Senate Standing Committee on Human Services

Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Senate Committee on Human Services for Monday, January 12, 2026. I'm Senator Jesse Arreguin, the Chair of the Committee. We do not yet have a quorum, but we can begin with our bill presentations and I see we have an author present.

So without objection, we'll proceed to file item 2, Senate Bill 557 by Senator Hurtado and if there are any principal witnesses who will be testifying in support of the bill. If you can, please join us here at this table.

And Senator, whenever you're ready to present, I'll turn over to you. Good afternoon Members and Mr. Chair. SB 557 updates California statutory definition of Family Resource centers building on SB436 which I authored back in 2019 to align state law with recent federal actions and reflect the modern prevention focused role of these centers.

That framework has already proven effective. Following SB436 enactment, the Office of Child Abuse Prevention leveraged the updated definition to direct 13 million to state and COVID 19 relief to community based family resource centers supporting more than 100,000 families statewide.

In January 2025, the Federal Government followed California's lead defining family Resource centers in statute for the first time under HR 9076, opening the door to future federal partnerships and funding.

SB 557 ensures that California is positioned to take full advantage of these opportunities by clarifying that the FRC are place based, low or no cost, multi generational hubs, then foster peer support and respond to community needs.

In closing, SB557 brings needed clarity and alignment to state law to strengthen California's prevention framework and reinforces the mile the role of trusted community based partners in supporting children and families.

And here to testify and support I have Don Cope with the Child Abuse Prevention center and California Family Resource association and then Michael Williams who is also with the Child Prevention Center.

Hi, good afternoon. You have two minutes to address the Committee.

Great. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Members, Dawn Kapke, on behalf of the Child Abuse Prevention Center and its affiliate, the California Family Resource Association, pleased to be here in strong support as the sponsor of the bill.

Really appreciate Senator Hurtado's leadership and the opportunity to work with her again on updating the definition here in California statute, as she said, to align with the federal definition adopted under the Biden Administration.

As you well know and the Committee well knows, Family Resource Centers have been doing incredible work over the last number of decades working with children and families at the community level to help support them address stressors that may often lead to child abuse and neglect.

Family Resource Centers have been doing an amazing job in working to keep children and families out of child welfare by providing wraparound supports and services through a variety of different means supports as well as connectivity to various state benefit programs, what have you.

This bill, certainly we would argue a simple bill, but an important one nonetheless in aligning our definition here in state with that of the federal definition, which includes some additional pieces, as the Senator mentioned, that were not original originally contemplated when we worked on the legislation before the COVID pandemic.

So with that, really appreciate the Committee hearing the bill and the senator's leadership. Really just encourage your aye vote on the measure when the time is right. And with that I'd love to turn it to my colleague Michael, just for a couple of quick remarks.

Thank you so much. I just want to thank Senator Hurtado for your thank you for your for your foresight with Senate Bill 436 and your continued leadership with Senate Bill 557.

Our organization, the Child Abuse Prevention center, had the honor of administering the COVID relief funds that were enabled by Senate Bill 436 and meet the families and organizations and communities that were that benefited. And it made a lot of difference.

We don't know where the next huge challenge opportunity will come from, But Senate Bill 557, it really sets us up. Well.

Thank you very much. We'll now take any additional testimony in support of Senate Bill 557. If you can please come forward, state your name, organization and position on the bill. Any other testimony in support of SB557. Okay. If not, I'll ask for any principal witnesses in opposition to SB557.

Seeing none, I think that completes our testimony and I'll bring it back to the Committee and just thank the Senator for this important bill. You know, it's very simple, but it's very important to update the definition of family Resource Centers to align with the federal definition.

You know, to clarify that we're talking about a hub for multi generational, family centered and family strengthening support services, clarifying that they're provided at no cost or low cost to participants, culturally sensitive. I think that's extremely important to lift up reflective and being responsive to communities and interests.

So really just clarifying, I think strengthening the goals and criteria of family resource centers. And thank you very much for bringing this forward and I'll turn it back over you to close. Thank you. And I respectfully asked for an aye vote on this measure. Thank you very much.

