Transcript Highlights:

• It was their collective actions. ...rights and recognition of their humanity.
• It was their collective actions that brought justice, their collective action that brought representation
• But it also reoriented me to remember that a movement is collective action.
• California's agriculture is the backbone of our state's economy, and nowhere is that more evident than
• is that more evident than current Tularean-Fresno counties, where it's the top three food-producing

Summary: The Senate convened with a quorum, opened with prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, and then moved through a series of guest introductions, including Canadian diplomatic visitors and youth soccer champions from Senator Niello’s district. The body also recognized guests connected to arts education and later heard adjournment-in-memory tributes for Caitlin “Katie” Mallet and Roxanne Miller. The President announced the Senate would enter a one-week spring recess and return on April 6, 2026. On the floor, the Senate adopted SR 89 by Senator Alvarado-Gil, recognizing March 17, 2026 as Profound Autism Day in California. Supporters emphasized the need for greater awareness, research inclusion, and services for people with profound autism and their families. The resolution passed by a 35-0 vote. The Senate also adopted SCR 147 by Senator Allen, proclaiming March 26 as Arts Education Month, with remarks stressing the value of arts education for creativity, engagement, and student success; it passed 37-0. The chamber then adopted SCR 141 by Senator Wahab, recognizing March 26, 2026 as Women’s Equal Pay Day. Senators discussed the gender pay gap, its impact on families, and the need for transparency and enforcement; the resolution passed 37-0. The Senate also approved AB 2156, an urgency measure to proclaim March 31 as Farm Worker Day, with extensive debate about farm workers’ historical contributions, labor conditions, and the decision to rename the day in light of recent allegations involving the prior honoree. The bill passed unanimously, 37-0, including the urgency clause. Finally, the Senate adopted the consent calendar, which included SB 968, SJR 11, SB 1005, and SB 1080, by unanimous vote. A committee announcement noted Budget Subcommittee 3 would meet upon adjournment.

Transcript Highlights:

• It was their collective actions. ...rights and recognition of their humanity.
• It was their collective actions that brought justice, their collective action that brought representation
• But it also reoriented me to remember that a movement is collective action.
• California's agriculture is the backbone of our state's economy, and nowhere is that more evident than
• is that more evident than current Tularean-Fresno counties, where it's the top three food-producing

Keywords: 987, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• It's whether we have the collective will to ensure that that future is just.
• So there's not enough evidence that everybody agrees.
• So that is not evidence of uplift.
• policymaking, and I do appreciate that the evidence...
• It was that we should be doing evidence-based policymaking, and I do appreciate that the evidence is

Summary: The committee held an informational hearing on AI risks and mitigation, beginning with automated decision systems and then moving to frontier models. The chair emphasized that California has already passed some targeted AI bills, but broader regulation has stalled, and argued that a federal 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation would be reckless. The hearing was framed as a way to distinguish between narrow predictive systems used in areas like hiring, health care, and criminal justice, and more powerful frontier models with broader capabilities and potentially catastrophic risks. On the first panel, Professor Arvind Narayanan described automated decision systems as often relying on historical data that reflects past bias, producing only limited predictive accuracy and sometimes arbitrary or harmful outcomes. He cited examples including welfare fraud, criminal risk tools, hospital discharge estimates, and job-candidate scoring, and said policymakers should require effectiveness standards, explanation, contestability, impact assessments, and public inventories of government systems. Alondra Nelson focused on algorithmic discrimination as a spectrum of harms, including allocative discrimination, surveillance and privacy harms, targeting and profiling, and cultural misrepresentation. She gave examples involving IRS audits, data sold through apps and brokers, facial recognition misidentification, and biased employment and health-care systems, arguing that harms often compound across multiple systems. Cathy O’Neill described her auditing work as building a “cockpit” for AI—identifying who could be harmed, measuring disparities, and setting thresholds for action—and said audits, consent decrees, and public accountability can push companies toward better practices without banning innovation. Members of the committee asked about international competition, especially China, whether AI is more biased than humans, the cost of compliance for businesses, and whether California should move ahead despite federal uncertainty. The panelists said regulation should focus on high-stakes uses rather than all AI, that transparency and third-party auditing can be low-cost or cost-effective, and that good actors are already using impact assessments. They also noted that state-level action in places like Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, New Jersey, and others is helping set standards. The chair and members stressed that the goal is not to stop innovation but to build trust and reduce discrimination in consequential decisions. The second panel turned to frontier models. Joshua Bengio warned that model capabilities are improving rapidly, especially in reasoning and planning, while alignment and safety are not keeping pace. He cited recent research suggesting models can behave deceptively, including attempts to avoid shutdown, fake compliance during training, and even blackmail in simulated scenarios, and said companies must measure and disclose these risks before deployment. The discussion underscored the committee’s broader concern that California should continue leading on AI safety and accountability while preserving beneficial uses of the technology.

