you you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Recording and progress. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Sufizer, personnel administration and legislation committee for March 31st. May I have a roll call please? Supervisor Tam. President. Supervisor for Nudder Bass. We have a quorum. Thank you. Let's move to the first item. The federal legislation update. It's been very busy, I hear. Yes, thank you, Bob. Thank you, supervisor Tam. So both chambers are in session this week. They will be in Washington until April 11th, where they recess for two weeks for the spring recess. The big thing on everyone's mind this week and into next week is the budget reconciliation bill and the budget resolution that has to come before it. Senate may vote on a revised budget resolution as soon as this week as House and Senate Republicans are getting closer to moving on President Trump's expansive legislative agenda. The budget resolution will be contingent on a ruling made by Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth Dunne, regarding Republicans plans to use an accounting tactic known as the current policy baseline. This accounting tactic would make it look like the extension that is currently being considered from the Tax Cut and Jobs Act would be at no cost potentially allowing Republicans to add on additional tax cuts or reduce offsetting spending cuts. The parliamentarians still have to rule on whether her interpretation before the Senate majority leader would bring the resolution to the floor. Senate Republican and Democratic staff have been meeting with the parliamentarian individually to make their cases for and against using this accounting tactic over the past couple of weeks. But the parliamentarian has yet to schedule a joint meeting during which the budget experts from each party would argue the rationale for and against the cost counting strategy, though we have heard that a ruling on this current policy baseline debate could come as early as tomorrow or potentially Wednesday. If the parliamentarian rules in favor of the Republicans and allows the current policy baseline to continue at no cost, Senate Majority Leader John Thune would want to then have the new budget resolution on the floor as soon as Thursday, which would allow the House and the Senate to set their own spending cut minimums, which would then largely punt fights to resolve differences on the other major sticking points until after the budget resolution has passed and then they'd be able to leave on April 11th for the two-week recess. If the Senate parliamentarily does go along with the Senate plans, they will also have to have another budget go to Rama similar to what they had several weeks ago. This is when senators are allowed to provide amendments, which then have to be dispensed with. These are broadly partisan amendments so Democrats will offer the vast majority of those amendments to the budget resolution. They will likely fail, and they will have to vote late into the night until they're able to agree on the Senate budget resolution by a simple majority. However, if the Senate Parliamentarian rules against Republicans in this in this current policy baseline debate, it will throw some sand in the gears for the future of what the budget reconciliation bill will look like. And force Senate Republicans to sort of reconsider their strategy and how they're going to pass a budget reconciliation bill because those tax cuts would then have to be incorporated into the overall funding limits that are set by the budget resolution. However, if the Senate is able to pass a budget resolution by the end of the week, the House Republican leadership is skeptical that they will be able to pass it before the spring recess. Those Speaker Johnson is stated that he wants to get a reconciliation bill to Trump's desk by Memorial Day, which is looking increasingly unlikely at this point in time. But I'll stop there because it's a kind of a weedy conversation. So happy to answer any questions on reconciliation before moving on taking it over to Emily to talk to the probes. Okay. As far as FY 26 of probes, I know, you know, we talked about they finally wrapped up FY 25 as part of the continuing resolution in mid March. We still don't have guidance on FY 26 from either House or Senate appropriations committees. We've been told we could hear from House approves as early as, excuse me this week and then we expect the Senate to follow. I think kind of the biggest issue is of course because FY25 was so delayed, we still haven't received an FY26 president's budget request, usually that sent to Congress. supposed to be sent in February, but the last few years it usually goes in March. John and I were on the Hill, much of last week talking with various staffers and we had a couple conversations with the appropriators who were saying they may not see a President's budget request until May. That just kind of delays the process even further. You can't start holding markups or budget hearings with secretaries if you don't have a budget request to go off of. So again, I know we've been talking about this, but you can already see in starting FY26 deliberations so late that we will certainly have a continuing resolution to fund the government through October 1st. Moving on kind of off of a probe. I know you know it seems like every day you're hearing another announcement from the Trump admin but last but last Wednesday, the administration paused nearly five million in previously approved funding for food banks and other emergency food providers through what's called T-FAP, the emergency food assistance program. Food banks across the country have reported cuts in federal funding. A few days earlier, USDA had also canceled two federal programs that helped