Assembly Floor

Morning, California. The assembly is now in session. Assembly member Solace notices the absence of a quorum. Solace. Sergeant at arms will prepare the chamber and bring in the absent members. Clerk will call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Members, the quorum is present.

We ask our guests and visitors in the rear of the chamber and in the gallery to please stand for today's prayer.

Reverend Oshita will offer today's prayer. Reverend Oshita.

Please join me in a moment of reflection. How can I be happy? This is a wonderful wonderment. True teachers in genuine spiritual traditions of humanity, all try to teach us that our happiness begins when we are able to transcend our self centered minds. We feel contentment when we feel one with the world around us.

It is the contentment and fulfillment of a parent holding close to their child. Where does the parent's life end and the child's life begin? The oneness they feel is their happiness. When we feel we are truly one, happiness and contentment naturally emerge. 2,400 years ago, the Taoist philosopher, Zhuang Zhou, shared his lesson in a humorously profound poem.

He wrote, when the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the mind is right, for and against are forgotten. Zhuang Zhou is saying that true contentment is found in the comfort of being one, like the shoe and the foot, or the belt and the belly, when they fit, they are not separate. Zhuang Zhou ends with the real lesson, when the mind is right, for and against, me against you are forgotten.

The Persian spiritual poet Rumi and Zhuang Zhou would say, beyond right and wrong, beyond inside and outside, beyond for and against, there's a place where we are one with all humanity. When our minds are right, we feel the contentment and happiness of a parent holding their child. Let us try to live with kindness and gratitude beyond words.

We ask our guests and visitors in the rear of the chamber and in the gallery to please excuse me, to remain standing and join us in the flag salute. Assemblymember Lackey will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please join me in this important tradition. I pledge allegiance.

[Pledge of Allegiance]

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

Assembly Chamber Sacramento, Thursday, 05/07/2026. The assembly met at 9am. The honorable Josh Lowenthal, Speaker Pro Temporee of the assembly presiding.

Authority leader, Aguir Curry moves, And Miss Sanchez seconds that the reading of the previous state's journal be dispensed with. Presentations and petitions, there are none. Introduction and reference of bills will be deferred. Courts and committees will be deemed read and amendments deemed adopted.

Messages from the Governor, there are none. Messages from the Senate, there are none.

Moving on to motions and resolutions, the absences of the day are as follows. For legislative business, Assembly member Celeste Rodriguez, for family illness, Assembly member Quirk Silva. Members, a very important announcement and reminder to before we begin today, we can adjourn at a decent hour today if you are at your desk and present to vote on bills. Your item is a support measure.

Please keep your talking points brief.

Okay. Madam majority leader, you are recognized for your procedural motion.

Good morning, Mister speaker. At the request of the author, please move file item five, AB 1566 Jackson to the inactive file.

Clerk will note.

At the request of Assembly member Flora, please remove file item 74, SCR177, Weber PIerson, from the consent calendar.

Clerk will note. Okay. On to business on the daily file. Let's do this.

Concurrence file item number one, we're gonna pass and retain reconsideration.

File items two through four, all items shall be continued. Brings us to the assembly third reading file. File items five through 59, we've already dispensed with file item five. We're gonna pass temporarily on file item six. We're gonna pass temporarily on file item seven.

File item number eight is AB 2257 by Assembly member Hart. Clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2257 by Assemblymember Hart an act regarding corrections.

Assemblymember Hart, you are recognized. Decorum members.

Thank you, mister speaker. It's a pleasure to start the day. I rise to present Assembly bill 2257, my bill to advance county jail accountability. Before coming to the legislature, I served as a county supervisor. In this role, I became intimately aware of the challenges facing California's county jails.

While boards of supervisors and sheriffs have shared government's responsibilities over county jails, boards of supervisors have too few tools to address issues in jails. My amended bill is a modest measure to give boards of supervisors a policy lever to address jail issues. The bill provides board of supervisors with confirmation authority over the sheriff's jail administrator under the direction and supervisor of the sheriff.

The jail administrator, once confirmed to serve a three year term, would be the executive officer of the county jail system, supervising the staff and overseeing the custody of the incarcerated population. The bill includes provisions allowing sheriffs to appoint acting jail administrators when a vacancy occurs to ensure continuity of leadership.

This change is permissive and does not require any counties to use it. For the counties that choose to use it, AB 2257 creates incentives for sheriffs to work collaboratively with boards of supervisors to improve jail outcomes for the safety of our communities and the welfare of the incarcerated. I've worked with law enforcement leaders and local government partners to refine this bill and will continue to work with the opposition to improve the bill should it leave the floor today.

I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

You. Assembly member Hart. All debate having ceased, clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

All members vote who desire to vote.

Members, please report to the floor. Please report to the floor. Assemblymember Hart has moved the call. File item number nine is AB 2529 by Assemblymember Johnson. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2529 by Assemblymember Johnson an act related to civil procedure.

Assemblymember Johnson, just a moment. Thank you, members. Let's give our respectful attention to the authors. Thank you so much. If you need to speak, keep the volume low.

Assembly member Johnson, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. I rise to present AB 2529. Very simply requires that individuals who file a claim against a public agency attest that the information

Members. Excuse me. Members? Thank you. Miss Johnson may continue.

Thank you, mister speaker. Very simply, it requires that if individuals who file a claim against public agencies attest that the information and claim is true and correct to the best of their knowledge. I want to thank the Judiciary Committee and the labor stakeholders for conversations, to work and come out with a great compromise. It is received unanimous by Patterson's support and I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Johnson. All debate having ceased, Clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll tally of votes, ayes 41, nose two, the measure passes. Final item number 10 is AB 2689 by assembly member Avi Lafarias. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2689 by Assembly member Avi Laffarias an act related to Housing.

Assembly member Avi Laffarias, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker and members. I'm pleased to present AB 2689. AB 2689 establishes metrics for affordable housing managers should they choose to transition to higher income tenants out of units intended for low income families. This bill has received strong bipartisan support, and I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Avila Farias. All debate having ceased, clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes ayes 49, no zero. The measure passes. File item number 11 is AB 1722 by Assemblymember Hadwick. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 1722 by Assemblymember Hadwick and others, an act related to fish and wildlife.

Assemblymember Hadwick, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This bill is a support support bill. Thank you. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Assemblymember Hadwick, all debate having ceased. Clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

All members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll, tally votes. Ayes 51, no zero. The measure passes. We're gonna pass temporarily on file item 12.

We're gonna pass temporarily on file item 13, temporarily. We are going to take up file item number 14. That is AB 2071 by Assemblymember Hoover. Clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2071 by Assemblymember Hoover and others, and after the pupil instruction.

Assemblymember Hoover, you are recognized.

Mister speaker and members, AB 2071 requires Department of Education to develop a plan to expand digital wellness instruction in our public schools. With the right skills, students are empowered to navigate digital spaces with confidence and discernment. We took floor amendments to correct the artificial intelligence definition to align with the existing definition in the code. Bill has no opposition. Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you.

Assemblymember Hoover, all debate having ceased. Clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally votes. Aye 54. No 0. The measure passes.

File item 15 is AB 1976 by Assemblymember Wicks.

Clerk will read.

Assembly bill 1976 by Assemblymember Wicks. an act relating to Streets and Highways.

Assemblymember Wicks, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker. There are approximately one thousand to twelve hundred pedestrian deaths per year, and there's been a fifty percent increase in deaths since 2014. We need to think about how to make it easier to get improvements and safety for our local streets and roads to make sure that our cyclists and pedestrians are in fact safe.

With this in mind, I've introduced and hope to get your vote on AB 1976, which would streamline the process so that more pedestrian and bicycle projects can be developed and implemented to improve accessibility and safety in our local communities. This is to get to yes more quickly on these types of critical infrastructure projects.

And with that, I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Wicks. All debate having ceased, Clerk will open the roll.

All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally votes. Aye 42, no 17, the measure passes.

File item 16 is AB 2012 by Assemblymember Hoover. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2012 by Assemblymember Hoover and others in ambulating the vehicles.

Assemblymember Hoover, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. Members, AB 2012 simply clarifies that a permit is not required to move a manufactured home if the applicant has obtained an annual permit. California's housing crisis requires creative solutions. This will help increase affordability and availability of factory built housing and reduce cost for Californians. I respectfully ask for an I

vote. Thank you, Assemblymember Hoover. I'll debate having seized clerk open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

All members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll tally to vote size fifty seven zero zero. The measure passes. File item 17 is AB 2139 by Assemblymember Garcia. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2139 by Assemblymember Garcia and act reagarding surplus land.

