Assembly Standing Committee on Appropriations

Good morning. Welcome to the 07/01/2026 Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing. We're gonna start as a subcommittee because we have Senator Laird here, who had such a wild night last night in Senate Judiciary Committee, partying in all all hours of the night in Senate Judiciary Committee. We have 33 bills to consider this morning as part of our regular order hearing. SB 868, Mister Weiner, will not be heard in today's hearing.

We encourage the public to provide written testimony, a p r Dot Assembly.c a.gov. Please note that any written testimony submitted to the committee is considered public comment. The room is open for attendance. We expect everyone to behave. And with that, we will start as a subcommittee.

Do I need to read anything else? Or is that good? Okay. Let's roll then. Senator Laird, you're presenting SB 1055.

You can begin when you're ready.

Thank you very much, madam Chair. And we went thirteen and a half hours to introduce you.

Not a record, but

But still

Doozy.

Warm and fuzzy. So and I think next time, they will begin with the z's and go to the a's, so you will not be there eight times before you are taken up.

Can I tell you a fun fact? The reason why they do that every other year, Senator Umbert does that every other year is because I requested this a couple years ago because I felt like it was so inequitable, the w's. And Rick Sabur was with me

Just gonna say he should thank

on this.

you. Aligned. Yes. Exactly. So next year, we're good.

So I think his bill came up at 10:30 or something like that, these two bills. But in any event, I have just spent more time talking about that than I might about this bill. And for those of you that

are uninitiated, the Pajaro River, which runs between Santa Cruz and Monterey and is

in my district and the Speaker's District, had flood protection of three to five years. And so I did a bill that allowed the state to buy out the local share. The locals funded it. In October 2022, we had a celebration with Alex Padilla and Jimmy Panetta and Zoe Lofgren and Robert Rivas and myself on the levee, and then it broke, in the atmospheric rivers a few months later, and over 3,000 people were evacuated.

And now a new district has formed to manage the levee on both sides and to construct the project.

And what this bill does is authorize the usage of four additional construction procurement methods allowing the agency that's constructing this project to deliver levy repairs and flood control improvements more efficiently. It'll be a cost saving measure to the state as these procurement methods have shown to reduce project costs, expedite completion, ensure better quality control. And with me today for technical assistance is Jack Guelco on behalf of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency. And at the appropriate time, I would respectfully ask for an IBA.

Thank you very much, Senator Laird. Are there any other folks in the room that wish to express support?

Mikayla Bird with The Nature Conservancy in support.

Thank you. Any primary witnesses in opposition? Any additional witnesses in opposition? Okay. Well, we'll bring it back to committee.

Any questions? We have no questions, and we don't have a quorum yet, do we? No. When we get a quorum, I believe there will probably be a motion. In the meantime, would you like to close?

I would just say that yesterday at 09:30 in the Judiciary Committee, I predicted we would get a quorum at 04:00, and we got it at 03:51. And then I suggested this would be an element for predictive betting, and it freaked out the Chair. So with that, I would respectfully request an iPhone.

I believe we will have a quorum before 04:00 today. So, thank you very much. And if you are senators Allen or senators Becker, please feel free to join committee. And to my other colleagues on the committee, we need a couple more folks to form quorum, and then we can move on with the suspense calendar and the consent calendar. So please come to the appropriations committee in the Assembly if you are any of those people.

Or if you know those people, please recruit them. Thank you. Oh, I think we have quorum. Let's take role, madam secretary.

Wicks?

Here.

Wicks president. Hoover?

Here.

Hoover president. Arambula? Arambula present. Calderon? Colosa?

Dixon? Here. Dixon present. Fong?

Here.

Fong present. Mark Gonzales? Here. Mark Gonzales present. Krell?

Here. Krell present. Pacheco? Here. Pacheco present.

Pellerin? Sharp Collins? Salace? Ta? Ta present?

Tongapaw.

