Senate Floor

Secretary will call the roll.

[Roll call].

A quorum is present. Would the members and our guests beyond the rail and in the Gallery please rise? We will be led in prayer this morning by our chaplain, Sister Michelle Gorman. After which, please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

So let us not forget that we are always in the presence of holy mystery. God of the present, past, and future, we gather in this present moment to marvel at the mystery of our being. The poet, Lisel Mueller, in a poem called Alive Together, says, speaking of marvels, I am alive together with You when I might have been alive with anyone under the sun. Our chances of being alive together are statistically nonexistent. Still, we have made it, alive in a time when rationalists in square hats and hatless others agree it is almost over.

And so, gracious God, we ask You to give us the grace to know that we are the ones we've been waiting for, the ones to forge ahead with courage when success is not always evident, the ones to offer hope when the many are on the brink of despair, the ones to recognize that love is stronger than fear, indifference, and even death.

And so we give You thanks for Your mysterious presence as we go about in our inexplicable ways, building the future of the Golden State and building the universe. Amen. Thank you. Thank you so much. You know, all good things come to an end, and so I'd just like to take a few moments of personal privilege to thank you, senators and staff and sergeants, for the honor of serving you for the past 11 years. This was not supposed to be that long, but I've also wanted to say that personal privilege word for a good while.

I started out with Senator Kevin de León, and I remember in his swearing-in talk, he said that we are all pro tem, and so I think my tem is up right now, even though I thought I would be finished with him, but then there was Senator Atkins and Senator McGuire and now Senator Monique Limón as pro tem. So you definitely need a break from me and a new face around here.

I can truly say I have been blessed by my time with you. Senator Niello over here one day said, you bless us and we bless you, and actually, he was totally correct. I have been blessed. I have learned a whole lot. I think I've learned to be a better citizen. I've learned to be concise when I make a little prayer. I appreciate the interfaith, intersexuality--I don't think that's the right word, but you know what I mean--interculturality, in a word, the diversity of all that makes California great.

And so I'm inspired and grateful for your dedication to the common good, and we will keep on doing the goodness, compassion, and justice for all. And please know you will be in my poor prayers with gratitude and love. Amen.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. [Pledge of Allegiance]. Members, without objection, Senate Rule 55 is suspended to allow a guest on the floor for today's floor session. Moving to Privileges of the Floor, we do have some introductions of guest. Senator Pro Tem Limón, you are recognized for your special guest.

Thank you. Thank you, members. Colleagues, today we honor and welcome distinguished delegation from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California and the Japanese Business Association of Southern California here to our Chamber. Leading the group are Mr. Arai, Senior Vice President of the Silicon Valley Branch of Marubeni American Corporation and Vice President of the JCCNC, and Mr. Hirako, the Vice President of General Administration and Reservation at All Nippon Airways, who is President of the JVA.

They are in the Capitol today with their respective organization's annual visit to discuss issues of importance to our Japanese business community. The Japanese business community have brought to California over 130,000 jobs and contribute about 50 to 100 billion per year to the state's GDP. Please join me in warmly welcoming the distinguished guests to our California State Senate.

And if you would like to join in a picture, please make your way to the back of the floor. As members gather, we will take a group picture.

Members, moving on in Privileges of the Floor, we do have another introduction. Majority Leader, Senator Ashby, you are recognized from your desk.

Thank you, Mr. President. I rise today to commemorate the formal establishment of a sister city partnership between the city of Sacramento and the city of Morelia, Mexico. Today, we welcome a delegation of government, business, educational, and community leaders from Morelia who join us on the floor and also in the Gallery. Morelia is the capital and the most populous city of the Mexican state of Michoacán, which is the home of Mr. Silva and his family. The city was founded nearly 500 years ago, and in 1991, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Last July, a direct flight between Sacramento and Morelia opened, making travel and business and family interactions easier and more convenient for our regions. California is home to nearly 2 million people with roots from Michoacán and approximately 300,000 Sacramento residents who trace their roots to Morelia and the state of Michoacán. This sister city designation reflects a shared commitment to strengthening economic, educational, and cultural ties between two already related regions.

Please help me in welcoming the Morelia delegation, including Alfonso Jesus Martínez Alcázar, who is President of Municipal Morelia, Susan Melissa Vásquez Pérez, who is the Municipal of Morelia, and Gilberto Morelos Favela, who is a council member of Morelia. And also joining them from the city of Sacramento are a couple of my favorite people: the Vice Mayor, Karina Talamantes, and the Mayor Pro Tem, Eric Guerra. Please join me in welcoming them.

Pro Tem Limón, you are recognized.

Thank you, members. [Spanish]. We are honored to have you here with us as the delegation visiting from Morelia Michoacán. Morelia is one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico. It has a historical landmark, and they still preserve many of the things that make it unique, including its cathedral, the historic center, and the aqueduct. Beyond the beauty of Morelia is also the fact that it's a major agricultural producer of avocados, figs, pineapples, mangoes, and guava. The delicious and the beauty. [Spanish]. We welcome you here to California today.

Very good. Senator Padilla, you are recognized.

And distinguished colleagues, thank you to the Pro Tem and esteemed Majority Leader. I rise as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on California-Mexico Communication and Dialogue. [Spanish]. I think it's important to recognize the unique symbiotic relationship that we share with our brothers and sisters and family in Mexico--economic, social, environmental resource. We live in a time when the political inclination is to suggest that being divided is better, that finding differences are better. But the reality is, our lives and our fortunes and the future of our children are all inextricably linked together.

We are brothers and sisters, we are family, and our destinies must be borne out through understanding, respect, and collaboration. And in that vein, I thank you both again. I thank my leadership and welcome you with my whole heart.

Senator Ochoa Bogh, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, I would like to wholeheartedly welcome the delegation from Morelia Michoacán. [Spanish].

Senator Rubio, you are recognized.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the Senate. I also wanna rise to welcome our friends, and I wanna say a few words in Spanish since most people have welcomed them in English, if I may. [Spanish].

Senator-- is that it? Okay. Let's welcome them once again to the floor and do pictures. All members, if you would like to join in the back. Welcome to the California Senate.

Members, moving on in Privileges of the Floor, we do have more recognitions. Back to Pro Tem Limón. You are recognized.

Thank you. Members, we heard from Sister Michelle Gorman for the last time this morning, and we wanna honor the work and her legacy. For 11 years--for 11 years--Sister Michelle has offered thoughtful words of wisdom to this chamber. Her impact in the Senate started long before she offered her words to us. Sister Michelle left her home in County Mayo, Ireland 55 years ago to start the journey here in California and to enter the Sisters of Mercy in Auburn.

She began her ministry as a teacher's aid at Our Lady of Fatima School in St. Joseph's Parish, while also studying scripture, supporting the community, and joyfully reflecting in prayer and contemplation. Sister Gorman attended Sierra College, Dominican College in San Rafael, and finally, Sacramento State University where she earned her Bachelor's of Arts degree in Humanities and French. She also received her teaching credentials.

Sister Michelle devoted 15 years to teaching first at Holy Spirit Elementary School. She then served at Bishop High School where she taught English literature and she taught students about the Senate. She also taught English literature and composition, yearbook, and composition and rhetoric courses at Christian Brothers High School.

Continuing her pursuit for educational growth, Sister Michelle returned to school to earn her Master's degree in English and American Literature from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. After this, she became a vocation minister to work with women across this country, including women in Northern California, in Washington, in Oregon, in Idaho, and Montana. In 2004, Sister Michelle was elected to the Leadership Team of the Auburn Regional Community.

In 2008, she joined the West Midwest Community in Omaha, Nebraska, where she spent lives-- she went five years faithfully serving her ministry while caring for those who were sick, poor, and underserved. Throughout her journey, Sister Michelle has remained committed to personal and spiritual growth.

She earned her diploma in Spiritual Direction at the Shalom Spiritual Guidance Program in Maryland, and she studied Spanish at the Cultural Institute in Oaxaca, Mexico. Sister Michelle has been part of so many communities in this world, and we've been lucky to have her as part of our community here in the Senate. When she returned to Sacramento, she joined us, and for the time she's been with us over the last 11 years, she has brought compassion. She has brought grace. She has brought perspective to this chamber.

Her prayers have comfort us. They've also been words that we needed to hear during difficult moments. They've grounded us during challenging debates and reminded us of our shared responsibility to serve the people of this state. Sister Michelle, thank you. Thank you for your unwavering dedication, for sharing your wisdom, your beauty, your prayers, your kindness to this Senate floor.

On behalf of the California State Senate, please accept our deepest gratitude and appreciation. You will be greatly missed. We wish you the best in your new chapter, and we congratulate you on building an extraordinary career of service to so many communities across this globe. We are thankful to you as are the people of the state of California.

Senator Ashby, you are recognized from your desk.

Thank you to our presiding officer, and I know many people wanna say kind and wonderful things about the lovely Sister Michelle Gorman. I just wanna say that--and I know you're all sick of hearing this from me--but this is my constituent, and I love her deeply, and you should know that outside of these chambers as part of the Sisters of Mercy, she is beloved by her peers.

I am very close friends with one of her good friend's, Sister Libby, who runs Loaves and Fishes and arguably is the person most on the ground serving those in the most need in this region, and that group of sisters that includes Sister Michelle and Sister Libby, they really are a true force to be reckoned with in this region, outside of this building, on the streets of Sacramento. So I know she's leaving here. I'm gonna miss her deeply. I look forward to her prayers, but know this: there is no doubt in my mind that she, along with her sisters, will be out there continuing to work really hard in this community.

I'm grateful that they found you. Great-- good on Kevin de León for bringing you in, and wise of all the others. How lucky are we to have had these 11 years with you? Thank you so much, Sister Gorman.

Senator Niello, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. The Pro Tem explained well Sister Michelle's substance, background, achievements, all of which she brought to us here. She'd been here for a while before I got here, but just like I share Sacramento County with our Majority Leader, I share Sister Michelle as a constituent, but she invited me up to have lunch with her sisters up in Auburn last year, year before, and one thing if you're at all close to the Catholic Church, you will know, as I do, that sisters are funner than priests.

They really are. I had a wonderful time. They have a great sense of humor. And while she doesn't show her sense of humor necessarily here--she shows her wisdom, theologic wisdom--but she does have a great sense of humor. And I have a gift that I will bring. It is a little bit smaller than that bouquet you received from the Pro Tem, but it has every bit as much respect and affection as that one does, and as you said before, you bless us and we bless you forever. Forever.

Senator Richardson, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Sister Gorman, I-- my entire educational career, K-12, was in Catholic school, and my mom sent me to Catholic school even though my father was a public school teacher because I could get whipped each day. You could still get a whipping in a Catholic school. And so needless to say, I got them each day, and then I got one when I got home.

I'm sure some of you aren't surprised to hear that. And I think anyone-- I remember very early, I think part of my desire to serve publicly was we were taught to bring our change to give to the poor and to people in other countries. And I started stealing money out of my mother's pocketbook, and the nuns had to tell my mother, I don't know why she's giving $10 and we just want change.

