Senate Standing Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development

[Background]

Okay. We are going to call this Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee meeting of the California State Senate to order for purposes of hearing just one Bill. But in the tough week, this is an exciting, really good thing to talk about that we all love economic development and ways that we can grow our budgets in our state.

So help us. Assemblywoman Wicks, come talk to us about something. Okay, great. Yeah. Do we have enough people? Okay, go ahead. Yeah. Let's establish quorum. Let's do that.

[Roll Call]

All right, we have a quorum. Great. If there are other Members of the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee who'd like to join us, we are in room 112 of the state capitol. Assembly woman Take it away. Tell us all of your amazing ideas. For economic development for the State of California. Let's go.

Wow, that's a high bar. Okay, we'll start with Quantum. How about that? Thank you, Madam Chair Members, for allowing me to re present my Bill. My joint author. Well, you're a principal co author, Mr. Arreguin, as is Mr. Grayson. But my Republican joint author, Stan Ellis couldn't be here.

But he sends his regards, as does Josh Hoover, Assemblyman Josh Hoover, who's also part of this illustrious team, bipartisan team of folks who are really just trying to make sure that California invest and build and plant our flag on Quantum computing. Here in California.

We have all of the research scientists and the best in the world are here in our research institutions. We've led in terms of Quantum research and physics and the advancements of this technology.

We also have a lot of the private sector support in terms of the companies who all have enormous resources and who are willing to invest in this. This technology is expected to create trillions of dollars of value over the next decade. And really the experts.

And it's unfortunate Mr. Ellis couldn't be here because he actually had a quantum company. And it's nice when you have lawmakers who have real deep seated expertise in an issue. But what he says is whoever owns Quantum owns the future. And I think that's absolutely right. So we've been a leader in technology.

The problem is other states are bypassing us. Right. Right now, Maryland announced a capital of Quantum initiative, which is a landmark public private investment of $1 billion. Little Maryland did that. Connecticut also announced a partnership as well. Illinois, under Governor Pritzker, they invested $500 million in public monies for Quantum Campus in Chicago.

And last week, New Mexico announced their plans to invest 350 million of public monies into Quantum computing. So other states are making significant investments, which is great, but we want to keep our scientists and our researchers and our innovation here in California. So we've changed the bill, which is why we're back in this Committee today.

We're working with Go Biz and they are essentially developing an industry standard, sorry, industry industry strategy with the input of key stakeholders. Also with an equity lens, because I heard you loud and clear, Ms. Smallwood-Cuevas with, with those concerns, those very valid issues that were raised in the last hearing. They're working through the state economic blueprint.

They've got 13 regions to really serve as a coordinating center, but to work with folks who maybe wouldn't always be at the table in these conversations.

So that's why we really wanted to center it at Go Biz to make sure those conversations were happening and that folks outside of Silicon Valley can enjoy the benefit of this new science and this new research.

So the strategy will include an industrial overview outlining the current State of Quantum Technologies, why it's critical to California, and the specific strategies that would lead to increasing the job and capital investments. It will identify projects and programs that will most quickly improve the economic vitality of the industry.

And really looking at those again, those public private partnerships, analysis of relevant state policies and regulations to make sure we're doing everything we can here in the Capitol to support, support this new economy, and a summary of sectoral level outcomes expected with the implementation of these strategies. So this is an exciting bill.

It's the first bill in the Legislature on Quantum computing. And I do think this is very much the new wave of the future. Although every day feels like the new wave of the future. And it's kind of, I don't know, sometimes feels like a hurricane you're living in every single day.

But we also need to, I think, embrace some of these technologies, but do it in the right way and make sure that our government is invested, that we're thinking about the equity issues and, and all the other issues that I know we care about. So I'm excited to have our witness here.

Jason Murphy with the UC Office of the President. This bill originally came to me, Mr. Grayson and I had many discussions because a lot of the researchers come out of UC Berkeley, which is in my district, and, but the whole UC as well as places like Stanford and other universities also care about this.

Well, so with that, let to have my witness testify.

Thank you, Jason Murphy. Madam Chair, Members, Jason Murphy, behalf of the University of California, on behalf of UC Berkeley, the Berkeley lab, and all the campuses at the University of California, we're here today in strong support. We submitted our letter earlier this morning to the Committee.

I know it was kind of a short timeline, so thank you for receiving that. We just want to thank the Assembly woman for her ongoing efforts and commitment and leadership in this space.