Assemblymember Garcia, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. Members, I rise to present AB 2139, a bipartisan bill that proposes a targeted amendment to the surplus land act, creating a practical pathway needed to bring a professional soccer team to the Inland Empire. The Inland Empire is one of the fastest growing regions in California, and notably, the largest metropolitan area in the nation without a major professional sports team.

This proposal represents a significant opportunity for economic development, regional identity, and community investment, not just for the Inland Empire, but for the entire state of California. I respectfully ask for your aye vote for the IE.

Thank you, Assemblymember Garcia. Debate having ceased clerk who opened the role. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes. Aye 58, No 1. The measure passes.

File item 18 is AB 1548 by Assemblymember Pellerin. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 1548 by Assemblymember Pellerin and others, an act relating to Conservation.

Assemblymember Pellerin, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker and colleagues. AB 1548 establishes the Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority between the counties of Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz to support and enhance long term stewardship of natural and working lands and strengthen regional climate and water resilience.

The authority will be governed by a nine member board made up of six elected officials from across the three counties and three public members selected for their professional expertise in areas such as working with Native American tribes, ecological restoration, supporting farming and ranching, and wildlife movement corridor protection. The governing body will be responsible for making all revenue related decisions. This authority closely resembles the San Francisco Bay Area Restoration Authority created in 2006.

The Monterey Bay Area Stewardship Authority created under this bill will bring the region together to attract new resources, strengthen coordination, and support long term stewardship of the lands and waters that sustain local communities and the Central Coast economy. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Assembly member Pellerin. All debate having ceased, clerk will open the roll.

All members vote who desire to vote.

Assemblymember Pellerin has moved the call.

File item 19 is AB 1707 by Assemblymember Davies. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 1707 by Assemblymember Davies an act regarding Employment.

Assemblymember Davies, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. AB 1707 will finally allow our electricians to do their license certification and renewal online instead of current snail mail protocol. This is a support support. I ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Assemblymember Davies. All debate having ceased. Clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote.

All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll, tally votes, ayes -sixteen, no zero. The measure passes. Gonna pass temporarily on file item 20, pass temporarily on 21, pass temporarily on 22, pass temporarily on 23.

File item 24. Excuse me, Senator. It's AB 2105 by assembly member Wicks. Clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2015 by Assembly member Wicks an act regarding transportation.

Thank you, mister speaker and members. This bill is about Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze. These apps which we all use every day have really altered traffic flow, and it sends traffic down local streets often that are not equipped to handle the high volume of traffic.

So, basically, this bill is calling for for Caltrans to do a study on the impacts of these third party Navigation Apps that we're so reliant on now because we wanna keep our local streets safe, make sure they're safe for pedestrians, cyclists, etcetera, and ensure that our traffic is going where it's supposed to be. With that, respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Wicks. All debate having ceased, Clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote? All members vote who desire to vote?

Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes. Aye 44 and no 14. The measure passes.

File item 25 is AB 2051, also by Assemblymember Wicks. Clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2051 by Assembly member Wicks and others, an act related to public resources.

Assembly member Wicks, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, Mister speaker. Members, AB 2051 convenes a working group to develop a coastal resiliency permitting road map to recommend reforms that could improve permit, issuance timelines, align agency mitigation requirements, accelerate permitting for projects that increase coastal resiliency, and assess how to recruit and retain regulatory permitting staff. And with that, respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Wicks. I'll debate having ceased, clerk will open the roll.

All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes. ayes 46, no six, the measure passes. File item 26 is AB 2074 by Assembly member Haney. This is a 54 vote bill. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2074 by Assembly member Haney, an act related to land use and making an appropriation therefore.

Assembly member Haney, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker and members. I know we all agree that we have to build a lot more housing in our state. We are millions of units short and our all of our, residents and constituents are struggling with housing affordability. So let's build these units where we can get the most bang for the buck, where they're desperately needed, and where they make sense. And in our state, one of those places is very clearly in our transit rich downtown city centers.

Those are places where we can build up, where we already have the infrastructure, we have the transit. And also by bringing more residents downtown, we can support our small businesses, we can support the thriving city centers that our state needs. This is a win win. It's also a bill that is sponsored by California, YIMBY, and the state building trades. Dogs and cats lying together in support of building more housing.

I will create a streamlined process for those projects to get done with strong labor standards and also create a Cal HFA backed loan fund to be able to support the financing that these projects need. It's had very broad support, and it will help us meet our housing goals.

I've also committed to take amendments from two of the cities who have put those forward in the Senate, technical amendments, and we're gonna continue to work with folks to make sure that we get get this right and that we provide opportunities to build more housing and build more housing downtown faster. Colleagues, respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Haney. Assemblymember Patterson, you are recognized.

Great. Thank you, mister speaker. I rise in support of this measure. Housing ought to be, intensified the density around our urban core, around our downtowns. We should, while Placer County has been continuously one of the fastest growing counties in the state, we know that that creates additional urban sprawl, which increases VMTs, which increases pollution, thingless things like that.

We should be doing everything we can to intensify the density in the downtown urban core where the infrastructure exists and also where there's transit. And so with that, I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Assemblymember Patterson. Assemblymember Boerner, you are recognized.

Yes. I rise in support of AB 2074. And I wanna thank the author for agreeing to for committing to taking the tech technical amendments from mayor Gloria. I think it's important that our individual downtowns have the ability to balance high rises while also tailoring the development to their local needs. And with that, I'm happy to support this measure.

Thank you. Assemblymember Berner. Seeing and hearing no further debate, Assemblymember Haney, do you wish to close?

Thank you. Yes. And to reiterate, this bill only applies to seven cities. Those are our largest cities where there's strong support for this bill, and other cities will have the opportunity to opt into the bill if they want. And, like you've heard, we've had strong bipartisan support and respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Haney. All debate having ceased. Clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

All members vote who desire to vote. This is a 54 vote bill.

All members vote who desire to vote. This is a 54 vote bill.

Clerk will close the roll. Tally votes, aye 55, no 5, the measure passes.

File item 27.

Hey, everybody.

Okay. File item 27 is AB 2129 by Assemblymember Flora. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2129 by Assemblymember Flora, ana ct relating the State Employees.

Assemblymember Flora, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker. Colleagues representing AB 2129 approves compensation for Cal Fire Firefighters. I respectfully ask for aye vote.

Thank you. Assemblymember for all debate having ceased. Clerk will open the roll.

All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes, aye 57, no 1. The measure passes.

We're gonna pass temporarily on file item 28, pass temporarily on file item 29. File item 30 is AB 2279 by Assemblymember Gibson.

The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2279 by Assemblymember Gibson an act related to Communications.

Assemblymember Gibson, just a moment. Thank you, members. Assemblymember Gibson, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, Mister speaker. Assembly bill 2279, received support. Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Assemblymember Gibson. All debate having ceased. Clerk will open the roll.

All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally votes, aye 16, no 0. The measure passes.

File item 31 is AB 2282 by Assemblymember Alanis.

Clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2282 by Assemblymember Alanis and others in activating the health facilities.

Assemblymember Alanis, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. AB 2282 would allow Del Puerto Health Care District to provide emergency health care to rural communities in the city of Paterson surrounding areas. Right now, thousands of my constituents must travel around 20 miles to reach the nearest full service hospital or trauma center, which has created significant barriers to accessing health care. As we all know, when there's a medical emergency, every second counts.

AB 22 is a temporary solution that would allow patients to be treated for emergencies until a permanent hospital is constructed.

This bill is sponsored by Del Puerto Health District, and it received unanimous by bipartisan support. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblymember Alaniz. I'll debate having ceased clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally votes, aye 64, no 0. The measure passes.

We're gonna pass temporarily on file item 32. File item 33 is AB 2316 by Assemblymember Hoover. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2316 by Assemblymember Hoover, an act relating to School Facilities.

Assemblymember Hoover, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker. Members AB 2316 ensures charter public schools have access to the same financial hardship relief in the state school facilities program as traditional public schools. The bills receive unanimous bipartisan support. I respectfully ask for an aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Assemblymember Hoover. All debate having ceased, Clerk will open the roll.

All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes. Aye 59, no 0. The measure passes.

File item 34 is AB 2337 by Assemblymember Lackey.

The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2337 by Assemblymember Lackey and act related to theft.