But it was really learning and understanding the needs of other people that built that inside of me of wanting to give and wanting to help. And then consequently coming here about a year and a half ago, I was comforted to-- I felt like I was kind of in the same place. So you bring a lot of safety to us, a lot of peace to us before we know we're gonna have some very hard conversations. So enjoy your time. Thank you.

Senator Grove, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Sister Michelle, I just wanna tell you that you've been a light. You really have been a light. Sometimes I feel like this place is so dark, but every time we come to the Chamber, you speak truth from your heart. You're kind, you're compassionate, you let the Lord's light shine through you, but the-- I think the biggest gift that you have is unconditional love. You don't care if we're Democrat or Republican. You don't care what our policies are.

You don't care. You just have unconditional love for all of us and I think that's one of the greatest gifts that you have. So as you leave, I just have this to say over you. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He make His face shine upon you. May He turn His face towards you and give you peace. And may He remember all your sacrifices, give you the desires of your heart, and let all your plans succeed in this new adventure that He has for you. And thank you for blessing us.

Senator Padilla, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, Mr. President and colleagues. Sister, thank you. We do-- have chosen to serve in a way that requires us to get uncomfortable with one another, with our differences often. It's painful sometimes. It's easy to lose sight and lose perspective, and every time you would pray with us, you would impart wisdom. You embody to me all that is implied in the word, Sister, by the grace of God connected as family from Him. Always there, ready to support, be seen, to remind, to guide, to admonish, to bring us together, to remind us that we all are really family. Mr. President, permission to read?

Without objection.

Thank you. Proverbs 7:4. Say to wisdom, 'you are my sister.' And to insight, 'you are my close relative.' You have imparted such. You are our sister. Thank you, and God bless you.

Senator Smallwood-Cuevas, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Sister Michelle, it's been such an honor to sit right in front of your desk, and sometimes you would give me that look, which would remind me of my early Catholic upbringing because we were at the front of the class. But what I always appreciated about your prayers was that-- I don't know. It was the grace of God that gave you insight on what the rhythm and flow of this chamber would be. And your prayers spoke so directly and intentionally to the struggle every single time.

I really appreciated how you reminded us about equity, how you always talked about diversity, about reminding us about the least of us and our responsibilities. You really, I think, helped us remember the Christ in all of us, the Christ-like spirit in all of us. So I wanna say thank you. Wishing you the very best. I wanna continue to reach out to you, and I feel like we need to get those prayers in a book so that we can remember. As I told you over dinner, I think that is so important for us to remember and something this chamber should think about. But thank you for your service, and it's been a pleasure to get to know you over the years.

Senator Gonzalez, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. And Sister Michelle, I just cannot say enough about how incredible that you are. I've been in this chamber now for seven years--about a week ago spent my seventh year--and you've been there all along. Another Catholic school girl here. I felt like when I came to this chamber, I had to button it up around the nun. Well, not with you because I knew how humorous you are, especially with Bernie.

You and the-- Bernie and you and the banter just made me feel how comfortable it was around you, how you didn't judge, but you let people feel included. And in in this chamber, as my colleagues mentioned, how difficult the times have been, especially last year dealing with the insurmountable challenges that faced especially our Latino community as the Latino Caucus Chair, but coming in and starting fresh with the day, daily prayer that many of the senators I realized kept with them.

So I think as my senator-- good colleague from Los Angeles mentioned, having a book with her prayers might be really, really beneficial for us all to kind of look back and reflect and just thank the words that you've imparted on us and thank your service, not just to us, but to the state of California. We appreciate you.

Senator Hurtado, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Sister Michelle, I know that wherever you stand, I know you will be the soul of that place because you have been the soul of this place, and I wanna thank you for sharing your light with all of us.

Senator Stern, you are recognized.

Yeah. I just wanted to add my gratitude, and there's a phrase in the Talmud that says, where you find God's greatness, there you find His humility. You embody that and it passes through you and you don't announce yourself. So it's odd to-- odd to put all this attention on you, and I hope it's good and uncomfortable to get lauded with all this praise, but we're gonna make you sit here and absorb all of our love because we never get to say it this way to you.

So I'll just say thank you. You wrote my wedding proposal, and you didn't realize it, but you made a prayer the morning I proposed to my wife and I stole it. Yeah. And it worked. And you talked about some kind of big magnet in the universe pulling us all towards love, and that's what you've done to us, so thank you.

Senator Archuleta, you are recognized.

Thank you. Sister Michelle, you make us all feel like little children. When you're up there giving a prayer, we better listen. And I remember my time in Catholic school that when the nuns spoke, we listened or there was that ruler. And I don't know if there's one back there or not, but if there was, I'd sure like to give it back to you because you held it over our heads many, many times by giving us wisdom, prayer.

But it made us feel like we turned a clock back when we were doing our first communion and our confirmation, and it was the nuns that taught us about our faith, our religion, but taught us about forgiveness, which all of us have got to ask for so many times in so many ways, that forgiveness is also a blessing. But because we represent a million people each, we also share the hope and love that you've given us with everyone.

And I wanna tell you on behalf of the veterans that you love so dearly, I wanna thank you for the prayers because they mean so very much. God bless you. Your journey is not over. There'll be another blessing waiting and many, many more to come. The Good Lord is not ready for you, but we are and we thank you. God bless you.

Senator McGuire, you are recognized.

Thank you so much, Mr. President and members and Madam Pro Tem. I'll be brief, and we love Sister Michelle, and I'm gonna try to get through this without getting a little emotional. We love her because she is real, we love her because she is authentic, and no matter the day that she is having, she always puts you, puts other people first.

She's been a bright light in some of our darkest days in this Capitol and in this state--civil unrest, wildfires--and I think that we can all agree there are days in this Capitol that are so challenging. But then there's the bright light in the Senate. What I love about Sister Michelle, she also speaks to the moment.

She always knows what to say and how to care for others. I describe Sister Michelle as kind. She leads with her heart. She's so caring and empathetic, and you're people-driven. And Sister Michelle, we are so lucky that you've chosen the Senate as part of your journey, and this state is stronger because of you. Love you so much.

Senator Rubio, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, and of course, Sister Gorman. What an honor to have spent the last eight years in your presence. We all need a steady hand, and you represented that every time we come into this chamber. We don't know what's gonna happen on the floor, but we do know that with your blessing, we're better people on this floor, and we look forward to seeing you every week.

And you've left-- your legacy is always gonna be with us, but we want you to know that you're respected, you're valued, you're loved, and we all have felt your presence, your warmth, and your inspiration in so many different ways, as shared by my colleague as he proposed to his wife, but know that you've touched everyone, including staff and everyone that's watching. We don't know how we're gonna move forward without you, but please know that we always want you to come back. This is your home. Congratulations on this new chapter of your life, but please know that we wish you the very best.

Senator Wiener, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Sister, we've-- I'm now in my tenth year, and I can't imagine this floor without you. I just associate you with your fixture here and it's gonna be a big hole in the Senate, and although I know we will have an amazing successor, but you are irreplaceable. And the one thing that I wanna point out is that a theme that runs through all of the the prayers that you've delivered here on the floor is humanism.

And I think a lot of times in the legislative process, it gets very technical, talking about a lot of legal doctrines and technical phrases and it gets very legal--excuse me--legalistic, and of course we have to get the details right, but overlaying all of it-- and we always have to remember that it's about people. However technical a debate is, it's about people and people's lives and the quality of their lives and the sustainability of their lives and treating people like full human beings, and you always have brought that to the Senate floor as a reminder every time we are here in this body. So thank you so much for your incredible service.

And Senator Durazo, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Well, I rise to honor someone who has served as our spiritual director and a moral pillar of this body since 2015, the first woman religious to serve as Senate chaplain. How's that? Big applause. Big applause. First woman religious. You've opened our sessions not just with words, but with intention. You rooted us in our faith, however that may look like for each of us, a faith that does justice, that calls us to care for the most vulnerable, to see the dignity in every single person, to care for mother earth, and to lead with love.

And in your words that you said here in June of last year, you reminded us to have courage when you're frozen into inaction, have humility when misunderstood, and have a spirit of solidarity with those who are marginalized and seeking justice. Your presence has been such a gift to all of us. Pray for us as we carry your spirit forward in the work we do for the people of California. Personally, I always look forward to hearing you, to seeing you every single day.

I always look forward because I knew that you are a woman not only performing your duties here with us, but you have your own struggles in an institution dominated by men, and I love hearing little stories about that, how women religious fighting for our communities in that institution. I wanna thank you, Sister Michelle. You always was someone I looked forward to talking to. And also, I wanna thank you from Senator Eloise Gómez Reyes.

She's sorry she couldn't be here this last day that you are here, but she sends very special greetings, a hug, and love. And we loved hearing funny stories as Senator-- my colleague said earlier. You always made us laugh, but you always reminded us what our real purpose in this chamber was, and that is to serve. Thank you. We love you very much.

Sister Michelle Gorman, we give you honor today. Thank you for your service to the Senate. And if you would like to join for a group picture in the back, members, make your way.

Members, we have a very special guest with us today. The majority leader Ashby's aunt from Oregon is visiting with us today, Rochelle Ashby.

So glad that right in the back of the chamber. Welcome to California senate chamber. Messages from the governor will be deemed read. Messages from the Assembly. Secretary, please read.

Mr. President, I am directed to inform your honorable body that the Assembly on this day adopted Assembly concurrent Assembly constitution amendment 20. Sue Parker, Chief clerk of the Assembly. Mr. President, I am directed to inform your honorable body that the Assembly amended and on this day passed as amended Senate bill 417 and Senate bill 623 and respectfully request your honorable body to concur and set amendments. Sue Parker, Chief clerk of the Assembly.

Messages from the Assembly will then be deemed read. Reports of committees will be deemed read and amendments adopted. Members, we are moving to motions, resolutions, and notices. Any member wish to be recognized under motions? Senator Hurtado, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Under motions and resolutions, at the request of the author, please remove Assembly Bill 2262, file item one sixty six from the consent calendar.

The desk will note. Senator Cortese, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. I request the withdrawal of file item 164, AB 739 on behalf of Assembly member Jackson and file item 175, AB 2078 on behalf of Assembly member Rogers for purposes of amendments. Thank you.

The desk will note. Thank you. Senator Laird, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. I move that measures reported by the budget and fiscal review committee on Monday, 06/29/2026, be given a second reading upon being reported and ordered to the third reading.

Senator Niello, you are recognized. You're recognized with the mic on. Go ahead. We'll vote. Senator Niello, hang on one second. Are we ready?

Senator Niello, you are recognized again.

You wanna do it a third time? Usually, that's the charm.

If you think it'll help you.

Maybe I'll get more votes that way.

As I said, I object to that motion and ask for a no vote.

Senator Laird is asking for an aye vote. Senator Nilo is asking for a no vote. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Secretary, please call absent members.

[Roll Call]

Ayes, 27. Nos 7. The motion carries. Senator Laird, you are recognized once again.

