Transcript Highlights:

• We're ready to close. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
• We're ready to close. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
• We're ready to close. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
• to the presidency or works close to critical government records.
• This proves that China is rapidly closing the gap, and we can't afford to fall behind.

Keywords: U.S. House of Representatives Floor Proceedings on Thursday, February 13, 2025, 1012, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• The response was that the constitutional concern is the primary barrier to implementing a broader policy
• I wanted to close with my daughter, but she's kind of nervous, so I'll close for her.
• In closing, she would like to add that KPT is the melting pot for all cultural backgrounds.
• , so I'll close for her.
• In closing, she would like to add that KPT is the melting pot for all cultural backgrounds.

Committee: House Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs

Keywords: 910, house, all

Summary: The committee heard testimony on several housing, land use, and preservation bills. HB 1008 HD2 would require the Department of Land and Natural Resources to complete historic preservation determinations for state affordable housing projects within 90 days and create sensitivity-based review pathways. HHFDC, DLNR’s State Historic Preservation Division, and written testimony from DBEDT supported the bill as an expedited process for projects unlikely to affect significant historic resources. Members asked how the bill would define significant versus non-significant historic properties, how it would interact with Kapakai analysis, and whether burial councils had been consulted; SHPD said the bill would not replace Kapakai review and that burial councils had not been included. Written support also came from OHA, Hawaii Realtors, and the Maui Chamber of Commerce. HB 1093 would clarify the Hawaii Public Housing Authority’s powers relating to housing projects. HPHA supported the measure, saying it would align definitions with prior law and help deconcentrate poverty by allowing mixed-income rebuilding. The director also said the bill was increasingly urgent because of reported federal HUD priorities that could affect public housing and Section 8 funding. HB 1096 HD1 would repeal state low-income housing preferences for disabled veterans and spouses of deceased veterans, with HPHA saying federal veteran programs such as VASH are a better mechanism and that the state preference has not been used in years. HB 1411 would allow HHFDC projects to give sale or lease preferences to applicants who live or work within five miles of a project; HHFDC and the Hawaii Chapter of NAIOP supported it as a way to keep residents connected to their communities, while members raised constitutional concerns about broader local-preference policies. The committee also heard HB 367 HD1, which would create county permit exemptions for certain agricultural and maintenance activities. Written testimony included opposition from the Department of Planning and Permitting and support from the Hawaii Farm Bureau, Grassroot Institute, and others. A public testifier opposed the bill, arguing that permit exemptions could worsen safety and compliance problems. Finally, HB 826 HD1 would allow county planning commissions, by special permit, to authorize residential housing in agricultural districts for agricultural workforce housing, long-term rental, or fee simple ownership under certain conditions. HHFDC supported it as a faster alternative to lengthy state land-use redistricting, but the Department of Agriculture, Land Use Commission, and Office of Planning and Sustainable Development raised concerns about food production impacts, due process, service provision, jurisdictional conflicts, and the use of special permits for what could amount to district boundary changes. Public testimony was mixed, with some support and some opposition. No votes or final actions were taken in the portion provided.

Transcript Highlights:

• Chair, you're close.
• Chair, you're close.
• Chair, you're close.
• Chair, you're close.
• Chair, you're close.

Committee: Senate Judiciary and Public Safety

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• </c> any closing remarks? any closing remarks?
• So, thank you so coming to the close.
• Chairman, we're not close.
• </c><03:46:45.680><c> remarks,</c> Uh if you have any closing remarks, Uh if you have any closing remarks
• Any closing remarks, sir? Mr.

Committee: Joint Appropriations

Keywords: 916, all

Transcript Highlights:

• close to Boston and Massachusetts and it close to Boston and Massachusetts and it was<00:14:58.120><c
• </c> formula allocation it's not even close formula allocation it's not even close to<00:25:31.200><c
• Those are the two primary exam vendors for educator licensure in our country.
• </c><05:14:30.240><c> with</c> um finally I just want to close with um finally I just want to close with
• Okay, we're going to close the hearing on HB 4155.