We don't have a quorum yet, but at the appropriate time, I will be recommending an eye on the bill. Thank you. So I see we have a few more authors here. We'll go back in file order. And so before we do that, we are holding our Committee hearing here in room 2100 in 1021 O Street.

I ask that all Members of the Committee be present in room 2100 so we can establish a quorum and take action on the bills in our hearing today. We have four bills on today's agenda. We just disposed of one. And so we'll proceed now to filing in one Senate Bill 299 by Senator Cabaldon.

If there are any principal witnesses, Senator, who will be testifying in support of the bill. If you can, please join us here. Thank you. And whenever you're ready. Senator Cabaldon all right.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, Members.

Last year the Legislature passed comprehensive CEQA reform legislation, and as part of that, we announced that we had exempted daycare from from CEQA and it and it was because of a of a drastic need in the state that you know better than anyone, and sites and facilities are among the top reasons for the lack of adequate and convenient and affordable daycare and childcare throughout our state.

Unfortunately, we got a little bit of the language wrong and we said in that language that it applied only outside of residential areas.

So we are in a curious situation where if you wanted to open up a child care center across the street from a logistics center or in an industrial zone that's not subject to CEQA, but if you wanted to convert an existing strip mall or church site in a residential zone on a site that's non residential, that is fully subject to CEQA.

So we've almost got it upside down. And so this legislation is simply to make the corrective to make real what we said we did last year, these are exactly the sites that parents and families want either near their work or near their home. And so the residential ban essentially in the current exempt doesn't make any sense.

And we'll hear in a moment a clear example from Napa County about how this has actually worked in the real world and the kinds of problems that it creates. And so we're attempting through SB99 to make this small change.

I will just note, even though I know this is not the jurisdiction of this Committee, that the CEQA, you know, there are a lot of other discussions going on about CEQA itself and follow ups to SB131, and I will simply Say I'm fully committed to the work that's ongoing in that effort.

But this particular issue, it wasn't in the group letter, it's not in the alternative legislation. This has not been surfaced by anyone, any other parties. This is simply a corrective to the technical issue that we, that we, that we.

The problem that we created last year in order to help us take advantage of the resources that the Governor is proposing that are out there for us to add additional facilities and supports by, by allowing communities to move forward with, with child care centers.

So with, with us today, our supervisor Liz Alessio, the newest member of the Napa County Board of Supervisors. She'll be followed by John Kennedy, the senior policy advocate of the Rural County representatives of California.

Good afternoon. Good to see you, Supervisor. You may begin. You'll have two minutes to address the Committee on this bill and. Okay, can you hear me? Okay, we can hear you.

Yes. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I want to start off by thanking Senator Cabaldon and Senator Perez for authoring SB299. It's really important. I've seen this in real life and in real time what CEQA abuse can do for a child care provider.

You wouldn't think this bill would be necessary, but in this day and age in the City of Napa, we have a longtime childcare provider who had the dream and need really to purchase her own facility because it's so expensive to rent and she was about to lose her lease.

She received a $1.2 million grant, ARPA funds from the Napa County Supervisors and a 1.5 million grant block grant from the state and had a pre approved SBA loan of $6 million. Frankly, this is a church site. It was an LDS church.

10,000 square feet at cinder block building on two and a half acres and 98 parking spaces and a beautiful landscape setback situated a block above us, a long time school and what used to be the founding working family neighborhood of small homes which has then over time become the affluent area because it sits right outside the city downtown core.

The neighbors with means and ability found their silver bullet and that was ceqa. And it wasn't winning CEQA that was important here. It was just filing that stopped everything in its place. She's just a child care provider. She was going to expand.

What we need greatly in Napa County and I know statewide is access to infant and child care in Napa County. For every nine babies born in our county, we have one license space.

What does that do in terms of protecting and caring for our next generation, those critical years when they're infants and toddlers completely vulner vulnerable, and for their parents that need to work to provide for themselves and for the rest of the family. There are so many implications to this.

And fixing this through SB299 is really the path forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. John Kennedy with RCRC. On behalf of 40 rural counties, we're here today to support SB299. Thank you to Senator Cabaldon for introducing the measure. We believe this bill will help facilitate the creation of additional childcare opportunities in our communities.