Thank you, Mr. President. Members, there's a letter at the desk requesting withdrawal of ACA 20 from the Committee on Rules. I move that ACA 20 be withdrawn from committee, ordered to the floor, and that we take it up without reference to file.

Is there any objection? Seeing none. The motion carries. Senator Ashby, you are recognized.

Thank you. Presiding officer, I move the adoption of authors and floor amendments that cross the desk on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 26th, 27th, and 28th as approved by leadership. Author's amendments will be adopted, published, and the bill's return to the committee. Floor amendments will be adopted, published, and ordered to second reading.

Senator Valadares, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. I rise to object and request that the previous roll call vote be applied.

Thank you. Any objection to previous roll call? It appears we'll have to call roll. With that, secretary, please call roll.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 28, Nos 7. The motion carries. If there are no other members to be recognized under motions, resolutions, and notices, give us one moment as we prepare for our next step.

Ayes 28, Nos 7. The motion carries. If there are no other members to be recognized under motions, resolutions, and notices, give us one moment as we prepare for our next step.

Members at this time, we will take up ACA 20 without reference to file with no objection. And Senator Laird, you are rec secretary, please read.

Assembly constitutional amendment 20 by Assembly member Gabriel, enacting to state finance.

Senator Laird, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, Mister president. ACA 20, the Save for California Futures Act, is a constitutional amendment that strengthens the state's rainy day fund. Prior to 2014, California consistently had not set aside significant amounts of reserves to smooth revenue volatility. However, the budget shortfalls of the great recession, which resulted in significant program cuts and painful impacts for so many Californians, led to a reconsideration of how to manage revenue volatility in our state.

As a result of this difficult period, the current rainy day fund was created by proposition two of 2014 and specified a structure of mandatory deposits into the rainy day fund as well as required debt repayments.

Deposits into the account reached the 10% general fund revenue cap in four fiscal years. The rainy day fund was first used to bridge the budget gap experienced in 2021 due to the pandemic. The rainy day fund has been a successful improvement in statewide budgeting, loading leading to record reserves, which we have drawn upon in recent years as we have recovered from the pandemic.

However, the ACA before us today reflects that it is time to continue to improve our rainy day fund, continuing the cycle of learning over time and making adjustments to ensure California's fiscal stability into the future. This ACA 20 mandates deposits into the rainy day fund until balance reaches 20% of general fund taxes, doubling the prior cap of 10%.

It increases deposits into the rainy day fund to help fill that higher cap by depositing more funds during boom years when revenues spike. It adds common sense to how our key reserves are treated with the state appropriations limit, better known as the GAM limit. Under this measure, funds count toward the limit when they are withdrawn from reserves and actually spent rather than when they are deposited into reserves. This very reform was supported by Paul Gann, the author of the Gann Limit.

He thought it made much more sense to incentivize savings, to not count the payments into the fund, and to only count the withdrawals from the fund, which is what this ballot measure would do.

This ballot measure also extends the requirement to make debt payments through 2040 and expands eligible debt to proposition 98 settle up, budget borrowing, and notably, this measure adds the federal unemployment insurance loan to the list of eligible debts that can be repaid. This adds a potential avenue for the state to assist employers in repaying the unemployment insurance debt. Establishing the rainy day fund in 2014 was a monumental achievement that helped to usher in the era of responsible budgeting.

When I was Chair of the budget committee from 2004 to 2008 in the Assembly, we had no reserves. We would have what we call the reserve that'd be very small for that year for expenses that we anticipated.

But if there was a recession, if there was a pandemic, we had nothing. This rainy day fund has changed that, and this is the time to fine tune it. Establishing it, manage the volatility without having to resort to draconian cuts and middle class tax increases that were a perennial fat threat for the prior decade and a half.

Today, we have the opportunity to ask the voters to take the next step and go even further in strengthening our rainy day fund and building a stronger, more fiscally stable California. Thank you for the years of work by the Assembly, the Senate, and the administration, and their staff, and the continued focus on working toward constitutional amendment we're considering today.

I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator. Senator Nilo, you are recognized. I'm sorry, Senator Salarto. You've been called worse.

It's a common error. I take no offense, especially since it's Senator Nilo. So, senators, today I rise, in lukewarm support but opposition, but, maybe somewhere in the middle, because I think we are, embarking on a path to to do something that we have all supported, and that is do something about our overall budget situation. And part of that situation is our reserves. Right now, we have, $15,000,000,000 in reserves.

That's not even the 10%. 10% reserves right now would be 25 thou or billion dollars

Yeah.

Out of our general fund. And we're not even close to that yet. We should be putting money into reserves. And when we have enough money in reserves, and this is where I kinda start to to differ from from my colleagues on a strategy and approach and a goal when we are doing when we are going to present an ACA to our our residents.

Our goal needs to be establish a reserve, but be able to have the flexibility to make substantial substantial progress on our UI debt, on our borrowing debt.

Our borrowing debt from other funds, I believe, is about $30,000,000,000. And we're supposed to be paying interest on that into what, who, whatever fund that we are supposed to borrow from. So those, those debts just keep going up. The UI debt is another thing that we've all, you know, we've agreed for, we've been imploring us to get rid of the UI debt for years, especially when we had the funds to do it.

But the UI debt now is still $19,000,000,000 And, and the methodology that would be used to to pay that off using the ACA 20 would essentially be the same as almost making your minimum payments on your credit card that you've ran up with 20,000 or $30,000 You will, it'll be a long time before that gets paid off.

So we need something with a little more certainty. We need something that clearly states the goal for our citizens when they're looking at a ballot measure that says, hey, this is what we wanna do. We wanna pay down our debt. We wanna get rid of that UI debt. And we want to make sure that we have a reserve, that is reflective of that budget that we have in California.

The the, potential, dangers that we have as far as, emergencies and things like that that may come up. LAO has, given us a number of 50%. I don't know that we're gonna get to a $125,000,000,000 of reserve anytime soon, but we certainly could get to thirty, forty, or 50.

And if we get to that thirty, forty, or 50, our game plan should be to to float our reserve between 1520% and make substantial payments to pay off every single bit of the debt that we have accumulated so far. And I said so far because that's a point in time debt.

In 2014, governor Brown, came up with this plan, and and he called it, we need to get rid of the wall of debt. At the time, it was $30,000,000,000. And, the the money that they would use would, you be used to pay off debt that had been accumulated so far, but not debt going forward. Well, this allows us to do debt going forward.

And when we're doing debt going forward, and it may not be any of our goal, but other people are gonna get elected to these seats, they may see that as an opportunity to borrow this year from another fund and then maybe pay it off with our with our reserve policy that we have the citizens go ahead and approve in the future years.

In other words, we're just gonna be turning water on the debt. We can't turn turn water. What we need to send the citizens is a bona fide plan to pay off debt, increase our reserves, which will increase our, resiliency, both financially and physically in our state, to be able to withstand a a an earthquake or a or a bridge falling down for for other purposes. But that way we can get those things done, and we don't have to borrow money and and pay more interest.

Our interest payments are somewhere north of $1,000,000,000 a year just for this.

But then when you add our bet our our our bonded indebtedness, those payments are another $7,000,000,000 or so. We can't borrow our way out of this problem. We have to take positive action. And this is this could be part of it. But once we put an ACA to this the the the citizens and it's not working the way we want, it's not reducing that debt, are are we gonna present another one in two more years to do another fix?

We need to make sure this gets done right. There are a lot of concerns that that, myself and and some of my colleagues may have had. We we weren't able to express them until right now. And this isn't a criticism on the people that have been working hard to try to come up with a plan like this. But I'm concerned.

I'm concerned that it creates some loopholes that other people will be able to will be more than happy to march through. We're gonna raise our debt ceiling a little bit, which means there's gonna be more money in the pot to borrow from and pay back. And so that becomes another source of revenue when we don't really have revenue. So these are the things that are concerning us about this.

I wish I had been able to be at the table when they're negotiating this because then perhaps we could incorporate some of these additional things and we'd all be on the same page.

I appreciate the efforts of my colleagues in trying to address this in a manner that all of us could be on board with. But at this time, it is difficult for me to be part of that train. Thank

you. Senator Hurtado, you are recognized.

Thank thank you, Mister president. I rise today as a pro proud co author of ACA 20. I often say to people that I come across here at the capitol that, poverty does not discriminate in the Central Valley. And in the Central Valley, the people know that this is very much true with of our region, but it's also very much true across California.

But in the Central Valley and people across California know that there will be a time of hardship and that when that time of hardship, that hopefully it's later rather than sooner, that when that time comes, we gotta all be kind of prepared for it.

And our job here as legislators, as senators, is to protect Californians. To protect them from hardships. To protect them and provide them with opportunities. And I believe ACA 20 will do that. It will make us more disciplined, not just in saving, but also in spending.

And this is important because finance is part of a critical infrastructure. It's a national security issue. It's the right thing to do. It's the right thing to protect Californians. It's the right investment, And for those reasons, I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Senator Strickland, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister, president, members. My opening comment is I I wanna say that I do believe that Assembly member Gabriel gave a good faith effort into trying to resolve an issue that we've been talking about on this floor for quite some time. I do believe this ACA is a missed opportunity. There are some good things in this.

I just wish the majority actually came to a lot of our members because we could have actually made this a very good proposal to the people of California had you included us on some of these provisions.

But some of the good things in here is the UI debt, a list of obligations that's eligible for debt payments that we've been talking about on our side for quite some time, and increases the set aside for revenue spikes with higher capital gains. What I've mentioned in this year's budget is you're spending equal to record revenues with capital gains. And I actually do like the fact that you're going to try to put some of that money aside instead of unfortunately, the devil is in the details.

This enables more irresponsible borrowing for any new budgetary debts. It does not require debt payment to go to the UI debt, and it facilitates more spending, exempting reserve deposits from the state spending limit.

Members, this is a missed opportunity to tighten our deposit and withdrawal rules. The best analogy, it's like getting a credit card in order to pay off your earlier spending credit card debt. And so what it does is it allows your addiction to spending to continue to move forward, because what you're doing is just putting another credit card on a credit earlier credit card in order to keep your debt, in order to keep your spending going moving forward.

And for those reasons, you know, again, I I believe this is a missed opportunity because I think we could have worked together and got a great product to the people of California. There's many good things in here, but there's more things that will not be good for the people of California, particularly the addiction to spending of this legislature.

And so, therefore, I'm asking for no one to support ACA 20.

Senator Valadares, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. Members, I rise, because I cannot support ACA 20. I believe in fiscal responsibility, and to me that means paying our debts, building reserves, and getting California's fiscal house in order. But ACA 20 essentially promises fiscal responsibility without requiring it. California is carrying nearly a 20,000,000,000 in federal unemployment insurance debt and we are the only state in the nation that has still not repaid its COVID era federal loan.

Not one other state, just California. When California had a historic $98,000,000,000 budget surplus in 2022, we had the opportunity to pay down this debt and instead, the legislature chose to spend that money elsewhere and handed the bill to California employers. And since then, employers have seen their federal UI payroll taxes increase by 250%. According to the California Business Roundtable, California employers now face a payroll tax burden nearly nine times higher than employers in states that paid off the debt years ago.

