Senate Floor

Secretary, please call the roll.

Allen, Alvarado-Gil, Archuleta, Aragin, Ashby, Becker, Blake Spear, Cabaldon, Caballero, Cervantes, Choi, Cortesi, Dali, Durazo, Gonzalez, Grayson, Grove, Hurtado, Jones, Laird, Limon, McGuire, McNerney, Menjivar, Nilo, Ochoa Bog, Padilla, Perez, Reyes, Richardson, Rubio, Sayardo, Smallwood Cuevas, Stern, Strickland, Humbergh, Valadares, Wahab, Webber Pearson, Weiner.

A quorum is present. Would the members and our guests be on the rail and in the gallery please rise? We will be led in prayer this afternoon by our chaplain, sister Michelle Gorman, after which please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

So we gather in God's presence. In Laudato Si', Pope Francis says, the Earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor. We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the Earth. Compassionate God, you created the world for all of us to share, a world of beauty and plenty. Create in us a desire to live simply so that our lives may reflect your generosity.

Creator God, you gave us responsibility for the earth, a world of riches and delight. Create in us a desire to live sustainably, so that those who follow after us may enjoy the fruits of your creation. God of justice and peace, you give us the capacity to change, to bring about a world that mirrors your wisdom. Create in us a desire to act in solidarity with all creation so that all life is set free to flourish. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Members and guests, please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America. Members, we are now at privileges of the floor. Senator Grove, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. Colleagues, please join me in recognizing students from the Fresno State Ag Leadership Development Program as they're standing just to my right up here, who joined us today in the gallery. Because of their impressive backgrounds and academic accomplishments, these students were selected to participate in this leadership development program and to to research significant issues that are impacting California agriculture.

This program includes visits to the state capital and state agencies to meet with individuals firsthand to learn the process of policy making and making sure that we save our critical agriculture industry. Joining the students today is, Serene Konduru and Annette Levi, who we thank for their dedication to developing these next generation of agricultural leaders in our state.

These are the next generation of agriculture leaders who will carry the torch for food producing counties like Curren, Tulare and Fresno County, to make sure that we continue to feed the world. So thank you guys for being here. Thank you, madam president.

Thank you, Senator Grove, and welcome to the Capitol. Senator Smallwood Cuevas, you are now recognized for your introduction.

Thank you, madam president, and good afternoon, colleagues. Today, you notice I'm wearing green, and that's because we're here to celebrate the mighty Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. And so I rise with a great honor to recognize the incredible legacy of the AKA sorority. This sorority incorporated as the first Greek letter college organization founded by black women. When I think about nineteen o eight, a group of black women at Howard University staring down segregation, exclusion in a world that told them they didn't belong.

I don't just see history. What we see are organizers. What we see are builders. What we see are women who refuse to wait for a seat at the table and built their own. And we're so honored to have some of these women with us today, both on the floor and in the gallery.

These were women who not only pursued higher education, they created space for themselves and for every black woman to be who she wanted to be and to build the world that she deserved. By 1910, in the midst of Jim Crow, they formalized that vision, a sisterhood grounded in service in scholarship, and deep commitment to uplifting the black community. They planted a seed in hostile soil, and it grew anyway, and it continues to grow so many years later. And what stands out is how that sense of purpose has never wavered, but carried forward for more than a century with the same intention and resilience we still need today across the state. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated has remained committed to meeting the needs of our communities through education, health, economic empowerment, and social justice. And their impact is felt not just locally, but around the world. With a sisterhood of over 300,000 members strong, 300,000 members strong, their mission remains the same, to be of service to all mankind. Is that powerful?

To be of service to all mankind. Today, we are proud to celebrate their twenty seventh annual Alpha Kappa Alpha Day at the Capitol, honoring their history and the work they do to move our communities forward. At this time, I would like to recognize the distinguished members who are here joining us today, president Emeritus Desi Woods Jones, congresswoman. I know she is around. Let's give her a hand.

And then I will name the other esteemed members, AKA far western regional director Nicole Jordan, twenty fifth AKA FAR with FAR Western Regional director Carol Dixon, protocol chair doctor Charlotte Gallup Moore, and co chair and our former caucus staffer, Lanice Jones. We also have co chair LaWanna Bivens, Co chair Patrice Marshall McKenzie is all with us today. And, of course, the beautiful women in the gallery, thank you so much for all of your service.

Let's give them a warm Senate welcome, and we thank each of them for their leadership, their service, and their continued dedication to strengthening our communities.

Thank you, Senator Smallwood Cuevas, and welcome to the Senate, the lovely ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. And before we move on, Senator Richardson, you are recognized?

I don't know if I didn't hear it, but we didn't acknowledge one of our own, Adrian Thames, who's one of our sergeants who looks out after us and keeps it real and is a true example of public service and womanhood. Congratulations.

We will now move to messages from the governor. They will be deemed read. Messages from the assembly will be deemed read. Reports of committees will be deemed read and amendments adopted. Senators, we are now at motions, resolutions, and notices.

Without objection, the Senate journals for 04/20/2026 through 04/23/2026 will be approved as corrected by the minute clerk. Senators, we are now at consideration of the daily file at second reading file. Secretary, please read.

Senate bill nine twelve with amendments eleven twenty four with amendments eleven ninety nine with amendments 13 o nine with amendments thirteen fourteen with amendments ten ninety three with amendments

Second reading will be deemed read. We are now at governor appointments. File item 28. Senator Reyes, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. File item 28 is a confirmation of Heather Lynn Gonzalez for appointment to the court reporter's board. She is a certified shorthand reporter and owner of Gonzalez Reporting Incorporated. She is also a member of the California Deposition Reporters Association. She was approved by the rules committee on April 15. Members, I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, secretary, please call the roll.

Alan. Alvarado-Gil. No. Archuleta.

We are on hold for technical difficulties.

Aye, Dali. No, Durazo. Aye, Gonzales. Grayson. Aye, Grove. Grove, no. Hurtado. Aye, Jones. No. Laird. Aye, LeMond. Maguire. Aye, McNerney. Aye, Menjivar. Aye, Nilo. No, Ochoa Bog. No, Baria. Aye. Perez. Aye. Reyes. Aye. Richardson. Aye. Rubio. Aye. No. Smallwood Cuevas. Stern. Aye. Aye. Strickland. No. No. Humbergh. Aye. Voladares. No. Wahab. Aye. Aye. Weber Pearson. Aye. Aye. Weiner. Aye.

Secretary, please call the absent members.

Allen? Aye. Archuleta? Aye. Aye. Caballero? Gonzales? Limon? Rubio? Smallwood Cuevas? Aye.

Ayes 26, nos 10. That appointment is confirmed. We are now at file item 32. Senator Reyes, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president, members. File item 34 is a confirmation of Anna Kubas for reappointment to the California Law Revision Commission. She's the founder and president of Latina Public Service Academy and also the the founder and chief executive officer of her firm, Ana Cubas Consulting. She was first appointed to the commission in 2019 and was approved by the rules committee on April 22. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, secretary, please call the roll.