And these facilities are crucial from a developmental and social perspective and really foundational keys for economic development and community health. CEQA is an important law that requires disclosure and mitigation of a project's impact on the environment. We strongly support CEQA and its core objectives, but unfortunately, as you've heard, it's been misused for non environmental purposes.

Sometimes they're competitive purposes, sometimes to delay a project past the point of economic viability, a challenge for which the bar is pretty low, can add years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, to a project and make it not viable. This isn't just theoretical. We've seen it in the daycare context.

We're seeing it with student housing. One of the more recent news articles was on playground equipment in a local community park. This isn't what CEQA was intended for. So at the end of the day, CEQA shouldn't be the thing that stands in the way of timely access to additional daycare opportunities.

CEA shouldn't be what's characterized as a nightmare in the process to open a new facility. So for these reasons, we support SB299 and urge your aye vote on the measure.

Thank you very much. There any other Members of the public wishing to express support for Senate Bill 299, please state your name, affiliation, position only. Thank you.

Thank you. Melissa Spark Krantz with the League of California Cities in support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and Members. Jasmine Vi on behalf of Low Income Investment Fund in support. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Rosanna Carvacho Elliott here on behalf of the Early Care and Education Consortium in support. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Jessica Sankis with the California State Association of Counties here in support. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to express support for Senate Bill 299? Okay, seeing no one else. Is there anyone wishing to testify in opposition to Senate Bill 299? Seeing no one that completes our testimony. Thank you everyone for being here. I'll bring it back to the Committee. And thanks, Senator Cabaldon, for bringing this forward.

To clarify what we intended last year, which was to ensure that all child care facilities were covered under the CEQA exemption that we adopted. And you know, in the letter that we received, cited a specific example in Napa County.

But there are many other child care facilities that would like to open up shop and just need this flexibility to provide desperately needed child care for families in California. We were in a meeting just this past Friday talking about the need for child care in California. And this is just one way that we can remove those barriers.

I'll just lift up. This is one of the more sensible changes to CEQA that are. That are needed. In one of the cities I represent, Alameda, CEQA was used to stop a food bank from opening. And this is one example of an unintended consequence.

We need to have a strong California Environmental Quality act, but we need to make sure the things that provide public good are also able to move forward as well. So when we establish a quorum, my recommendation is an eye and I'll turn it back over to the author to close.

Couldn't agree more. And I know that we both agree and all the Members of the Committee as well. CEQA is very important. And you know, the comments that we've made today aren't to diminish at all the essential nature of CEQA as you indicated, Mr.

Chair, to protect the environment, to protect communities that often been invisible or have had negative impacts hoisted upon them. That that's absolutely critical. But it just makes no sense for us to make it easier to build an advanced manufacturing facility in Napa than it is to build a child care center.

And as has been testified, there's been no allegations that there's any toxicity or any of that. It's really just folks hoping that they can outlast the woman trying to just build out this business. And if she gets one more delay, one more litigation threat, it just doesn't work anym.

Even with the grants that the people of California, the people of the United States have provided in order to advance childcare. So it's a common sense Bill that will, I hope, strengthen our support for CEQA over the long run by making sure that we're.

That it's not being abused in the way that is providing one of the most essential things that we need in communities across the state of California. With that, I appreciate an aye vote when you have a quorum. Thank you. So much.

Thank you, Senator. Thank you to our witnesses for being here today, and thank you, everyone, for coming. We're going to shift gears and go to file item 3, Senate Bill 837, by Senator Gomez Reyes. And if there's anyone who will be testifying in support of Senate Bill 837, if you can, please join us here.

And I know the sergeants are working on trying to get the Members to join us. Senator Becker's chairing hearing, so he'll join us when he can, but the other Members. Okay, thank you. And so with that, we'll once again proceed to file item 3, SB837. I'll turn over to Senator Reyes to present.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to present SB 837. SB 837 requires the Aging and Disability Resource Connection Programs to offer disaster and emergency preparedness training tailored to help older adults and people with disabilities stay safe during emergencies.

Just last week, we all stood with Members of the Senate Assembly at the Firefighters Memorial to read the names and ages of those who had lost their lives during the Palisades and the Eaton fires, among them.