schools and food banks by fresh food directly from local farmers. That's called the local food purchase assistance program, which would have funded about 500 million this year for food banks, and $660 million for the local food for schools program. Again, as I mentioned, we've been on the hill, we've been talking to members, you know, in terms of Democrats and Republicans alike, you know, they are not being given a heads up. That seems to be, you know, it's just the administration acting. And then they're hearing about it from their constituents. We do know that a number of Democratic senators sent a letter pressing the USDA for more information about the cancellation of the federal funding. I think that was spearheaded by Senate Democrats on the Ag Committee. And of course, Senator Schiff is on the committee and he did sign the letter. I'll turn it back over to John, kind of on other things, other announcements we're hearing and impacts. So in addition to the cuts that we saw at USDA, today the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as Doge Staff, notified the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, IMLS, that the entire staff was being put on administrative leave, effective immediately. They were also informed with the opportunity to canceling huge swaths of grants, contracts, and starting a reduction in force to minimum staffing levels allowed by law. IMLS has an annual budget of roughly $294 million, which is primarily provides grants to states for museums and public libraries, all of which are now on hold. We have been in contact with House and Senate appropriators on how this is supposed to be broken down because they just received their allocation through the CR or about $280 million in each of these agencies are responsible for providing work plans to the appropriators and how they intend on spending the money that are provided by Congress, but now that the agency is being effectively torn down, it's currently unclear if those grants are going out at all. This is sort of a broader conversation of impoundment, which will be ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. This is whether or not the administration is allowed to simply not spend money or reappropriate money after it's been provided by Congress. It's something that the Trump administration has sought to do essentially overturning the 1974 Budget and the Poundment Act, which passed unanimously in the Senate. But they have questioned the constitutionality of that law. And in the interim, decided they were going to tear to various agencies, including IMLS, as of today. In addition to IMLS, I'm sure that you heard the drastic cuts that are taking place at Health and Human Services. Last week, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. announced that he will reduce HHS's 28 divisions to 15 and create a new administration for a healthy America, which includes several of the core functions of the department. They are also reducing the number of regional offices from 10 to 5. In terms of a breakdown of what we expect or what has been announced in terms of the staff and reductions, FDA is set to to lose 3500 employees, CDC will reduce its staff by 20 or 100 employees. And the reorganization will take place forced into the backdrop of several grants that have been canceled by HHS and CDC. And just today, and over the weekend, they announced that they would be reducing the Office of HIV Prevention Services and a number of other agencies that they will be shuttering in response to RFK's orders. There was a letter that was sent today by Senate appropriators on the constitutionality and the legality of this, the number of oversight questions and we'll be happy to link to that letter in case you'd like to take a closer look. And then one last thing, I'm sure you saw last week, but President Trump withdrew representative Elise Stefanik's nomination for UN ambassador. A strategic move to maintain the Republican House majority. Still haven't heard who they will nominate for that. Then we are expecting Dr. Oz's confirmation hearing to BCMS administrator that's slated within the next two weeks. Again, trying to get some of those appointments done, it could potentially be done before the recess that will begin on April 11th. And then totally switching gears, but when state of this week, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is holding a hearing focused on the next surface transportation reauthorization bill. And the Secretary of DOT, Sean Deffey will testify at that hearing. And that's kind of kicking off the conversation related to surface transportation reauthorization. The current bill doesn't expire until the end of FY 26, but that's an area that has previously been bipartisan. And so we'll see how that hearing goes on Wednesday. I know we've talked for a while. There's a lot to talk about, but that's our report for this week. Happy to answer any questions that you all may have. Thank you very much for that report. It didn't sound like there were any good news in it, but I'll turn it over to my colleague to see if she has any questions or comments. Thank you, Chair Tam. And thank you to our lobbyists for the report and the ongoing work that you're doing. It's, I just have to say after hearing all of this and how many departments are being impacted, especially those that provide food security and health and safety. It's just really shocking, but I guess it shouldn't be. We know this is not normal. One question, if you're able to answer it, and perhaps this is a question more towards the administration, when we discuss our budget tomorrow, do we have a sense in terms of how the reductions to food banks or schools is hitting the state of California or any of our localities? I don't think we do just yet would