Allen. Aye. Alvarado-Gil. Yeah. No. Archuleta. Aye. Arreguin. Aye. Ashby. Aye. Becker. Aye, Blake Spear. Aye, Caballero. Cervantes. Aye, Choi. No, Cortese. Aye, Dali. No Gerazzo. Aye, Gonzales. Grayson. Aye, Grove. No, Hurtado. Aye, Jones. No. Laird. Aye, Limon. Maguire. Aye, McNerney. Aye, Menjivar. Aye, Nilo. No. Ochoa Bog. No Padilla. Perez. Aye, Reyes. Aye, Richardson. Aye, Rubio. Sayerto. No. Smallwood Cuevas. Stern. Aye. Aye. Strickland. No. No. Umberg. Aye. Aye. Volodares. Wahab. Aye. Weber Pearson. Aye. Weiner. Aye. Aye.

Secretary, please call the absent members.

Caballero. Gonzales. Limon. Padilla. Rubio. Padilla. Aye. Smallwood Cuevas. Aye. Valdares. No.

Ayes, 26. Nos, 10. That appointment is adopted. We're at file item 35. Senator Reyes, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president, members. Final item 35 is the confirmation of David Huebner for reappointment to the California Law Revision Commission. He previously served on the commission between 1999 and 2007, and after a hiatus, he rejoined the commission in 2022. He is an international arbitrator and mediator and a former United States ambassador to New Zealand. He was approved by the rules committee on April 22. I respectfully ask for your aye vote. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, secretary, please call the roll.

Allen. Aye. Aye. Alvarado-Gil. No. Archuleta. Aye. Aye. Aye. Ashby. Aye. Aye. Becker. Aye. Aye. Blake Spear. Aye. Cabaldon. Aye, Caballero. Cervantes. Aye, Choi. No, Cortesi. Aye, Dali. No, Durazo. Aye, Gonzales. Grayson. Aye, Grove. No. Hurtado. Aye, Jones. No. Laird. Aye, Limon. Maguire. Aye, McNerney. Aye, Menjivar. Aye, Nilo. No, Ochoa Bog. No, Padilla. Aye, Perez. Reyes. Aye. Richardson. Aye. Rubio. No. Aye.

Secretary, please call the absent members.

Caballero, Gonzales, Limon, Perez. Aye. Aye. Rubio?

Aye 26, nos 10. That appointment is adopted. Senators, we will now move to Senate third reading starting with file item 44, SCR 136. Secretary, please read.

Senate Concurrent Resolution one thirty six by Senator Laird relative to the California Coastal Act of 1976.

Senator Laird, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, madam president. I rise today to present, SCR, one thirty six, which commemorates fifty years of coastal protection in California, both with the Coastal Commission and with the Coastal Conservancy. In 1972, the voters of California created the Coastal Commission when they passed proposition 25 by a landslide. Four years later, the legislature passed the Coastal Act and the Coastal Conservancy Act, two landmarked acts, and we now celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of both.

I've been around long enough to remember what it was like before them, when things were constructed that cut off access to the coast, when there was not a conservancy that helped with economic development and with environmental protection and with agricultural land protection all in the coastal area.

And it and if you imagine the coast without some of the things that have happened in the last fifty years. Big Sur would not be a state scenic highway. We wouldn't have a seven mile public trail around the Hearst Ranch, and historic lighthouse point in my district would be overrun with excessive development and instead is a state park. And this goes hand in hand with the work of the conservancy.

And I know that in my district, 83,000 acres of the Hearst Ranch, 32,000 acres of the Kamada Ranch, and many more have been enabled because of the actions of the Conservancy. And I know in other members districts, if you went to Santa Monica, the Jonathan Club may still be an all white men's club if the Coastal Commission wasn't there and didn't take it to court and open up that club the way it should. In my colleague from Encinitas, in that district, there would not be a Trestles Park. There would not be the surfing that goes on in that area, and it's true in many, many other places. That is the tribute.

My friend, Peter Douglas, who is the long term executive director of the Coastal Commission, said the best those, coastal success stories are the things you don't see. The wet ones that weren't filled in, the 20 coastal plants that weren't built, the coastal ranches that weren't turned into shopping centers, but the coast is never saved. He said it is always being saved. With that, I ask that we honor the fiftieth anniversary of the Coastal Commission and the fiftieth anniversary of the Coastal, Conservancy with an aye vote on SCR 136.

Thank you. Senator McGuire, you are recognized.

Thank you so much, madam president. I rise today in support of SCR 136. I wanna say thank you to the good Senator from Santa Cruz for his leadership, both here as well as secretary as natural resources. And, of course, we are honoring the fifty years of the Coastal Act, protecting California's incredible coastline along with the establishment of the conservancy born from the will of the people of California.

You know, together, the work of both the commission and the Conservancy, we've conserved over half a million acres of natural lands, restored over a 100,000 acres of coastal habitat, opened 875 miles of coastal trail to the public, all the while supporting a $51,000,000,000 coastal and ocean economy.

We are deeply honored to be joined by both members of the commission and the conservancy, and those members are setting the gold standard for coastal resilience, expanding outdoor recreation, which is a $90,000,000,000 economy here in the state of California, along with coastal protection. And I'm gonna end it right here, madam president, with this, this resolution is not just about the past fifty years, but doubling down on a commitment for the next fifty for a strong century of the California coast.

We respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Senator Blake Spear, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. Colleagues, I rise today in strong support of SCR 136. For Senate District 38, the coast is not abstract. It is central to who we are. From Mission Bay to Encinitas to San Clemente, our coastline defines our communities and supports our local economy.

I represent 60 miles of coastline in San Diego County. The coast provides access to open space that belongs to all Californians, not just those who live nearby. As sea level continues to rise, balancing responsible development with coastal protection is more important now than ever. In my district, we see both the benefits and the tensions of coastal management every day. The coastal commission's work helps navigate challenges like protecting homes and infrastructure while defending the long term health of our shoreline.

STR one thirty six affirms our commitment to this principle. It recognizes that strong, thoughtful coastal governance is essential to California's identity, economy, and climate future. Colleagues, our coast is one of California's greatest treasures. It's our responsibility to protect it, not just for today, but for generations to come. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Becker, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. I rise in strong support of this resolution which celebrates fifty years of the California Coastal Act, one of the most important environmental achievements in California history. As chair of Senate the Senate committee on natural resources and water, I see every day how critical it is to protect our and steward our coast. My district, the 13th Senate District, includes over 60 miles of coastline, home to over 75,000 coastal residents, and is ground zero for sea level rise. For the Greater Bay Area by 2050, more than 75,000 households could be at risk from flooding caused by rising seas. I'd like to thank my colleague from Santa Cruz for all of his efforts, over all the years in protecting our coastline and for bringing forward, this important resolution. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Senator Padilla, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president and colleagues. I rise in strong support as a proud co author. There is another former chair of the commission, that's not in the gallery. He's at the microphone at the moment. It's my distinguished honor to serve for a number of years, on the California Coastal Commission and in the leadership as chairman of the commission.

And I have to tell you, I got to serve with an amazing group of people with more heart than I could ever imagine, more determination to respect the original purpose and vision of the Coastal Act. And the heart of the Coastal Act is really not all that complicated. It's that the coast belongs to all of us, and that it is our greatest one of our greatest assets for public health, for recreation, and for our economy.

The beauty and the wonder of the California Coast is renowned the world over, And it would not be what it is today if it were not for the vision and the integrity of the act and the many commissions who have come and gone and continue to serve to this day. I'm pleased to see many of my former colleagues who I've learned from, sometimes debated, and had the honor of serving with. It is wonderful to see you all, and a couple of distinguished EDs as well. It is good to see back. So thank you for your service. And colleagues, I urge and I vote.

Thank you. Senator Allen, you are recognized.

