. I respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Assembly Member Rogers, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I want to thank my colleague for his comments, many of which I was about to share. Here's some data and some facts. If you are a black youth, you are seven times more likely to be a Ward of the state. If you're Latino, you're twice as likely. That's not a just system.

That's not a system that's built to be able to rehabilitate youth. That's a system that's built on self perpetuation. We've seen trends in this state and across this nation with blips, but overall trending down, that actually crime is going down.

And so when we talk about facts and when we talk about fear mongering, which we did earlier, that's the fact. And so allowing a system that is more closely tailored towards the needs of individual youth to give them the support that they need to be able to succeed, that is a just system.

I respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Assembly Member Bauer-Kahan, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker and Members. I rise in support of AB 1376 in part because I've worked in the criminal justice system and I have seen the effect probation can have. And I agree with our colleagues. I never. Mr.

Lackey, who I'm not supposed to call by his name, but I can't remember where he's from. High Desert. From the High Desert who said that sometimes you have a probation officer who cares so deeply about the outcome for the person they are caring for, but often probation is used to violate people.

So if you're on probation and you violate the terms of your probation, whatever that may be, it may be going outside of the county you're supposed to live in, you get violated, that means you end up back in the carceral system, in jail without the due process you are guaranteed when you are charged with a crime.

Initially, when my clients would call me and tell me they were violated, there wasn't really that much I could do. It wasn't like someone who's charged with a crime the first time.

And so although it is often the part of a sentencing package that you negotiate on a plea deal, it is also something we should use when we need it. But it is not something that we should allow anybody to linger on when we no longer need it.

And so I want to thank the author because she, as she mentioned in her opening, agreed to ensure that the judge both looked at the interests of the Ward and the interests of the community, that the judge will be balancing the safety of our community, because like our colleague from Tulare said, we need to make sure we're setting kids up for success and.

And we need to be protecting our communities.

And I actually truly believe that when this Bill is signed, it will do both of those things because having served in these courtrooms as an attorney, I don't know that I ever met A judge who, when they had the opportunity to look at the safety of the community, didn't take that obligation incredibly seriously.

And that is what this bill does. It gives the judge the power to decide, do we still need these terms that they can violate like that? And so with that, I think it is a move in the right direction and I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Assembly Member Schultz, you are recognized.

Yes, thank you. Madam Speaker and colleagues, I rise in strong support of AB 1376. I'll note that as chair of the Public Safety Committee, I had a chance to work very closely with the author and I thank her for her collaboration. It did pass out of Committee.

And I'll simply say that as we stand here on the floor debating this Bill, as we often do, so many bills, we tend to talk about everything but the Bill. AB 1376 is a pretty straightforward solution to a problem.

I like to think even on a bipartisan basis, we can all agree that we don't do right by our youth that are navigating the justice system. We can do better for each and every one of them. Now, for children that are not in confinement, that are placed on probation, the goal of juvenile probation is to rehabilitate them.

I'll remind some of my colleagues that are here and voted on in in the year 2020 on Assembly Bill 1950 that we previously looked at the issue of probation in California. Generally speaking, misdemeanors are treated with a one year cap on the length of probation that's provided for by law, felonies, generally speaking, two years.

However, under existing law, youth can remain on probation indefinitely until they turn the age of 21. And what we see around the State of California isn't theoretical. We see it in practice in places like Los Angeles County, where youth are indefinitely on probation and the goal of probation is not being served.

The goal of probation is not punishment. It is to connect the youth offender with services and treatment so that they can reintegrate in society and not re offend. AB 1376 is reasonable and balanced and focused. It simply says that there is a presumption that at nine months we should be looking to terminate probation.

But if the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence more likely than not, that it is in, it is in the interest of the child to remain on probation, perhaps they need to complete substance abuse treatment, then the court has the power to continue probation for as long as necessary to ensure that the goal of probation is met.

I'm voting aye today and I strongly encourage all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote aye. Because if you want safer communities, you have to invest in the prevention of crime and you have to invest in true rehabilitation. That is what AB 1376 does. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Assembly Member Bennett, you're recognized.

Thank you very much. Madam Speaker, Members, I've had some significant conversations with stakeholders and constituents in my district who are opposed to this bill. And the point that they were trying to emphasize is people, people that commit violent crimes, et cetera, need longer probation. In talking with them, that was their. Their major focus.

And I would just like to point out the inconsistency here in our conversation. This has been reduced to a conversation of is probation good or bad and should it be limited? I would emphasize if you commit a violent crime and you're put into prison by law, you're checked as a juvenile. You are checked every six months.

While you're there, you're reassessed every six months. But if you're put on probation, as my colleague just said, you could be put on probation for all the way till you're 21 for many years, without ever being checked, without ever being reassessed. All this bill does is two things. Change that and try to create some sense.

If we're going to check in on violent criminals, we ought to check in on the people that did not get put into a secure facility. And the second thing that's being overlooked is the this bill is limited only to wards of the state.

This not just doesn't deal with all juveniles, but wards of the state are a special population that we have a special responsibility to be the extended family for. And so this bill, as my colleague pointed out and many of my colleagues, is a reasonable attempt.

And to that my, my constituents who have talked to me about this, I heard them, I paid attention, looked at this bill and found that the concerns that they were offering are not the concerns that this bill rises to a level of opposition. So with that, I respectfully asked for an Aye vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Bryan. You're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Speaker and colleagues, I rise in strong support of my colleagues Bill from Oakland. And it occurred to me, listening to my colleague from Santa Barbara or Ventura County, I should say that it is Foster Youth Awareness month.

And it doesn't seem like we are aware on this floor that being touched by the child welfare system increases the likelihood that you were touched by the juvenile justice system. Crossover youth disproportionately make up the youth that we incarcerate and the youth that we put on probation.

And if you didn't know, the cost to incarcerate a young person in LA County is over $240,000 per young person per year. The cost to leave them on probation equally high. That's money that we could be investing in youth development and opportunity and all the systems of care and support that our young people need to thrive.