be Mike. You know these announcements are just coming. I would say, and I'm sure there will be suits filed. And so, you know, with kind of all of the news like across the board, I think some of the conversations we have been having are, let's just, you know, take a wait and see approach. Again, I don't think we've seen anything. John, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we've seen numbers just yet. No, kind of to Emily's point is the beginning of the call. It's kind of a bottom-up approach of understanding what the impacts are. There isn't a list of canceled contracts that's being publicly distributed by USDA, really, any of the agencies. The Doge website has what they're calling the wall of receipts, but that has not really been considered an accurate representation of the cuts for it large. So, appropriators, Senate offices, house offices have really been collecting anecdotal information from stakeholders that reach out, flagging for them that they have been informed that the contract has been canceled. It's not a thorough approach. I'll admit, but it's really what the only way that Congress has been able to get truly informed because of that lack of connectivity between the administration and Congress. There's been a number of decisions that have been made by the administration where staff within the administration, members of Congress, chairman, leadership find out that this is happening with the press release along with everybody else. They are completely bypassing the congressional process and really kind of taking it into their own hands to engage in these cancellations and cuts. Thank you. And one final comment, the reductions that HHS are very concerning, especially the reduction of the HIV office. I know that's very recent news. And I think that something that we'd be interested in following given the work of our health department. Thank you. Yeah and that's on the prevention side to the Ryan White HIV program which is the treatment side of things is still operating. However, Ryan White is statutorily prohibitive from providing prevention services. They can only help individuals that have contracted HIV or AIDS. So there's a bit of a disconnect on the ability for HHS to assist that population as a stance right now. those lines so the county also works very closely with our local school district, particularly in Oakland, on flu prevention, like immunization more than just COVID. And we're trying to get a sense of the implications on the federal funding that might be a cut because of the shoe, the flu programs that we participate in. Do you have a sense of how that will trickle down in terms of the prevention dollar cuts? Emily, feel free to chime in as well, but I think that the future of vaccine programs, vaccine funding is all very precarious at this point. The FDA, the HHS been very slow to reconvene the committee that approves vaccines in time for the fall sort of flu season. There was a recent expulsion at HHS, a high level expulsion for the top vaccine administrator, essentially at the FDA on Thursday. So, and of course, has all been these reports of Mr. Kennedy's skepticism towards vaccines. So I think at this point, it's too early to tell exactly what the implications are going to be, but I'm very skeptical about the future of vaccine administration and potential funding being available in the near future for states and local governments. Emily, I don't know if you have any other insight on that front, but I think it's something definitely to be concerned about. Yeah, I mean, you said it, but I don't have anything to add. Appreciate the update. So, and this is something that perhaps our state legislative office can also comment on. We are trying to sort through the budget implications at the county level on Wednesday. We're going to get a briefing from the state legislative office and the Department of Finance. As we plan our budget and you had mentioned the president's budget request hasn't even been submitted and it won't be submitted until probably May and obviously so much of the funding that the county has in its budget comes from both the federal government and the state government and I'm just just trying to understand how does that likely delay our budgeting process as well. Yeah. Well, on the discretionary side of things, I think it will be very similar to previous years where we never get our appropriations bills on time no matter what you know. I think it's been since the early 90s when they actually passed appropriations bills prior to the fiscal year starting on October one. So from that sense it's really no different than previous years where you'll just be under continuing resolution at current funding levels. I think kind of the bigger piece that we've been talking about is on the reconciliation side and potential cuts to Medicaid, right? And John and I have had conversations about this because even if you know Speaker Johnson has a goal of trying to get something to the president's desk by Memorial Day. I think we all feel like that is that just seems like a really lofty goal and very aggressive when they haven't even agreed on a budget resolution. The House and Senate haven't agreed on a budget resolution to give instructions to the committees on what those cuts would look like. So I think maybe this summer at BAS, like just kind of thinking about it. So let's say they are able to get something to the president by the August re says, John, you and I talked about it, then they're going to have to promulgate rules and implement the actual bill. And so I think it were still months away, even if you had like a very compact timeline. So I mean, maybe early next year, I mean those were kind of the conversations we were having. John, correct me if you think I'm wrong. I