Thank you so much, madam president. I also rise in support. I wanna thank the Center for Santa Cruz for giving us this opportunity to commemorate fifty years of invaluable conservation work by our Coastal Commission. From the rich geological history of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, which used to be part of the the Catalina Island Chain to the habitat of the world's rarest butterfly, the Palos Verdes Blue.

My district is home to a combination of ancient marine terraces, coastal mountain biomes, and kelp forests that hold ecological and scientific value that exist nowhere else on the globe.

It's also a district that is is is beautiful and and so many people come from all over the world to enjoy our coast and the protection of the coast and the access to the coast that was preserved by the Coastal Act and the Coastal Commission over many, many years is something that's precious beyond words. I want to tell a little story about Alan Siroty, who was my, my predecessor several senators back, and Aye, you know, he was a wonderful man.

He passed away just a couple of years ago. And I love to introduce him sometimes when he come to events as the guy who who helped make our state fossil, the saber tooth cat. And I but I I that became almost my running line about him when I when I would see him at things.

And he finally came out to me and said, Ben, I love you, man. Could you please mention my role in the Coastal Act and the creation of the Coastal Commission? And of course, I I I Aye, you know, focused on that from ever after because he was so proud of his role in drafting legislation, making this this extraordinary project possible.

And I so I just wanna remind you, you know, as we celebrate this extraordinary fifty years of protection of our coast, it was a legislator sitting in these seats just like us who laid down a legacy that has left such a gift to generations of future Californians who, just like me, have enjoyed access to the coast, you know, summertime after summertime, winter after time after wintertime. It's part of what makes California so special, and it was this body that helped to create the the the protections that we all enjoy. And so we should keep that in mind as we do our work, and I just, ask humbly for an aye vote, an enthusiastic I vote on SCR 136.

Thank you. Senator D'Orazzo, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. Just quickly, I wanna say I had the privilege of serving on the California Coastal Commission, appointed by speaker then Wesson. And I thought, what am I doing here? I'm the head of the hotel and restaurant workers union. What do I have to know or say or learn about this?

But one of the most important things I learned was that to have access to the coast, you don't have to own a wealthy beach home on that. That every one of all Californians people have an access to that coast, to the beaches. And I didn't know that before I was appointed to this position. I learned how important the coastal act and the coastal commission is to poor and working people, that they have as much an access to those beaches as anyone else. It doesn't matter where you live or how wealthy you are or how poor you are.

So that stuck with me, and I'm very grateful that I got to work a few years with Peter Douglas and all the other members of the commission. So, I just wanna say thank you to, everyone who participated and and made this, happen with the Coastal, Act. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Senator Grove, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. Well, I agree with my colleagues' comments about access to the coast. I can share a story where we had, a a group of human trafficking survivors that had never seen the coast, and I appreciate the fact that the Coastal Commission does set aside our beaches to allow us to go to places where some people may not ever have the opportunity to go if they don't have the resources to buy a home on the beach.

And while I deeply respect my colleague who brought this forward, I think there could be some balance with the Coastal Commission. SCR 36 celebrates a regulatory regime that is layered in decades of state mandates atop of local decision making.

So we immediately take all the local decision making process out of anything, having to do with the coast, and where they're elected to represent the people. It often delays or blocks businesses, housing infrastructure. We see that with Palisades and the rebuilding of the fire and the coast of what's going on down there. The rising cost of ultimately getting passed to consumers and taxpayers, and those people. I have people on the coast that have to go through rigorous amounts of paperwork and long delays just to fix a spigot or water faucet on their own property.

So I think that there are balances in this. The resolution is pointed language also against federal offshore oil and gas exploration. While I know that you guys are completely against it, we wouldn't be in that situation if we hadn't been decimated in state production. And, I just wanna say that it it is we have a responsible resource off this coast that will help us continue to drop, our dependence on foreign countries for the oil that we use. And this absolutely is against any of that.

And while the resolution touts billions of dollars in public investment and, conserved acreage, which is deeply appreciated, it glosses over opportunities for foregone tax revenue and restricted development, higher cost prices in coastal communities. And my biggest issue with the resolution is supports an organization that supersedes what the elected representatives of the people, want for that area, and goes to an unelected bureaucratic agency.

And with all due respect to my friend, the co author, the former secretary of natural resources, and the comments that my colleagues made, which I do support in making sure we have coastal access, I think this agency goes extraordinarily too far.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, Senator Laird, would you like to close?

Thank you very much, madam president. And I wanna thank every one of my colleagues that just spoke because I think it was a broad away array of the interests of California that are reflected in this effort. And I know that my experience with the Coastal Conservancy, you know, over 90% of the wetlands that existed in California when Europeans arrived in California are gone.

And the Coastal Conservancy shepherded a collaborative effort, particularly in Southern California, to do their best to restore some of those wet ones so that we are able to see what what the first white immigrants saw to California when they arrived here. And if you look at the Coastal Commission, my experience is having a disaster prone district that a very sewer project that they didn't want to approve somewhere, they immediately and and with expeditious, action approved a permit to replace that after a storm.

And I think that they are misrepresented because they step up after disasters and approve things. And that is within, their ethic. And I want we have been trusted to Coastal Commission by legislation to be the planning center through local coastal plans for sea level rise because they will do it. And it said elected officials are screened out. Actually, when I was a local elected official, we adopted the local coastal plan in our city.

It was what we said and then the commission approved it, but it was really the locals that start that whole process under the center of it. And in closing, I would just say that when Aye, had a role in one of Peter Douglas' retirement events, there was this very well dressed person standing next to me, and it was only when he was introduced that I realized it was Peter Uberoff.

And the reason Peter Uberoff was saluting Peter Douglas is that in an adversarial process as it started, they negotiated a historic agreement at Pebble Beach that protected the Del Monte Forest, but allowed for the economic development that mister Uberoff was seeking. And that is exactly the way it should operate. Expedite that with the stakeholders and the businesses and the residents, but protect our coast so it's there for future generations.

That's what we're celebrating today. I ask for an aye vote on SCR 136.

Thank you. Secretary, please call the roll.

Allen. Aye. Alvarado-Gil. Aye. Archuleta. Aye. Arreguin. Aye. Ashby. Aye. Becker. Aye. Blake Spear. Aye. Khambaldin. Aye. Caballero. Cervantes. Aye. Choi. No Cortesi. Aye. Dally. No Durazo. Aye.

[Roll Call]

Secretary, please call the absent members.

[Roll Call]

Ayes, 27. No's, four. That resolution passes. Senators, we will now move back.

No. No. No. I have guests to introduce.

That's what I was getting ready to say.

With that, resume.

We will now move back to privileges of the floor. Senator Laird, you have some guests that you would like to introduce.

Thank you very much, Madam President. In addition to the former chair that is my seatmate of the Coastal Commission, I would like to introduce in the gallery the Coastal Commission Executive Director Kate Hucklebridge, the Coastal Conservancy Executive Officer Amy Hutsell, the Coastal Conservancy Vice Chair Marcy Gutierrez, former Coastal Commission Chairs Carol Hart, Donna Brownsey, and Justin Cummings, former Commission Executive Director Jack Ainsworth, and former Conservancy Executive Officer Sam Shooket. Please welcome them to the Senate.

Welcome to the California State Senate. Now, we will move back to Senate third reading, file item 38, SR 68. Secretary, please read.

Senate Resolution 68 by Senator Sabrina Cervantes, relative to Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Denim Day.

