Transcript Highlights:

• access to credit, and invests in<00:08:38.560><c> rural</c><00:08:38.959><c> America.
• </c><02:36:43.359><c> Just</c> additional auditing requirements.
• Just additional auditing requirements.
• It strengthens auditing, data programs.
• </c> audits and tax prosecution. audits and tax prosecution.

Transcript Highlights:

• exclude somebody when it puts real money in their pockets on saying, okay, well, I get the federal tax credit
• Thank you for giving me credit for carrying it last year.
• That's the audit bill that we tabled. I'll second. That's the audit bill that we tabled. Mm-hmm.
• The audit? Mr. Chair, the audit bill, we tabled permanently. That was the motion.
• And so the bill helps the state of New Mexico doing a single audit, and it really clarifies that.

Bills: SB241 , SB145 , SB241 , SB145 , HB2

Committees: Senate Senate Finance , Senate House Appropriations & Finance

Keywords: child care, child care assistance, child care subsidy, early childhood education, early childhood care, daycare, preschool, pre-K, Head Start, Early Head Start, Children's Code, early childhood education and care department, ECECD, child care facilities, licensed child care, registered child care, copayments, waitlist, subsidy, federal poverty level

Transcript Highlights:

• And Representative Ingen, I've seen newspaper articles featuring the birth of Everett, and You credit
• They put third-party compliance for pregnancy resource centers where they were audited by foundations
• Pro-choice audited these places and said they were super impressed.
• Are the same audits happening at Planned Parenthood? Auditing has happened.
• But the fact is the system had Controls to have audits for compliance.

Transcript Highlights:

• Exams of giant credit card issuers. Unlawful junk fees canceled.
• directors succeed in killing the CFPB, it's like putting a sign on every checking account, every credit
• Off by giant credit card companies that are charging illegal junk fees.
• Are they still audited?
• I don't know why you don't take the credit everybody else in Washington, D.C. does.

Bills: SB257

Committee: Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee

Transcript Highlights:

• That includes the expansion of the Family Empowerment and Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Programs, the
• It also oversees and coordinates audits and monitoring conducted by the Auditor General and U.S.
• So the 524,000 number is the all—the all the choice programs under the FES tax credit umbrella.
• So the 524,000 number is the all the choice programs under the FES tax credit umbrella.
• So that would be FESOA, FESUA tax credit, all of those, and the PEP. That included in that, right?

Summary: The Pre-K through 12 Budget Subcommittee held its first interim meeting, took roll, and established a quorum. Members introduced themselves, many noting backgrounds in education, school boards, local government, or parenting, and Chair Jenna Persons-Mulicka outlined the committee’s goal of building the fiscal year 2025-26 Pre-K-12 budget. She also reviewed the fiscal year 2024-25 education budget, noting that the Pre-K-12 portion totals about $21 billion, with the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) as the largest driver, along with major funding for VPK, school readiness, and school recognition. She explained that federal COVID relief funds have ended and that recent school choice legislation has affected budget structure. Commissioner Manny Diaz and department leaders then gave overviews of their divisions. Diaz highlighted Florida’s education rankings, record graduation rate, progress monitoring, expanded school choice participation, charter school growth, and teacher salary investments, while emphasizing a focus on literacy, math, and early learning. Carrie Miller described the Division of Early Learning’s school readiness and VPK programs, their funding, eligibility, accountability systems, and the importance of kindergarten readiness. Paul Burns outlined the Division of Public Schools’ work on educator quality, literacy, standards, certification, family outreach, federal programs, and school improvement. Suzanne Pridgen reviewed finance and operations functions, including budget management, FEFP calculations, grants, procurement, transportation, and emergency management. Adam Emerson described parental choice programs, including scholarships, charter schools, schools of hope, virtual education, and home education. Darren Norris detailed the Office of Safe Schools’ responsibilities for risk assessments, compliance inspections, threat management, grants, and training created after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas tragedy. Members asked questions about several issues, including whether the Safe Schools office recommends changes to the school safety grant distribution formula, whether early learning eligibility should shift from federal poverty level to state median income, how scholarship payments are verified to avoid funding students who return to public school, and whether daily attendance systems could improve funding accuracy. Other questions addressed hurricane-related survey disruptions, VPK provider reimbursement rates and instructional hours, teacher salary increases, school start time costs, and how voucher schools handle IEP accommodations. Department officials generally said some issues remain under review, supported moving school readiness eligibility to SMI, noted that scholarship and enrollment data are cross-checked and adjusted when needed, and said progress monitoring now helps schools support mobile students. On school safety, officials said exemptions are allowed in statute for some items but not for classroom doors, and that district-specific conditions matter. No votes were taken and no formal actions were reported beyond receiving presentations and discussion.