Keywords: 928, house, all

Summary: The House Education Policy and Administration Committee heard testimony on House Bill 71, which would bar public elementary and secondary schools and higher education facilities from being used as shelters for certain non-citizens, with a stated exception for short-term emergency sheltering of up to 72 hours and for community-wide emergency use. Prime sponsor Rep. Juliet Harvey-Bolia said the bill was modeled on federal and out-of-state proposals and was prompted by examples in New York and Massachusetts where schools or other facilities were used as shelters, causing disruption. She argued the bill does not truly “ban” anything, but instead places a condition on receipt of state funds, and said the fiscal note’s projected loss of federal funding was unsupported and should have been described as undeterminable. Committee members questioned the bill’s scope and practical effects, including whether it would apply to vacant school-owned buildings, schools used during summer, charter schools, and situations where other states send people without advance notice. Harvey-Bolia said vacant buildings not functioning as schools would not be covered, and that the bill would still allow short-term emergency sheltering and community-wide use during weather events. She also said the bill would not prevent remote learning, and that its purpose was to avoid displacing students. Several members pressed her on the fiscal note and whether any federal or state program would actually be at risk; she said she found no evidence that funding would be lost and that DHHS had not identified a real threat. A witness from the New Hampshire Association of School Administrators, Jerry FW, raised practical concerns about who would determine eligibility at a shelter site, how the 72-hour limit would be enforced, and whether the bill would apply to charter schools. He also noted that remote learning is no longer an option in New Hampshire, making one of the bill’s stated concerns less relevant. The discussion also included clarification of the terms “refugee” and “asylum seeker,” with members and the sponsor debating the distinction and whether refugees are vetted. No vote or final committee action was taken in the portion of the meeting provided.

Transcript Highlights:

• Close the machine, madam clerk. By vote Close the machine, madam clerk.
• Closing machine. Has everyone voted? Closing machine.
• Closing machine.
• Close the machine.
• Close the machine. Has everyone voted? Close the machine.

Keywords: MS House Floor - 10 February, 2026; 10:00 AM, 925, all

Transcript Highlights:

• </c><00:31:00.080><c> BLM</c><00:31:00.559><c> held</c> closed on March 17th, 2025.
• BLM held closed on March 17th, 2025.
• Colorado closed theirs down largely on this issue. Uh, but we still have it.
• Colorado closed theirs down largely on this issue. Uh, but we still have it.
• Colorado closed does not make sense.

Committee: Joint Select Federal Natural Resource Management Committee

Keywords: 916, all

Transcript Highlights:

• </c><00:10:23.959><c> with</c> includes and we work very closely with includes and we work very closely
• And then they eventually close down.
• </c><04:42:53.840><c> down</c> include any charter schools closing down include any charter schools closing
• </c><04:42:58.878><c> it's</c> when a charter school closed down it's when a charter school closed down
• It's for the school year that is already closed.