Senator Cervantes, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. Today, I rise as the author of Senate Resolution 68 on behalf of the Women's Caucus for the annual commemoration of Denim Day and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but also as Vice Chair of the LGBTQ Caucus. We commemorate Denim Day on the last Wednesday of April. This month is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month, where we recognize by wearing teal as a symbol of support for survivors.

For decades, people across the world have worn denim to protest an Italian Supreme Court ruling that suggested a survivor's clothing could be interpreted as consent.

We wear denim to send a clear and undeniable message: clothing is not consent. To consider a survivor's manner of dress as evidence of consent wrongly scrutinizes the actions of the survivor instead of placing that scrutiny where it belongs, on the actions of the perpetrator. In California, we strengthened that message into law. In 2021, with the enactment of my Assembly Bill nine939, we prohibited a survivor's manner of dress from being used as evidence of consent in a sexual assault case.

Sexual violence remains one of the most underreported and under prosecuted crimes in our society.

The reality is that survivors often face immense barriers when seeking justice. Nearly one in three women globally or approximately eight hundred and forty million women have experienced physical or sexual violence. In the United States, about 434,000 people age 12 and older are sexually assaulted annually, with data showing that more than 53% of women and over 29% of men report experiencing some form of sexual violence.

According to studies based on 2025 and 2026 data, queer, bisexual, and transgender individuals are disproportionately targeted, with up to 64% of transgender people experiencing sexual assault in their lifetime. Women, LGBTQ plus individuals, immigrants, and communities of color experience disproportionately higher rates of violence and greater obstacles when trying to access support.

For many, reporting means risking discrimination, being dismissed, or not being believed. For others, it means reliving trauma over and over again through systems that can feel cold, invasive, and apathetic. And for some, it means navigating institutions that were never designed with their safety or dignity in mind. Denim Day calls on us to do more than wear jeans. It calls on us to listen, truly listen to survivors, to believe them, to support them, to stand with them.

It calls on us to build systems that are trauma-informed, equitable, and centered on accountability. Systems that recognize the power imbalances that often exist between a survivor and a perpetrator. Systems that do not silence survivors but instead uplift their voices and protect their rights.

Today, let's recommit ourselves to that belief that sexual assault has no place in any of our communities and to every person affected by sexual violence no matter when or by whom, you are not alone and help is available at your local rape crisis center. Also, to every survivor who has carried this in silence, we see you, we believe you, and we will not stop until the systems meant to protect you actually do.

Colleagues, I respectfully ask for an aye vote on SR 68.

Thank you. Senator Richardson, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. On behalf of the California Legislative Black Caucus, I rise in support of Senate Resolution SR 68, known as Denim Day, a day that carries meaning far beyond what we wear. Denim Day reminds us of a painful truth that, too often, survivors of sexual violence have not been met with justice, but with doubt, blame, and silence.

It calls on all of us to confront those harmful narratives and to do better. We are reminded by women like Recy Taylor, who was abducted and assaulted in 1944 and bravely spoke out, despite being denied justice. That legacy continues today through leaders like Tarana Burke, who created a movement centered on healing, empowerment, and making sure survivors, women and girls, would be seen, heard, and supported. Wearing Denim today is a simple but a powerful act.

It says we stand with individuals, and I changed on that line, survivors.

We stand with individuals, all individuals, that are committed to shifting our culture to no longer allow harm to go unchallenged. As a caucus, the Legislative Black Caucus, we remain committed to turning awareness into action through policy, advocacy, and ensuring every woman, every person, feels seen and supported. I respectfully ask for your aye vote on SR 68.

Thank you. Senator Menjivar, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. Colleagues, I rise on behalf of all the caucuses I'm a proud part of. Sexual Assault Awareness Month is about more than simply knowing that sexual assault is happening. It is a time to reexamine why and how it, it is happening.

Women and girls, as we know, are disproportionately targeted and victimized by sexual predators, and we, as a society, know that it's wrong, but it continues to happen in our schools, in our prisons, and even in our homes, when people are supposed to feel the safest.

While the resolution calls California as the national leader addressing sexual assault, there are still various areas where we are falling short. Incarcerated women in our prisons continue to get sexually assaulted by our own workers who were put there to look after them. We teach people to watch out for strangers, but we don't prepare them for the reality that harm may come from someone who knows their routine, their fears, or who has been entrusted to care for them.

As a former therapist for women who have experienced gender-based violence, I've seen firsthand how that abuse is rarely random in the long-term impacts that it has on a person, how it's often planned, hidden, and strategically done without any witnesses nearby.

They are cultural and systemic elements at play, and too often, the burden falls on the survivor to come forward and admit to have been assaulted, to put their face and name associated to the story, to subject themselves to judgment, humiliation, discreditation, and disbelief, and to persist in their pursuit of justice, a process that forces them to relieve—relive—the trauma over and over again and with the age of social media to be called a liar, a slut, or a whore.

And even—and even when they do come forward, systems fail to create change, policies change, is, systems fail to create change, and policies need to change this—and policy is still needed to change to prevent more attacks. Because as the resolution also notes, the CDC has deemed sexual assaults as a preventable health issue.

However, in examples where more and more people are turning to dating apps for love, more and more women are reporting having been attacked through encounters made on these apps and the companies failing to protect them. Cases of women reporting of a man raping them, and apps taking three to four more times of other women to get raped to do something about it.

As we navigate and balance how to put policies in place to protect victims and survivors or protect this form of this form of sexual assault constantly happening, let's make sure they that we do that without having them and survivors and victims take a back seat to the privileges of another demographic. A recent piece of CNN—by CNN—highlighted an international online community of husbands who helped one another drug and sexually assault their wives. Many of the assaults were recorded on video and posted online for the entertainment of users within that discussing community.

In this piece, in this incident, the women survivors had to show their faces and admit to the world to being betrayed by the person they likely trusted the most. However, the perpetrators, the individuals who sexually assaulted their partners and were convicted in court, were kept anonymous.

Their faces and their names were concealed and kept private to protect their identities and their reputations. This is not justice, but instead the kind of backwards thinking that allows these crimes to persist and that needs to be left in the past. It is time that we shift where perpetrators are protected and instead are held accountable, which is why more than ever, I ask for an aye vote on this resolution and for us to do more in the policy gaps that exist in California.

Thank you. Senator Perez, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. Colleagues, on behalf of the LGBTQ Caucus, I rise in support of SR 68 by the good Senator from Riverside. The number 68 is especially significant because every sixty-eight seconds, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted. I stand here not just in support of the over thirty eight million survivors of sexual assault and rape but also as one of them.

While people regardless of gender or sexual orientation are susceptible to experiencing sexual violence, women reported experiencing a substantial threat of sexual violence, especially bisexual women like myself.

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, almost 80% of bisexual women and over 56% of bisexual men reported experiencing contact sexual violence in their lifetimes and almost 60% of both Lesbian women and gay men reported experiencing contact sexual violence. Survivors could be anyone—our friends, our family and our colleagues. But perpetrators could be anyone too and we must hold them accountable as well, especially when they are the people who are close to us.

While I acknowledge and I'm grateful that the state of California is a leader in protecting survivors and preventing sexual assault and rape, there is still more work to be done. Because this state is the leader, we cannot forget about the survivors in other states whose rights are being ripped away by the institution sworn to protect them. We cannot forget about the survivors who have experienced sexual violence in the past and have now found the courage to speak out. Survivors do not need your pity. They need justice.