And the reason that I brought this was the attention that was given to Mr. Mitchell, an elderly gentleman, and his young son, or his son Justin with cerebral palsy. The father was not willing to leave without his son, and they were waiting for help to come. It never came, and they both perished.

When we stood before that memorial just a few days ago, it underscored the urgency of this issue. The median age of those who died was 77, and at least one third had mobility impairments. These tragic losses remind us that our emergency preparedness system is not adequately serving people with access and functional needs.

This Bill addresses this critical gap in emergency preparedness and evacuation planning to make sure no one is left behind or vulnerable to these kinds of disasters. Joining me today in support are Dan Okenfuss from the Independent Living Centers and Carol Sorslander from the California Commission on Aging.

Thank you. Good afternoon. You'll each have two minutes to address the Committee on the Bill, and if you'd like to proceed.

Thank you. Good afternoon, chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Karol Swartzlander, and I'm the Executive Director of the California Commission on Aging. The Commission is an independent advisory body established in state law to serve as the principal advocate for older Californians before the Governor, Legislature and state and federal agencies.

In response to the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles, the Commission held an informational hearing to better understand the issues surrounding older adults and emergency response and recovery. The commission heard from experts in emergency management, aging and disability services, long term care, and community advocacy, many of whom were directly involved in the response efforts.

Insights gained from these hearings led to an overwhelming conclusion. Emergency preparedness, response and recovery is an aging issue. Of the 30 identified victims of the Eaton and Palisades fires, all but four were over the age of 65 are living with a disability. Unfortunately, this phenomenon has become the norm in recent years.

Approximately 72% of the deaths in the 2017 Tubbs Fire and 84% of deaths in the 2018 Camp Fire were over the age of 65.

These figures are the consequence of a flawed emergency preparedness system that does not consider those with access and functional needs and as a result, leaves older adults and people with disabilities to fend for themselves during disasters.

Accounts from friends and relatives indicate that many of the victims of the Eaton and Palisades fire were aware of the dire circumstances, but they simply had no way to evacuate without assistance.

SB837 would help ensure that consumers and providers have access to the critical tools and training through their local ADRC tools that are necessary to strengthen emergency preparedness and promote independence.

As California continues to experience increasingly devastating natural disasters and an aging population, we must promote an emergency planning system that prioritizes enhancing resilience among older adults and people with disabilities rather than making them an afterthought. This Bill initiates that process and I respectfully urge your aye vote.

Thank you very much. Hi, good afternoon.

Good afternoon. My name is Dan Okenfuss and I'm the Public Policy Manager for the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers. We are the Trade Association of California's ILCs, as they're known. We have 24 independent living centers across the state serving communities large and small and I come together here to represent their voices.

The CFILC is proud supporter of the previous legislation from last year, SB352 by the Senator and we haven't yet submitted our support letter and time for today's hearing, but we will be in due course.

But we applaud the center for introducing this Bill again seeking to remedy deficiencies in our disaster response infrastructure by ensuring that individuals with disabilities and older adults are not left behind when disaster strikes.

By the way, I was able to watch today's session and I really appreciate the honor the body made to the victims of the Palisades and Eaton fires that hit hard on a number of our independent living centers in the LA metropolitan area. CFILC supports Independent living centers across the state.

And we also run a program that will work very nicely with this legislation. It's called the Disability Disaster Access and Resources Program, DDAR, which enables individuals with electricity-dependent medical devices to receive life-saving aid in the event of a power shutoff or evacuation. It also serves individuals who need to be evacuated the event emergency.

And we can actually use this program to put our consumers up in hotels, motels around the area so they can have a reliable sense of reliable flow of electricity to power their devices. I'm going to give you a couple numbers here.

While having a coordinated disaster prep program in California is very important and could benefit from this legislation, since 2023, the DDAR program has responded to over 962 public safety power shutoff activations. We conducted nearly 36,000 in event well checks with our consumers.

We've trained thousands of people with AFN access and functional needs on preparedness and we delivered over 2000 backup batteries and relocated over 1600 people with AFN needs to hotels and support their nutritional needs when a backup battery or power was not available for them at the time. So in short, we're pleased to support this ongoing legislation. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Are there any other Members of the public wishing to express support for Senate Bill 837? If so, if you can please approach the microphone and state your name, organization and position on the Bill, seeing no other members of the public wishing to testify in support.