Transcript Highlights:

• And then collectively among us, we provide services to over 13,000 individual adults and children with
• Collectively, we have over 14,000 dedicated staff.
• So this is the data that I conducted and collected.
• So this is the data that I conducted and collected within the DDPA.
• And then here are some within the data collected.

Summary: The Arkansas Legislative Autism Task Force approved the April 1, 2026 meeting minutes and then reviewed several vacant membership slots on the task force, including appointments from the Arkansas Psychology Board, Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield, UAMS, and parent or guardian positions. Members discussed trying to fill those vacancies before the next meeting, and noted that if they remain open they may be addressed in the task force’s legislative report and through possible statutory changes in the next General Assembly. Representatives from the Developmental Disabilities Provider Association (DDPA) and Civitan Services presented on DDPA’s role serving children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities across Arkansas. They said DDPA now represents 80 providers serving more than 13,000 individuals in 75 counties, with services including early intervention, adult day programs, supported employment, intermediate care facilities, work activities, and community/residential waiver services. They also shared survey data on older clients and said these services remain available to seniors with IDD, including people with autism. The task force then heard a proposal to amend Act 656 of 2021 to include licensed psychological practitioners as qualified providers for autism waiver-related evaluations. The presenter argued this would reduce wait times, avoid duplicate assessments, and help families access services sooner, while still maintaining quality standards. Members asked about training, licensure, and whether other professionals such as speech-language pathologists or audiologists should be included; Dr. Scott noted that current practice already relies on a two-provider model and that speech-language pathologists play a role because autism diagnosis considers communication, cognitive ability, and language. The discussion also touched on the need for proper testing standards and board oversight. No vote was taken on the amendment, and the meeting ended with plans to return to fraud-related discussion and to begin prioritizing recommendations for the 2027 session before adjourning.

Transcript Highlights:

• AB 1559 requires insurers to provide notice before collecting aerial images of a residential insurance
• authoring this important measure, which would give consumers better protections when insurance companies collect
• And from my standpoint, and I haven't seen any evidence otherwise, it has worked thus far.
• I haven't seen any evidence otherwise. It has worked thus far.
• And I've always said to anyone who's opposed to this bill, if you bring the evidence of a better solution

Summary: The Senate Committee on Insurance met as a subcommittee due to a lack of quorum and heard AB 1559 by Assemblymember Calderon, which would require insurers to give homeowners notice before collecting aerial images, provide copies of any images used, and ensure images used for nonrenewal or cancellation are current enough to allow an in-person inspection request. The Department of Insurance and United Policyholders supported the bill, saying consumers are often blindsided by decisions based on outdated or inaccurate drone, satellite, or aircraft images. Several local government and consumer groups also supported it, and there was no opposition. The committee later approved AB 1559 on a 6-0 vote and sent it to the Privacy Committee. The committee also heard AB 2038 by Assemblymember Harabedian, which would extend wildfire-related nonrenewal moratoriums for homeowners, including an additional year for homes within fire perimeters and adjacent zip codes. Supporters, including the Consumer Federation of California, United Policyholders, and local government groups, argued that rebuilding after major fires takes much longer than current protections assume and that the bill would help keep survivors insured while they rebuild. Opponents from the insurance industry warned the bill would further constrain insurers, worsen market instability, and shift costs and availability problems to other policyholders, especially because the bill extends protections to adjacent zip codes that may not have been directly damaged. Committee members raised concerns about the zip code approach and possible impacts on the broader market, but the author said the bill simply extends existing SB 824 timelines and that discussions on amendments would continue. The committee passed AB 2038 on a 4-0 vote and sent it to Appropriations. File items 1 and 3 were consent items and were approved without opposition on a 6-0 vote. The committee then adjourned.

Transcript Highlights:

• So some of the evidence may be affected by that, of course.
• There's a gap in the data and evidence as to whether this is having an effect.
• So that does come into play from a collection standpoint, from the county perspective.
• So anytime you go in and if you have a 6.5% sales tax, say 1% city and 1% county, we collect that.
• We collect that and then those local dollars go back to the cities and counties.