As she mentioned, a lot of our top faculty believe that this is the next big thing and that there's lots of resources and efforts and expertise already here in California that we want to keep in California.

So the University of California is but one of those stakeholders that will be involved, but we are ready to stand with the state and with go Biz in this important work. So with that, thanks again and strong support.

Okay, thank you so much. Also, I just would remind the author that we did hear from your co author when you came through Business and Professions earlier this year. And you're right, he had a lot of expert information in this space. But we can hopefully remember that input from Assemblymember Ellis.

All right, so that's all the witnesses in support. Are there witnesses in opposition? Okay, seeing no one in opposition. Then we'll take MeToo testimony in support. Go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Members of the Committee, Megan Stubers, on behalf of Omidyar Network and support.

Anybody else in the room in support? Okay, how about MeToo testimony in opposition? Is there anybody in the room who'd like to do so? Come forward now. Seeing no one will come back to the dais, colleagues. We'll go with Senator Grayson and then Senator Archuleta.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I just want to say thank you to the authority for moving this forward. And I like how the bill has evolved into something that goes from just a geographical location in California to encompassing all of California and making sure that we use all of our resources to maximize.

We're not just competing with other states, as you have pointed out. We are actually competing globally. And this is with other nations that are just moving forward at light speed. We have the ability in California to not just compete nationally, but to compete globally and move quicker and smarter.

And the person or the nation, shall we say, that excels and is first in this race for Quantum computing, will be the driver of the world for the economies to come for the next several decades. So with that, we have an incredible tenacious author that can get this done and land it.

And California can be positioned to be the global leader in Quantum Technology, which is exactly what, what we need for our economy moving into the future. I support this bill. Thank you.

Sounds a little like a motion.

That was, that was a motion, yes.

Senator Archuleta.

Oh, thank you, Assemblywoman, for bringing this forward. No doubt. I want to just make sure that we heard that California as a whole, which means diversity. Correct. If that's what is our foundation, our strength and has made California as great, its diversity.

So we've got to reach down into our local schools, our colleges, and start thinking about developing the workforce that is good for everyone equally fairly across the board. So I'm hoping as this challenge to maintain our position in the world and to exceed in the eyes of so many that we put the money in the right place.

No doubt. But I'm also concerned about monies coming from the Federal Government that should come and help and aid our Berkeleys and, and Stanford's and, you know, the schools that are UCLAs and everything else. Are we finding that that's going to hinder the possibility of growth? How do you see that?

And then, of course, the amount of money do you think that California needs to put on the table to kick start and get us going?

Thank you for the questions. Appreciate it. And a couple things. A group of us Democrats and Republicans went to D.C. earlier in the spring to, to have bipartisan conversations around this as an industry in the hopes that in our very fractured times we're living in that there are certain things that we can all agree upon.

And I think innovation is one of those things. And so we had a pretty fruitful conversation.

Obviously there's a lot going on in our national politics right now, but it's our hope that investments like this can remain, especially because it does require and the realities of, it's not just California competing against other places, as Mr. Grayson has said, it's us competing as other countries.

So my hope is that we'll, we'll remain, remain bipartisan in terms of your exact right point around making sure there's diversity around this. And this was discussed in the previous Committee last time this Bill was here. And this is why we changed the bill.

We changed the bill to really house it and root it in gobiz because they rolled out 313 different regions across the state. So it's not just San Francisco and Los Angeles. Right.

It's not just our sort of traditional, you know, urban hubs, but it's, it's Bakersfield and Fresno and Reading and you know, name the places, Inland Empire and other places all over California that this would be housed in as part of their state economic blueprint, which is their Jobs first initiative, where they're working with workforce development offices in offices all across the State of California.

And that's where I think we need to make sure that we're being very intentional about pulling people in who frankly have not had a seat at the table in these conversations when it comes to tech innovation. So that's why we're housing it there. You know, they're working to make sure they're working with community colleges.

I'm a proud community college alum. It's a very. To me, it's one of the last, you know, places where poor and working class folks can become middle class, you know, through those types of opportunities and ensuring we're having that kind of diversity.

So that's my commitment to you, is as this industry grows, is that we're keeping those things in mind.

And that really came from the conversations we had in this Committee last time I was here, which is why we needed to make some changes and really work with Go Biz and the governor's office to formulate this in a way because there's so much opportunity, but in a way that's doing it the right way.