Assemblymember Lackey, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. AB 2337 will be what I'm characterizing as the lemon count pound cake bill. And for those of you who have access to YouTube might wanna check out the satirical depiction of what I'm talking about. Because what it will do is it will add theft by a peace officer under color of authority to the list of activities that constitute serious misconduct. I ask for your support.

Thank you, Assemblymember Lackey. Assemblymember Brian, you are recognized.

Absolutely. I rise, in support of this measure, and I have a question for the author. Entitling

this

the lemon pound cake bill, are you by chance referencing a a Palmdale legend, rapper Afro Man, whose house was raided by law enforcement officers, and they stole his money and stared at the pound cake on his counter? If so, I'd like to join you in the second house as a co author and respectfully, yes, for Nivelle.

Without objection. Mister Lackey?

My mic is okay. It's back on. You've hit the nail right on the head. So thank you.

Mister Lackey, do you wish to close on the measure? All debate having ceased, clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll and tally the votes. Aye 68, no 0. The measure passes.

File item 35 is AB 2374 by Assemblymember Fong. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2374 by Assemblymember Fong and others, an act relating the Post Secondary Education.

Assemblymember Fong, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker. Members, assembly bill 2374 establishes a state level designation for Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander serving institutions. Minority serving institutions were established by the Federal Government to address in the educational inequity. In order to receive a state level designation under this bill, the college must present a plan and develop a plan with proposals and strategies to support student retention and completion. In 2024, SB 1348 by Senator Bradford established a state level block serving institution designation.

Assembly bill 2374 is modeled after SB 1348, and will recognize public and private higher education institutions that show effort and commitment to helping Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific students succeed. AB 2374 is a companion to SB 1255 by Senator Eloise Reyes, which establishes a state level Hispanic serving institution designation. Assembly Bill 2374 is the AAPI Legislative Caucus Priority. That's strictly asked for an aye vote.

Thank you. Assembly member Fong. All debate having ceased, clerk will open the roll.

All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes. Aye 47, no 14, the measure passes.

File item 36, that's AB 2464 by Assemblymember Wicks. Clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2464 by Assembly member Wicks and act related to energy.

Assembly member Wicks, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker members. This is a support support bill and has received no opposition. Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Wicks. All debate having ceased. Clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

All members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close roll, tally the votes, I 67, no zero. The measure passes. File item 37 is AB 2537 by Assemblymember Chen. Clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2537 by Assemblymember Chen and others in act related to cannabis.

Assemblymember Chen, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. This bill is support support. I respectfully ask for I vote.

Thank you, Assemblymember Chen. I'll debate having ceased. Clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

All members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll tally votes. I 62, no zero. The measure passes. File line in 38 is AB 2562 by Assembly member Dixon.

Clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2562 by Assembly member Dixon, an act relating to Public Health.

Assembly member Dixon, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister speaker. Good morning, colleagues. I rise today to present AB 2562. It's a support bill would require licensed alcohol and drug treatment facilities and certified recovery programs to create and implement a suicide prevention plan. This is an important measure that will bring a new level of care to individuals in treatment settings.

And it passed through Assembly Health, which I'm grateful for, on unanimous consent and received unanimous support in appropriations and has no opposition. I respectfully ask for an aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Assembly member Dixon. All debate having ceased, clerk will open the roll.

All members vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally votes. Aye 62, no zero. The measure passes.

File item 39 is AB 2667 by Assemblymember Hadwick.

The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2667 by Assemblymember Hadwick and others, and act related to vape products.

Assemblymember Hadwick, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. This bill has enjoyed unanimous support and has no opposition, and I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Assemblymember Hadwick. All debate having ceased, Clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

All members vote who desire to vote. Bless you. Clerk will close the roll, tally votes. aye 62, no zero. The measure passes.

File item number 40, that's AB 2727 by Assemblymember Wynne. The clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2727 by Assemblymember Wynne and others, and act related to corrections.

Assemblymember Wynne, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker members. AB 2727 is going to preserve the integrity of our elderly parole system. I wanna say it again. This bill is to preserve the elderly parole system. I wanna put it out there that I believe in our elderly parole system.

But currently, the law allows certain offenders to be considered for elderly parole at 50 years old and serving twenty years. Eighty twenty seven twenty seven is going to raise that that threshold to 65 years old with at least twenty five years serve for violent sex offenses. I'm gonna say it again. This bill is to raise the threshold for those individuals that have done violent sex offenses.

This bill also strengthens the review process by ensuring individuals serving licenses for violent sex offenses are included in a screening process.

This bill is gonna put guardrails around these individuals that qualify for elderly parole to ensure that the screening is going to say that they can be released out in the community and not commit another sexual violent offense. As members of this body, we have to do what we can to protect children. And when I talk about violent sex offenders, I'm talking about men, older men who take eight year old little girls and little boys and violently raped them, used objects and penetrated them.

These individuals need extra screenings. There needs to be guardrails around this so that we ensure we protect the public's safety.

These victims didn't ask to serve a life sentence. These victims in twenty years, they will have this trauma. This will be a life sentence for them with what they went through. 2727 will protect others that might go through this exact same trauma. I asked you all as you take a look at this bill and you take a look at your district, I guarantee you there have been individuals in your district that qualify for elderly parole and have done these offenses.

Would you want them out there in the community with your children, your grandchildren, your nieces, your nephew, not just children but your wives, your daughters, anybody. Would you want to be in a room with an individual who violently, sexually raped an individual, would you? AB 2727 is not about getting rid of the elderly parole system. It is not about that. It is about preserving the integrity of our elderly parole system.

With that, I ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Assembly member Wynne. Assembly member Tong Yipa, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. And I rise in support of this bill. We have to come to reality here That in the state of California, the definition elderly is 50 years old. 50 years old is considered elderly right now in the state of California. And you sit and you think about that because I don't think 50 years old should be considered elderly.

When you think that the governor, I believe is 58 years old, I think he is more than capable as an older individual to function in society. I would not consider that 50. We are here today because monsters like David Funkstead, who molested seven people, seven children in between the ages of three years old and seven years old qualified to be released from prison after being sentenced to life in prison because of the laws here in California.

Gregory Vogelslang molested six children and qualified for early release because of the laws here in California. He was sentenced to over three hundred years in prison.

For context, The United States is 250 years old and was gonna be on our streets. Not only were they gonna be on our streets, both of them applied to live in the city of Fresno. This is personal to me because David Funkston and Gregory Vogelslang targeted the community of North Highlands. I lived in North Highlands. I grew up in North Highlands.

I know some of the families that were molested by these individuals. They chose that community because it was poor, it was minority, and it was an easy one to target because they believed that the police officers didn't care about the black, brown, and immigrant families that were in those areas. They used the laws to let monsters back onto our streets.

And I believe the author today is asking you to make a declaration that the children of California come first before the criminals, and we should protect them. When the victims of these families were told that these monsters will never get out of prison, and then to hear that they were because elderly in the state of California is considered 50 years old in our prison system, The only declaration that we were making was the only life sentences being served were the victims.

That three year old who was molested, that seven years old, that seven year old that was molested, the 11 year old that was molested, the people that I know that were molested, only they would have a life sentence. But individuals like David Funksen to be allowed out onto our streets again should never happen. For those reasons, I respectfully ask that you make that declaration that child predators deserve to stay in prison, and that we can make our laws better in this state. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblymember Tong Yipa. Assemblymember Patterson, you are recognized.

Well, thank you, mister speaker. Yeah. I look forward to supporting this measure today. Just wanted to point out and thank Placer County District Attorney Morgan Geyer for saving the entire state from this monster, who because of our laws that passed in this building and signed into law by a governor, allowed a creep to get out of prison early. And we all recognize he had no business being let out.

So so this individual had committed a lot of crimes in the past and didn't think that needed a charge for those crimes because he had life sentences. But fortunately, when this person was released, the Placer County District Attorney's Office and law enforcement in and around Placer County acted swiftly, went and rearrested him for his crimes in the nineties.

And because of law enforcement in Placer County and district attorney Morton Geier, he's back in prison and not a threat to society right now, and I hope justice comes to him swiftly. With that, I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Assembly member Patterson. Assembly member Lackey, you are recognized.

Yeah. I'm not gonna belabor at this point. I'm very, very appreciative of the author from Sacramento who has addressed this issue. I also had legislation that I went through that addressed this very problem

because we we know that it's absurd to consider somebody elderly at 50. I don't think that's really the argument, but let me just Kinda give you an example of one of the people that were eligible under this law. He indicated he still had the the drives to allow him to engage in his predatory behavior, but he said he'd he figured out a new remedy. He would splash cold water in his face to keep that drive under control. Is there anybody in here that believes that?