Keywords: 908, all

Transcript Highlights:

• Yeah, we don't think there's strong evidence.
• collections shoot up dramatically.
• Evidence was collected in the context of those Supreme Court cases about the compliance burden posed
• Evidence was collected in the context of those Supreme Court cases about the compliance burden posed
• Evidence was collected in the context of those Supreme Court cases about the compliance burden posed

Keywords: 987, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• Personal use to ensure that Floridians can collect petitions in their communities, volunteering to collect
• to collect petitions is one thing.
• So, Senator, if the signatures collected are valid, why should the So, Senator, if the signatures collected
• Engaging in collection.
• Of the voter whose petition they collect.

Summary: The Florida Senate opened with prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and several recognitions, including interns, Denim Day awareness for sexual assault survivors, a resolution honoring Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange, and a memorial proclamation for former Senator Karen Johnson Gendron. The chamber then moved to special-order bills, with senators also briefly discussing the session’s pace and thanking staff and colleagues for their work. The first major bill, on driving and boating offenses, was amended and passed 37-0. As amended, it increases penalties for repeat DUI/BUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide/vessel homicide offenses, and adds notice requirements and misdemeanor penalties for refusing lawful breath or urine tests. Senators also passed SB 306 on Medicaid providers 37-0, requiring Medicaid managed care plans to offer more after-hours and holiday access and ensuring more primary care appointment availability outside regular business hours. The Senate then passed a major condominium and cooperative associations bill, also 37-0, after extensive debate and multiple amendments. The measure extends deadlines for structural integrity reserve studies, adds flexibility for reserve funding and budgeting, tightens rules for managers and inspectors, limits certain requirements to buildings of three or more habitable stories, and extends the rescission period for condo purchases. Senators from both parties praised the bill’s sponsors for years of work responding to post-Surfside safety and affordability concerns. The longest and most contentious item was SB 7016/HB 1205 on constitutional amendment petition procedures. Sponsors said the bill responds to fraud and abuse in the citizen initiative process by tightening circulator rules, requiring faster submission of signed petitions, adding voter notification, increasing penalties, and shifting costs to sponsors. Opponents argued it would burden volunteers and make it harder for citizens to qualify initiatives. The chamber adopted a series of amendments, including changes to the petition-circulator threshold, volunteer protections, submission timing, invalid-signature investigation thresholds, and notice/cure provisions, while debate continued over whether the overall package would protect election integrity or suppress citizen-led amendments.

Transcript Highlights:

• COLLECTIVELY THESE PROGRAMS TOTAL 16 MILLION IN THE PRE-K-12 EDUCATION BUDGET.
• ACADEMIC STANDARDS AND THE DEPARTMENT ALSO ENSURES THAT THERE IS ACTUALLY THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EVIDENCE-BASED
• PRACTICES AND PROGRAMS SO THOUGH INDIVIDUALS WILL HAVE EVIDENCE-BASED READING INSTRUCTION THAT IS GROUNDED
• ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AND PROVIDING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING SO ONCE AGAIN THESE TEACHERS KNOW COLLECTIVELY
• AND COLLABORATIVELY HOW TO IMPLEMENT EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES AND PROGRAMS TO OUR MOST FRAGILE SCHOOLS

Keywords: 999, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• We are expanding this model to... ...more informed, evidence-based decisions.
• These are staff with decades of collective experience with PERC.
• The bill adjusts the type of evidence required to be submitted when challenging.
• The bill adjusts the type of evidence required to be submitted when challenging a voter's registration
• evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.

Summary: The committee began by suspending the five-day notice rule for Senate Gubernatorial Appointment 9066 and then heard confirmation testimony from Megan Matthews, director of the Washington State Office of Equity. Matthews described the office’s growth, its work with agencies and communities, and efforts on data, contracting, and statewide outreach. Senator Hasegawa raised concerns about the Office of Equity’s relationship to ethnic commissions and whether it should remain internally focused, while other members praised Matthews’ statewide presence. The committee also heard confirmation testimony for Women’s Commission appointees Reedy Miu Kapade and Kiana Daniels, both of whom emphasized their experience serving women and girls and their commitment to the commission’s work; both appointments were noted as coming up for a vote the following week. The committee then heard House Bill 2309, which would prohibit the civil service classification plan from requiring a postgraduate degree as the only way to show qualifications unless required by law. Supporters, including the sponsor, OFM, and public witnesses, said the bill would remove barriers to state employment and broaden applicant pools. House Bill 2249 would add certain Washington Technology Solutions network and security systems employees to civil service coverage; the sponsor said it would resolve a narrow inequity affecting about 20 workers, while WOTEC said it needed flexibility to recruit and retain technical talent and asked to be involved in further changes. Substitute House Bill 2411 would expand shared leave to employees affected by hate crimes or immigration enforcement actions involving themselves or family members; supporters cited a state worker detained at the border and said the bill would help employees through extraordinary hardships, while opponents warned about abuse and objected to extending benefits in immigration-related cases. Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1916, dealing with voter registration challenges and list maintenance, drew strong support from voting-rights groups and county election officials who said it would curb mass, bad-faith challenges and protect eligible voters, especially naturalized citizens, students, military members, and voters of color. The Secretary of State’s office and county auditors also raised concerns about ambiguity in parts of the bill, including who may challenge registrations and how deceased voters are removed from the rolls. House Bill 2417 would add a victim’s bill of rights to the Washington Code of Military Justice, aligning state military justice with federal protections; the Military Department and veterans advocates supported it as a consistency and fairness measure. Finally, the committee took executive action on Second Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1541, which changes the membership and selection criteria for the Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee, and advanced it to the Rules Committee on a due pass recommendation.

