Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 5 on Corrections, Public Safety, Judiciary, Labor and Transportation

Alright. The Senate budget subcommittee number five on corrections, public safety, judiciary, labor, and transportation will now come to order. I note that all the members of the subcommittee are present here in Room 112, so we can establish a quorum and begin our hearing. For today's hearing, all items are vote only. We will begin public comment on these issues and then move to the vote only calendar.

The issues we're voting on today have been discussed in several subcommittee hearings over the last couple months. We have heard and appreciate everyone's feedback from the members of the public and from staff as well. The actions we will be taking today represent the Senate's budget plan. I look forward to continuing conversations with the administration, with the LAO, and the assembly in a collaborative and thoughtful manner as we move towards a final budget agreement in the next few weeks.

Madam consultant, would you please call the establish a quorum?

[Roll call]

The consultant notes that a quorum has been established. Let's begin with any public comment. Seeing none, the subcommittee oh, yes, sir.

Come on forward. Please begin by stating your name and the organization.

Edward Hasbrouck with the Identity Project speaking in opposition to the proposal for the DMV proposal for the state to state system and specifically the budget trailer bill proposal to partially repeal parts of SB of AB 60 in order to allow the upload of information about all California driver's license holders to the SPEC's national ID database.

I understand the desire of committee members to put guidelines on this, but it's important to understand that if the state doesn't upload and make available information about all licenses and all of that information, it won't be in compliance with the Real ID Act defeating the purpose.

And it's also important to understand that once this data is uploaded to AMBA, including the 99999 placeholder for licenses without a Social Security number, it will be possible for federal or out of state law enforcement to obtain this information from AMBA with a warrant or subpoena, including a gag order so that California would neither know nor have any opportunity to challenge federal or other out of state access to this data.

The only way to keep this data out of federal hands is not to upload it. And I urge you to take this out of the budget, so that if it's gonna be considered at all, it got the proper consideration it deserves. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Okay, senators. We're gonna move forward to the actual vote on the items, and then at the end, we'll have an opportunity for us to share a few items that we're not voting on, but we have concerns or would like to be highlighted and still considered as we continue the process. We will now move to the vote only calendar.

We're gonna start with part a, and the issue numbers we're going to vote on first are issue numbers one through five, seven through nine, eleven, 17 through 21, 24 through 26, 28, thirty, thirty two through 39, 41, 45, 48 through 51, 54 through 57, and 59.

Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for these issues?

Thank you. That is thank you. The staff recommendations have moved have been moved by Senator Durazo. The motion is to adopt the staff recommendations. Consultant, would you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Those items are ayes three, nose zero. The second pardon? And they are out of committee.

The second section that we have for part a are items number six, twelve through sixteen, twenty two, 23, 27, 29, 31, forty, forty three, 44, 47, 53, and 58. Consultant, would you please call the roll?

Take it for a motion.

Oh, I'm sorry. Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for these issues? Thank you. Thank you, Senator.

The staff recommendations have been moved by Senator Durazo. The motion is to adopt the staff recommendations. Consultant, would you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Those items are now out of the committee. Ayes two. Noes one. The third part of Part A, which, we're working on right now is labor. The issues that we're gonna vote on are number ten, forty two, 46, and 52.

Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for these issues? So moved. Thank you. The staff recommendations have been moved by Senator Durazo. The motion is to adopt the staff recommendations.

Consultant, would you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Those items are now out of the committee. Two ayes and one not voting. We'll now move to part b and part b is the public safety and judiciary portion. The issues within that part section are one through fourteen, sixteen, 18 through twenty, twenty two through 26, 28, 30 through 32, 34 through 37, forty, forty one, 45, 46, 49, 53, 58, 60 through 66, 69 through 81, eighty three, eighty five through 89, 91, 92, 94 through 97, and 99 through one zero three.

Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for these issues?

Thank you. The staff recommendations have been moved by Senator Salardo. The motion is to adopt the staff recommendations. Madam Consultant, would you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Those items are now out of committee with three ayes and zero noes. The second part of this section of public safety and judiciary, the issues are 15, 27, 38, 39, 42 through 44, 47, 48, 50 through 52, 54 through 57, 59, 90, 93, 98, and 105. Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for these issues? So moved. Thank you.

The staff recommendations have been moved by Senator Durazo. The motion is to adopt the staff recommendations. Madam consultant, would you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Those items are out of committee. Two ayes and one no. We will now move to the third part of excuse me, the third section of part b, and those items we're considering are number seventeen, twenty one, 29, 33, 67, 68, 82, 84, and one zero four. Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for these issues? So moved.

Thank you. The staff recommendations have been moved by Senator Durazo. The motion is to adopt the staff recommendations. Consultant, would you please call the roll?

Senators Richardson. Aye. Richardson, aye. Durazo? Aye. Durazo, aye. Sayarto?

No voting. Sayarto not voting.