Parole board did. And I'm telling you, we we've got to do better than this, folks. This is something that is egregious, and I think we all agree on that. So let's bring some reason to this, and this bill helps remedy that. And these young people or even if you're not young, you're just anybody that's being raped by these individuals.

You deserve protection. Thank you.

Thank you. Assemblymember Lackey. Assemblymember Castillo, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. I'm gonna let you know I'm 55. So, you know, this makes no sense. But I'm gonna tell you some stories about my background and my experience in working with individuals on both sides of this, from the perpetrators and the victims. I used to work with the sexual offenders.

And I can tell you one thing is that there is no rehabilitation for them. Once those, tendencies are there, they do not go away. And I worked with the ones where you had to put the lie detector test on them to see where they were at at different points through treatment after the

So, different points through treatment after the fact. And working with victims, child victims, I'm also a trauma therapist. And I've gone through all the stages of trauma with a lot of children. Time it takes for them to get through and process what happened to them. You wouldn't even be able to function if you knew that.

For me as a therapist, I know how to leave that stuff at the door and not take it with me. But I will tell you, I've heard some of the worst stuff that you can imagine done to kids. And I walked through all the stages for them to get better. So I do thank the author for this, and I will be supporting, and I hope everyone else does as well. Thank you.

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

Thank you, mister speaker. Rise in strong support of AB 2727. I wanna thank the author for all of her work on this critically important piece of legislation, and I I cannot stress enough how important this bill is to my district and my community. A few months ago, it was announced that sexual predator David Funston, of North Highlands in my district would be released back into the community. And to really put in context, what that means, permission to read, mister speaker?

Without objection.

So mister Funston, was, as was mentioned, I think, by a previous speaker, sentenced to twenty years in prison, three consecutive, sentences of twenty five years to life. At his sentencing, the judge who oversaw the case called him the monster that parents fear the most, and said that there is no man on the face of this earth who deserves this sentence more than David Funston.

Yet because of the policies that this bill is seeking to correct, he was able to lure eight victims in my district, all between the ages of three and seven years old to his car using candy and toys. He kidnapped, he abused, and molested these children before callously dumping them on the side of the road. This was the individual that was announced to be now eligible and being released back into my community or a nearby community.

And as was mentioned by my colleague from Placer County, it was only because of the work of the Placer County's District Attorney's Office that he is behind bars today. And that is only because he committed another crime in 1999 that he was not prosecuted for, that, charges were able to be brought against him. New charges were be able to be brought against him. Just a few weeks later, another predator from my community, Gregory Vogelsang, was announced to be eligible for release under the elderly parole program.

And it was only because we spoke up, our community spoke up against that release that the parole board decided to hold off on that decision for another six months.

But the reality is is that we cannot keep playing whack a mole with these sexual predators. We actually have to change the long term policy in California to make sure that no one is released that is going to continue to victimize children in our communities. And so with that, again, just wanna thank the author for incredible work, and would strongly urge, and I vote on this important bill.

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

Thank you, mister speaker and members. I also rise in support of AB 2027. I wanna thank my colleague from Sacramento for her leadership on this issue. I I rise to give a voice to survivors in my community. When I was looking at this bill and what's happening what was happening here in Sacramento, it reminded me of a very tragic story that happened many years ago in the Fresno community.

It was the monster, Rudolph Acosta, who was sentenced. He's a serial rapist, and he was sentenced to seventy eight years. He violently raped at least nine women, most of them underage in the Fresno Tower District, a place that I called home for a very long time. And so I rise today because it is these types of stories that really call for us to reflect on what gaps exist in our current law. And this law currently is failing our survivors.

We must do better. We must do better so that survivors in our community are having to relieve the trauma that every single time comes up when these monsters are up for parole. Because that's what my community survivors are telling me. Every single time these monsters are up for parole, they're having to relive the trauma that they've been living with for many decades. And so today, I rise in strong support of 2020 set of AB 2027.

This is a start. I know that there's other gaps in the law that are not protecting, these survivors. And so today, strong, I rise in strong support of AB 2727.

Thank you, Assemblymember Soria. Assemblymember Wilson, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. I rise in support of AB 2727, and I thank my colleague, from Sacramento for introducing this bill. You know, I have a deep sense of responsibility, I feel, to address the imbalances in our criminal justice system, and particularly around reform and ensuring that our system is one of rehabilitation. The majority of people who enter our prison system will be released.

And we want those people that are released to be to have a sense of wholeness while they're in prison, to rehabilitate.

So when they come into our communities, back into our communities, they're able to be contributing members. At the same time, our system needs to be one of accountability and one where we lift up the voices of those victims and make sure that our criminal justice system doesn't harm them or continuing harm in the community. And I think that this particular bill strikes the right balance.

When I look at the members of this floor who are over 50, and how spry they are and and abled, I think it needs to be older age. When I think of where I'm approaching in my own Maslow life, I think the age is too low.

And so I think that my colleague has done an exemplary job of balancing both of those values of, yes, we need to reform our system to one of rehabilitation, but we also need to ensure that we hold folks accountable, to the harm that they have done to victims and the harm they could continue to do in our community. So I applaud the member for her efforts and ask for an aye vote on AB 2727.

Thank you. Assembly member Wilson. Seeing and hearing no further debate, Assembly member Wynne, do you wish to close?

Thank you, mister speaker. I wanna thank all the members that got up to to speak on this bill, AB 2727. You know, the elderly pro program is a really good program. I'm very supportive of the elderly program, the elderly parole program. As legislators, we get to vote on policies and legislation, and we hope that it would make positive changes in our community.

The best part is that as legislators, we get to come back and we get to fix things to make it fit our community because things change over time. And that's what this is. This is preserving the integrity of our elderly parole program, but also ensuring that those that are serving a life sentence for a violent sexual offense have more eyes on it before they are rereleased out into the community.

I wanna thank the members for all that stood up and shared stories because I know there are more in your districts. And we have to do our part in protecting our children and protecting our community.

I believe AB 2727 is that right balance, does preserve the elderly pro program, but at the same time also protecting our children and our community. With that, I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you. Assembly member Wynne. All debate having ceased, clerk will open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

All members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll, tally votes, I 66, no zero. The measure passes.

All members vote who desire to vote. Clerk will close the roll, tally votes, aye 66, no zero. The measure passes.

Okay. We're gonna go back in file and we are going to take up file item number 23.

That's AB 1958 by Assemblymember Kalra. Quick will read.

Assembly bill 1958 by Assemblymember Kalra, an act relating to criminal procedure.

Assemblymember Calra, you are recognized.

Thank you, mister speaker. AB 1958 makes several clarifying changes to the procedures for establishing a disparity claim under the California Racial Justice Act to streamline litigation and provide consistent guidance to the courts.

It does so by making it clear there are multiple ways to establish a disparity claim, yet the burden on that remains on the defendant, and that to refute a disparity claim, the courts must evaluate evidence showing the disparities are explained by new rates, neutral factors by only a preponderance of the evidence, the lowest legal standard of proof in the criminal courts.

The bill also clarifies evidence disclosure requirements, and altogether these changes continue to build upon the legislature's work to address racial discrimination and bias in the criminal legal system and make it so the RGA can be implemented as intended.

Lastly, to address concerns raised by the DISC attorneys association, I'm I'm committed to taking amendments to the Senate that will revert the reference to similar conduct in penal code 70 74584 back to existing law and define the existing reference to similar conduct under 83.

Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. Assemblymember Kalra. I'll debate having cease clerk open the roll. All members vote who desire to vote. All members vote who desire to vote.

All members vote who desire to vote.

Majority leader moves the call. Next by mister Berman, we'll take up file item 32. This is AB 2313. Clerk will read.

Assembly bill 2313 by Assembly member Berman and others, now relating to energy.

Assembly Berman, you may open on the measure.

Thank you, mister speaker. AB 2313 would give customers with a planned service line replacement the option to instead discontinue their gas service and use a portion of those funds to electrify their home. In addition, this bill is written to guarantee that all rate payers save money regardless of their participation in the program and reduce long term costs by avoiding additional investments and long term cost recovery for the gas system.

I've also worked with California's largest publicly owned or, investor owned utility to add safety safeguards to make sure that nothing in this bill would create safety issues. AB 2313 will provide long term savings for all rate payers as California manages our transition away from fossil fuels.