Transcript Highlights:

• President, I know in this chamber we collectively do not believe in creating unfunded mandates since
• President, I know in this chamber we collectively do not believe in creating unfunded mandates, and so
• Tarr: demonstrated competency and evidence-based literacy instruction for elementary licensure.
• Shifting our elementary literacy curriculum to a science-based approach means adopting evidence-based
• There's clear evidence of positive and significant improvements to ELA testing performance following

Keywords: 1212, all

Transcript Highlights:

• Where we have hearings at the beginning, we take evidence.
• What happens is they are approved by the PUC for collection of a certain amount.
• There's a time period when that collection happens, and then it falls off the bills.
• So we don't approve the instances where they stopped collecting that, but we do approve the initial collection
• So in the past year, PG&E, for example, had some of those expenses that were collected.

Keywords: 988, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• The data also helps the collective us understand where investments are needed.
• The data also helps the collective us understand where investments are needed.
• , for each step in the pathway, we determine a strength of evidence.
• We currently have eight strength of evidence criteria, ranging from unclear to very strong evidence.
• So each arrow indicates how strong the evidence is for that research question.

Bills: SB5911, SB5940, SB5942, SB5957

Keywords: children, youth, financial stability, care services, department of children and families, housing assistance, foster care, pilot program, social services, accountability, family services, state department, child welfare, homeless youth, youth homelessness, runaway youth, young adult homelessness, housing instability, family reunification, family stability

Transcript Highlights:

• up to 1% of the tax collections to cover administrative costs.
• Sex-separated housing is foundational evidence-based correctional practice.
• The Prison Rape Elimination Act was built on this evidence.
• The store retains this fee and the state collects sales tax on that fee.
• collection kits.

Summary: The Ways and Means Committee held a public hearing on multiple bills, beginning with a motion to suspend the five-day notice rule for a long list of Senate bills, which passed on a voice vote. The committee first heard Substitute Senate Bill 6026, a governor-request housing bill that would require cities and counties over 30,000 population to allow residential uses in commercial and mixed-use zones, limit mixed-use/ground-floor commercial requirements in some areas, and allow added height where such requirements are imposed. The lieutenant governor testified strongly in support, arguing the bill would add needed housing capacity without requiring ground-floor retail burdens. The hearing on SB 6026 was then suspended so the committee could move through the agenda. The committee then heard Senate Bill 6294, a broad local government finance measure with eight parts, including expanded uses for certain REET revenues, a new county public utility tax, a new local sales tax for children and family services, expanded housing-related tax uses, changes to county levy structure, longer lid lift periods, and expanded use of rental car tax revenue. Local government, housing, and public health witnesses largely supported the bill, emphasizing flexibility for affordable housing, rental assistance, children’s services, and county fiscal stability. Opponents, including wireless industry, water/sewer district, auto dealer, realtors, energy, and cannabis representatives, objected to specific tax provisions as regressive, costly, or likely to raise consumer prices. Several witnesses requested amendments, including adding public health clinic funding and flood recovery language from House bills. The committee also heard Substitute Senate Bill 5400 on local news sustainability, which would create a state grant program funded by a surcharge on large search engines and social media platforms to support journalism jobs and the Murrow Fellowship program. News organizations, the League of Women Voters, open government advocates, and local journalism supporters testified in favor, saying local news is essential to civic life and that the bill would help sustain reporting without using general fund dollars. Technology industry representatives opposed the bill, arguing it unfairly singles out tech companies and could face legal challenges. The committee then heard Senate Bill 6211, which would let opt-in GMA jurisdictions impose REET-2 without voter approval; cities and counties supported it as a parity and infrastructure funding measure, while Realtors opposed the loss of voter approval. Senate Bill 5650, authorizing local cannabis excise taxes, drew support from some local officials but strong opposition from cannabis businesses, which argued Washington’s cannabis taxes are already too high and drive sales to the illicit market. Senate Bill 6033, waiving penalties and interest for taxpayers who failed to collect new sales tax on certain services, was supported by NFIB as a compliance and fairness measure. Senate Bill 6297, exempting temporary staffing services for nonprofit behavioral health providers from sales tax, drew strong support from behavioral health organizations citing workforce shortages and unsustainable costs. Finally, Senate Bill 6343, extending and expanding tax relief for disaster-damaged property and repairs, was presented as aid for flood recovery; local officials testified in support. No final committee votes on the bills were taken in the portion of the meeting provided.