Transcript Highlights:

• called a single audit.
• called a single audit.
• called a single audit.
• Audit and Review Committee.
• Audit and Review Committee.

Bills: HB1073 , HB1128 , HB1316 , HB1408 , HB1591 , HB1592 , HB1634 , HB1906 , HB1960 , HB2073 , HB2145 , HB2248 , HB2266 , HB2301 , HB2333 , HB2365 , HB2401 , HB2416 , HB2421 , HB2438 , HB2474 , HB2475 , HB2515 , HB2517 , HB2523 , HB2548 , HB2597 , HB2637 , HB2640 , HB2660 , HB2675 , HB2685 , HB2720 , HB1742 , HB2104 , HB2186 , HB2405 , HB2557 , HB2593 , HB2636

Committee: House Appropriations

Keywords: national guard, military support, defense, state security, veteran services, child care, workforce standards, education, child development, training requirements, postsecondary education, homelessness, foster youth, education access, support programs, community preservation, development authorities, funding, local governance, state resources

Transcript Highlights:

• This committee substitute also requires a yearly audit of the information held in DPS's intelligence
• The new yearly audit requires the department to closely monitor the information stored in the database
• Finally, I do also want to raise a question of whether there are any procedures to audit the information
• So they have background and credit history going on the register.

Bills: SB2199 , SB2200 , SB2201 , SB2949 , SB2332

Committee: Senate Border Security

Transcript Highlights:

• Our ground, air, maritime, and special missions unit have all been credited with life-saving actions.
• First, you will see a request of $4.5 million for a voting system automated independent audit program
• Most counties in Florida are conducting a 100% post-election audit, but about two dozen, mostly small
• counties, still conduct manual audits, which only involve a 20% audit of the precincts.
• So, no, these funds will only be for a grant to procure the automated audit system.

Summary: The committee met to hear the Governor’s proposed budget for the Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development silo and to consider one bill. The Governor’s Office outlined a $117.4 billion state budget, including $18.3 billion for the TED area, with major allocations for the Department of Transportation, Commerce, Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, State, Military Affairs, Emergency Management, and the Florida State Guard. Agency heads then presented their priorities, including housing and disaster recovery funds at Commerce; pay, vehicles, aviation, and data systems at Highway Safety; facility modernization, recruitment, retention, and maintenance at Military Affairs; election audit, conservation lab, and historic preservation funding at State; transportation, aviation, seaport, and safety investments at DOT; and emergency response, flood mitigation, grant systems, and alerting at Emergency Management. Members asked questions about Visit Florida’s private match, FHP’s role in immigration enforcement and body cameras, National Guard deployment tempo and staffing, State Guard staffing and facilities, arts grant rules, rail funding, and the number of detainees at the Everglades detention site. Several notable positions were expressed during questioning. Visit Florida said it met and exceeded its private match requirement and described the match as important to ensuring value from public dollars. The Highway Patrol said its aviation assets have been used more heavily in immigration enforcement and that in-vehicle camera systems were a higher priority than body cameras at present. The National Guard and State Guard both emphasized heavy operational demands, readiness needs, and the importance of additional funding for facilities, personnel, and equipment. The Department of State said its audit funding would help counties move to automated post-election audits and that its arts grant rule changes were intended to create more consistent scoring rather than reduce access. The committee then took up CS/SB 48 on accessory dwelling units. The bill requires local governments to allow property owners to voluntarily create ADUs, preserves homestead treatment for the primary residence portion, limits parking restrictions, and extends density bonus incentives to housing for military families receiving basic housing allowance. An amendment was adopted removing reusable tenant screening reports and clarifying that compliant ADUs are allowed by right without a separate hearing or permit. Testimony from the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association supported the bill, especially the long-term rental requirement, as a tool to help workforce housing. The committee reported the bill favorably by a roll call vote, and then adjourned.