Are there any Members of the public wishing to testify in opposition to Senate Bill 837? Okay, seeing none, I'll bring it back to the Committee for any questions or comments on SB837. Thank you for bringing this Bill forward.

I think as was noted just about 45 minutes ago, we honored the victims who died in the Palisades and Eaton fire, some of whom were seniors, some of whom were persons with disabilities. And I think that should have never happened. That's why this bill is so important.

So I thank you for bringing this forward and I'll turn it back over to you, Senator, to close.

I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Senator. We don't have a quorum yet, waiting for one more member.

I know the sergeants are working on it, but at the appropriate time I recommend an Aye on the Bill.

Thank you.

Senator Menjivar. The last bill's mine, so if you don't mind sharing, I would appreciate it. Okay.

The last Bill on the agenda today is going to be File Item 4. SB 479. Mr. Chair is ready to present.

Thank you, Madam Chair for the opportunity to present Senate Bill 479 which will allow three cities which are designated as local health jurisdictions, which are the City of Berkeley, the City of Pasadena and the City of Long Beach, to implement homeless response multidisciplinary teams and share specified information across different teams and departments.

In 2020, the Legislature authorized counties to form multidisciplinary response teams to address homelessness with the goal of aligning housing, treatment and services for persons experiencing homelessness. These teams have been deployed in many jurisdictions and are a proven effective way to provide services and housing to our unsheltered community.

The statute also authorized the ability to communicate specified information about unsheltered residents, various housing, behavioral health and service teams to enhance continuity of care and to facilitate better outcomes. As noted, There are currently 3 LHJs local health jurisdictions in California.

Currently the city of Berkeley, the city I was proud to serve on the Berkeley City Council and as Mayor for 20 years, is the only city operating its own multidisciplinary response team through its local health jurisdiction. These teams have proven to be successful at decreasing unsheltered homelessness and reducing encampments.

Because the statute only authorizes counties to share specified information across teams. Berkeley's team has been working in a silo, unable to communicate about individuals mental health needs when the housing team is working to place someone into permanent housing.

This has led to unfortunate situations where individuals were not provided the correct intervention because response teams were unable to talk to each other about the individual's previous case history and potential needs. This is a targeted Bill that allowed city based LHJ multi disciplinary teams to have the same ability as counties.

It's a small change to our code that will go a long way to facilitate targeted interventions and better outcomes for unsheltered residents. And with me to testify in support of the Bill is Scott Gilman, the Director of the City of Berkeley's Department of Health, Housing, and Community Services.

Thank you, Senator. Hello, my name is Scott Gilman. Is the microphone working? My name is Scott Gilman. I'm the Director of Health, Housing, and Community Services for the City of Berkeley.

I oversee the multidisciplinary team specialized mental health programs, our below market rate housing programs and all of these programs are designed to go out and attempt to deal with individuals that are in encampments and link them to services. More importantly, once we get them into services, our ultimate goal is to get them into housing.

As Senator Arreguin said, current state law allows county multidisciplinary teams to share information with one another about residents of encampments. However, city teams are not. I was surprised to learn this when I arrived at Berkeley. I had previously worked in counties where they are allowed to share information.

Some of the things that I observed by not being able to share information are individuals end up being placed in the wrong level of care. For example, housing teams might work extensively to place an individual in a placement in an apartment somewhere.

Mental health staff know very well that this individual won't work in that apartment for a variety of different reasons. They cannot give any input into that placement or why they. Why they would basically fail in that level of care. The other thing that we frequently experience or that I've seen happen is that first responders.

We're not able to communicate to first responders with very basic information. For example, somebody might be on the street walking. They might look a little scary to the community. First responders may be called. We're not able to give them any information like, that individual is not dangerous.

We really just want you to take that individual back to their group home because they might have wandered away. And what can happen is that can turn into a very nasty situation for the individual and for the community in a very short period of time.

So we're not actually asking for anything any different than what counties can currently do. It's to get the right information to the right professionals at the right time. It's not a free for all. It's really just very limited information so that we can ensure that this individual is successful.

Simply put, 479 closes a loophole in the law that will allow the city of Berkeley for the first time to provide full wraparound services. Thank you. And I ask for your yes vote.