Keywords: 928, house, all

Summary: The Finance Division II committee heard a Department of Education budget presentation from Commissioner Frank Edelblut and CFO Tammy Valen-cour. The department outlined its organizational structure and emphasized that it functions largely as a flow-through agency for school funding. The commissioner reviewed general fund and Education Trust Fund items, including state aid, dropout prevention, special education, building aid, lease aid, charter schools, Education Freedom Accounts, and the district adequacy calculation. He also highlighted the public school infrastructure fund, saying the state has invested well over $50 million in school safety since 2018 for measures such as access controls, locks, and window film, and argued that safety spending should be ongoing rather than reactive. Members asked about the variability in the school infrastructure line, special education aid, and the Discovery Education learning platform. Edelblut explained that some safety funding had come from one-time surplus appropriations rather than the agency line, and said special education aid was underappropriated because districts submitted more invoices than expected; he said the governor added $16 million to address the shortfall. He also described CTE renovation funding, noting four projects were initially proposed but only Jaffrey and Milford were still moving forward, with local votes required and the state covering 75% of costs. He said Milford’s project was omitted from the governor’s budget by oversight. The department also reviewed enrollment trends, noting public school enrollment has fallen from about 230,000 students in 2002 to about 185,000 today. Edelblut clarified that charter students are not eligible for Education Freedom Accounts, while EFA students attending non-public schools are counted as EFA students. He described several one-time surplus-funded initiatives, including Student Clearinghouse, MTSSB work, civics curriculum development, computer science education, and adult education. He also discussed a $4 million CTE tuition and transportation grant, saying it was kept as a competitive grant rather than a formula grant to avoid creating an ongoing maintenance-of-effort commitment that could jeopardize federal Perkins funding. In the final portion, Edelblut identified prioritized needs in the department’s budget, especially funding for a state administrator for assessment to support the legislatively required civics assessment, and additional support for the Discovery Education platform. He said every school in the state is using the platform and cited more than 1.5 million educator engagements, while a member raised concerns about mixed reviews and uneven district awareness of the program. No votes or formal actions were taken during the presentation and question period.

Transcript Highlights:

• And really the primary difference comes down to, as I mentioned before, they literally an actuary puts

Keywords: Meeting Start: 00:00:09 Attendance Roll Call: 00:01:42 Approval of Minutes: 00:03:23 Overview of Actuarial Audit Process: 00:03:47 Overview of Reemployment After Retirement Provisions: 00:25:26 Teachers’ Retirement System: 00:25:26 Kentucky Public Pensions Authority: 00:50:32 Adjournment: 01:02:55, 958, all

Summary: The meeting began with quorum, approval of the prior minutes, and an announcement that the June meeting had been canceled and replaced by this combined May/June meeting; the next official PPOB meeting was announced for July 21 at 2:30. Staff then gave an overview of the Public Pension Oversight Board’s required actuarial audit process, explaining that House Bill 238 requires a review every five years of the retirement systems’ actuarial assumptions and methods, funded by the systems themselves. The presentation distinguished this audit from a financial or forensic audit, described the three possible audit levels (full replication, limited/spot review, or basic review), and noted that the last audit in 2021 was a level one performed by Milleman Consulting at a cost of about $190,000. Members discussed timing for the next audit cycle, with a request to LRC likely needed in July or August to target the June 30, 2026 valuation, and several members expressed interest in another level one review. Questions also addressed whether prior audits found major issues; staff said the 2021 review was generally clean but recommended more consistency in reporting and assumptions across systems. The committee then welcomed new staff and interns, including Odet Guanzi of KPPPA and Team Kentucky intern Amamira Bowman. Bo Barnes of the Teachers Retirement System presented an overview of the statutory framework for reemployment after retirement under KRS 161.605. He explained that the law is intended to let retirees return to help with staffing needs, do so in an actuarially sound way through required contributions, and keep TRS compliant with federal tax rules for a qualified plan under section 401(a). Barnes described the required breaks in service and earnings limits for retirees returning part-time or full-time, including the three-month or 12-month break depending on the employer, the 6,900-day limit, and the daily wage threshold based on years of service. He also noted a lightly used critical shortage program that allows school districts to hire retirees without a wage cap, while still observing the break-in-service rules. Members asked questions about who decides the scope and level of the actuarial audit, how the audit would treat leave balances and other benefit-related items, and whether the prior level one audit identified substantial problems. Staff said the committee would request the audit, but LRC would handle contracting, and that the audit scope could include items like sick leave and annual leave costs if requested. On the reemployment topic, Barnes emphasized that the rules are designed to avoid pre-arranged retire-and-return arrangements that could jeopardize TRS’s tax-qualified status. No formal votes were taken beyond approving the minutes, and the meeting concluded with the presentations and discussion of these pension oversight issues.