Those items are now out of committee with two ayes and one not voting. We'll now move to the third and final section, which is transportation. Those issues under the transportation section are three, four, six through eleven, sixteen through nineteen, twenty one, 23, 27 through 43, 45 through 47, 49, fifty, and fifty two. Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for these items?

Thank you. The staff recommendations have been moved by Senator Sayardo. The motion is to adopt the staff recommendations. Madam consultant, would you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Those items are now voted out of committee with three ayes and zero noes. We'll now go to the second section of part c, and those items are one, two, 12 through fifteen, twenty, twenty four through 26, 44, 48, and 51. Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for these issues? So moved. Thank you.

The staff recommendations have been moved by Senator Durazo. The motion is to adopt the staff recommendations. Madam consultant, would you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Those items are now out of committee with two ayes and one no. Our final section in part c of transportation will cover three issues, five, twenty two, and 53. Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for these issues? So moved. Thank you.

The staff recommendation has been moved by Senator Durazo. The motion is to adopt the staff recommendations. Madam consultant, would you please call the roll?

[Roll call]

Those items are now also out of committee with two ayes and one not voting. With that, before we close the hearing today, members, we wanted just to share a few of our thoughts on this plan that we are submitting to be rolled up with the entire budget act. And I I'm gonna start off, and then each member will have the opportunity to share any comments that they'd like to add relevant to this committee.

The first item, the gentleman spoke earlier today, and that is about the state to state real ID program. Earlier this year, the subcommittee heard the DMV's proposal to comply with the real ID act through the state to state program.

I remain very concerned about the potential implications of sharing personal data of all Californians with driver's license numbers and identification cards with other states. Specifically, I continue to be concerned about sharing data with an out of state nongovernmental entity such as AAMA or AIMA. Potentially that's, AAMBA. Potentially federal overreach in using the shared data for purposes outside of the identity verification purposes and greater exposure to security breaches by bad actors by being a part of this bigger data system.

There is significant work left to do on this issue.

The Senate will continue working with the assembly and the administration to improve privacy and security within the state to state system prior to providing any funding and any authority. The second item, actually two that I wanted to bring up. Today's actions reflect the previously released Senate foundation for the future budget plan, and our committee's decision on proposals from the administration. However, we know that there are many requests that are not addressed here today that we have voted on.

As we move through the next stage of negotiations, we will keep fighting and advocating to include additional Senate priorities in the final enacted budget.

There are two specific things I'd like to highlight. One, first is the rehabilitation programming. The first is the right grant. There's also we've heard of the ARC program. There are many programs that many people came over the several months to advocate and appear to be very well utilized and very helpful reflected in the reduced recidivism that we see.

So while this was not in the Senate plan, it is still a priority of many members, including myself, to make sure that we include rehabilitation programming. One of the other ones that I had in my notes, I believe, was the Freedom's Construction. It was Freedom's training that helped individuals to actually get their commercial driver's license so that they could become truck drivers.

And that also, and I'm just highlighting a few today, but there were many more that were discussed over the hearing, and I plan on continuing to advocate that those would be included. The second one is the wildfire mitigation grant program at OES.

It's important to expand this critical program to new areas of the state. I would say, frankly, all areas that would be evaluated by OES to determine where the need is for wildfire mitigation for future funding. I want to make sure to stress that. So I look forward to also continuing to work with my colleagues in Sub 2, to make sure that that program is expanded.

When you consider the fires that we've seen in the last twelve months, the Altadena Eaton fires, we have the Palisades fire, the Simi Valley Fire known as the Sandy fire, none of those would have qualified for wildfire mitigation funding.

And so it is very important, and through other hearings, when I've testified, individuals had have expressed the need to expand to all state, considerations or new areas, certainly, in the state. With that, I'd like to turn to Senator Durazo to see if you have any comments of things that, you'd like us to continue to work on and advocate as we continue this process.

Thank you, madam chair. And first, I wanna, commend the chair. Thank you very much for the way that you have conducted these hearings. Showed a lot of patience, a lot of professionalism, and a lot of concern for each and every issue, and you you approached everything in a fair and balanced way. So I appreciate that and commend you for that.

I wanna add my voice to the issues that you have raised and just wanna add a little bit more in two two areas. One is, as you said, the justice system. There are a number of of programs that we are familiar with that were not included.

One of them is getting the support for eviction data through our judicial system, trauma trauma recovery centers, and bridge funding, support for public defenders, CBO programming within the CDCR institutions, the Anti Recidivism Coalition Hope and Redemption Team, the Jails to Jobs, Homeboy Industries, Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs, East Los Angeles Women's Center. Those are within the within the context of the justice system.

And we have, over the years that I've been on this committee, spent a lot of time and a real commitment to the organizations that do that kind of work, whether it's while folks are still incarcerated and after they are released. We need these programs. Otherwise, we do an injustice. The other is with regards to workforce training. We've talked about that a lot.

We have shortages in many industries, and we just need to hunker down and be much more consistent. Workforce training is done on a year by year by year basis. Very rarely is it multiple years. And, you know, that's not how you do training. You have to have a real commitment to not only the the general issue of workforce training, but also specific industries.