And justice comes from action from bodies like ours holding perpetrators accountable for their actions. But for us to truly stand and support of survivors, we must listen to and believe and support survivors before we speak for them. For those who are not ready yet to speak, we are here for you. For those finding their voice to speak, we support you. And for those who have found the strength to speak, you will not be silenced.

Today, I rise in strong support of this resolution and the millions of survivors that are so much more than the things that have happened to them. We see you, we hear you, and we believe you. Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Valladares, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president. Today, colleagues, I also rise in support of this resolution. Denim Day started because a court once questioned a victim's clothing, as if what she wore somehow made what happened to her acceptable. And let that sink in.

For so many women and survivors, the hardest part isn't what just happened. It's what comes after. The fear, the anxiety, the reality that the person who hurt them could one day show up again. And while their trauma doesn't expire, too often in states like ours, our protections often do. That doesn't make sense to me and doesn't make sense to victims.

If we truly believe victims, if we actually stand with them, then we have to make sure that they're protected for the long term, not simply the moment. That's what I'm fighting for. Not politics, not headlines, just making sure survivors can live their lives without constantly looking over their shoulder, because real support means real protection, in the form of permanent protective orders as well. I strongly urge an aye vote.

Thank you. Senator Wahab, you are recognized.

Thank you. Today, we wear denim for a reason. Denim Day began after a court blamed a survivor's clothing instead of the person who raped her. That injustice is why we must say clearly clothing is never consent. And I wanna be clear, women and people in jeans are raped.

Women in dresses are raped. Women in uniforms are raped. Women in burkas are raped. Trans women are raped. Children are raped.

Sexual violence is not caused by clothing, identity, or where someone has a right to exist. It is caused by perpetrators who exploit power, trust, isolation, vulnerability, and private spaces. And right now, in my own district, people are shaken with allegations involving someone many people trusted. And I wanna highlight that when survivors come forward, they deserve to be heard with dignity, seriousness, and care. No survivor should be shamed, doubted, or silenced.

Today, we stand with all survivors, and we commit two laws, institutions, and a culture that protects people, holds perpetrators accountable, and never blames the victim. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate. Senator Cervantes, would you like to close?

Yes. Thank you, madam president. I wanna thank all our colleagues for supporting SR 68 who spoke up in support. Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Aye is 37. Noes zero. That resolution passes. We will now move to file item 43, SCR 130. Secretary, please read.

Senate and concurrent resolution 130 by Senator Grove, relative to child abuse prevention month.

Senator Grove, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues, today I rise in recognition of SCR 130, which acknowledge acknowledges April 2026 as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Child Abuse Prevention Month serves as an important reminder that we all share responsibility to ensure that every child grows up safe, in a stable, nurturing environment.

In 2024, The United States Department Of Health And Human Services reported that 43,943 children in the state of California were found to be victims of neglect or child abuse.

Colleagues, I'd like you to keep in mind that that was only the number that was reported. There are a lot of these cases that go unreported. That number again is 43,943 children.

The scars from these children's trauma don't fade away with time, and children who endure maltreatment and face abuse face significant challenges that can continue for a lifetime.

We must continue to break the silence in the wake of this crisis when our most vulnerable are being hurt every single day.

Beyond the neglect and abuse, we must face the realities that child sex trafficking, labor trafficking, unregulated youth transportation, and neglect plaguing many of our homeless and youth and foster children.

In researching bills that we've introduced this year, we've had cases that we have read that just continually break my heart. Potential, purposely poisoning children, purposely beating children, purposely torturing children.

And some of the specifics of these cases will make your stomach turn. Every child in California deserves to grow up in a safe, nurturing environment, free from the shadows of fear, abuse, and neglect.

Protecting our children is the mission that transcends party lines, and that is proven today. Together, we're sending a clear message that we will not rest until we've built a future for our youth that can grow up safe, healthy, and free from harm.

I'd also like to take one minute to just say thank you to the current public safety chair from Berkeley. I can tell you that his heart to protect children and being in the public safety position that he is has really been evident to what public safety should be about.

And making sure that regardless of what it is, it's not a partisan issue. It's making sure that every child in California is safe.

And you truly are an exceptional public safety chair. Thank you. Thank you for allowing me the honor to present and speak on this bill. Please join me in supporting SCR 130 to protect our children from future abuse and assault.

Thank you. Senator Choi, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President and colleagues. I rise today in strong support of SCR 130, which task is April 2026 as a child abuse prevention month in California. This resolution is more than a symbolic gesture.

It is a solemn reminder of our shared responsibility to protect the most vulnerable among us, our children. Child abuse and neglect remain deeply troubling realities.

This they cross all socioeconomic, cultural, and geographic boundaries. Behind every statistic is a child whose safety, dignity, and the future are at risk. These are not distant problems.

They exist in our communities, our neighborhood, and sometimes even within reach of these systems meant to protect them. Prevention must be our priority.

Research consistently shows that early intervention, family support services, and the community awareness can dramatically reduce the instances of you abuse and neglect.

When we invest in strong families, accessible mental health services, quality, child care, and the parental education, We are not only prevent preventing harm. They are building we are building the healthier communities for generations to come.

This month provides the opportunity to recognize the dedicate the dedicated professionals and the volunteers, social workers, educators, health care providers, law enforcement officers, and advocates who work tirelessly to safeguard our children.

Their effort often go unseen, but their impact is profound. For these reasons, I strongly urge your Aye vote.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, Senator Grove, would you like to close?

Thank you, Madam President. Just respectfully ask an Aye vote.

Thank you. Senators, this item is eligible for unanimous roll call. Seeing no objection, Ayes 37, Noes 0. That resolution passes. We will now move to file item 54, SB 1058.

Secretary, please read.

Senate Bill 1058 by Senator McNerney, an act relating to public contracts.

Senator McNerney, you are recognized.

Madam President, distinguished colleagues, I rise to present SB 1058. SB 1058 is a clarifying and technical measure. The bill would remove price as the primary consideration when schools evaluate procurement bids for child nutrition programs.

The bill is a small change in current law that allows schools to better support communities, local farmers, and businesses. In other words, it encourages high quality, locally grown, and culturally sensitive foods.

Basically, it creates flexibility for local school districts for healthier meals. And importantly, it aligns state and federal law. This will support our schools and kids by ensuring they have access to the highest quality meals. Aye, respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, senators, this is also eligible for unanimous roll call. Seeing no objection, ayes 37, no zero. It is adopted. We will now move to file item 55, SB 930.

Secretary, please read.

Senate Bill 930 by Senator Reyes, an act relating to privacy.

Senator Reyes, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. I rise to present SB 930, which requires proctoring companies who are providing services to a local educational agency for a classroom or course based exam to use end to end encryption.

It defines end to end encryption as encryption where data is unreadable by the proctoring companies and other parties and is only accessible to the intended school recipient. SB 930 strengthens school and student privacy protections.

It has received bipartisan supported committee and has no registered opposition. I respectfully ask for your Aye vote.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, senators, this is eligible for unanimous roll call. Seeing no objection, Ayes 37, Noes 0. We are now at file item 63, SB 917. Secretary, please read.

Senate Bill 9117 by Senator Laird, an act relating to alcoholic beverages.

Senator Laird, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, Madam President. Senate bill nine seventeen supports California wine businesses at a time, that they're facing an economic downturn and declining sales.

Right now, only wineries that have a state grown grapes, in their wine are allowed to sell at farmers markets. This actually allows wineries that don't grow their own grapes to sell at farmer's markets. It's something that will help, the struggling industry and and help consumers.