Less than a month ago, I stood on this floor and asked this body to prioritize paying down the debt instead of shifting the burden onto employers already struggling with higher costs.

It would have allocated $5,000,000,000 a year to pay the debt down in four years, and that proposal was rejected. So what does ACA 20 actually do? It authorizes payments towards the UI debt, but it doesn't require them. This is like having a maxed out credit card. Most people wouldn't keep building a bigger emergency fund while making minimum payments on their card.

They'd pay off the debt first. ACA 20 doesn't require that. It allows reserves dollars to be used for future debt instead of the nearly $20,000,000,000 debt that we already owe. And that is not fiscal responsibility. That's kicking the can down the road.

So we can still borrow to cover budget gaps, pay off the new borrowing first, and then leave UI debt sitting there year after year. Meanwhile, employers won't see the payroll tax relief until the UI debt is completely paid off. Even under the most optimistic projections right now, that would be nine years.

And I can't look at the restaurant owners in my district, the contractors, the small manufacturers in Santa Clarita, the aerospace and defense industry in the Antelope Valley and in the Victor Valleys in the eye and tell them that this bill helps them. It doesn't.

They're still paying for Sacramento's mistakes. And under this proposal, they'll continue paying for years, nearly a decade to come. ACA 20 gives the legislature a blank check for debt. Members, I urge that no one support this bill.

Senator Nilo, you are recognized.

Thank

you, Mister president. Yesterday in budget committee, I compared this ACA 20 to kind of washing your hands with your gloves on. It'll get the gloves clean, but it won't really do the accomplished or the intended job. Like so many bills in the budget space, there's some good and there's some bad. There in this case, there is so little good and so much bad.

It is just simply unsupportable given the status quo. My fellow Republican colleagues have articulated many of the issues with which we take exception. I think the only good thing one could say is that it doubles the reserve, doubles from 10 to 20%. When the LAO recommended a 50% cap. And that is woefully inadequate given the huge fluctuations that we have, in our revenue base.

Our colleague from Pico Rivera yesterday talked about explaining these things to constituents. That's the other fundamental problem with this proposal, which we just seem to always do, particularly with regard to reserve proposals. It was true of proposition two also. It is incredibly complicated. I would challenge anybody in this room to have a town hall with your constituents and you explain this CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO THEM.

I THINK IT'D BE VERY DIFFICULT FOR ANYBODY TO DO THAT. I DO LIKE THE KISS PRINCIPLE. There is a simplistic way to forever cure the dysfunction that exists because of our incredibly, fluctuating revenue sources. Now we could we could change the tax system. We know that's not gonna happen.

But we can change how we can utilize those revenues with just a simple rolling average of revenues over a five to seven year period. That because it's pretty much the time during which we go from feast to famine and back to feast and famine again. And whenever revenues are above that rolling average, all of that difference goes into a reserve. And when it drops below that rolling average, those reserves can come back in.

Gives much more flexibility to budget riders, very easy to explain, and completely solves the fundamental dysfunction that gets us into budget trouble in the first place, and that is the highly fluctuating revenue source that we have.

So I preach simplicity, which we do not have. I preach much more positive impacts than negative impacts, which we do not have. I urge a no vote.

Senator Grove, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. I too rise in opposition of ACA 20. I think we deal, and only Elon Musk and all of us, and maybe Congress deals in billions and billions and billions and hundreds of millions of dollars. Everyday Californians that sit at their kitchen table are taking their 5 to 7,000 or 3 to $4,000 or 2 to $3,000 budget, and they're like, okay, I have to pay my house payment, my rent, my car payment, my utilities, and, what's left over if I don't have enough.

I have to figure out how to either cut what I'm using now or I have to borrow or get a credit card and extend things on a credit card.

So it's really hard to explain to Californians, and I'm not saying they're ignorant. They are not in any way, shape, or form, but it's just hard for someone that's, you know, working two jobs or a single mom or even business owners that are small business owners to comprehend that California's debt is a total is California's debt, not in total, but $72,000,000,000 is on general obligation bonds. Lease bonds are about 9,730,000,000.

The state debt is 112,000,000,000, according to today's numbers and estimates, but that varies because there are additional numbers out there that say that it's $223,000,000,000, 34,000,000,000 in borrowing, $19,000,000,000 in UI debt, and there's unfunded pension liability for 170,000,000,000. So the numbers are so vast.

The LAO's office, which is a legislative analyst office says that, you know, our debt and our obligations are here, and then there's new numbers in the governor and the the legislative members of our of of the legislature say the numbers are here. So it's it's it's difficult to even have a conversation when you don't even know what your actual debt is.

I can tell you that people that are our constituents that are worried about the cost of inflation and the cost of the cost and increase of the borrowing that we have is is a way it's weighing on their hearts, and it's weighing on their families. The debt interest alone on what is going on for this fiscal year is $60,868,000,000 dollars.

So think about a family of four, two parents raising two kids, and they have it's have to comprehend that the state of California's debt service alone this year is $668,000,000.

Million dollars. Now this does include information in this bill that allows UI debt to be included in the debt repayment that is gonna be calculated into this reserve for debt payment. It doesn't say it's gonna be used to reduce the UI payment or the unemployment insurance payment, which is the food tax reduction credit, when we overdraw our unemployment funds as a state of California through fraudulent payments or just overpaying those that are on unemployment extended benefits and things like that.

It falls back on the employers, which creates an additional tax. That tax, this cycle that is extended out till 2036, is gonna cost employers roughly $20,000,000,000.

That's just an additional tax on top of every other tax and every regulatory fee that employers, small and large businesses, pay in this state. I appreciate the fact that it is used in this as a UI payment that it could possibly use be used in future budgets to be able to use that those dollars to pay that inform that debt down. I've been here since 2010 when it was overdrawn in the first place, and it was, I believe, $32,000,000,000.

It took twelve years to pay it off, and the the the people in this building didn't do anything but provide the debt service. The principal all had to be paid off by employers in this state.

And I don't see that attitude changing, which is the hostile environment that employers operate here in the state of California and the people on this floor. I don't see you automatically picking up some type of UI debt, that's been overpaid to the Federal Government unless you're forced to by the Federal Government. I think there are, like my colleagues said, some good things about this.

The UI issue is one of them, putting reserves in in place so that we have a a kind of a savings account to draw from. That hasn't worked in the past.

I don't see it working in the future, but I'm optimally optimistic about your goals, the lofty goals. I can tell you with the debt service that is available on this new type of borrowing that stings it out for another ten years instead of 2031. I believe it goes to 2041 for another decade. The debt service on this for Californians is gonna be drastically expensive. Again, there are a few things in here that are good, but overall, it's just increasing the cost for every Californian.

I think it's roughly almost $3,000. It's 2,890 something dollars per person in the state of California, and that number will do nothing but increase with the additional debt borrowing that we'll do. It's like we're again, we don't have a solid number. 34,000,000,000 in budgetary $223,000,000,000 is what we're looking for for the repayment for debt. 200 and based on the analysis, $223,000,000,000 including budgetary ball borrowing.

So we have a $34,000,000,000 budgetary borrowing. We're getting a credit card for a $19,000,000,000 UI debt repayment, then we're getting a loan from the bank to pay the credit card and the interest on the credit card for another $170,000,000,000 in the retiree debt that we have. We're in a bad financial situation and we're doing a shell game. It's a pretty good shell game.

I don't think anybody, but possibly, maybe my colleague from San Santa Cruz can explain this to the voters, and explain this to all of us.

But the bottom line is is that we have to look at the debt service. And the only reason I spoke a lot about debt service and interest paying back debt, $668,000,000 is not a small price tag for the debt that we owe in the state of California. I'm married to a North Dakota cowboy who pays cash for everything. And if you can't pay cash for it, you don't finance it, you don't buy it.

He is into savings, making sure that you have six months of this, and he's he will go without instead of having something that comes out of the savings account.

He's been like that all of his life. He's kinda hard headed in that way. He's the saver. I'm the spender. And I just applaud him because he has been very fiscally sound in our financials in our financial situation at home.

And I think that every household that is struggling with bills and struggling with house payments and rent, like I started with insurance, with the cost of living, with additional count taxes, with higher cost of food, higher cost of fuel, these taxes that we're imposing on the state of California for an additional almost $3,000 is just not realistic. I do applaud the effort.

I wish it was structured in a different way so we could minimize our structural debt and our debt payments, but that wasn't what was agreed upon between the three party deal, the governor, the speaker, and the pro tem. And I wish we could address this in a way that would bring our house and our state into fiscal responsibility, and I respectfully ask for a no vote.

Senator Cabaldon, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. We've heard some a lot of metaphors, this morning. Credit cards, handwashing, gloves, bank loans. But let's let's check them out a little bit because they some of them have had a little bit of Austin Powers to them. Oh my god.

$680,000,000. Million dollars. 683. Well, how much is $1,000,000,000? It's 1,000 million dollars.

Our state budget's over $300,000,000,000. So $683,000,000,000 is worth, less than a $100, relative to the income of a middle class family in this in this state. We're not overburdened with debt in California. What we do have a problem with though is our reserves. So forget the metaphors for a second.

Let's listen to folks who actually specialize in this, the folks that rate our credit for purposes of bonds. Moody's and the other nonpartisan, independent, multi multinational ratings companies that say, this government has a good credit rating, this one has a bad one. What have they said about California? They said California's credit rating is pretty decent. You know how it would be better?

You know how it would be better if California had a much larger reserve. If Cali had a California had a better reserve, we could up the credit rating for the state to be even better than it is today. Why does that matter? Because that means that $687,000,000 goes down.

The way we save money for taxpayers in this state, the way we save money in our budget is to have a better credit rating, and the way forward to a better credit rating is to have a decent amount of reserves.

Now my colleague from from Fair Oaks, is perhaps on onto something here, which is that we should even have a bigger reserve, maybe 50%. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but maybe. Maybe. But there's no other proposal on the on the table today. The only proposal is to take what he called a modest effort, but it's doubling the the the size of the state of the state's reserve capacity.

That will go a long way to making sure we don't have to make devastating cuts when we're at the bottom of our budget, that we're now having to come contemplate even when we have money coming in, and it will reduce the cost of our ongoing borrowing. So this is a critical, bill to move forward, and it's critical that we move it to the voters right now because there's never been a more important revenue moment that we do not have the ability to deal with.

We have at least three major California based companies, or with lots of California workers there, that are likely to generate enormous tax revenues in the in the coming years, one time revenues. Exactly the kind of revenues that a substantial portion should be going into general fund reserves in order to protect us over the long long term.

If we sit around in an ivory tower and debate what these policies could look like and maybe put something on the ballot two years now from now or four years from now, we will have missed the most important opportunity in California's history to get this right.

This is a well crafted consensus among every finance expert in California. This is the way forward. I urge you not to vote.