Thank you for your testimony. Do we have anybody in the room that would like to provide a me too in support of SB479? Seeing none. Do we have any formal opposition for this Bill? Please come forward. Anyone like to record a Me Too in opposition to this Bill? Bring it back to the dais. Madam Vice Chair. No questions.

Senator, I had a bill similar to this in the healthcare world. I think it's so important to share right information, right time and specific to that. One of the specifics to the information. One of the biggest things that we get feedback is that we create our own burdensome bureaucratic process.

And I think this is a great bill to remove red tape. Giving you opportunity to close.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to note that we did receive a letter from Oakland Privacy raising some potential amendments. We look forward to engaging with them if this Bill moves out of Committee on onto the next phase of legislative process.

And just note that already in existing law, and all we're doing is just saying that cities that have their own local public health jurisdiction are eligible to take advantage of the flexibility afforded to counties under existing law.

Under existing law, there already are very clearly delineated requirements around the confidentiality information, what information may be shared, and making sure there are adequate guardrails to protect the confidentiality of information that's used without a respectfully asked for an aye vote.

Thank you. I'm going to wait for you to establish your quorum. Okay. Before we could take a roll.

Okay. A quorum is present, so if the Committee Assistant can please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Okay, thank you. So I'm going to go to the top. I'll entertain a motion on Senate Bill 299. Okay. Moved by Senator Menjivar. If the Committee assistant can please call the roll file.

[Roll call]

Okay, we'll keep that bill on call for absent Members. Thank you. I'm seeing a motion on File, Item 2, SB 557. Hurtado. Moved by the vice chair. And if the Committee assistant please call.

[Roll call]

Okay, we'll also keep that bill on call. File item three is Senate Bill 837. Reyes. I'll entertain a motion moved by vice chair. If we can please call the roll.

[Roll call]

We'll keep that Bill on call. Last is file item four, SB 479. My bill. Okay. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Motion by Senator Ochoa-Bogh.

[Roll call]

Okay. We'll keep that bill on call as well. Thank you very much, Senator Menjivar, for being here today. Madam Vice Chair, we're going to recess the Committee for five minutes and ask Members to come over to record their votes.

Thank you. And.

If we can lift the call on bills, Madam Committee Assistant.

[Roll call]

Okay, thank you. We'll keep that bill on call.

[Roll call]

Also keep that bill on call.

[Roll call]

We'll keep that bill and call.

[Roll call]

Okay, we'll keep that bill on call. And those are all the bills on our agenda.

Thank you, Senator Perez, thank you so much.

Great.

Yes.

Okay, so we'll recess the Committee again for five minutes and then reconvene to lift call on bills.

You're doing two committees again this year.

Human Services Committee is back in session, and so we will now lift a call on bills. And if the Committee says can go through the agenda.

[Roll call]

Okay, that bill is out on a vote of five to zero.

[Roll call]

That bill's also out in a vote of five to zero.

[Roll call]

That bill is out on a vote of 5 to 0.

[Roll call]

That bill's out in a vote of 5 to 0. That completes our agenda since we have the incoming chair of the Human Services Committee. I want to just congratulate you and just want to recognize your leadership on these very important issues.

And just take this opportunity to, since my last meeting, to thank our excellent Committee staff, our staff Director, Heather Hopkins, our consultants, our Committee assistant for the great work that they've done at a really critical time when our safety net is under attack by a hostile Federal Administration.

You know, we had several hearings around the issue of nutrition assistance and hunger in California, which was made even worse by the prolonged government shutdown and by the passage of HR1.

I know that the Committee will continue this important work to shine a light on these important issues and make sure we can protect our families and vulnerable Californians. And thank you for the opportunity to work with you in partnership. And with that, may I say. Mr.

Chair. Coming. Chair to thank you, Mr. Chair, for your tremendous leadership, as you say, at a pivotal. I couldn't imagine a more. Just. I don't know how to say it. I just couldn't imagine a more kind of critical year for the social safety net and for human services.

I want to thank you for your leadership, and I look forward to continuing on with the Committee.

Thank you, Senator. Okay with that. See no other business. This meeting of the Senate Human Service Committee is now adjourned.