It will also promote public health and protect the environment. I appreciate all the conversations that I've had with with practically all my colleagues on the floor. Not quite all my colleagues on the floor. I've heard a lot of concerns about it.

I wanna recognize also, you know, that as we move towards accomplishing our our climate change goals, our carbon neutrality goals, We also need to make sure that, no workers are negatively impacted by that, and that's a a a bigger effort that I'm committed to to, you know, being a a supporting player in.

Respectfully ask for aye vote.

Thank you, mister Berman. Seeing no other members wishing to be recognized on the measure, the clerk will open the roll. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. Clerk will strike the roll.

The members, they gotta see those vices. Assembly member Alvarez, you may speak on the measure.

Thank you. Thank you, mister speaker. I I appreciate that. There was a crowd of folks around here, so my microphone was not identifiable. I appreciate that.

I I rise with, concerns about this bill, that, the intent is certainly, I believe, the right one. You know, this bill, as the author has presented and spoken to, is about a transition into, where we need to be to achieve our climate goals, which I think is, absolutely what we need to be doing. However, I think we can all recognize that we do not have an actual transition plan that we can point to as to how we're going to accomplish that.

And so, his goal, which I I think i, the right one is how do you get to the transition from, into electric with more sources of of energy which are cleaner. And, and so I appreciate that.

However, I I remain concerned as someone who represents many, many, many communities, who have, as an example, not benefited from the investments, millions and millions of dollars that have been made in California to allow individuals to electrify their homes, because I represent communities that are older. I represent communities that aren't as wealthy.

And what the data has shown is that the wealthy communities are the ones that have invest that have gained from the benefits that have been put out by the state of California to allow them to electrify. And I think that is in inequitable way of our climate policy. And so, I have that concern with this bill.

So I'd like to, ask the author. I know he has spoken to this and in Section three, a three of of his bill he, permission to read mister speaker.

Without objection.

A mechanism to ensure that customers transitioning to electrical service bear equitable share of unrecovered gas infrastructure costs attributable to the departure so that customers remaining on the gas distribution system are held indifferent to their departure. I'd like to ask the author in his closing to please address this issue.

I think this language is not sufficient in order to ensure that individuals who are left behind in this transition, because unfortunately that is happening, are not left holding the bag and the burden of the cost of those who have traditionally been wealthier, communities and individuals who have transitioned to pay for that incentive that is this bill is seeking to accomplish. So I'd like him to please address that issue as currently, I think, is not fully addressed in the bill.

And also just the concern of equity and participation of the program.

Again, we cannot have, as data has shown with car rebates, and electrifying cars that wealthy ZIP codes are the ones who benefit from these funds that are taxpayer funds so that wealthy individuals can transition from their gas powered vehicles to their electric vehicles. That cannot be the same outcome with this program. And lastly, I'll end with this. We've seen what net energy metering has done with the cost shift.

That's again something I don't wanna see occur as a result of this bill, and I'd like to hear what the author has to say about those issues.

Thank you, mister speaker.

Thank you, mister Alvarez. And doctor Sharp Collins, you're recognized on the measure.

Thank you, mister speaker. I too, have some concerns with this bill, and I've shared some of these concerns with with with the author as well. We've had some really in-depth conversations in regards to this. And so when when we are talking about the overall concerns, I do know that you are taking meaningful steps to narrow the bill down to address that. And my concern is similar to my colleague also from from San Diego.

It it is pertaining to the cost sharing itself. So while I recognize that this program itself is something that's voluntary, but the reality is that the cost are to me, it's it's not. So the truth is the monetary incentive proposed in this bill may not be enough to cover the full necessary cost for our Californians to actually transition their home to fully electric. And so the other the other issue that I have with this is that we tend to move policy.

And then as we move policy, we don't give it a chance for the data to, you know, to actually come back.

So when we're looking at the legislation for the from the CPU that was passed with Senate Bill 1221, that study, like, the study there was there to obviously study to study the cost, safety, and the customer impacts for similar pilot programs, but the but that private program results is still underway. So we do not have the feedback from that. So I was wondering too, also, in your closing, could you please speak to that in regards to how this is going to work?

Meaning, are we now taking people to a different direction based on something that was actually already voted on and then actually implemented that we don't have the data back for that? But also the other question is whether the proposal ensures that the transition is rooted in data and lowering costs rather than shipping them and adding to the affordability crisis space and meaning of our constituents.

So if you don't mind addressing that as well. But thank you for allowing me to address the concerns from San Diego as well.

Alright. Thank you, doctor Sharp Collins. Now seeing no other members wishing to speak on the measure, mister Berman, you may close.

Yeah. Thank you, mister speaker. And I really, really, really wanna thank, my colleagues from San Diego for for their very thoughtful and in-depth engagement on this bill over the past couple of days or maybe weeks. They all blur together. I wanna start by addressing some of the issues around cost shift.

As as my colleague from San Diego noted, we have a section in here that we added in utilities and energy, working with the committee staff at utilities and energy, to to write in the bill that there will be no cost shift. And if there is a cost shift, then the program will not happen. And I fully appreciate that that language is not specific enough. I have a meeting with the PUC next week to talk specifically about that section.

I will continue to work with my colleagues to make sure that the final result is language that everybody is comfortable with, that it guarantees that there will be no cost shift, and that the people left on the system won't be holding the bag for the people who participate in the program.

So you have my commitment that at the end of the day, that language will be to your satisfaction. And we also have in the link in the bill that residents who live in disadvantaged communities will get a bigger credit to help them make that transition. So the reality is that without this bill, the residents get no help in making the transition.

And, you know, with the bill, residents will get support to make that transition, and residents who live in disadvantaged communities will get more support in recognition of the fact that that it's harder for you know, they need some more support to be able to electrify their homes. And and that so that's so that's in the bill.

And and again, if at the end of the day, once the PUC does the analysis, if the math does the math, the program doesn't happen. And and so, you know, there's a possibility that that might happen. We need to do that analysis to make sure that it does work. If it doesn't work, this never sees the light of day. Senate bill, the the the PUC has said, and and I obviously agree, that this bill is complimentary to the Senate bill.

This this bill does not compete with the Senate bill. The Senate bill had to do with creating neighborhood pilot programs whole neighborhood pilot programs. This bill has to do with individual residences. It's all sort of different tools in the toolbox for California to try to, accomplish our climate change goals, our carbon neutrality goals that were set a long time ago that are gonna take multiple different solutions to accomplish.

But we need to make sure that in accomplishing those goals, that the people who are left on the system don't suffer.

So really I I commit to that. Really appreciate the engagement again from my colleagues. Respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, mister Berman. The court will open the roll. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote. All those vote who desire to vote.

Clerk will close the roll, tally the votes. Ayes 41, noes 21. Measure passes. Members, next, we're gonna move back in file to file item number 20. This is our Pro Tem's bill, AB 1709.

The clerk will read.

Assembly Bill 1709 by Assemblymember Lowenthal and others, and accolading to the business.

And Assemblymember Lowenthal, you may open on the measure.

Thank you, mister speaker, and thank you members. Thank you for this opportunity to present AB 1709. This bill will create a minimum age of 16 for users to create or maintain accounts only on the social media platforms that rely on using addictive features harmful to children. It also creates an eSafety Commission to oversee implementation and to advise California on online safety moving forward.

At its core, this bill is based on a simple principle. When companies knowingly design products that exploit children's developmental vulnerabilities for profit, the legislature has a responsibility to step in. I wanna thank by I wanna begin by thanking the bipartisan coalition of joint authors and co authors as well as the parents, the educators, the pediatric experts, the researchers, the advocates, the stakeholders who helped shape this bill. California is far from alone in introducing this policy.

Countries across the world, along with states here in The United States, are moving in the same direction because the evidence has become impossible to ignore.

The president of the European Commission just announced that the entire European Union is taking on this policy this summer. No other major industry is allowed to intentionally design products that it did children that contribute to mental health harms and then deny responsibility for the consequences. Yet that is exactly what has happened with social media platforms.

A growing body of research shows that children 16 are uniquely vulnerable to compulsive digital environments because their brains are still developing the skills necessary for impulse control, for emotional regulation, and for long term decision making. We aren't alone in remedying this crisis.

It's very important to understand that our work here is reinforced by recent court decisions in precedent setting cases in Los Angeles and New Mexico. Juries determined platforms could be held legally responsible for designing products that addict children, that contribute to depression, to anxiety, and to compulsive use. Importantly, the cases were not about speech or online content. They focus on product design features like autoplay, like infinite scroll, like algorithms that are engineered to maximize engagement.