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

Thank you very much, Mister president. It was said during this debate that the big thing we should do is get our fiscal house in order. We'll pay attention to the budget that we approved a week ago, Monday. That budget balanced the budget for two years. It cut the structural reserve, structural deficit in half.

But more importantly, it set aside over $36,000,000,000 in reserves. 36,000,000,000 more than we had in the, before the rainy day fund. But the significant thing is is we had to do a substantial amount of that voluntarily because this measure was not in place.

In fact, in getting our fiscal house in order, we were taking 7 and a half billion dollars of excess revenue in the current fiscal year due to the artificial intelligence revenue that's coming in and holding it for the year after next to match with cutting the structural deficit in half and balancing the budget. If this measure were in place, we wouldn't have had to do those extra efforts.

We would have been doing them anyway. And it it's it's interesting because it was said during our debate yesterday, and it was actually reaffirmed during this debate, that if we were really going to deal with volatility in the revenue system, we would have to give the wealthiest people in California a tax cut and raise the taxes on the middle class. We will not do that. So what is the alternative? The alternative is saving more.

And when it was said that what about a person, working two jobs, what would they say? They would say save more. They would say do exactly what this ballot measure does. And I and I appreciate the previous comments because this was done the rainy day fund was established in 2014. We are getting to doubling the amount in 2026.

These opportunities don't come along. I I mentioned in the opening statement that Paul Gann, who was the our, architect of the Gann limit, he endorsed the fact that we should, pay more and not have that account and only in the GAM limit count the withdrawals. He has been gone for thirty seven years. He proposed that before that. We are doing it now.

These opportunities do not present themselves regularly. We have one. And and it was said in the debate that there are many fine things in this ballot measure, which is why we should approve it. We have a unique opportunity to double the amount that we save, and it won't present itself if we don't take it for years and years. This is our chance to address the volatility that everybody complains about.

This is our chance to have it in statute and the constitution in a way that we will absolutely save and we will absolutely continue the process that we are embarked on of uprighting the state budget. I respectfully ask for an aye vote. Secretary, please call roll.

Allen. Hi. Alvarado-Gil. Hi. Hi.

Hi. Hi. Hi.

Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi.

Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi.

Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi.

Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi.

Hi. Hi. Aye, Choi. No. Cortesi.

Aye, Dali Durazo. Gonzalez. Grayson. Aye, Grove. Hurtado.

Aye. Jones. Laird. Aye. Limon.

McGuire. Aye. McNerney. Aye. Menjivar.

Aye. Turdaso, aye. Gonzales, aye. Menjivar? Aye.

Nilo? Ochoa Vogue? Padilla? Perez? Aye.

Reyes? Richardson? Aye. Rubio. Aye.

Ciardo. Smallwood Cuevas. Aye. Stern. Aye.

Strickland. Humbert. Aye. Volodares. Wahab.

Aye. Weber Pearson. Aye. Weiner? Aye.

Secretary, please call absent members.

Alvarado-Gil, Dali, Grove? No. Jones, Limon? Aye. Nilo.

Ochoabo. Reyes. Strickland.

Secretary, please call absent members once again.

[Roll Call]

Members, we are moving to supplemental file number one, item number 186, SB 417. Senator Limon, you are We're moving to item 187, SB number 623. Senator Umberg, you are recognized. Or secretary, please read.

Senator Bill 623 by Senator Umberg, acclimating to Transportation.

Senator Umberg, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Colleagues, you may have heard that Uber, the rideshare entities, as well as the other stakeholders have come to a compromise with respect to the proposed ballot issues. Don't wanna say this is biblical, but let me quote Isaiah eleven sixteen. The lion lay down with the lamb, except the those of you who are biblical scholars like my colleagues from the Inland Empire and pastor Grayson will note that's not actually the quote from Isaiah eleven sixteen.

The actual quote is the Wolf will lie down with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the goat.

I'm not sure who the lambs and the goats are in this compromise, but I am very grateful, and we should all be grateful that they have reached a compromise that is fair to Californians. It creates a system that's safe, fair, accountable by protecting patients from unnecessary treatment and overcharging, ensuring access to medical care and legal representation, and strengthening, the ride share safety measures.

In order to address concerns in the medical lien industry and their relationship to attorneys while ensuring that victims get access to care, SB 623 makes this makes several reforms, in transportation network company accident cases. For accidents occurring on or before excuse me. On or after 01/01/2027, if a plaintiff receives treatment from a lien based medical provider, the plaintiff generally cannot recover more than 70 the seventieth percentile is shown in the Fair Health database for that particular service in that geographic area.

Charges above that amount cannot be collected from the plaintiff and are void. It requires standardization, standardized itemization of all lien based medical bills. If a lien based care provider sells their lien to a third party, the maximum amount the third party can recover is the consideration paid by that third party to the lien based provider for the assignment.

Makes it unlawful for an attorney representing a person under a contingency fee agreement to refer the client to a health care provider in which the attorney or a family member of the attorney has a direct ownership interest, makes it unlawful for an attorney to receive a kickback or fee split for referring a client to a lien based provider, or provide bonuses or incentives for referring a client to a lien based provider, prohibits attorneys from charging an additional contingency fee, administrative fee, management fee, or similar fee based on reducing or resolving a client's medical lien.

Additionally, SB 623 makes several reforms to the T and C rideshare industry.

In order to protect passengers and create greater accountability, it requires an initial background check before activating a rideshare driver and annual background checks thereafter, adds additional issues, crimes, like violating a restraining order and child abuse to the list of crimes that disqualifies a potential driver, and expressly allows women drivers to request women passengers only and women passengers to request women drivers only. Kudos to the stakeholders that hashed this out over the last several months.

It it avoids a costly battle, and I think that the compromise, creates a workable a workable alternative that protects Californians and ensures that those who are injured can receive just compensation, and at the same time, it keeps passengers safe. And for that, I ask an aye vote.

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

[Roll Call]

Secretary, please call absent members.

[Roll Call]

Secretary, please call absent members.

Aye. Dali, Jones, Limon. Aye. Menjivar. Aye. Reyes.

Ayes 36, noes zero. The measure passes. Members give us one moment. Members, we are moving back to item one eighty six, SB417. Senator Limon or Secretary, please read.

Senate Bill 417 by Senator Limon, and accurately to housing by providing the funds necessary therefore through an election for the issuance and sale of the bonds of the state of California and for the handling and disposition of those funds and declaring the urgency thereof to take effect immediately.

Senator Limon, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. SB417, the Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2026, is a critical measure to place on the ballot for an $11,250,000,000 housing bond that addresses full spectrum of the needs for housing here in our state. The policy builds on the work of so many to ensure that our most vulnerable keep the roof over their heads, while connecting families and first time homebuyers to the need for home ownership opportunities.

The bond compliments the significant progress the state has made over the last several years in addressing our housing crisis. For the first time in fifteen years, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has reported that unsheltered homelessness dropped about 9% across this state.

But we're not done. We will continue to do more work to ensure that the legislature prioritizes housing funds for special need populations, including people experiencing homelessness, farm workers and their families, public university students, tribal members, young adults, and our veterans. We approach this with not a one and done. Through my time in the legislature, we have voted on a number of bills to streamline housing production in our state. Today, we have in front of us a way to fund some of that.

We know that it's important to tackle this priority for our legislature, for our state year by year. In the last five years, California has made incredible progress by doubling the number of new affordable homes, and this bond helps us keep that momentum going for the foreseeable future. I'm proud today that this body brings forth a measure that will have lasting impacts on creating housing for millions of Californians in this state.

I wanna thank an incredible group of members who have been involved and who have helped get that us here today. From the Bay Area, to West Sacramento, to Los Angeles, from all parts of this state, there have been incredible folks who have helped lift this to the finish line.

I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you, Pro Tem. Senator Grove, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. With the deepest respect to the author and our Pro Tem, I have some huge issues with the way this bond is being presented. The title of this bond is the Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond. This bond total is $11,250,000,000 with a b, with $10,000,000,000 in general obligation bonds, and 1,525,000,000 in revenue bonds for veterans. Why?

Because maybe the people of the state of California wouldn't approve $10,000,000,000 in general obligation bonds, creating additional debt without something in there. So I submit to all of you, this is not a veterans revenue this is not a veterans housing bond. It's a veterans bait bond bond.

I say that because this title of this bond is gonna say that they're supporting veterans housing, where we in the state of California have 19,000 homeless veterans estimated, 3,000 in Los Angeles alone, and those 19,000 unhoused veterans, that's the highest in the entire nation, for any state. But to say you're gonna allow it to be a veterans bond when it uses 10,000,000,000 of those dollars for other than veteran services and leaves those that defended this country on the street is completely not true.

You can't you cannot say that it's a veterans bond and it lose uses just at 11% or 89% of this bond money goes to other sources of of funding for other individuals. We've already spent $24,000,000,000 on, homeless housing in the state of California, and there are other reports contrary to what the Senate pro tem said was that the housing and outside homelessness or unsheltered homeless has increased in this state, and only some point in time counts have gone down.

This, like I said, calling this a veteran's bond is almost offensive throwing crumbs on the table for United States military veterans with, like I said, 89% of this money being approved to create more debt is going to fund more homeless and housing operations that have been rid riddled with fraud, waste, and abuse, and have not actually met the people on the street and provided them housing.

If you take the 182,000 people that are supposed to be unhoused and homeless in the state of California, that 182,000 people with the $24,000,000,000 that has been spent, we could have bought every one of them a brand new home. It's been riddled with, I said, waste, fraud, and abuse, and I'm, I'm offended.

I, I'm gonna support it, because I think that one point, you know, 2,000,000,000 is better than no billion that goes to veterans, but it's a sad thing to say that you have to use the veterans as a bait to get the people of the state of California to approve an $11,000,000,000 bond, and I, I just think that's shameful. Call it what it is. It's a homeless bond, and it does include some veterans benefits, but it is not a veterans bond.

If this is a veterans bond, we would make sure that the 9,000 19,000 US military veterans that had defended this country would be off the street, and we will use those dollars for it.

Senator Adegin, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. I stand in strong support of SB417, and I wanna thank our pro tem, Senator Limon, Speaker Rivas, Assemblyman Wicks, and most specifically, Senator Cabal the Senator from West Sacramento, Senator Cabaldon, for their hard work and leadership in getting this bond to us today. This is historic and transformative, and this is a veterans housing bond. I have deep respect to my colleague, the Senator from Bakersfield, and appreciate her comments and her service to our country.

1,250,000,000 of this bond measure will provide home loan assistance to veterans to purchase homes in California.

I think about the unhoused veterans on the streets in my district in Oakland and Berkeley, who've served our country but who've been left behind and who are struggling to find housing stability and a path forward. And this bond measure will provide an opportunity for people to own homes, who are veterans in California.

I wanna commend, the Senator from Pico Rivera for his leadership as the Chair of the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, in helping advance this effort, which is gonna transform the lives of veterans throughout the state of California. But this is also transformative in that it is funding for the first time several things that are critical in our state. So much of what we've done in California has focused on building new housing and not on preserving existing homes that are at risk of conversion or displacement.