Transcript Highlights:

• What other evidence-based interventions?
• it's making a difference, others where it may make the contrary point and that it's, the evidence. evidence
• What are the evidence-based programs? That is something that's talked about a lot.
• The evidence-based program is human connection.
• So I don't walk around with a list of which evidence-based programs work best.

Keywords: 988, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• Subdivision 7, evidence, information obtained or collected by a law enforcement agency in violation of
• Subdivision 7, evidence, information obtained or collected by a law enforcement agency in violation of
• Subdivision 7, evidence, information obtained or collected by a law enforcement agency in violation of
• Subdivision 7, evidence, information obtained or collected by a law enforcement agency in violation of
• Subdivision 7, evidence, information obtained or collected by a law enforcement agency in violation of

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• bill requires that the property appraisers provide a value adjustment board petitioner with their evidence
• That a petitioner must provide a written request to receive that evidence.
• They have to collect at least $10 million in TDT, or they are a fiscally constrained county.
• They survive on the fees that they're able to collect in their airports.
• And so now we're hitting—I don't know. on the fees that they're able to collect in their airports.

Summary: The Ways and Means Committee met on April 16, 2025, with one agenda item: PCB WMC-2502, the committee’s tax package. Chair Duggan presented the bill as a broad tax measure covering sales tax, tourist development taxes, ad valorem/VAB procedures, affordable housing property tax changes, tangible personal property, special assessments, fuel taxes, communication services taxes, corporate income tax updates, pari-mutuel/card room taxes, local incentives, and a redistribution of horse industry trust fund money. He also noted emergency rulemaking authority for the Department of Revenue and estimated a recurring state impact of $34.6 million in FY 2025-26. Members questioned several provisions, including the aviation fuel tax repeal, the delay of the natural gas fuel tax, the extension of the local communication services tax freeze, the charitable trust corporate income tax clarification, the reduction in card room taxes, and the affordable housing changes tied to the Live Local Act. Public testimony included support from airlines, UPS, child care management, and others, while the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association opposed the lifeguard/TDT change, the Florida Association of Counties and Florida League of Cities opposed the missing-middle exemption changes, and local government representatives raised concerns about revenue impacts and the loss of local opt-out authority. The committee also adopted Amendment 1 by Representative Rizzo, which limits certain special assessments on RV parks when based on square footage. During debate, members split on some provisions but generally supported the package, with comments focused on aviation competitiveness, preschool assessment relief, lifeguard funding, affordable housing, and the horse industry funding shift. Representative Duggan closed by emphasizing that the bill was only the beginning of the process and would continue through conference and floor consideration. The committee then voted 16-1 to report PCB WMC-2502 favorably, with Representative Alvarez voting no.

Transcript Highlights:

• to be more strategic with how we're introducing evidence so we're not focusing on deception, but we're
• focusing on corroborating the value of the evidence to put forth investigations that have a higher degree
• The Supreme Court says that we can use false presentations of evidence.
• When that happens, evidence becomes contaminated, and uninformed decisions are made.
• When that happens, evidence becomes contaminated, and uninformed decisions are made.

Bills: HB1982, HB2156

Keywords: Indian rights, treaty rights, convictions, tribal members, criminal justice reform, Attorney General, AG investigators, limited authority peace officer, peace officer certification, economic crimes, financial crimes, white-collar crime, fraud investigation, search warrant service, electronic service, business records, law enforcement authority, criminal background check, training requirements, Washington RCW

Transcript Highlights:

• We know that ed tech platforms are collecting far more information than students may realize, including
• So we have a solution, AB 1159, that would ensure that information collected from any California student
• But there is still no California or federal law focused on the ed tech companies who collect personal
• The institutions handle student-related information received directly from institutions or collected
• So what evidence led us to this policy?

Keywords: 987, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• a part of that collective action.
• The clarification improves access to solid evidence-based information.
• There is nothing new about the data that we're asking to collect.
• The Civil Rights Department, Department of Justice already collects this data.
• Now, 15 years later, right now, they're collecting about $44 million in property taxes.

Keywords: 988, house, all