Transcript Highlights:

• ><c> during</c><00:39:26.800><c> markup</c><00:39:27.320><c> of</c><00:39:27.440><c> that</c> The primary

Committee: Senate Human Services

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• House Bill 1 would allow Kentucky primary and secondary students, K through 12, to take advantage of

Committee: Senate Education

Keywords: Call to Order and Roll Call: 0:03 Bills for Consideration: 3:10 Adjournment: 56:19, 958, all

Transcript Highlights:

• We call this fifth meeting of the House Budget Review Subcommittee on Primary and Secondary Education

Keywords: 958, all

Summary: The subcommittee met without a quorum and did not approve minutes, but heard testimony on budget line items for Data Seam and Teach for America. Andrew McNeel of Kentucky Free and representatives from the Commonwealth Policy Center argued that both programs rely heavily on recurring taxpayer support and should be re-evaluated. McNeel cited a 2020 Office of Policy and Audit examination of Data Seam, saying the program had received more than $30 million in state support since 2006, including $3.5 million in the current budget, and that the audit raised concerns about administrative overhead, alleged threats to districts, and the use of line-item language to justify sole-source contracting. He recommended suspending Data Seam funding this biennium, directing a new special audit, and requiring reimbursement of audit costs. The witnesses also urged the committee to withhold funding for Teach for America, saying the organization’s materials and history showed a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion that they opposed. They pointed to past statements, leadership titles, and program language as evidence that DEI concepts remained embedded in the organization, and suggested any funding should be redirected directly to school districts instead. Mike Harmon and Richard Nelson echoed those concerns, while also saying long-running programs should be periodically reviewed for efficiency. Teach for America Appalachia representatives then testified in support of the program. Executive director C.D. Morton described the organization as a teacher-preparation and leadership-development program serving rural eastern Kentucky, saying it had recruited and supported more than 325 teachers since 2011, with about 30 current core members in several counties and roughly 2,800 students impacted daily. He said the program helps fill hard-to-staff vacancies, that about 80% of teachers stay for a third year, and that many alumni remain in education. In response to questions from Representative Bojanowski about retention and cost, Morton said more than 60% of alumni are still in education, but he could not give a precise classroom-teacher retention number beyond the program’s broader alumni data.

Transcript Highlights:

• We call this third meeting of the House Budget Review Subcommittee on Primary and Secondary Education

Keywords: 958, all

Summary: The subcommittee met without a quorum and first heard from Kentucky Department of Education officials on career and technical education funding. KDE explained that House Bill 499 created a CTE funding formula using 60% weighted full-time equivalent enrollment and 40% incentives, but House Bill 6’s budget language excluded area technology centers (ATCs) from that supplemental funding. KDE requested approval of an additional budget request of $14,789,352 in each fiscal year 2027 and 2028 to include ATCs in the formula and hold local districts harmless. Officials said ATCs serve students from 117 of Kentucky’s 171 districts and argued the change would reduce funding disparities and better reflect the return on investment from CTE programs, citing growth in dual credit and work-based learning participation. Members asked whether the issue would need to be revisited each budget cycle. KDE responded that the problem could be fixed by removing the notwithstanding language from the budget bill, which they said would allow ATCs to be included under the existing statute. Representative Klein supported the request, saying the current clause could lead to stagnation and that the committee should help the program continue to grow. No vote was taken on the CTE item during the portion of the meeting provided. The committee then heard a presentation from PreK for All on expanding preschool access in Kentucky. Advocates said the state’s preschool program has been funded since 1990 and currently serves about 14,200 children at roughly $84 million per year, but that many working families still fall into a coverage gap. They proposed expanding eligibility to 250% of the federal poverty line, which they said would add about 9,600 children at a cost of $40 million in year two, after a planning year. The proposal also included regulatory flexibility for classrooms and partnerships with private child care providers and nonprofits, with speakers emphasizing child care deserts in some counties and citing research that early learning improves kindergarten readiness and later outcomes. No action or vote was taken on the preschool proposal in the transcript provided.