So we can help stabilize communities and keep people stably housed and reduce homelessness. This bond focuses on the three p's, the production, preservation, and protection of Californians. And I want to just lift up $200,000,000 of this bond measure. We'll fund for the first time a program to help acquire and preserve existing naturally occurring affordable housing in the state of California. I wanna thank the Center for Merced for her leadership in advancing this proposal.

Additionally, a $150,000,000 in this bond measure will help provide housing for transition age youth and youth that have aged out of our foster care system and young people who are experiencing homelessness to have stable housing. And I wanna commend, the center for the San Fernando Valley for her leadership in advancing this critical effort as well. So in this bond, we're not only providing funding to create 45,000 shovel ready homes in California, all over the state of California.

These are housing projects that have been approved that need this money to be able to get these projects built and to be able to open the doors to provide housing for people. Money to help transition age youth and foster youth.

Money to help preserve existing housing, money to help address, the needs of our unhoused community by providing permanent supportive housing, funding for homeownership so we can expand homeownership opportunities in California because rental housing is not the only way for us to address housing stability in California. And money for infill infrastructure to help support new, sustainable communities in California, not just building the housing, but providing the connected infrastructure.

And lastly, funding to help support our veterans to make sure that they have homes honoring the service they provide our country. This is historic. This will be transformative for the lives of thousands and thousands of Californians.

I'm honored to support this today and to have worked with the leaders to help move this forward. I respectfully and strongly ask for an aye vote and SB417.

Senator Menjivar, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. Three years ago, I started my effort to, pass a youth housing bond. And it wasn't because at the time I was the youngest Senator closest to the age of all the youth that I was trying to fight for. It was because at the age of 19, I had to look my mom in the eye when the bank came and evicted us out of our home after she worked so hard to, buy that.

At the age of 19, my sister and my mom moved in with my aunt a little ways away from where we lived, and I couch served for over a year, because I was a college student at that time, and it was really hard for me to go move into a one bed you know, into a spare bedroom with my mom and my sister.

The time I thought it was really fun. I was sleeping on different couches as I was hanging out with my friends. These were sleepovers. But it was really difficult to navigate that life while going to college. And one of the main reasons, well one of the reasons I joined the Marine Corps, I was like, well that's stable housing.

And it wasn't until I joined the Marine Corps that I got stable housing since, I became housing unstable. Flash flash forward twenty years later, we across the nation have the highest number of how unhoused youth, and

we should be ashamed of that. Of the number of youth who are unhoused, 60% are unsheltered. So while I would have been considered housing unstable youth, I had a couch to sleep on or my or a bed of my friends to sleep on while going to college. But a lot of youth are sleeping in their cars right now while going to college. They're going to the gyms.

They're going to the, basic centers of the community colleges and colleges to get the needs while trying to be successful, taking showers where they can find it because they, they don't, they don't want that, story to be the reason why they're not successful. And currently right now only 2.9% of the available beds are for youth specifically. And what happens when we don't support them? Well let me tell you what happens.

The older people you're seeing on the streets, the individuals that during the rainy day you're like, why is a grandma, why is a grandpa sleeping under a facade with a blanket and a cart next to them?

Well, it's because fifty percent of them first experienced homelessness when they were under the age of 25, and it turned into chronic homelessness, because we didn't step in in the beginning and stop it before it became more expensive to help them. When now they have diabetes, now they have edema, and their lower extremities are swollen, and it's really hard to care for them.

Enter this housing bill that after three years of fighting for it, we were able with the leadership collaboration with the Senator from West Sacramento, Yolo County, and the Pro Tem, add a $150,000,000 for youth specific housing. Those who are at risk of homelessness, who are unhoused, who were foster kids, and are current foster kids. We're gonna be able to address the situation at the beginning of the problem to prevent them from having chronic homelessness.

That's why I'm so proud to support SB417 to help the individuals that we often forget that are also unhouse. Respectfully asking for an aye vote.

Senator Smallwood Cuevas, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. And I appreciate this discussion. And I wanna thank everyone that was involved in our leadership and our members and in the other house to make this housing bond possible. And I hear my colleagues from the other aisle and their, their concerns about veteran homelessness. I don't agree with their position on this bill, but I do agree about the crisis, and I do agree about the fact that it's compounded.

And I do agree that it's gonna take much more than this housing bond to address the levels of homelessness for our veteran populations, for our working families, for our youth, and certainly for black Angelenos and black Californians. I rise in support of SB417, in particular for black Californians who represent only 7% of the state, but 50% of those who sleep on the streets in my district.

Black Californians represent approximately 26% of the state's total unhoused population, and we also know that they have about 36%, only 3036% of California's home ownership population. The gap represents families who have been denied one of the most powerful tools of building wealth, stability, and opportunity across generations, and that's what we see when we think about the disparities that this community faces, whether it's health disparities, access to quality food disparities, access to open space, access to quality jobs.

It all ends up with what kind of wealth are these families able to create, and we know homeownership is the only real true way for working families to achieve wealth in this country and in this state, and this is why I support SB417.

This bill tackles the state's housing crisis through a comprehensive approach that expands home ownership opportunities for first time home buyers and for working families. It also helps with home repair assistance, which we know many of our seniors need. This is an opportunity for multi generations to benefit from equity and opportunity.

This bond also supports Californians recovering from the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, and we know so many of those stories, those families who are continuing to rebuild, who want to save their neighborhoods, who want to keep, their family's treasure of having an intergenerational wealth tool to pass on to the next generation. SB417 helps ensure that recovery is not just about restoring what's lost, but creating a stronger foundation for the future.

The persistent homeownership gap, we know, is more than a statistic. It reflects longstanding barriers to economic mobility, and it reminds us that expanding access to affordable homeownership must remain a priority in a state. We cannot look at California as we are becoming a people of color majority, as we are seeing our young community step into the most technological age in of advancement, and yet they cannot achieve homeownership. We know that this is a a trend that we must correct.

This bond is a step, an investment in doing that and moving us in the right direction.

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

Senator Strickland, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President, members. I rise in opposition to SB 417. As the son of a crew military soldier, I also have some of the concerns that my colleague from Bakersfield, Kern County has, that this is a veteran bait and bait and switch bond, using veterans to pass your $10,000,000,000 general obligation bond. When the general obligation is 90% of this and only 10% goes to the veterans, It really just says that you're using veterans to pass your $10,000,000,000 general obligation bond.

I would remind everybody here, let's talk about the veterans for a second.

The veterans already have a VA loan program that's out there and available to them to get in their homes. The problem is only 13% of the 20,000,000 people are actually utilizing this benefit. So it would be better for us to actually inform the veterans that they already have a program out there, there, a federal program, to help them get that home.

So instead of this bond that you're using the veterans for, let's use those resources to let them know that there's a there's a bond program out there already, a VA program out there for their home buying that's only being 13% utilized. That's number one.

Number two, when we talk about housing, I do agree with some of my colleagues on the other side. It's very important for our hardworking families to be able to get into that housing. But there's a better way to do it. In fact, there's already an initiative that's qualified, that's going to the ballot today. That is for middle class and hardworking families to get that home that they want and that we push that we want homeownership across the state of California.

The difference is the one that's already qualified for the ballot uses private revenue bonds. So it's a better way of doing it because now we're not creating a structural deficit here in the state of California. When we already know the revenues are not gonna continue, we're gonna have a budget revenues and and budget structural deficit moving forward. We're borrowing more money at a time, by the way, I would say. Record revenues that we had, record revenues.

Then we raised taxes by $14,000,000,000 and now you're borrowing money against the future on this bond. There's a better way to do it, and there's already initiative on the ballot that has private revenue bonds that will do exactly what you guys are trying to do that's already there. But the difference is you want the government to pay for it instead of the private revenue bonds.

For whatever reason, I don't understand why you're moving forward on this bill because there's already a good initiative out there to accomplish your goal. The veterans already have an ability through the VA program that's only being 13% utilized.

So there's really no reason for SB 417 other than to put hardworking families and the California taxpayers more in debt moving forward in perpetuity. And for those reasons, I ask for a no vote on SB 417.

Senator Archuleta, you are recognized.

Gentlemen, if I can have a minute, Jared. Thank you, Mr. President. I rise as the Chair of the Military and veterans committee. And, yes, the Veterans Housing Bond Act. Veterans, lead the way.

Our military lead the way. It is appropriate that the veterans are standing up for the state of California. It's appropriate that CalVet stands up for our veterans here in California. This loan program that's incorporated, it is a great program because it is a 5% down to veterans. They can partner together.

They can go ahead and bring their families in. My colleague from Orange County mentioned VA. As a real estate broker all my life. That is my trade. The VA loan is not as liberal and easygoing as the Calvet program because of the restrictions.

And I've sold the VA and I've sold Calvet. And it's easier for our Calvet program for our veterans to qualify. And even now that we have so many who need housing, they're able to get, as we heard, the secondary market, which means the market of your hometown, where the homes are twenty, thirty, and 40 years old. They can buy in there. They can also buy in condominiums and tracks, and these condominiums and these townhomes are there for them.

But what is important about this bill is the fact that it opens so many doors for the veterans that have already served and those that are overseas right now when they come home. My own son just got completed his military service. He got home last week And he's being we'll be looking into the Calvet program, which allows him 5% down, which allows him in every veteran to have that payment include his insurance, his fire insurance.

God forbid that if that home were to burned down, it would be replaced a 100% by CalVet. So it's important to understand it's reasonable, it's obtainable, and the CalVet program, with so many things that are there, it's great for veterans.

So I'm so honored to say that on behalf of the veterans and everyone I've spoke of, they're supporting Senate Bill 417, and I hope you do the same because it is important. It is history in California to say, welcome home to our veterans. We've got the fourth of July around the corner. We're gonna be waving the flag. Well, let's stand up for our veterans and say, this Senate Bill 417 was the right thing to do for all of us.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, Mr. President.

Thank you. Senator Wiener, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. I rise in strong support of SB 417. I wanna thank, the Senator from West Sacramento and the Pro Tem, Assembly member Wicks, everyone who, made this, possible. It took years, of hard work, and I'm very grateful, for the perseverance. I also wanna put this in the context of the broader housing work, that happens, in the Senate and the Assembly and, in this capital, because this is not just a a random, let's do a bond.

This is part of a broader constellation of housing work to try to help California dig out of the massive hole that the state that we have dug for ourselves as a state where we have a massive shortage of housing at all income levels, including for low income Californians. And over the last decade, we have passed bill after bill after bill around zoning, around permitting, around impact fees, around CEQA, around so many different obstacles to building the housing that we so desperately need.

And that work is incredibly important and is having positive impacts in California as we speak. But the funding has not kept up. And so we right now in California have about 45,000 affordable homes below market rate homes in our state that are fully permitted, that are ready to go, often have, partial funding, but need that additional funding to complete the financing so that they can start construction.

They are ready to go, and this bond will get that going. And some have said, oh, wow. 45,000 homes that are, permitted and aren't getting built, and they look at it as a negative. No. It's not a negative.