So we have, for example, Hospitality Training Academy, training Angelenos for unionized careers, California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship and Youth Leadership Corps, and the California Youth Leadership I said that. Youth Leadership core programs. So I think those are two areas in which we're lacking a a true commitment, and they're very, very important to to the to the work that we've done over the last several years. Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you, Senator Durazo. Senator Seyarto.

Thank you very much, and I'll echo the comments from, my colleague from LA. And I appreciate your, the way we've conducted this committee this year.

Thank you. It's more a lot of collaboration, and it's noticed even though it's not always said. But and I think we've made some strides within the budget that we're submitting, the recommendations that we have in addressing some really important issues. A couple of things I just want you know, kind of note for the future is, you know, transportation funding across all sectors is critical for us to keep up with the growth that we are trying to, keep up with because of the demand for housing.

And, and and that means, you know, different different levels of transportation in different communities, different areas. You know, LA has, much different needs as far as their transportation because they can support a mass transit system.

Whereas out in our region, we're trying to get people from one city to the other safely on roads that were built for way less cars than they're being built now. And so Caltrans and the future, our transportation needs to start planning a little bit more for that type of of effort to to try to get more more funding out there and start laying the background in areas that are in between for the the, you know, the rail and and stuff so people will have a choice.

And when people choose and and have good choices to to make, that helps ease up the traffic and it allows that stuff to work. And and right now, there's there's really a real imbalance, especially inland. In public safety world, I am really pleased to, to see some of the efforts in the, the court facilities, that are, that are included.

You know, the Prop 36 funding, you know, there's, there's an argument to be made that it's not being funded enough, but I don't know if we funded it anymore that they'd be able to get through a system any faster because of how the court system is right now. We're short judges, we're short facilities, we're short class or courtroom space. And without all three of those things and an adequate probation at the end, there is no way to to accommodate what the voters, were their intent was.

And their intent is to stop incarcerating people that are drug addicted and start helping them. And, and, the only way we do that is if if we're able to do that.

Workforce development, echo my my colleague's comments on that. Really, really important as the work, the landscape for working changes, you know, from what we have now to an interaction with AI and and things, but it's also important to meet meet the workforce development with programs that are the responsibilities of other budget committees to expand the job opportunities that we have out here. And that means attracting businesses, not scaring them away because we can train the workforce a lot.

But if they're leaving our state to go work somewhere else, it's not doing us that much good. So anyway, again, I appreciate the hard work of the committee this year, and I look forward to finishing some of this stuff off again.

Thank you. So I have made a note. Thank you, Senator Seyarto. I've made a note and as well as our consultant, Nora, of the things that you said. I would just ask if you would put in writing to us, so that we can accurately, fully reflect on your comments, And I will do a letter, to the chair and to the pro tem and copy you to it.

And so as we continue this negotiating process, that they will still consider these items as well. With that, I think we're I want to conclude by thanking all the individuals who participated in public testimony today and throughout all the hearings that we've had. If you were not able to testify today, please submit your comments or suggestions in writing to the budget and fiscal review committee or visit our website.

Your comments and suggestions are important to us, and we want to include your testimony in the official hearing records. We thank you, and we appreciate your participation.

Before we conclude, I want to say a special thank you to our consultant, Nora, who's been very diligent in making efforts to keep us on track. She is also joined by Eunice and Diego. Eunice handles transportation and Diego handles labor. But certainly, you are our overarching champion that keeps us on the right road, no pun intended. But we thank you.

I know you've put in a lot of hours and more hours are still to come, but we thank you for really capturing, I think, not only our needs and concerns, but more importantly, the needs of public. And so we're very grateful that you're on this committee. I also wanna thank our sergeants. They've done an amazing job. You have kept order here in the committee.

You've been very kind though in how you provide the order, and a lot of people don't always give you the kudos for that. We thank you for bringing down bringing up the temperature a little bit. I'm not as sick on the end of this as I was on the front end. And, but just really for the way that you look out for us and make sure that we can conduct our business, we're very grateful.

And for all of you who've been making presentations and making sure that you're not only presenting the information that you have, but following up with the information we've requested.

We're very grateful for that. Department of Finance and LAO, thank you for your expertise that you have given to us, and we look forward to continuing this continuing the process and hopefully making progress for people, which is why we're all here. So with that, thank you everyone for your patience, your cooperation. Pardon? Oh, I forgot one other thing.

I also wanted to acknowledge Matt for your hard work with us here. People people wonder sometimes why I have some of the fairness. It's because when I was in Congress, I was in the minority for most of the time. And I know what it's like to be in the minority. It's very difficult.

You have the same goals, the same interest to you come here with the reasons of wanting to change things and make them better. And it's not always easy to do that on the minority side, but you've had to work just as hard, and we're grateful for your professionalism and your effort. Thank you. Thank you, Matt. So with that, thank you everyone for your patience, your cooperation, your knowledge, your wisdom, and Godspeed to us.