We have a quorum. With that, I would like to dispense with the consent calendar. We'll take the bills up on two motions. The first motion is do passed to consent, applies to bills that enjoy unanimous support in this committee and are eligible for the Assembly floor consent calendar consistent with Assembly rules. Do we have a motion on this?

We have

a motion in second. Madam secretary?

Consent calendar. These are all s b's. 55783291695911331443.

Those are out on an a roll call. The second motion do pass applies to bills that also enjoy unanimous support in this committee but are not eligible for the Assembly floor consent calendar consistent with Assembly rules. Do we have a motion on this? We have a motion and a second. Madam secretary?

Okay.

Consent part two, these are all s b's. 974, 1151, 1165, 1169, 1223.

Those are also out on a roll call. I would now like to dis dispense with the suspense calendar. Madam secretary, would you please read the suspense calendar?

These are all SBs. 6676,7586,7909,9299,45102,11023,1030,1040 6062, 1077, 1149,1185,1309,1349.

The suspense calendar is deemed approved. Let's now, if you if anyone knows where Senator Becker or Senator Allens are Allen are, please send them here. We are waiting on them. And with that, I also wanna open up the committee hearing room to members of the public on any bill not presented in committee today. Please be sure to limit your, comment to name, organization, if any, and position on the bill.

Anyone wanna opine on any of the bills not presented today? Wow. No public comment. Oh, wait. There we go.

We have some public comment. We usually do this at the end, which is a little confusing, but we're waiting on authors. So

Good morning. My name is Peggy Price, Imperial County Board of Supervisors, District three. I'm here. We respect Senator so I just get started. Is that what I do?

Okay. Yeah. We respect Senator Padilla's work. This is on SB 675. We respect Senator Padilla's work and are here to oppose the bill unless substantially amended.

First, we respectfully request adding one additional board of supervisor to the proposed 10 member board. Air quality decisions are closely connected to land use agriculture, public health in rural, unincorporated areas of Imperial County. A second county representative preserves meaningful county participation while maintaining the broader representation broader representation envisioned by the bill. Second, we ask for a two year implementation window, which was what was originally proposed for a more orderly transition and in preparing for uninterrupted public service.

We also respectfully request language that keeps the air pollution control district within the county's administration and personnel system.

As this legislation moves forward, district employees deserve the certainty that their employment, retirement, and benefits will remain protected so they can continue focusing on serving the public. Finally, we respectfully request dedicated state implementation funding and a formal fiscal analysis before these mandates take effect. Your committee's own analysis recognizes this bill as a reimbursable state mandated local program and identifies the significant costs required to implement these new responsibilities.

Providing dedicated funding will allow us to carry out this legislature's vision without shifting the financial burden onto our local governments and taxpayers. We believe these are practical amendments that strengthen the bill, protect local taxpayers, and help help ensure its long term success.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Any other folks? And normally, we just do name, organization, and position, but we're waiting on author, so we wanted to give you the floor. So.

Hi. Good morning. My name is Belen Leon-Lopez. I serve as air pollution control officer to the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District. The district supports the goals of SB 675 to expand representation and increase transparency. My concern is ensuring that those goals can be implemented responsibly.

Your comments for fiscal analysis recognizes that SB 675 creates a reimbursable state mandate and identifies substantial implementation costs. It notes approximately 1.5 million in one time information technology cost, 4.5 million in ongoing annual staffing administrative cost, and approximately $410,000 annually to expand for air monitoring significantly facility cost expense associated with supporting the new government board, complaint system, upgrades, public reporting systems, and other new responsibilities.

The analysis also recognizes that if these mandates are determined to be reimbursable, those costs could be ultimately become part of the state general fund. These are significant fiscal questions that warrant additional time and discussion before the implementation. We respectfully request a comprehensive fiscal analysis, dedicated state implementation funding, and realistic implementation for the legislature fully understands the fiscal impacts before the mandates take effect.