We didn't have that problem in the past because the housing wasn't even getting permitted or it wasn't zoned for. And so we didn't have a problem of a backlog in terms of funding needs. It's a good problem to have that the housing is ready to go. A huge amount of it and growing because of the work that we've done in this body. And now it's time to step up and make sure that the funding is there.

This bond is a huge step in that direction. It is really exciting. Again, my gratitude to everyone who got us here, and I ask for an aye vote.

Senator Caballero, you're you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. I rise as a proud co author in support of SB 417. And and I also would like to thank the leadership, and the members who worked so tirelessly on this bond. It has taken years to get us to this point. And it reflects the diverse funding needs that we have in this state in order to address California's housing deficit.

And the reason that we need the resources is what works in the valley is not the same need as the coast. And Northern California has a different need than Southern California. So the bond really reflects the reality that to solve California's housing crisis, a broad portfolio of investments is required from veterans housing to down payment assistant to student housing, infill infrastructure, tribal assistant, farmworker housing, new construction, homeownership opportunities, and money to preserve affordable housing that currently exists in our state.

And I'm I'm especially grateful that the bond includes $200,000,000 to establish the community anti displacement and preservation program created by SB 1091. Too often, we focus on building new housing, which is critically important, and undeniably necessary, but we can't and undeniably necessary, but we can't afford to lose the affordable housing we already have.

In my district, we have a significant significant number of units that are affordable today at risk of being purchased, remodeled, and increased in price, driving families that live in these homes, people, real people who live in these homes, many seniors out of the neighborhood because they can't afford to pay the new higher rents.

And so, today, we have nearly 1,100,000 naturally occurring affordable housing units that provide housing to low and moderate income individuals, and almost half of those homes are at risk of becoming market rate conversions through private acquisitions. Once these affordable housing units are lost, they are incredibly difficult to replace and very expensive.

Preservation of affordable housing is a proven and cost effective tool to prevent displacement, to keep families in their communities, and to create deed restricted affordable housing without having to wait years for those units to be built. And so, this bond becomes critically important in helping all of us to meet the housing needs that we have in our communities, and I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Senator Laird, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Senator from San Francisco beat me to one of my two points, but it was said there was no reason for this bond in the debate. There's over 45,000 reasons for this bond, which is those are the number of units that are ready to go, that are penciled out, that this bond will move to construction. That is a substantial effort in our deal, our desire to create more housing.

The other point I wanted to make is that when this bond came out of the Senate earlier this year, I stood up on the floor and made the point that unless there was money for infrastructure for challenged communities, they could not avail themselves of this bond.

There are disadvantaged communities across the state that do not have the money for water, that do have not have the money for additional sewer capacity, and their units depend on their ability to do that. If they do not have support for that, then this bond would be about support to just wealthy communities. Well, there is a nice amount in this bond to help those disadvantaged communities, and that will unleash housing.

I know there's one in the Salinas Valley where they have a 200 unit facility ready to go. And with the water board restrictions, they can't move on it.

They will have the chance to have a grant from this bond. They will have a chance for multifamily help from this bond, and that is why the people of California are anxiously waiting for us to approve it here on the floor and get it to the voters where they can approve it and how it can be constructed. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Senator Rubio, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Today, I rise strongly in support of SB 417. Every one of us here on this floor recognizes the crisis that we find ourselves in. We hear constantly from families that are struggling, from parents working two to three jobs to make ends meet, from young individuals also sharing with us and wondering if they're ever gonna own a home. But I would say even more importantly from our youth who today are wondering where they're going to sleep.

We hear from seniors who no longer are able to afford the homes, the communities that they helped build for us generations before us. And we also hear from unhoused veterans who know and we recognize they fought so hard for us, and it is unacceptable that they are on the street or struggling to find a warm bed. It is important that we recognize once again that this measure alone is not going to solve the crisis, and I don't think any of us on this floor believes that.

But I do believe that today we're taking an important step towards real solutions. This bond represents real collaboration between the legislature, housing advocates, our local governments, community partners who came together because we all understand the urgency of this moment.

For communities throughout the San Gabriel Valley, my district, it means opportunity. It means affordable housing. It's in the horizon. It helps veterans. It helps support first time buyers.

It builds homes for working families who just simply do not have a chance in today's, not only unaffordability crisis, but just with everything that's coming at them, this represents hope. I want to thank our president pro tem Monique Limon for bringing us all together around this shared goal. Progress doesn't happen all at once. It happens when we continue to move forward in a meaningful direction with collaboration, respect, and understanding of this moment.

While our work is far from over, this is an investment that gives hope to our families who have waited far too long for us to step in and help.

With that, I strongly urge an aye vote. Thank you, Mr. President.

Senator Cabaldon, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. In hundreds of communities across the state, in every single Senate district, right now, there are council members, there are housing advocates, There are nonprofit housing builders, all trying to build a project in their community. For some of them, it's because they realize and recognize the how important housing for their entire community is, for their workforce to keep their schools from closing, from declining enrollment. For some of them, they're just trying to meet their regional housing needs allocation obligations.

For some of them, some of the legislation that my colleague from San Francisco mentioned is is putting is putting a little pressure to build this housing.

And in town after town, small groups of engaged citizens and business leaders and government officials are just trying to figure out how to make housing real. And they have done everything that we asked them to do, everything that their community has asked them to do. They have acquired the land. They've done the rezoning. They figured out the financing package.

They've figured everything else out, and they have 85% of the money that they need to build that that townhome project, that apartment project. All they need is the last bit of of money to get it across the line. When we say 45,000 units, it's because community after community after community from Yucaipa to Dixon, to Encinitas. Everyone is pulling in this direction across the state of California, and we've been a big part of that. But now they're asking us, we need to build it now.

That's what 45,000 units it's not some abstract number. It's 45,000 units ready to go in community after community after community, and they're counting on us to help to make sure, that they can get those final projects and the rooftops built. And you know what? Once those 45,000 units are built, it will clear the pipeline for the next 45,000 units to come forward. This is how we meet the demand and the desperate need for affordable housing in this state.

And if you wanna support communities that are that are grappling with their Reno obligations and else and otherwise, You have to support this. There's no way to do that. You cannot meet your legal obligations in the state on housing without this bond. It's simply impossible. It cannot be done.

Now, we've there's been a lot of debate about this the the, that some of the target populations that are here in this in this bill on this floor. And the only thing that's different about this version of the bill compared to the earlier versions that were on this floor and on the floor of the other body where it achieved broad bipartisan support. The main the main differences are the addition of $1,250,000,000 for veterans housing, the centerpiece of this bond act. And it is not window dressing.

This is the This will be the largest investment of state bond resources for veterans housing in the history of California, and not by a small amount.

Up till now, the largest was $600,000,000 $600,000,000 That's a lot less than $1,250,000,000 And in fact, if you add all the housing bonds for veterans in the history of California, they do not add up. They do not add up to $1,250,000,000 The veterans assistance for the CalVet program is the centerpiece of this legislation and is desperately needed. And with all due respect to my colleague who suggested otherwise, veterans are looking for a hand up and some help here. They're not looking for a marketing campaign.

They're not looking for a brochure.

What they need is help on interest rates and down payment assistance, and that's exactly what this legislation will do. Many of us will be out during the summer and in the fall with our neighbors in our districts volunteering on Habitat for Humanity projects. Habitat for Humanity depends on the $600,000,000 that's in this bond for the CalHomes program.

It is the most important state program that helps to make sure that Habitat for Humanity can engage communities, and their labor partners and others in order to deliver housing for those that need it in their community. This is what this is all about.

And so I am very proud of the, the immense work that's occurred in both in this body and in the other house to bring this forward.

It is both tackling some of the most, some the specific challenges that farm workers and veterans and youth and and college students enter their space, while also keeping our eye on the big prize, which is devoting the majority of these funds in order to assure that we get those 45,000 units in the state that hundreds and hundreds of communities all across California just need in order to make those rooftops available for the for for their residents who need them the most.

Thank you so much to the president Pro Tem for her leadership on this issue, and I urge an aye vote.

Senator Seyarto, you are recognized.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. And, colleagues, I rise today because I am opposed to this approach, to doing all of the things that every single one of us agree on. All of those line items in this budget or or in this, in this bond measure is something that is important to all of us. We all recognize the need to do some of these programs and some of the building that is enclosed in this bill bond. Bonds are for building infrastructure.

Bonds are for building buildings that are gonna be there for thirty years. They are not for programs that are gonna go for four or five years only to find that at the end, you're holding the bag on the interest payments for those bonds, and now you need another bond to pay for or to continue those programs going forward. We could have solved this problem last week. We approved a budget last week of $250,000,000,000 for our general fund.

That's that's $25,000,000,000 more than we had last year, and then we found that we even had 5,000,000,000 more than we thought we were gonna have on top of the 25.

Now granted, half that goes to prop 98, but that still leaves us with about $15,000,000,000 that we could have we could have done every single one of these things last week. Got the money in the pipeline and started fixing all these problems. But we chose not to. We chose to fund a bunch of other stuff that I think every single one of you needs to go through and look at those line items. Look at what we were paying for.

Because you know what? Those things, a lot of those things aren't as important as what we're saying is of utmost importance today. Revenue bond versus Geo Bond. We could put a revenue bond. I think we might even agree if we knew that what we said we are going to build for those veterans was actually gonna get built.

I've seen some great veterans communities, veterans homes that have been built out there. And I ask myself over and over, we could build 10 of those for a billion dollars. Why don't we? Instead, we take the $1,200,000,000 revenue bond, stick it on this so that people will can say, hey. If you're not voting for this, you don't you you must not like the veterans.

What a bunch of BS. We do like the veterans. What I don't like to do is use $10,000,000,000 pay $435,000,000 in interest for the next thirty years on that, which comes right out of our our our, our general fund revenue, and get 5 mil $5,000,000,000 worth of things. Because if anybody can name the whole $6,380,000,000 of bond money that we paid or that we generated from February bond, Let me know what we got for that. Folks, we are not efficient.

We don't build things efficiently. We've added costs to building. And now instead of paying for things upfront and doing it the smart way, we take all of our money, including the 25,000,000,000 that we didn't even think we were gonna have this year. We spend it on other stuff and then we borrow for the stuff that we desperately need. I agree with all of you.

All of these things that you have been talking about today, we've been hand wringing about, and oh my god, the poor veteran. Absolutely, we agree with you. We need to do something. And you know what? We could have done it.

That's your choice. So, yeah, my choice is I'm not voting for this. I vote to spend $10,000,000,000 and get rid of some of the stuff that we voted for earlier in this budget and spend it right now on all these things so that every single person can benefit from that. They don't have to wait they don't have to wait till November. We could start spending that right in two weeks.

So November comes, everybody's got their fingers crossed that the that the, temperature of the public out there is gonna say, yeah, we're all for spending another $10,000,000,000. And adding that $10,000,000,000 to the $70,000,000,000 we already owe And by the way, that's we have 40,000,000,000 more in obligation or that are open so that we can borrow 40,000,000,000 more. We have almost a $130,000,000,000 of bonded indebtedness that before we pay for anything, we gotta pay the $7,000,000,000 for principal and interest on those bonds.