Their support on both sides, I respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, senators, this is eligible for unanimous roll call. Seeing no objection, Ayes 37, Noes 0. That measure passes. We are at file item 66, SB 1002.

Secretary, please read.

Senate Bill 1002 by Senator Niello, an act relating to healing arts.

Senator Niello, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President, for the, opportunity to present SB 1002. This bill is a modest expansion of the David Hall Act of 2023, which allows for eligible patients to access out of state care via telehealth with eligible providers.

Under the David Hall Act, the eligible payment patient is someone with an immediate life threat threatening diagnosis, meaning there is a reasonable likelihood that death will occur in a matter of months.

An eligible physician and surgeon is required to be a lice be licensed in another state, in good standing, with no history of prior discipline, and their medical expertise must be that of the eligible patient's illness. SB 102 excuse me.

SB 102 seeks to allow patients that at one point, qualified to receive out of state health, telehealth care under the David Hall Act to continue seeing that previously established provider in the happy event that they achieve remission.

This bill is about access to care and continuum of care for these patients while preserving the existing safeguards. SB 102 had bipartisan support and passed unanimously out of the business and professions committee, and I respectfully ask an Aye vote.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, senators, this is eligible for unanimous roll call. We will do we will call the roll. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Secretary, please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

Ayes, 35. Noes 0. That measure passes. We are now on file item 80, SB 1036. Secretary, please call please read.

Senate Bill 1036 by Senator Grayson, an act relating to land use.

Senator Grayson, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. Members, SB 1036 would provide clarity under the Mitigation Fee Act by requiring that all jurisdictions provide credit for any use previously on a site when a project is redeveloping a site with similar prior uses.

While many jurisdictions already provide credits for these purposes, not all do. SB 1036 will create a uniform policy that clarifies that impact fees should only be paid on the new impact that the development causes.

This will reduce cost for duplicative fees and lower overall development cost.

I respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate Senators, this is eligible for unanimous roll call. Seeing no objection, Ayes 37, Noes 0. That measure passes. We are now at file item 81, SCR 131.

Secretary, please read.

Senator Concurrent Resolution 131 by Senator Blakespear relative to housing.

Senator Blakespear, you are recognized.

Thank you, madam president and distinguished colleagues. I rise to present SCR 131. This resolution rallies our state and focuses our attention on urgently ending unsheltered street homelessness in the great state of California.

It is a true moral failing that more than a 100,000 Californians live unsheltered every single night on sidewalks, in parks, under freeway overpasses, and along riverbeds without access to privacy, safety, or sanitation.

Night after night, people live within the shadow of us right here in this magnificent historic state capital.

Every week, every Member of this esteemed body comes to Sacramento and sees our neighbors who live in places that are not fit for human habitation.

If there was ever a group of Californians who are disinvested and deserving of so much better, it's those living unsheltered on our streets. Unsheltered homelessness is an absolute crisis in California, and it demands immediate and focused action.

The longer someone remains unsheltered, the greater that person's risks. In fact, the life expectancy for someone living without a home is 17 years shorter than the general public. 17 years shorter.

Over fifty thousand people nationwide have died while living unsheltered in the past decade. This is not something that we should normalize or accept.

Unsheltered homelessness is not only a humanitarian crisis, but a systemic failure that undermines public health, community safety, and overall the trust in government.

And yet too often we seem to normalize encampments as a permanent condition of life in California, even in a high cost state with notably high housing costs.

This is not inevitable. The inter agency council on homelessness has set a clear, measurable target by next year, 2027 exits from unsheltered homelessness into either shelter or housing need to rise from 42% to 70%.

The ultimate objective is straightforward and doable. Ensure people experiencing unsheltered homelessness can access shelter or housing tonight with a clear pathway to permanent stability, including the possibility of mental health or substance abuse treatment.

But in order to address unsheltered homelessness, we need to do more as a legislature and as a state. California must prioritize evidence based solutions that are proven to work at scale.

We often marvel in California and in this nation at what we can achieve when we work together toward a shared common goal such as sending people around the moon or developing the Covid vaccine in record time. But this here is no moonshot. It is far easier.

Frankly, The problem is that we have not focused on the entire continuum.

We are primarily focused on building people's forever homes, whether that is affordable market rate or permanent supportive housing when what they need first and foremost is housing tonight.

In San Diego, when more than 12,000 people asked for a bed to sleep in tonight, less than 10% got one. That means that 90% of people who want a bed tonight are told that there isn't room available at the inn.

We must deploy a full continuum of housing options from interim shelter to permanent supportive housing to addiction and mental health intervention to building people's forever homes in order to meet people where they are.

State, regional, and local governments must better align and coordinate limited resources to invest in both interim and long term housing. But it starts with changing the narrative. We cannot accept encampments as inevitable.

Right now, the streets are the waiting room while housing construction takes multiple years and costs on average $700,000 a door.

The undisputable fact is we do not have enough emergency and interim shelter capacity for our unsheltered homeless population in the state of California, which is more than a 120,000 people.

Our constituents are demanding change, and we can do so much better by the folks we walk by every single day who continue to go without housing tonight.

SCR 1 is a call to match the scale of this crisis with the urgency, coordination, and evidence based investments in solutions that work so that no Californian Californian is left to live on our streets. I respectfully ask for your Aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Ashby, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. And I would like to thank the author from San Diego who it has a laser focus on this issue. I know when you all come to our city and you stay here, you spend a lot of your time in our urban core.

So right downtown where all of our issues are on full display, good and bad. Big beautiful arenas, big beautiful convention centers, lots of great food, but also an absolute undeniable struggle around what to do with housing, homelessness, mental health services, addiction.

And I will say what I have said many times at a local diocese and in this room, it is not a kindness to leave people in their despair and in their addiction and walk by. And yet, we do not have the solutions in place. We throw a lot of money at these issues.

In my own region here, over half $1 billion in the last five years. But a lack of coordinated effort continues to plague the Sacramento region, and how one hand is responsible for one part of the solution, another hand is responsible for another part of the solution.

And until they begin to work together, the resources do not come to fruition in the way that they could with the success that should be in our regions based on the dollars that you all have afforded to the communities across the state of California.

So while we look at this issue with clear eyes, we also need to think about what are the structural problems in our regions that are preventing us from being successful on this, one of the most challenging issues in every corner of our state.

And while it may be front and present for you at your time in Sacramento, I know you also all deal with this at home in various parts of your community.

We need to think together outside of the box about how we can provide tools to our cities and our counties to be successful. I respectfully urge an Aye vote.

Thank you. Senator Arreguin, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. I'm also proud to rise and support SCR 131 as a co author. And I wanna thank the author for her work with the Senate Housing Committee in amending this resolution to also recognize the importance of supporting a range of interventions to

prevent and end homelessness, not just interim housing, but permanent housing, as well as the supportive services that are so critical, to provide support stability for people who are living in our streets.

And I wanna thank the author for her commitment and leadership on this important issue, which not only impacts her constituents in San Diego County, but committees throughout the state of California. Colleagues, this is an important resolution.

Oftentimes, we adopt resolutions and their statement of our values, but this isn't just a statement of our values. This is a significant policy statement and commitment of this body, towards addressing unsheltered homelessness.

And so much of the conversation in the state around homelessness has been the critical need to build permanent housing. Yes. We need permanent housing, but we cannot wait for those permanent housing needs to be built while people are dying on our streets.