I also respectfully ask that the bill preserve the air pollution control districts and the county administrative and personnel system. We respectfully ask for the committee to allow additional time to address these fiscal and implementation issues so SB 675 can achieve its intended goals successfully. I truly appreciate the time. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else, just name, organization, position? Okay. We have Senator Becker here. We're so excited. You're coming to our committee. You are up. SB 1000.

I'm excited to be here. Thank you, Chair and members. In 2023, we passed the California AI Transparency Act, which first law in the country requiring AI content to be labeled with disclosures from where it came from. Last year, the Chair of this Committee built on that work and passed AB 853, which allows us to determine where non synthetic content comes from and make that information easily available to consumers.

And since then, AI and the technology used to embed and detect these disclosures has evolved rapidly and requires changes to be made to the act in order for it to accomplish its goals.

The language of print today has been drafted in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders across industries, civil society, and international authorities, including those in the EU who recently published the code of practice for Article 50 of the EU AI Act. S u 1,000 brings the act into harmony with international regulations around content provenance and pushes the industry to standardize methods of content disclosure that are readable by large online platforms.

Specifically, this bill removes the user threshold for covered systems, adds more protections for users' personal information, and implements common sense guardrails for third party licenses. These changes will make sure the actual requirements will work for consumers and developers alike and will serve as a bedrock for future governance in this space so Californians know where the content they see comes from. I have technical for any technical questions, Kim Wong from Sided is in the audience here today with me.

Thank you, Mister Becker. Any witnesses in support? Name, organization, and position?

Good morning, madam Chair and members. John Doherty on behalf of Adobe and Google. I wanna thank both the Chair, the members, the committee staff for their hard work, and the author on this sensible solution. We're trying to hit this August 3 deadline, so appreciate it.

Thank you. Any witnesses in opposition? We will bring it back to committee. Any questions? We have a motion and seconds.

Would you like to close?

I respectfully ask for nigh vote.

Great. That's out on a roll call with Mister Taw not voting. Thank you, Mister Becker. And miss Krell is gonna present for Mister Allen, SB 1229. And miss Closes joining us.

Thank you. And miss Krell, you can begin when you're ready. And I know you know this subject matter very well and this bill backwards and forwards, so please feel free to begin when you're ready.

Good morning, Madam Chair and Assembly Members. I'm pleased to present SB 1229 on behalf of Senator Allen this morning. This bill establishes limitations on an existing Coastal Act exemption for rebuilding after a disaster. This is an important bill that retains the streamlined approach for victims who need to rebuild after a disaster, but ensures that developers don't take advantage of this. And by doing that, would deprive the public of access to our coastline and our beaches.

SB 1229 reflects a thoughtful and targeted approach, one that keeps the door open for disaster victims to rebuild their homes without delay, but closes it to speculative developers seeking to profit at the coast's expense. Protecting public access and coastal resources sits at the heart of this work, and I'm proud to present this bill today.

Thank you. Any witnesses in support?

Good morning. Michaela Byrd on behalf of The Nature Conservancy in support.

Thank you. Any witnesses in opposition? Okay. We'll bring it back to committee. Any questions? No. We were gonna ask you some really technical questions, but great. Do we have a motion? We have a motion and a second. Would you like to close?

Respectfully ask your aye vote on behalf of Senator Allen.

Thank you. And we'll we're we need to wait for a little bit couple more folks to get here. But as soon as we get a couple more of our colleagues, we will be able to take up some motions on these other bills. Okay. Mister Solace is joining us.

So let's go back through here on a, SB 1229 Allen.

Did he have a motion? No. We need

a motion on that. Mister Fong's. We do have a motion on that. Okay. And we do have a second on that.

That is out on a b roll call. And SB 1055, Mister Laird, we do need a motion on that. We have a motion and a second, and that is out with Republicans not voting with miss, Dixon and Mister Tangapah voting no. We are adjourned.