And I'm glad you're saying all this, the fact that when I mentioned diversity, inclusion and so on, but I'm asking you that we're going to have to set some money aside to go into the neighborhoods educationally, grants, science, technology, engineering, having more women, minorities in that world, but bring it from the ground up as well because we know we're going to hit the Stanfords and so on.

But I just want to make sure that we're able to go into the areas where the language may, may not be perfect, but yet they have the mind for engineering where they may not have the background economically, but they certainly have the drive and the spirit to be part of California. Yeah, that's what I'm looking for.

And so my last part of my questions were, how much money do you think we're going to invest in all this?

Yeah.

Well, I think this is the start of a much bigger conversation and this bill is not going to do everything but, but it's us planting our flag that this is an industry that we should care about, that it is the future. There are some money set aside in the budget for this.

Not nearly as much as some of these other states who've made significant investments. But again, I think it's the beginning of the conversation. And I've been really optimistic about the conversations I've had with you and others in this Committee and in other places around exactly that need.

And, you know, for as long as I'm in this role, I want to continue to fight for those resources in the way that you're describing to make sure that we're really building this industry in the right way.

Good. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Senator. Smallwood-Cuevas. I see you.

I just wanted to thank the author for taking the feedback from the initial convening. And I really, I was just reading through some of the strategies of putting this kind of initiative together. I guess my, the one question I have is what's the timeline?

Especially, I know there's been some fits and starts around the Jobs first initiative. And so I'm just curious, you know, what. What does the timeline look like?

Yeah, I mean, it's housed in Go Biz under the governor's leadership.

So, you know, when we started discussing this with them, they became really excited about the idea of, of putting Quantum as a higher priority within the work that they're doing, which is sort of music to the ears of the UCs and others who have been really hungry for that kind of leadership from the state.

You know, they just rolled out the state economic blueprint and this Jobs first initiative. And so I think we're kind of figuring that all out in real time, and I think there's opportunity for more feedback within that context as well.

It's a really good point, though. Thanks for taking the feedback. Other comments, Senator Arreguin?

Well, I want to thank the Assembly Member for her vision and leadership and bringing this forward. And Senator Grayson, who I think was a critical part of this initiative and with the Green Empowerment Zone that he helped establish in Contra Costa County kind of being a catalyst.

But as he had said, this now is going to be a statewide program, and it's really about making sure California is tapping into the, the incredible research and innovation that's happening through our research universities and our private companies and really making California competitive and making it a global hub for Quantum. So I'm so excited.

I think we want to get ahead of these other states in these other countries. So I think this is going to provide a roadmap for us, I think, so we can make sure we have the budget, investments and create the public private partnerships to help realize this.

So I want to thank, thank the Assembly Member for your leadership and was proud to co author this bill.

Senator Strickland did You want to move the bill? Move the bill. Okay, it's moved. Okay. No other comments? I. I have one quick comment, and that is just. This is why I asked for this Committee. I. I really love economic development.

I. I feel so much pride about this state when I think about us being the fourth largest economy, and this is the type of thing that gets us there.

People love to criticize California, but at the end of the day, this is a place where people come and have big dreams, big audacious dreams, and they chase them down.

And I think it is the job of this old building and whoever gets to sit in these seats to find the best in the people in California and give them the opportunities.

And so much of the conversation you've had with Senator Archuleta here today that Senator Smallwood led earlier about being intentional about who those people are in the State of California is what makes us different and special. I'm really glad this is already in the budget.

I know it's seed money, but hey, Quantum zones all around California means next level science, next level engineers, next level power grades, next level everything for this state. There's no way we should be getting beat by anybody in this space. So congratulations to you and. And to the Assembly Member who's helping you with this, Mr. Alice.

So you have a motion. We'll do a roll call here and then we'll leave the roll open for a few of our missing colleagues for a bit. Do you want an opportunity to close?

You closed for me. So respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Motion is due. Pass the Senate Appropriations Committee. [Roll Call] Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for all your efforts on this. We really appreciate it.

We'll open the roll.

Motion is due. Pass an Appropriations Committee. Current votes 7 to 0. [Roll Call]

Thank you. Okay, we will open the roll.

Current vote is 8 to 0. [Roll Call] That's it.

Okay, the vote is 9 to 0. We are going to go ahead and close the roll. That item is out and onto Senate appropriations. That's the end of the agenda for business, professions, economic development.