We need both. We need permanent housing. We're dealing with the scarcity of housing in our state, which is driving up costs and making housing unaffordable for people.

But we also need humane places for people to live that are not on our streets through interim housing units or emergency shelter and through supportive services.

As the resolution notes, 123,000 people are estimated to sleep on our streets in our public spaces in California every year. It's unacceptable for anyone to not have a permanent home.

We know about the impacts to those who are experiencing homelessness, but we also know the impacts to the communities where we have, unsheltered homelessness impacts on our streets, our parks, our public spaces and to our businesses.

We need to not just focus on building permanent homes, but on rapidly creating interim and scalable housing to provide dignified shelter for people, rather than having them sleep in the elements on our streets.

This resolution rightfully recognizes the urgent necessity to end and prevent unsheltered homelessness. I would argue a failure of our humanity.

It recognizes the need to coordinate state, regional, and local efforts to address unsheltered homelessness, and calls on the legislature and the governor and state agencies to adopt an urgent and coordinated approach to end and prevent homelessness.

Those of us that have served in county or local government know that we do not have an urgent or coordinated approach to addressing homelessness in California.

Billions of dollars have been rightfully allocated by this legislature to help local communities address homelessness.

We have seen some success, but we have also seen failure. And so all everyone in our state, whether it's business, whether it's county government, whether it's local government, whether it's state government.

We all have to be all hands and deck working together to address this and make sure that the money is going towards evidence based proven solutions that are gonna end the humanitarian crisis on our streets

and make sure that we are all working together to make sure that the system works.

And lastly, this resolution recognizes the importance of investing not just in interim housing, but permanent housing is part of our state strategy.

I believe that we should continue to strive towards achieving functional zero unsheltered homelessness in California, which means that while we're working to get people off the streets, we're also working to prevent the inflow of people becoming homeless.

And I think that's a goal that we should continue to strive to achieve that Senator Becker introduced legislation by a year ago to try to advance.

But ultimately, this is really about expressing our firm commitment that homelessness is an urgent crisis that needs a coordinated approach and that we need to focus on not just homelessness, but unsheltered homelessness. I respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Thank you. Senator Becker, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanna thank our housing chair. He said it incredibly well. And I wanna thank Senator from Encinitas for being a a wonderful partner on this issue and really raising attention to the fact that it's yes. We have a homelessness crisis.

We particularly have an unsheltered homelessness crisis. That in California, almost 70 of our homeless population is unsheltered, whereas nationally, that's 20%, and a place like New York City is 5%.

We all travel to other countries on delegations, and we're we're in Europe or Asia, and people say, we're you know, they have drug addiction. They have poverty, but you don't see the the the kind of despair on the streets that we've seen historically, in this state. And and, you know, I see it.

I live in a most of the year in a hotel near here. When I back back down to a hotel, there there's been a woman who's sleeps right near the flower shop, almost every night.

And sometimes I try to help, but you can't help every night. And we need holistic solutions for this. So again, I appreciate the comments of my colleague here.

But it's it's really a focus, I think, an issue. And so now we're we're trying to bring focus and attention to that. We've seen, great strides, in many jurisdictions. We've seen some strides in San Diego. We've seen some strides in San Jose, my own area of San Mateo.

We've seen this interim housing model. When I first did the Interim Housing Act, despite it being unanimously passed here in the legislature, it still got killed.

And so we had to do a lot of education work within the building and outside the building about the potential here. We just had the Salt the incredible women from Salt and Light that were part of the Irvine award winners.

And when I was talking to them, they said when people come to them from interim housing, it's night and day versus when people come directly from the street, to their facilities.

So I look forward to continue to work with my colleagues, continue to work to do education and do that legislation. We have a model that is working now and we need to scale it up with focus. Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Niello, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. This resolution is okay as far as it goes, but it's deficient in two, and I believe, very significant ways. One of the primary reasons I decided to try to come back to the legislature, and this was back in 2022, was homelessness.

I was watching from a distance what the state was doing. And to that point, the state had expended significant efforts and resources, $20 billion in three or four years, during which time the numbers ballooned.

And we really haven't fully recovered for that from that. Now, when I did arrive and sat in on hearings where we discussed homelessness and being on the budget committee, obviously, that's where the resources come from.

There was one part of the discussion that was consistently missing. Consistently. And to this day I have not heard anybody within this institution or by staff dealing with homelessness discussion. I have not heard anybody utter the words self sufficiency. We talk about housing.

In a discussion, an institutional discussion, even heard the word, other than when I uttered it, the word self sufficiency. The goal of any health and human services program has got to be self sufficiency.

We talk about supportive housing. We talk about permanent supportive housing. But quite literally, I have never in the almost four years that I've been back here.

We may not achieve it in all cases, but if we don't hold that as the ultimate goal, we are doomed to probably not to achieve it. We are doomed probably not to achieve it. The other issue is, homelessness is a very complicated issue. Many causes to it.

I think primarily substance abuse and mental illness, but that's not the only thing. And it is not a one size fits all challenge. And yet, in one respect, we adopt a one size fits all approach.

And it's not addressed in this resolution. That is housing first. How we will not allow any resources, state resources to go to any program that is not housing first.

Not even sober living opportunities where people want to get off drugs and they have to be, in an environment where other people are not using drugs to help them stay off drugs.

The state will not put resources to such a program. It's been put before this body more than once and has been rejected every time. That is a one size fits all. Self sufficiency, multiple attempts to solve this very, very vexing problem.

And these are the things that are missing in this resolution. For that reason, I can't support it.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion of debate, Senator Blakespear, would you like to close?

Yes. Thank you. Thank you to my colleagues for the richness of their comments. I wanted to, say thank you to those who spoke on this because I think that when you're talking informally to people who are elected to the state legislature about their priorities,

so many people talk about homelessness. And this is my fourth year in the state legislature and I tried to have a resolution on homelessness last year, but it's actually difficult because it is a policy decision about what we're gonna focus on when it comes to homelessness.

And I think it's important to recognize, that the Senator from Fair Oaks who is wait. Maybe he could just listen first briefly. The Senator from Fair Oaks says that we don't talk enough about self sufficiency.

And I think the reality is we want to help people get back into self sufficiency. And right now, we're leaving them on the street to figure it out on their own.

We're basically saying you're there's nothing that we can do for you. We're gonna step over you and let you work it out. And so this resolution is calling on all of us to say, how can we intervene to help people access their self sufficiency?

We're not saying we would like to provide, anything you want no matter what your whim is. We're saying we'd like to help you get back into self sufficiency.

And it's also important to recognize that this resolution does not talk about housing first. This resolution is focused on housing now. It's saying that unsheltered street homelessness is about somebody being able to have a place to sleep tonight.

And so this is actually a different take on homelessness than you normally hear which is why this had to go through the housing committee, be talked about and addressed by the good Senator from Berkeley who has a lot of experience with this topic and has thought

deeply about it, and also the committee the committee members there before bringing this forward. So this this actually is a resolution that has been more than a year in the making.

Is shining a light on a part of our California society that is not focused on in this way and not focused on enough and saying all of us need to focus around the tip of this spear and put our shoulder to the wheel and do something about this because we care about it.

Many of us care deeply about it and we want to see better outcomes. We want to help people get to the self sufficiency that we know they want.

So with that, I say a big thank you again to my colleagues, and I respectfully ask for your Aye vote.

Thank you. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Secretary, please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

Eyes 34. No zero. That resolution passes. We will now move to file item 84, SB 1285. Secretary, please read.

Senate bill twelve eighty five by Senator Durazo, an act relating to juveniles.

Senator Durazo, you are recognized. Thank you,

madam president. SB 1285 allows justice impacted youth opportunity to petition for dismissal of their records and begin their adult lives anew. California's juvenile justice system is designed to rehabilitate youth to eliminate long term collateral consequences after termination of their court involvement. Currently, juvenile courts have discretion to seal records and grant dismissals. However, record sealing does not give juveniles a complete fresh start.

Record sealing laws do not apply, for example, to federal jurisdictions or other states. Prowled juvenile records, even if sealed, often hinder a person's ability to enlist in the military or gain employment out of state or secure occupational licenses. Current law requires when a juvenile court just deter terminates jurisdiction, a juvenile court judge considers factors such as juveniles successful, completion of probation, or mental illness. Regrettably, some of the courts have experienced confusion with the current law's intent.

So to clarify the confusion, s p twelve eighty five clarifies and codifies that section w I c section 82 seven eighty two is a general dismissal statute and ensures that a petition dismissed under this section is treated as if it never happened.

This bill protects individuals from harm harmful consequences in the future in accordance with long standing and widely accepted interpretation of California's dismissal law. Respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, senators, this is eligible for unanimous roll call. Is there any objection? Seeing no objection, aye 37, noes zero. That measure passes.

We will now move to file item 85, SB 969. Secretary, please read.

Senate Bill 969 by Senator Reyes, an act relating to developmental services.

Senator Reyes, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. I rise to present SB 969, which ensures Californians with intellectual and developmental disabilities can continue to have the option to access services remotely based on their individual needs.

During the Covid 19 pandemic, the Department of Developmental Services authorized the option for remote service delivery for critical services, including day programs, independent living services, and behavioral therapy.

This option is currently set to expire on 12/31/2026, and DDS does not have clear statutory authority to continue it on a permanent basis.

Additionally, there is no consistent process to ensure individuals and families are informed that remote services are available.

SB 969 codifies the option for remote service delivery and affirms California's commitment to inclusive, accessible services for all.

Thank you, seeing no I respectfully ask for your Aye vote. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate, Senators, this is eligible for unanimous roll call. Seeing no objection, Ayes 37, Noes 0. That measure passes.

We are now at file item 98, SCR 157. Secretary, please read.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 157 by Senator Cortese relative to school bus driver's day.

Senator Cortese, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President, colleagues. Tomorrow, April 28, is school bus driver's day. SR 157, once again, this year recognizes the men and women who make it possible for California students to get to school safely every day.

Since 2009, the legislature has dedicated the fourth Tuesday in April to these professionals and rightfully so. Because school bus drivers hold commercial licenses, maintain their certifications on their own time, and stay current on safety training.

Their responsibility goes beyond the road. Drivers navigate traffic, monitor vehicle maintenance, and manage student behavior all at once. In doing so, they model patience, kindness, and respect for every child on that bus, often serving as a steady presence in a student's day.

Organizations like the California Association of School Transportation officials, Casto, support this work by providing professional development and advancing public awareness of road safety. Their efforts make our roads safer for everyone.

Colleagues, the well-being of each student begins long before they walk through the classroom door, as we all know. It begins the moment they step onto a bus.

I ask for your Aye vote to honor the dedication of these professionals who recognize the essential role they play in our schools and communities.

I do want to acknowledge the California Association of School Transportation officials, as I mentioned, is represented here today. Thank you, Madam President. And again, I respectfully ask for an Aye vote.

Thank you. Senator Strickland, you are recognized.

As the Vice Chair of transportation, I wanna thank the Chair of transportation for bringing this important resolution forward. But I also wanna do a point of personal privilege.

I believe our leader, Brian Jones, is the only one on this floor that's actually been a bus driver school bus driver. So we should give him a round of applause, because he kept the people safe and didn't get in one accident while he was a bus driver for those kids.

So with that, I urge your Aye vote in this resolution.

Thank you. Learn something new about Senator Jones every day. Senator Jones, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President and Members. And since I was called out by name, I will rise and appoint a personal privilege and also support the resolution. It is important. Bus driving is not an easy job, and, so I support all of the comments here.

And, let's, keep all those bus drivers in mind as we go about our daily business today. Thank you.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion or debate. Senator Cortese, would you like to close?

I respectfully ask for your Aye vote.

Thank you. Senators, this is eligible for unanimous roll call. Seeing no objection, Ayes, 37 Noes, 0. The resolution passes. Senators, before we move to the consent calendar, are there any Members who would like to remove an item from the consent calendar?

Seeing none. Secretary, please read all the items on the consent calendar.

Senate Bill 1418 and Senate Bill 1429.

Secretary, please call the roll on file item 113, SB 1418.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 37, Noes 0 on file item 113. Ayes 37, Noes 0 on the rest of the consent calendar. The consent calendar is approved. We are now at committee announcements. Senator Laird, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. The select committee on older LGBTQ Californians will be meeting upon adjournment of session in Room 2100 of the Swing Space.

Thank you. Senator Cortese, you are recognized for your committee announcement.

The Senate transportation is meeting immediately after adjournment of session in Room 2100. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Madam President.

I have the wrong room number. We would all be going to the same room. So we were in Room 2200. Thank you very much.

Yes.

Thank you for that correction. Senators, we are now returning to motions and resolutions for our adjourn in memory. Senator Ochoa Bogh, you are recognized.

Thank you, Madam President. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, It is with great sadness that I rise to adjourn in memory of Sandy Stiers, who passed away on February 11 at age 73 after bravely battling cancer for several years.

Sandy grew up in Indianapolis and studied aerospace engineering at Purdue University before moving to Lancaster, California to take a job with NASA at Edwards Air Force Base.

Soon after, she charged changed course and attended UCLA where she earned a BS degree in biology and went on to lead tours in the Galapagos and then run a technology consulting company.

In July 2001, Sandy was a founding member of Friends of Big Bear Valley, which is most famous for its webcams on a mated pair of bald eagles, Jackie and Shadow.

For the last twenty years, Sandy was the executive director where she spearheaded many projects, worked tires tirelessly to conserve Big Bear Valley's wilderness areas, and created opportunities for education about nature and eagles in particular.

This education ramped up significantly in 2015 when nest camps were installed to track the movements of Jackie and Shadow and their eaglets, and to connect people with nature. Sandy will always be remembered for her enthusiasm, calmness, optimism, and tenacity.

Sandy was a visionary and a hero to many, and she'll be deeply missed by her community and by the thousands who followed Jackie and Shadow online. Her dedication to preserving the beauty of her community and protecting the eagle's habitat will never be forgotten.

I wish Sandy's family, the friends of Big Bear Valley, and all who knew her all her all who knew her peace and comfort during this time of deep sorrow. I would be honored if this body would adjourn in memory of Sandy Stiers.

Senators, before we finish with our business, if the Members of the women's caucus can stay behind for a photo, that would be greatly appreciated by our Vice Chair. And if there is no other business, pro Tem Limon, the desk is clear.

Thank you, Senator. Our condolences to her entire family and the community. Please bring her name up so that she may be properly memorialized.

Thank you, Members. Our next scheduled here, floor session is on Thursday, 04/30/2026 at 9AM. Thank you. The Senate is adjourned.

We will reconvene Thursday, 04/30/2026 at 9AM.