Just the outstanding ones right now. So folks, these are choices.

Don't act like they're not. These are choices. What you're choosing to do is borrow money, pay twice as much for whatever it is that we're going to borrow money for. We'll get half the benefit. We know it.

We've been doing this a long time. We're not gonna get what we want out of this bond. We're gonna find ways to water it down. In ten years, nobody's gonna know that we passed this bond.

All they're gonna be doing is holding the bag on a $450,000,000 a year payment, and we're gonna be gun we're gonna be asking them for another bond saying exactly the same things that we said tonight today, the same thing that we said three years ago, and the same thing that we said twenty years ago.

Folks, this cycle needs to stop. We need to be more responsive. Well, we talked about this earlier. We need to be more responsible how we manage the money of our taxpayers because guess what? We're not managing it right.

So with that, I would simply ask that you take that into consideration. Yes. You can go I know where this is going, but I cannot join you in that. And it's not because I don't care. That's absurd.

It's because I know there's a better way for us to do this. We just won't do it. I ask for your no vote.

Senator Valladares, you are you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Members, I rise because I can't support this bill. And there are things I like in this bond. There are things I really dislike in this bond. But my biggest concern here is its labeling.

It's labeling that is dishonest and deceptive from my opinion. We have conversations all the time, we pass policy all the time about truth in labeling. In California, to be a California wine, you have to be 70%, have 70% of your grapes grown from California. Olive oil, the same thing. Yet this bond is labeled as a veterans bond when less than 10% of its revenue is going to actual veterans.

For me, there is not truth in this labeling. And in the words of Alanis Morissette, isn't it ironic? Don't you think? I won't bust out into song here, but this is not, this is deceptive and I will not support this on the backs of our veterans when a significant portion of it is not going to our veterans. I urge a no vote.

Seeing all discussion and debate has ceased, Senator Pro Tem Limon, you are able to close.

Thank you, members. I appreciate the discussion and the intensity of the conversation. It's reflective of what a priority this is for us as a house. I also wanna say something and I say this with the utmost respect. When it comes to irony, the irony is also that under the last Republican governor, we issued $90,000,000,000 in bonds, in today's dollars.

It is also true that our bond ratio is the lowest it has been since those times. So we understand no matter what side of the aisle we are on, that we have had to make these investments for our community, and that our community has welcomed the opportunity to ensure that the priorities of Californians are at the forefront. We don't take bonds lightly. We're gonna be talking about the importance of the and there's been a lot of talk about the multiple communities that benefit, including our veterans.

And one fact that also holds true is that you look at this bond and you look at the fact that it is going to help different communities, our veteran community has the largest chunk.

That is also a fact because we understand how important it is for Californians to see housing for everyone. Californians have asked for that. They want housing for everyone, and you are right. This pot shares it and distributes to a whole number of folks all in need. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Secretary, please call roll.

[Roll Call]

Secretary, please call absent members.

[Roll Call]

Ayes 29, noes 2. Assembly amendments are concurred in. Members, we are moving to consideration of the daily file, Senate third reading file in particular, item number 80, SCR 189. From the Majority Leader's desk, Senator Rubio, you are recognized. Secretary, please read.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 189 by Senator Rubio, relative to I Love SGV Day.

Senator Rubio, you are now recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, I rise proudly to present SCR 189, which designates June 26, 2026 as I Heart SGV Day in California, and it celebrates the rich history, culture, and enduring legacy of our beautiful San Gabriel Valley. The San Gabriel Valley is one of California's most vibrant and diverse regions.

Encompassing 31 cities and unincorporated communities across more than 374 square miles. It spans three Senators and six Assembly Members. For generations, the San Gabriel Valley has played a vital role in shaping California's story, contributing to our state's economic growth, educational excellence, cultural vitality, and the spirit of innovation.

The region is home to an extraordinary diverse city of cultures, languages, and traditions, making it a powerful example of the strength that comes from California's multicultural communities. The San Gabriel Valley is also defined by a strong commitment to community service, civic engagement, and regional collaboration, bringing together residents, businesses, schools, nonprofit organizations, and local governments in pursuit of our shared goals.

Through the SGV, I Heart SGV Day campaign, residents throughout the region have embraced a shared sense of pride and identity and celebrating the people, places, institutions, and traditions that make the San Gabriel Valley unique. The I Heart SGV campaign, recognizing this resolution falls on June 26, represented numerically as 626, which reflects the iconic 626 area code that has become synonymous with the San Gabriel Valley and serves as a source of pride for all of us in that region.

In addition, the San Gabriel Valley COG, the Council of Government, which was established in 1994, serves as the largest and most diverse sub regional council of governments in Los Angeles County. It represents that collaboration and working spirit that is represented in everyone that lives in the SGV. I wanna take a moment to thank the COG for our incredible partnership.

Earlier today, we were talking about housing, and we just hit a milestone in the San Gabriel Valley. Together with our regional housing trust, we just built 1,038 affordable housing units, which I'm very proud of, and 130 interim housing units that help homeless individuals get back on their feet. So again, I'm so proud to collaborate and be part of the tapestry of this wonderful community. SCR 189 recognizes that type of partnership and its contributions to California's economy. I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Senator Perez, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm proud to rise in support of SCR 189 by the good Senator from the City of Baldwin Park. I love the San Gabriel Valley. I'm very proud to be born and raised from the SGV. The SGV expands an entire region between the City of Los Angeles and San Bernardino County.

This is an area where you have Trader Joe's, which so many of you in this chamber know and love, was founded. The first Trader Joe's in the United States opened up right in the San Gabriel Valley. We have so many other businesses that really started and were founded in the SGV. We are a food community, one that has a very diverse food culture. We have one of the first Asian ethno-burbs to ever exist in the United States in the City of Monterey Park.

We offer some of the best Asian cuisine, I would argue, in the state of California and just continue to host a diversity of communities in the region. It is part of what makes us so proud and part of what brings our identity together is that we have such a strong, diverse cultural background, that we have so many different and diverse immigrant communities that are represented within the SGV, and it is part of what makes our region so great and so fabulous. We really are the gem of the Los Angeles County region. I urge an aye vote.

Senator Archuleta, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. President. I rise as a Member of the, the Valley, San Gabriel Valley. I live there. My kids been grown up there, and what a great, great area of California. We have everything, but the economy that comes from the San Gabriel Valley is amazing. Right now, on the drawing board, I can think of 1,100 houses ready to be built right off the bat. 1,100 ready to go when we're talking about the ban, the bond rather. 1,100 houses. We've got freeways, we've got mountains, we've got recreation. The San Gabriel Valley is a beautiful place in California.

We urge you all to stop and visit when you come to Southern California. It's not just Disneyland. But I tell you what, it is a place where economy grows, jobs, you name it, we've got it. And I'm so proud to be a Member of the San Gabriel Valley. We just love it. So it is a great day to say, I love the San Gabriel Valley. Thank you. And I urgently support and ask for your vote on SCR 189.

Seeing no further discussion, Senator Rubio, would you like to close?

Yes. I wanna thank my colleagues for their words, for adding to to why we're so proud of our community. But I wanna say, as I traveled all over the world, you cannot go anywhere without knowing Sriracha that comes from our district. You can't go anywhere in California and see those long lines when they're going to get their In N Out burger. That's in our district.

We have In N Out University. We have In N Out Museum. So this is a type of iconic places that we have in our community. And I'm wearing the I Love SGV pin. That is our campaign. And as Chair of the San Gabriel Valley Caucus, I'm just so honored to be part of such a vibrant community and group of people. With that, I ask for an aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you so very much. Members, this item is eligible for unanimous roll call without an objection. Hearing and seeing no objection. Ayes 36, noes zero. Resolution passes, and we are going to return to privileges of the floor.

Senator Rubio from the majority leader's desk, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. I would like to invite two extraordinary people in our San Giro Valley community. First, Ed Reese, San Giro Valley Council of Government president, and Claremont's vice mayor. I also would like to invite Ricky Choi onto the floor. He is the San Gabriel Valley Council of Government's director of government and community relations.

Both have been extraordinary leaders. They are part of why we just hit 1,038 affordable housing units, and this campaign is only going to highlight how incredible our community is. Please help me welcome our guests to the floor. Thank you, Mister president.

And if anyone would like to join in the back for pictures, this is the time to do it. Senators, we are going to break for lunch for thirty minutes. Please stay in the building and return promptly. I do want to recognize the majority leader, Senator Ashby. You are recognized when you're ready.

Yes. What's that one?

Yes. Thank you, Mister president. We will be caucusing. The Democratic caucus will be in Room 205, and the Republican caucus will be in Room 215. We will caucus for at least thirty minutes.

Thank you.

The Senate is in recess.

Members, the session the Senate is back in session, and we are going to go back to motions, resolutions, and notices to recognize any members. We do have one mic raised. Alright. Senator Ochoa Bogh, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, at the request of the author, please remove file item A13 AB 112 from the inactive file.

The desk will note.

Thank you.

Go ahead, continue on, system.

At the request of the author, please place file item 176 AB 1273 on the inactive file, sir.

Thank you, Senator. The desk will note, seeing no other microphones raised. Members, we are gonna move on move on to consideration of the daily file, the second reading file. Secretary, please read.

Assembly bill 25951542205815371646.

The second reading file will be deemed read. We are moving to the governor's appointments. We have items 56, 57, 58, and 59. Members, we will go to item 56 for governor's appointments. Senator Grove, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president. Colleagues file item number 56 is a confirmation of doctor Lucina Profassa. Profassa. Profassa. Luciana Profassa.

You should have done this one. For reappointment to California Commission on Disability Access, she previously served as the chief deputy director for the Department of Rehabilitation, and she first joined the commission in 2023. She was approved on the rules at the rules committee on a five vote vote. Respectfully asked for an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator. Seeing no mics raised for discussion or debate, secretary, please call roll.

[Roll call]

Ayes, 36. Noes zero. The appointment is confirmed. Moving to item 57. Senator Grove, you are recognized.

Thank you. Mister president, file item 57 is the confirmation of, Sarah Ann Shapiro for reporting to the California Commission on Disability Access. She is the counsel and former firm of Spencer Fane, and her legal practice focuses on commercial real estate. She serves the commission's position of representative of California Business Properties Association and was appointed in 2023. Approved by the rules committee on a five vote, respectfully respectfully yes for an aye vote.

Thank you, Senator. Seeing no mics raised for discussion or debate, secretary, please call roll.

[Roll call]

Ayes 36. Noes zero. The appointment is confirmed. Moving to item 58.

Senator Grove, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mister president, colleagues, file item number 58 is a confirmation of Robin Umberg v Robin Umberg, for appointment to the California Veterans Board. Brigadier General Umberg served in the United States Army from 1973 to 2010 and first joined the board in 2018. Her distinguished career includes serving as undersecretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs.