press. Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors personnel administration and legislation committee for April 21st, 2025. Roll call please. Supervisor Fortinato Bass. Supervisor Tam. Present. I have one brief announcement. However, the answer, Halbert, has asked that SB 607 be pulled from today's agenda. So it will not be considered today. May I have the federal legislation update, please? Sure. Good afternoon. You've got Emily Backe, Silva and John Aseanie here with C.J. Lake. Things are kind of quiet, I want to say, in Washington. John was with you guys last week, but the House and Senate were in recess last week and again this week. They're scheduled to return to Washington next Monday, April 28th, and that's when it'll really pick up again. As far as FY26 appropriations, I know we've been talking about it. The House Appropriations Committee finally released initial deadlines and guidance earlier this month, but the Senate has yet to issue its own timeline. Again, that just shows you how far behind we are. We are expecting the Trump Admin to release its skinny budget in the coming weeks, followed by the full budget submission in May. You know, there are some personal offices that are moving forward with requests asking for submissions, but I think many staff remain focused on budget reconciliation, which will in turn kind of reshape federal spending priority significantly ahead of the appropriations process. We've gotten kind of some direction on reconciliation in terms of timing of committees starting to mark up. And so I'll. We've gotten kind of some direction on reconciliation in terms of timing of committees starting to mark up. And so I'll turn over to John who can update you on what we're hearing from the committees. Thanks Emily. So momentum is certainly building around the FY 26 budget reconciliation package with the House and Senate Republicans trying to work as quickly as they can to meet a tight internal deadline before Memorial Day. So the end of next month following the agreements on a budget resolution two weeks ago congressional committees have been instructed to begin drafting proposals to meet their respective savings targets. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is chaired by Brett Guthrie of Kentucky is preparing for a markup for his committee on May 7th. As we've discussed in previous calls, E&C is the committee that has been tasked with identifying $800 and $80 billion in savings and course, the Medicaid program is at the epicenter of those discussions, while other potential offsets are under consideration, including a spectrum auction, electric vehicle mandate, rollbacks, and PBM reform, though many including congressional Democrats believe that they'll know where be near that $180 billion by those areas outside of Medicaid. So the Medicaid program is going to be squarely in the crosshairs of congressional Republicans, particularly in the NC. Some Republicans have already begun voicing concerns to house leadership against, cuts to the program. There was a letter that was circulated last week with 21 Republican members of the House sent to leadership advocating for the protection of the Medicaid program. Similarly, the Ways and Means Committee is facing a slower but an equal significant shift with responsibility for assembling much of the tax title of the reconciliation bill. The committee is not expected to hold its markup until later in May and they have the lion share of the bill's responsibility, of course, falls within the tax code rather than the individual funding programs. though behind the scenes, members are reviewing a host of, host revenue razors, including changes to tax credits and additional new offsets. House leadership is still aiming to move the package through the committee markups quickly upon return from recess, authorizing committees such as Homeland Security and Armed Services in Judiciary, are slated to mark up their sections of the bill on April 29th and April 30th. Financial Services is I and April 30th mark up and Energy and Commerce and Agriculture will be the following leak on May 5th. I'll also note that they're looking at significant cuts to the SNAP program and to the TANF program within Energy and Commerce and Agriculture respectively. This is all to say that the House is deliberately moving first. Their targets within the budget resolution are significantly different from that of the Senate. You'll remember that there's a $2 trillion target that was in the budget resolution in the House resolution versus a $4 billion savings target in the Senate proposal. So the idea is, and I think this is kind of felt on both sides of the Capitol Hill, that the House will go first, they'll have these somewhat outrageous spending reductions targets, and then the Senate will most likely ignore or not really take seriously those spending targets, come with its own bill and then jam the house. In conversations that I have had in the Senate Republicans and many Senate Democrats to be honest, the belief that this $880 billion target with Medicaid is just sort of a non-starter. Obviously, the House and the Senate have very different politics, different situancies, but there are a significant number of Senate Republicans that do not feel comfortable with this $880 billion reduction to the Medicaid program and knows that it's gonna have significant impact on Republican states. I'll just use an example for Missouri that has a nearly 30% of its state budget is just Medicaid funding. So the politics are sort of very interesting, but the notion that the Senate is going to accept whatever the House is going to draft is just kind of unrealistic. In addition to sort of the ongoing conversation going on regarding reconciliation, the White House is also expected to transmit a formal rescisions package to Capitol Hill this week, totaling about $9.3 billion in proposed spending cuts to programs that were previously funded by Congress. The majority, which is about eight billion dollars, will be focused on foreign aid with additional reductions in targeting the State Department, National Public Radio, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting or PBS. As we all know, they've long been targets of House and Senate Republicans. The White House officials have brief Republican aides in boat chambers ahead of the submission with House Republican leaders are tentatively planning for a floorboat on the package during the week of May 5th, framing the move as part of a broader push for reducing federal spending. So I'll just end there and then happy to answer any questions that you all might have regarding next week's schedule. Thank you for that update questions from Surveys here. Okay. It sounds like we are in a holding pattern so we have some slightly good news with respect to the Republican somewhat breaking ranks in terms of the importance of Medicaid funding. But we will stay tuned for a more substantive discussion next time. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? I have no speakers on this item. Okay. Thank you. Let's go to the state legislation update. Hi, good afternoon. Amy Costa with Fullman Strategies. Similar to our federal compatriots. It was a relatively quiet week this past week in California with the legislature out on spring break. They returned today and it will be quite busy over the next two weeks as they barrel towards their policy committee deadline where we did see some action last week was actually on the litigation front. As you were called directly after the election we were faced with the wildfires in Los Angeles and the governor took a rather muted tone to some of the announcements that were coming out of DC. However, last week, the governor along with A.G. Bonta announced via a live stream that they are suing the federal government specifically over the president's use of emergency powers to enact tariffs. They claim in their lawsuit that the president's use of the international economic emergency powers Act is unlawful. On Thursday, the governor also via social media noted that he plans to sue the Trump administration on another matter over reports that doge will cut funding for AmeriCorps. So no details on that one, but certainly interesting that they're getting more active in litigation. Both of these are on the heels of what we reported last week, which was that they responded to a recent presidential executive order specifically on the state's cap and trade program, which the governor was born joined by both legislative leaders unequivocally saying that they plan to extend the state's cap and trade program and that the proposal will be out in the next couple of weeks, with most of us assuming that it may be released as part of the governor's May revise, which is do no later than May 14th. This is of course on the first lawsuit that we saw that the governor did not participate in any of the press around, but the Attorney General co-led a coalition of 23 states in the District of Columbia and filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the termination of around $11 billion in public health funding. So we're clearly seeing that the litigation space is beginning to heat up and that the governor is taking a more active approach, so more to come on that front. Additionally, as we reported last week, the governor had until April 17 to call a special election for Assembly District 63. A vacancy was created when Assemblymember Bill Asaley resigned to take a position with the Trump administration as the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. The governor's proclamation slated the special election primary to be held on June 24th. And no majority is reached. There will be a runoff on August 26th. With that, we're happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much. Surprise or for to not advance? No particular questions today, just glad that we do have leadership that is trying to push back on some of what is happening for the updates. Thank you. I agree. It sounds like the governor is hearing directly from all of us and we are happy that he's pushing forward in making sure that the protections are in place, particularly when it comes to some of the programs that we are dealing with the county with health and human services. So you said the May revise is scheduled for May 14th? Yes, no later than the 14th. Sometimes they'll release it a couple of days early, depending on the time of the week that it falls on. Okay. Well, we have enough information from the federal budget process by then, you think? Likely, we will not. I think policymakers at the state level and locally have to put together budgets in the space of tremendous uncertainty. There are certain tools the state can utilize. And of course, ultimately, the budget bill is a bill and it can be be amended. Yeah, it is frequently. So it could even be, you know, there's a number of scenarios, but if there were major changes in the federal budget, they could either revisit the bill if they were in session or the governor could call a special session. Okay. We will likely have to do the same thing with our budget process as well. Are there any public comments on the state legislation update? I have no speakers on this side. Okay, we have a request from a supervisor Miley to oppose AB 470. It's the telephone corporations carriers of last resort, basically the ending of land lines, particularly in those most vulnerable communities, like the senior communities. I have requested support Senator Errigin's SB 304 to expand and modernize some of the Port of Oakland's public trust land. requests to support Senator Ergene's SB 304 to expand and modernize some of the port of Oakland's public trust land uses. And we have a request to support a state budget request for continued funding for the Alameda County Dipper Bank program from our social services agency. Do we have concurrence on those positions? We do, and so that will move forward with the recommendations as it stands to the full board. Are there any comments or public discussion on this item? Yes. Chair Tam, I did notice that the agenda for tomorrow's meeting that was printed Thursday or Friday didn't have last week's recommendations. Is there a supplemental that was put forward. timeline. Yeah. I appreciate that. Senator Argonne's office has asked for a letter by April 11th. I said that's not how our process can work that fast, but I appreciate. I appreciate that option. I am just following Supervisor Carson's encouragement that Supervisors that are being requested to take positions on bill on behalf of the county should at least have it vetted through the PAL committee. And I'm trying to respect that request. And I think it's more, I think powerful coming from the entire board rather than just one board member. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Any public comment on items that are not on today's agenda? I have no speakers for public comment. Thank you for those that are online. Would you please identify yourselves? Good afternoon. Valerie Arcan from Supervisor Miley's office. This is Abik Udoga with the Alameda County Treasure Tax Collector's Office. Good afternoon, Jessica Blakemore, Alameda County Health. Thank you all for your participation. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.