Similar cases filed by school districts across the country right now are being settled.

The distinction matters because AB 1709 is focused on addictive design features, not protected speech. The bill was carefully amended to address first amendment concerns by targeting the mechanics of these platforms rather than the viewpoints or the content shared on them. And the company's own internal documents make the intent clear. Executives compared engagement systems to slot machines designed to keep users hooked for as long as possible. The science confirms what these companies already know.

Studies consistently link problematic social media use to anxiety, to depression, to poor sleep, to developmental harms. When children spend five, eight, or nine hours a day in these environments, the consequences are not abstract. We see them in our classrooms, our homes, in our communities. Members, the average child in the state of California is spending five hours a day on average on social media.

When you count weekends and holidays, that means there are millions of children in the state of California that are spending more time on social media than they are in school.

Let's reflect on that. And let's also reflect on the type of oversight that we have of our schools. We require curriculum review. We require credentialed teachers. We are able to participate.

We elect our school Board Members. You know your teachers. You know your administrators. You have back to school night. You are able to see what they're learning all the time.

And what do you have in social media? What is your recourse? Who do you call? How much review do you have over what's going on in our children's lives? Setting the age based safeguards is not a radical concept.

We already restrict access to gambling, tobacco, alcohol, firearms, pornography, tattoos, driving, voting. Because we recognize that children require additional protections during vulnerable stages of development. Thirty seconds. Social media platforms intentionally engineered around compulsive engagement deserve similar common sense guardrails. This bill also recognizes that current age restrictions have failed.

Asking a child to click a button claiming they are 13 years old is not meaningful age verification. AB 1709 requires reasonable age assurance measures while protecting privacy and prohibiting the use of age verification data for advertising or profiling. From the start, I've tried to approach this policy with humility because I don't think that any of us have all the answers to solve this complex and nuanced problem.

And that is why I feel the creation of an eSafety Commission is a critical component to this bill. The eSafety Commission will serve as a crucial backdrop to this policy and make the necessary adjustments as we implement AB 1709.

The eSafety Commission is also necessary for our state to keep pace with technology, which we know evolves faster than the law, faster than we can keep up with it in this chamber. California needs a dedicated body to evaluate emerging harms, to study addictive platform features, assess age assurance technologies, and help policy makers keep pace with rapidly changing environments online. And I also want to address concerns raised by advocates and organizations representing vulnerable communities and young people who rely on online spaces for connection, for support.

Thank you. We must acknowledge that there are children in this state that feel better about their online presence than their offline presence.

That is a reality. I hear those concerns. I appreciate the thoughtful conversations many of you have had with my office. I value the feedback and conversations and remain deeply committed to continuing this dialogue and trying to find reasonable solutions to, to address these concerns. Please continue to engage with me and my staff in having these conversations.

My door is open to working with you. This bill is not about cutting off young people from the Internet or denying them access to the community. Young people deserve the ability to find support and belonging online, but we should reject the false choice that says children must be must be exposed to addictive and harmful product designs in order to access those benefits. We are not prohibiting children from accessing the social media. We are prohibiting social media from accessing our children.

California has led the nation before on privacy and consumer protection. We We now have an opportunity to lead again by protecting children online. I respectfully ask for your aye vote on AB 1709.

Thank you, mister Lowenthal. Senator Demaio, you're recognized on the measure.

Thank you, mister speaker. I rise in support of AB 1709, and I know that that comes as a surprise to some that know that I almost never back bills that add more regulation. I think we have too many regulations in government as it is. But we have to recognize that with new technologies, there are problems that are created, and it requires that government constantly update our protection of the public, including vulnerable communities such as our youth. This is a bipartisan issue.

And when I voted for this in committee, I actually got some blowback from some of the more conservative elements of the state saying, you know, government's policing what what our lives are. I said, well, hold on a second. Individuals who are not yet 18, there are very valid reasons for government to intervene and make sure that they are protected. When I grew up, and I think as some of you will recall, when we would go to the movies, we'd be asked for an ID.

And there were certain movies that were age restricted.

And some of us probably were kind of disappointed that we couldn't see the movie that we were excited to see. But you could see the movie with parental supervision supervision. The Internet makes it much more difficult than going to a movie theater. And that's why I think that it's gonna be difficult for us to craft a bill, and I wanna commend my colleague from Long Beach.

No one has done more in this body on either side of the aisle to struggle with this emerging technologies and try to get it right and try to balance.

And if, colleagues have or stakeholder groups have concerns about the bill. The member from Long Beach has been absolutely open to working on improvements and will continue to do that. But this is a necessary step. We know the US Congress has not done its job. It would be much easier, particularly in the era of technology that transcends geography of states, if Congress would actually create a national standard that would make the situation a standardized approach, but it hasn't done that.

And I think part of it is because of the influence of big money in these tech companies. To the tech companies, my message is simple. Get your blank together and solve the problem. If you don't, then we will be forced to protect our kids. But I absolutely believe that with the innovative minds that you have, and I hope you're all listening.

I know with all of our cell phones, you probably are. You can solve this issue. Parents across the nation are concerned about what's going on online with their kids on your platforms. So do your job as a good steward in our community. Your technologies are powerful.

I'm sure you can figure it out. We found the leak. I wanna also point out that there are some technologies that are already available. There are various social media platforms that are already age restricted, child appropriate, like YouTube kids. In Australia, they have a number of, interesting models.

Another compelling reason to make this a ban rather than an opt in, an age verification system, is that remember when you were young, there are some parents that allowed your classmates to do things that your parents didn't allow you to do. How did you feel when you were left out? You felt a little ostracized. By creating a uniform standard, we guard against young kids being put into two different camps. And I'm not judging the parents.

I'm just simply saying that is a reality of youth. Is this perfect? No. But I know that the author will continue the process when if this bill does get to the Senate and if it gets back here. And Aye, again, challenge industry to work with this legislature to come up with thoughtful, cost effective, and appropriate solutions.

With that, I do ask for an aye vote on this bipartisan bill.

Thank you, mister DeMaio. And Assemblymember Wicks are recognized on the measure.

Thank you, mister speaker and members, and I wanna thank the member from Long Beach for his tireless leadership on this, and it's an honor to work with you on this bill, and I'm pleased to be a joint author. And I come to this as a mom, and I think many of us are coming to this simply as parents before we are Democrats or Republicans. And it's because our parents are at their wits end trying to keep our children safe in the current world we live in.

And these products, the entire business model is built on creating addiction. That's how they make money.

The whole premise of the product is to keep our children on these platforms for as long as humanly possible. And the stats, as mentioned earlier, are incredibly alarming. Teens teens spending three or more hours a day on social media face double the risk of depression and anxiety. Forty six percent of adolescents age 13 to 17 say social media makes them feel worse about their body image. Forty five percent of teens say social media hurts how much they sleep.

Forty percent say it hurts their productivity. Nearly one third of adolescents use screens until midnight or later, directly impairing their health and, their sleep and their emotional health. And preteens with increasing social media use, scores measurably worse on reading, vocabulary, memory tests, and also social and emotional learning. The data is very, very clear. These products are not safe for our children and they are harming them as they grow.

I have spent the last eight years pushing, cajoling, forcing these companies to try to make a safer product. Those bills end up in litigation. They end up in lawsuits. Big tech fights that. We've had some wins, but it has been very difficult.

And if they won't do it, we will require them to do it. They have to take responsibility for their actions. We are talking about our children. And the fact that they are exposed to so many harms is simply unacceptable. All this bill does is says, let's give our kids just a couple more years of being able to be kids.

Let's give them a couple more years. Let's delay their exposure to depression, and fear of missing out and a reduction of self esteem. Let's let them explore their livelihood as kids before they're thrust into the new world order that we all live in now. I'm so honored to be a part of this bill. This is not just a California thing.

This is happening all over the globe. So let's pass this bill unanimously with bipartisan support and send a message not just to the world, but to the tech industry that they have to keep our children safe. And with that, I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator Wicks. And, Senator Gallagher, you're recognized on the bill.

Can you hear me now? Thank you, mister speaker, members. I appreciate the author and navigating, you know, what is a it's a very tough policy issue. One that I navigated myself, a few years back with AB 1138. And that that concept, started out of a conversation I had with our former colleague, Jordan Cunningham.

We both had young children and both saw as they were, you know, growing up and and dealing with the both the benefits and the negative aspects of social media. You know, certainly provided a opportunity to network with friends and share interests and and all of those things, but we also saw a lot of negative side of those things as well. The addictive side of it, you know, had those arguments with our children about, hey, you know, this thing has too much influence over you. Right?

And and decided to introduce legislation on the subject.

And the concept ultimately became a parental consent bill that we I started out at 16 years old. If they were under 16, that there should be parental consent to use a social media website. As as as the author knows, there's a lot of headwinds in this place on those things, and we had to navigate a lot to get that through. Ultimately, had to move that age limit down to 13, but we got it passed. We passed it through both houses of of this legislature.

And unfortunately, it was vetoed by the governor. And that that was a frustrating day because I felt like we had done a lot to work through that. And I I've watched as the author has really pushed on this issue and over many years now. And when this originally was being talked about as maybe an an as an outright ban under 16, I was a little bit I wasn't sure about that.

But I like where the author has landed, and I like where he has actually really worked with a lot of different stakeholders to get this policy right.

Focusing on the algorithm, you know, setting up this committee. I saw I really feel like this is this is the right way to move forward. And my hope here is is that we're gonna continue to work on this. We are gonna continue to get this through and that this finally we get a policy that will get passed and will get signed and we'll have a law that cuts that right path.

And so, you know, today I haven't formally come out in support of this policy.

I am going to support this bill. And I and I would definitely like to be added as a co author when the time is appropriate. And I and I really appreciate the author because I again, I have I have navigated this tough policy, myself in the past. And, I think we all I mean, both it is bipartisan. It's both sides of the aisle.

We want to try and find the right answer here that protects our kids. And let's and let's be honest, we're on this stuff too much too as adults. My son called me out on that not too long ago. It's true Because we need to get off of this and have a lot more face to face with each other. I think that's a very important thing in in our society right now.

So I thank the author proud to support this bill today, and ask for your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Gallagher. Some members of Zbur, you're recognized on the measure.

Yes. Thank you, mister speaker and members. I'm gonna turn this way so I can face the author. So I wanna thank the author, for the way he has handled what is a an important and a very, very difficult and complex bill.

I have two 17 year old kids who have just gone through the period of time in which, you know, we've been dealing with their engagement with with social media and obviously understand completely what the the harm the potential harm that's out there and the and the need to do something to protect our kids.

This ultimately is about protecting our kids. With that said, obviously, there's also issues with respect to how we do that. And I know I wanna thank the Chair of the LGBTQ caucus and the Chair of the privacy committee who held hearing a special hearing a couple weeks ago, specifically on the issues related to LGBTQ kids.

And one of the really sad things about that hearing, there was a number of experts that were brought in, and I attended part of it and then watched all of it later is that for LGBTQ kids certain LGBTQ kids, access to social media is a lifeline and a really important one, an important one in the same ways that that the suicide hotline is for some of these kids that our our colleague from Los Angeles talked about yesterday.

And as, and for the kids that are in that 13 to 16 year old age group and, you know, understand why the limitation occurred last time when this came up, that age group is a particularly important age group that we need to make sure that the benefits of connectivity with peers are retained in in some way.

The sad thing about the hearing is that what we know is that LGBTQ kids and there's other kids, kids with disabilities, that are isolated, and the addictive and harmful features of these of these platforms are actually more harmful to those kids than they are to some of the other kids, and they're harmful to everyone.

But the other hand, the other hand is that a lot of these kids, when you look at the data, also feel safer on these online platforms than they often do in their communities. So I, I know that I've had a number of conversations with the author. I know that, he shares the values that, that that, many of us have, about making sure that, kids from vulnerable communities and also it sounded just LGBTQ kids.

It's kids that are living in rural communities that may be isolated, that have lack of connectivity with kids with disabilities.

But we need to make sure that I think, you know, what happens and how we define addictive and harmful features is something that really needs some attention, because we need to make sure that when we do that, that we don't eliminate the the the platforms that allow these the real platforms allow these to connect. And that's not just about making sure that the Trevor Project is allowed because most kids in rural California have no idea who the Trevor Project is.

I mean, they're going on the basic platforms and finding connectivity that way. So we need to make sure that in this 13 to 16 year old age group that we are preserving the ability for these kids to connect. And I know we've had these conversations.

I don't really know what the answer is, frankly. But I trust the author is focused on that and that and I will tell the folks that are in the LGBTQ community that have expressed concerns about this bill that I have complete confidence that the author shares the values that we have about making sure that these kids are protected. I think a lot of this is gonna be sort of how this, eSafety Commission is captured.

But I hope what will happen is that we don't have a period of time where the platforms that are important for these kids are banned, and that we have to wait three, four, five years while something happens for these kids to be able to, achieve and maintain the lifelines that they need.

So with that, I'm gonna be voting for the bill today with the confidence and thanks and gratitude to the author and also to the to our appropriations Chair who I know has taken this issue on.

Both of you, I think, have done this with really, you know, a sensitivity to the needs of the LGBTQ community, LGBTQ kids that I appreciate and applaud. And it's with because of the confidence that I have in you that I'm gonna be voting for this bill today. So with that, I urge an aye vote.

Thank you, mister Zbur. And Assemblymember Papan, you're recognized on the bill.

Well, thank you, mister speaker. And, I too stand today with the humility of a parent, and I wanna congratulate, my colleague from Long Beach in the long hours that he's put in on this topic. And I think what concerns me is that we have these negative effects from social media and we really have not had the tools in the toolbox to deal with it. We have a shortage of mental health provide mental health care providers. Have a shortage of even training mental health care providers.

We have a lack of insurance coverage for the extent of which it might take to deal with the negative effects of social media. So the thing that I really like about this bill is it kind of goes to the heart of the matter. It goes to the source of the matter. If we can cut off the ill effects, then I think we're getting one step ahead.

So I just want to thank the author as I said, you know, young minds are just not equipped to deal with these predatory practices.

And by cutting this off at a certain age, I think we are going to the heart of the matter and recognizing that children are especially vulnerable during critical stages of their brain development. We've taken similar steps. We restrict the use of alcohol, we restrict the use of cigarettes, we restrict the use of gambling. I just don't think social media companies should get a free pass.

And I am sensitive to, my colleague from West Hollywood who spoke so eloquently that oftentimes social media does provide an outlet as well, and a much needed one for folks that might be isolated.

But I just feel that this bill and the restrictions that are gonna be placed by this bill ensure that technology serves our children instead of exploiting them. So I wanna thank you for the work, and here's to getting it right.

Thank you, miss Papan. Senator Muratsuchi, you're recognized on the measure.

Thank you very much. I also rise, as a proud joint author, and I wanna thank, our colleague, from Long Beach for leading, this bold measure, that is going to, be watched, across the country and and around the world. As the innovation state, this will be a bold step for the state of California to send a strong message that we need to fight back against the excesses of big tech.

And I rise and I share my strong support for this as a fellow member of the dads caucus, you know, as a father of a teenage daughter. You know, I have seen this issue of social media and its impact not only on our teenagers and the mental well-being mental health and the well-being, but also on the growing evidence of the impacts of the excesses of social media on educational outcomes.

We just saw a study that came out recently last week, a week, a week before that, from the education project based at Stanford, Harvard, and Dartmouth. And they've tracked and identified a what they're calling a generation long learning recession, a decline in reading and math scores that preceded the pandemic. And they cite, you know, what what has happened in the mid two thousands to today.

And one of the most consequential developments in that period has been the dramatic increase of usage of social media as well as overall screen time. And so as, the number of speakers have have talked about earlier, this is a bipartisan.

This is a nonpartisan, issue. We all need to recognize that social media is the modern day tobacco industry. They are specifically designing these social media products to addict our kids as well as all of us. And so we need to recognize it for what it is. We need to step up to big tech, and I'm proud to be, joining this effort in support of AB 1709.

Thank you, mister Muratsuchi. And assemblymember Bauer-Kahan, you're recognized on the bill.

Thank you, mister speaker and members. You've heard the data. Our kids are on social media hours on end. You've heard how it's affecting their brain, their ability to learn.

But I wanna rise in memory of Alexander Hinks and Coco Arnold and all of the young children who should have gone to prom and graduated from high school, but instead died by suicide or a fentanyl overdose after getting it on social media at the hands of companies that maximize profit over the well-being of our children, who continued to push content that harmed our young girls and our young boys, who allowed them to access the drug that took their life.