Transcript Highlights:

• I'll close here.
• I'll close here.
• I'll close here.
• I'll close here.
• I'll close here.

Keywords: 910, house, all

Summary: The joint House Committee on Health and Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce heard two midwifery bills, with testimony focused primarily on HB 1194. Committee chairs opened the hearing with rules for Zoom testimony and noted the bills relate to midwives. The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs said it supported the intent of HB 1194 and offered comments. Supporters of the bill, including the Midwives Alliance of Hawaii, argued that midwifery should remain subject to mandatory licensure to protect consumer safety, citing the state’s regulatory licensing standards and a 2025 state auditor sunset analysis. They said the bill would strengthen educational standards and public protection, and some offered clarifying amendments. Opponents argued HB 1194 would restrict access to care and fail to protect traditional, cultural, and community-based birth practices. Testifiers from the Hawaii Home Birth Task Force, the Hawaii Home Birth Collective, the Libertarian Party of Hawaii, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Pacific Birth Collective, and Papa Ola Lōkahi said the bill would limit licensure pathways, reduce access in rural and underserved areas, and burden Native Hawaiian and traditional practitioners. Several speakers said the measure could worsen Hawaii’s maternal health shortages, especially on Maui, and urged lawmakers to defer HB 1194 or instead advance HB 1328, which they said better protects practitioner access and cultural practices. The Hawaii affiliate of the American College of Nurse-Midwives said it opposed HB 1194 because it did not align with national or state standards for certified midwives and could create conflicts with Medicaid reimbursement and prescriptive authority. The ACLU also opposed the measure, emphasizing reproductive rights, privacy, and the need to preserve apprenticeship pathways to licensure. No vote or final committee action was taken during the portion of the hearing reflected in the transcript.

Transcript Highlights:

• connections made across the Commonwealth that contributed to the deciding difference as she won a close
• > as</c><03:08:36.640><c> she</c><03:08:36.880><c> won</c><03:08:37.120><c> a</c><03:08:37.359><c> close
• I'll close by saying that Martha Lane Collins left an indelible mark of success and accomplishment here
• They needed all sorts of interventions ...that we can avoid by actually having people get primary care
• Came close. [laughter] Mr.

Keywords: 958, all

Transcript Highlights:

• </c><00:36:09.560><c> with</c><00:36:09.720><c> our</c> school board and work closely with our school
• </c> no other pin cards I'm going to close no other pin cards I'm going to close the<01:54:50.719><c>
• Seeing none, I am going to close the hearing on House Bill 99.
• </c><02:33:21.560><c> the</c> yet seeing none I am going to close the yet seeing none I am going to close
• </c><03:35:28.800><c> the</c> so okay seeing none I will close the so okay seeing none I will close the

Committee: House Municipal and County Government

Keywords: 1189, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• You might get close to 100% eventually someday if it's possible. Scientifically, I'm not sure.
• You might get close to concentrations.
• That's my primary motivation for it.
• There are 10 ATCs, and not everybody lives close to one.
• And if you are 90 minutes close to one.

Committee: Senate Judiciary

Keywords: 1191, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• That's close to a third of all people in this age group.
• That's close experiencing dementia.
• That's close to<00:56:05.320><c> 30</c><00:56:05.760><c> That's</c><00:56:06.040><c> close</c><00:56:
• ><c> are</c><01:16:31.800><c> closed.
• If they weekend, the schools are closed.

Keywords: 1189, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• Not even close.
• Not even close.
• Not even close.
• Not even close.
• Not even close.

Keywords: U.S. House of Representatives Floor Proceedings on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, 1012, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• </c> yield to you for a close. yield to you for a close.
• </c> speakers and I am prepared to close. speakers and I am prepared to close.
• </c> from uh Kansas is recognized to close. from uh Kansas is recognized to close.
• </c> prepared to close. prepared to close.
• I'm prepared to close as well. The gentleman from Maryland is recognized to close.

Keywords: U.S. House of Representatives Floor Proceedings on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, 1012, house, all