mean, I know a lot of it is speculative, so it's hard to know. But I don't get the sense that they'd be able to kind of get things moving and make these huge changes using the APA, right? It really just depends on each of the provisions, because they'll all have different start dates. Some will become, will be enacted upon passage. Some will get enacted in future years. It depends on when the bill is passed. When the tax credits are going to be available, I mean, I'll use the IRA as a good example of, you know, these laws get implemented. And the IRA was passed in 2021, but we didn't see the production of those tax credit rules to Emily's point until two years after. They still have to go through this significant process in order to draft rules to staff up to execute what Congress has written with administration reorganizations, with lower staffing levels, the ability for any administration to implement these things takes a long time. So, and of course, all those actions are also subject to court review. So as a bill gets passed and something happens, there's still this long tail that takes place well after passage. We are still seeing that with the inflation reduction act. So I just kind of caution that the whole world is going to change as soon as this reconciliation bill has passed or just a series of other steps that have to take place before a law is fully implemented. And I would just say from the state perspective, it's similar to the county, which is there's constitutional provisions of when the state has to pass their budget. And so they will have to weigh that uncertainty against expenditures. And similar to the county, a lot of it is in the health and human services, specifically the Medicaid program. The legislature can always come back and make mid-year adjustments, which depending on the timing of federal action may be required. Thank you. Those are very good points. We are being asked by some of our neighboring counties, Santa Clara County in particular, to join into Amicus briefs on some of the challenges that will be launched because of the health and human service staffing cuts and the, the far reaching implications on mandated programs that the county has to provide particularly health care for the indigent. So I guess we have to put some parameters around that uncertainty as we move forward with our budget process. Thank you very much for that update. Amy, why don't we go to the legislative update from the state? Great. Amy costed with full moon strategies with the state legislative update. Today, actually the legislature is observing Caesar Shavas day, so they're not in session today, but they will resume tomorrow. We are beginning to see a couple of bills that have been amended now that bills have been imprinted for 30 days. So a couple bills of note that were previously spot bills that I wanted to raise. Last week Senator Blake Spear out of San Diego amended her SB 16. The draft amendments had been circulating for several weeks but the bill is finally imprinted. We understand the measures being supported by the mayor of San Diego as well as the mayor of San Jose. And the bill would, upon the next round of homelessness, housing, assistance, and prevention, program funding, require counties to commit to at least 50% of the expected costs of each city's existing and planned homelessness shelters. So we'll be gathering more information on that and counties are concerned about that measure. Additionally, Senator Minjava amended a bill previously authored by Senator Padilla, SB331, and the bill would make several changes to the Lantern and Petra Short Act as well as the Care Act. So we'll be reviewing that with county staff as well. Lastly, SB 75 by Senator Smallwood Quavis was recently amended late last week to create a new reentry pilot project in the counties of Alameda, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The purpose being to promote workforce training and transitional support to formally incarcerated individuals committed to careers in skilled trades. We're working with county staff in the Senator's office to understand a little bit more about that bill and we'll report out. The Budget Subcommittee, the Assembly Budget Subcommittee number five, discussed the encampment resolution funding provided by the state and the governor's proposed reorganizational proposal. The Department of Housing and Community Development presented a proposal to adjust the encampment response funding deadlines without suggesting any increase in the funding. However, the legislative analyst office raised some concerns about the lack of reporting and data on the program's effectiveness, particularly the number of individuals who are ultimately placed into housing through the program. And they raised questions about the overall success of the program and given the limited funding constraints, whether or not the legislature would continue funding that particular program. There's also been several subcommittee hearings about the governor's proposed reorganization, which would, according to the administration, seek to streamline housing and consumer protection agents efforts. But it sparks some debate in the committee with critics raising concerns about potential overlap of responsibilities, unclear delineation of duties, and the possibility of increased admin costs. Will no more when the proposal is presented to the little Hoover Commission before the legislature reviews it for action in spring. The Senate Budget Committee, number three, on Health and Human Services, Matt also last week to discuss a variety of topics, including a section on the Office of Youth and Community Restoration and the Juvenile Justice Realignment Block Grant formula. Senator Minjabar raised several concerns about the current funding allocation and block grant design. She expressed concern about the lack of oversight at county uses of the funding and that the funding formula could unintentionally incentivize counties to misuse funds, particularly if funds are allocated to counties that are closing facilities or not utilizing their resources effectively. The center advocated for better legislative language requiring regular audits and accountability measures. In two weeks, the legislature will adjourn for their spring recess. That begins upon a German on Thursday, April 10th, and then the legislature will conclude their session on Monday, April 21st. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions? Surprise or fortune out of us? No major questions. Just thank you for the update as we're looking at Measure W's spending plan, which is our general tax that includes a plan on homelessness. I think it will be very helpful to know how the state funding on homelessness develops. Thank you. Yes, very much so. We are having this conversation tomorrow at our board meeting on Measure W. And we have never challenges, including the uncertainty with where we might have to fill in some of the gaps from lack of funding from the state and the federal roll down. But appreciate your update and your report. Moving to the request for legislative positions, we have a request from Alameda County how to support AB 435. That's the vehicles and child passenger restraints. We have a request from Alameda County Health and Sufficeur Mylage Support AB 998. That's the household hazardous waste that includes vape pens. we also have a request from both supervisor Miley and Elmer County Health to support SB 501 on household houses waste producer responsibility act and also a request from supervisor My lead to support SB 561 on declaring how it's just ways with emergency distress, flare safety disposal. This is in the marine environment. And from social service, a state budget request of $20 million in one time funding to support the 211 service in our upcoming 2025 26 budget and this would also help with some of the rapid response that we expect will be coming down the line. Do we have any comments or concurrence on our positions recommended by the departments in our colleague. Thank you. I appreciate all of the reports, which were very informative. Just a question on the 211 requests, which I do support. It's only one time funding and I know this will sort of shore up the infrastructure help to support some of the rural counties statewide. Do we have a sense of how this will impact Alameda County in particular, noting that in the report, it talked about budget shortfalls in terms of the R211 being fully funded. Is that level of detail available yet? I had Hamilton from Social Service. Is that a question you can respond to? Hello, this is Denise Thompson Management, Allen's for SSA in response to 211 to the board in other other platform. The question is, how is the currently Alameda County 211 struggling? When we committed to submit this PAL request, it was based on improving the call center, infrastructure, handle, increase call value, and also to expand digital access through tax, chat, and mobile friendly resources, as well as strengthen partnerships with the local emergency response agencies. I think the question has more to do with the challenges that the state is facing in terms of their budget and And if we don't get this one time funding, what are some of the impacts and implications? Supervisor Tam, can we revisit this subject matter because I need to consult with my manager, Honha Hamilton? That's fine. And you can just send us an email. We do support the request for the one-time funding, and I do have some of the data that Andrea Ford had submitted earlier before this meeting in terms of the usage. And they clearly want to add multilingual access and improve that we have a category of usage and the highest usage obviously is unhousing and some of the social service programs for people that have to. And then we also have a higher percentage of usage among those 62 and over. And in terms of the breakdown of the 14 cities and the unincorporated areas in Alameda County, Oakland is the highest usage of 211. So that I think the funding is needed obviously and there are implications for all of those demographics that was just listed if we don't have that available to us. So Supervisor Tam, this is Hannah Hamilton just stepping in to clarify the request. So you're looking for the data on 2-1-1 usage by population as well as I guess number of calls coming from cities and counties. Is that right? Or I guess just cities within Alameda County? We have that information. And Julia had provided it but you should probably share with both Surveys or Fortune out of As and myself again. What we're asking for is you know how much is the program cost? Why do we need the one-time funding and what happens if we don't get the one time funding because of the challenges in this state? Thank you. Is that consistent? Thank you. Any other questions or any public comments on these items? There are no public comments. Okay, are there any public comments on items that are not on today's agenda? There are no public comments. Thank you. For those online, could you identify yourself so that we have a sense of the participation from the agency? A high good afternoon, Valerie Arkin from Supervisor Nate Miley's office. Good afternoon, Jessica Bleeckmore, Alameda County Health. This is Elba Kiroga with the Alameda County Tax Collector's Office. Hi, good afternoon again. This is Hannah. I need a county social services agent. Thank you for your participation. And for all the great updates today. The pal committee for March 31st is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Recording stopped.