And to say that California is finally saying enough is enough. Our kids deserve better. We have passed so many laws to try to get our arms around the social media crisis, the mental health crisis that has been caused by our social media companies. And this ultimately will allow our kids to just be kids and to grow and thrive and be with their friends and graduate from high school and have the lives that they deserved all along.

And I'm incredibly proud of the work that has been done on this bill, and I wanna thank the author for his collaboration in it because the bill doesn't just ban social media for our kids.

It actually sets up a dichotomy. One in which we say, we are going to ban these addictive and harmful features that have taken the lives of kids like Coco and Owl, and we're gonna allow for online spaces that are safe and non addictive and non harmful. And we are gonna create a system that allows you to know the difference and allows our kids to thrive and be connected, but we will no longer tolerate harm. And that, my friends, is good public policy.

And I also wish Californians are watching this because it turns out there is something that brings Republicans and Democrats together even today, and it's our kids and their well-being.

And that should make us incredibly proud because they deserve no less. And so with that, I leave you with the memory of these children, and I ask for all of you to vote aye on AB 179.

Thank you, Senator Bauer-Kahan. Senator member Hoover, you're recognized on the measure.

Couldn't agree more, with, many of the comments from my colleagues on this floor today. I rise as a joint author and in strong support of AB 1709. And and just so incredibly proud to stand with my colleagues on an issue that I think really should bring hope to this body after a long and sort of tough week on a lot of different issues. This is truly an issue that we can all come together on, truly an issue that is not partisan.

I rise not as a Republican, but as a parent in California of three amazing kids.

And it is undeniable at this point what the research shows on how harmful the impacts of social media is to our kids. We have seen incredible changes in

the last few years, particularly since 2010, in what our kids are experiencing, what it what they are exposed to, and the negative impacts that are, coming to them as a result of that. Since the, the smartphone was introduced and and kids started getting a hold of it, as my colleague from Long Beach stated, five hours per day on social media websites, the statistics are truly get glaring. And I wanna focus in particularly on the statistics of our young girls.

If you look at these statistics and the increases for hospitalization rates for self harm among young girls ages 10 to 14, In 2010, before the the smartphone really became ubiquitous amongst our youth, just over twenty young girls per 100,000 were hospitalized for self harm. As of today, that number has risen to over one hundred thirteen per 100,000 young girls, in The United States.

Our suicide rates among young girls and young boys have skyrocketed since the early twenty tens. The statistics are truly undeniable. And this is particularly meaningful for me as a parent of a 14 year old daughter. My only daughter, someone I always tell her, is my favorite daughter. You know, I was driving her to school this week.

My wife's been making fun of me because this is the last week that I'll ever be able to drive her to school because next year, she's gonna start going to school with her brother. And it just makes me so incredibly emotional to think about the impacts that this could have on her and her generation, which is why I don't allow her to touch social media.

And to be honest with you, when it comes to the companies creating these project products, I am truly tired of the excuses. And this bill is not about banning products. It is about keeping kids safe online.

And if we do not act now, when will we act? So I I greatly appreciate my colleague. I really do think this is one of those issues that we will look back on in twenty years if we don't act today and and ask why did we not act sooner. And I wanted to close with this. It was inspired by an article by Jonathan Haidt, who is a New York University psychologist.

But I just typed this into my AI, and I actually encourage you all to do the same. Permission to read, mister speaker?

Got objection.

Type this question into your AI and see what it tells you. I'm gonna read this. If you were the devil, how would you destroy the next generation without them even knowing it? And this is what my chatbot responded with. Not with fire and brimstone, not with obvious chains, I'd hand them the keys to their own self destruction and let them call it freedom, progress, and self care.

The next generation wouldn't fight me. They'd thank me, post about it, and meme the whole thing into oblivion. I would replace real life with infinite distraction, give every kid a pocket supercomputer by age eight, flood it with dopamine hits engineered by the world's smartest psychologists, short form videos, infinite scrolls, porn that rewires their brains before they've even kissed someone, make solitude feel like punishment and real world effort feel pointless. By the time they're 18, their attention span is shot.

Their imagination atrophied, and they literally cannot sit with their own thoughts.

They'd think they're connected. They're actually alone in the most populated era in history. The master stroke, I'd make every single step feel like rebellion, compassion, or scientific truth. They'd mock anyone warning them as a conspiracy theorist, a bigot, or a Luddite. The destruction would be voluntary, celebrated, and live streamed.

And the best part, most of them are already doing my work for me right now for free with their whole hearts. I wouldn't even need to lift a finger. Sweet dream, kids. Keep scrolling. I strongly urge an aye vote.

Thank you, mister Hoover. Senator Bonta, you're recognized on the measure.

Thank you, mister speaker and members. I also rise today as a joint author of AB 1709 and wanna thank our colleague from Long Beach for spearheading this effort to create such an opportunity for us to be bipartisan on behalf of our children.

I rise on behalf of our beautiful people of Oakland, Alameda, and Emeryville, including the countless young people in my community who I had a chance to talk to about this bill and whose mental health and whose lives have been reshaped by social media platforms deliberately engineered to keep them hooked and to keep them coming back.

We're talking about platforms designed as social slot machines, infinite scroll, autoplay, algorithmic feeds, committed to locking children into their platform, exploiting their vulnerabilities, their hopes, their dreams, their sense of self, and extracting maximum profit in return. When you look at the data here, our teens are reporting the exact things we hear from them time and time again.

They want help. They believe social media is having a negative effect on their generation, then they themselves spend too much time on social media and that social media is directly harming their sleep, their confidence, and their sense of self. And in fact, our courts, in part, agree with them. A court in Los Angeles found Meta and Google liable for exactly this kind of harm just two months ago.

The science and the courts are catching up to our beautiful youth and to what our parents and teachers and our outreach workers have already known for years.

AB 1709 is far overdue. A far overdue response to a reality that we are living every single day that is taking away the joy from our youth. It sets a minimum age of 16 for covered social media platforms requires meaningful age verification, not an honor system, and establishes a very critical eSafety Advisory Commission, which will be how California yet again leads this nation.

In order to provide ongoing oversight, evaluate compliance, and recommend improvements as the technology evolves at a pace that we cannot keep up with. This bill shifts the burden where it belongs from children and families to the companies that profits from their attention.

As Chair of the Assembly Health Committee, member of the California Legislative Children's Caucus, a mom of three growing up with these platforms, I've heard from parents, pediatricians, advocates, and most importantly, our children across the state. Anxiety, depression, sleep disruption, body dysmorphia, these are diagnoses showing up in clinical records and school counselors offices every single day. Young people's brains are still developing. These platforms were not designed to preserve the safety that they know they deserve. They were designed to exploit that.

I strongly urge an aye vote on AB 179.

Thank you, miss Bonta. Assemblywoman Castillo, you're recognized on the bill.

Thank you, mister speaker. Members, today I rise in strong support of AB 179. I'm not gonna repeat a lot of the comments that my colleagues have already stated, which I agree with. But I rise as a grandmother of five, I just want to thank the author for this bill, and I urge a strong aye vote for this.

Thank you, miss Castillo. Assemblywoman Dixon, you're recognized on the measure.

Thank you, Mister Chair. I we have all heard, is examples real life examples of what's going on in our social media world for children. I am the mother of three grandsons, 13, 11, and 9.

I am a proud co author and I admire what my colleague on when I was formally on the privacy committee, but my adjacent family assembly member in a neighboring city and county, but a a very good friend and his I admire his passion, his determination as a parent, as a concerned human for what is going on in our online world.

I many of you may not know or you may or may not know that through your local law enforcement, police or sheriff, they are dealing with this, and I'll speak on this aspect of law enforcement dealing with this on a daily basis.

I had a presentation by our Orange County sheriff and the dark web. We all think of the platforms and working with the known platforms that have been previously identified. But beneath those platforms is the dark web. And I honestly maybe all of you know about this. I did not know how systemic pervasive and corrosive the dark web is, and it is reaching out to my colleague mentioned young girls, especially young girls.

But the sex torsion aspect of this called nihilistic behavior and encouraging people who subscribe to this behavior, who are predators, and how there are sex may I read from a sex torsion handbook?

Without objection?

A comprehensive guide for perpetrators and how you start this is on the web dark web. Earn money. Easily earn money by selling explicit content you receive from staxtortion or from your victims, blackmail, anyone. Here's an in-depth guide of how to cultivate and create a relationship with a young person, often existing social media site. And it may take a month or two to develop that relationship and then where there's trust involved and then lead to violence.