Transcript Highlights:

• </c> Over this time it has affected my credit Over this time it has affected my credit um<00:10:49.400
• It's affecting credit, to collections.
• And it moves the biannual audit of that data to an annual audit and just ensures there's reporting requirements
• of that data to an the bi-annual audit of that data to an annual<00:41:29.320><c> audit</c> annual audit
• </c> requires the audits. requires the audits.

Committee: Senate Judiciary and Public Safety

Transcript Highlights:

• The biggest problem, however, is for the students with the lowest credit worthiness.
• The biggest problem, however, is for the students with the lowest credit worthiness.
• non-credit, credit programs, and ultimately graduating.
• As was mentioned, there's credit for prior learning that could advance this.
• She has neither a local credit history nor a guarantor to ensure her housing.

Summary: The Assembly Higher Education Committee held an oversight hearing on how federal actions are affecting California higher education, with opening remarks from the chair and members emphasizing the importance of state-federal shared governance and the need to protect access, affordability, and campus diversity. The first panel included leaders from the CSU, University of the Pacific, California Community Colleges, and UC, who described broad impacts from federal grant terminations, changes to student aid, loan limits, visa and immigration policy, and proposed reductions to research support. Testimony focused on the elimination of Grad PLUS loans, caps on Parent PLUS and Pell-related changes, the loss or suspension of hundreds of grants, and the resulting harm to student support services, research, workforce pipelines, food assistance, and health care training. UC and CSU representatives warned of major losses in research funding, indirect cost reimbursement, and student opportunities, while community college leaders highlighted uncertainty around federal grants and the need to maintain services for low-income, first-generation, undocumented, and other vulnerable students. Committee members asked how the state could respond, including through intersegmental partnerships, dual enrollment, transfer pathways, and support for basic needs and nutrition programs. Witnesses said California could help by sustaining financial aid, protecting minority-serving institution programs, and investing in research, housing, and workforce development. Several speakers stressed that federal changes were creating instability for students and campuses, and that the effects would likely be long-lasting, especially in health care, teaching, STEM, and social work pipelines. A second panel then focused on equitable access. The California Student Aid Commission described state efforts such as the $3.9 billion investment in aid programs, the Cal Grant system, the Dream Act, and possible reforms to better serve adult learners, foster youth, undocumented students, and students with dependents. The Los Angeles Community College District reported that federal cuts and policy shifts are discouraging students from applying for aid, threatening TRIO and MSI/HSI-funded services, and reducing support for basic needs, counseling, and workforce programs. The Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities and the CSU Academic Senate echoed concerns about FAFSA confusion, international student restrictions, grant losses, and the erosion of equity-focused programs. No formal votes or legislative actions were taken during the hearing; the committee primarily received testimony and discussed possible state responses.

Transcript Highlights:

• KDE goes in, they do a management audit.
• uh what house they do a management audit uh what house bill<00:15:19.399><c> 298</c><00:15:20.120><c
• </c><01:15:35.239><c> hours</c> course enrollments and credit hours course enrollments and credit hours
• </c><01:15:59.360><c> hours</c> from like 30 to 40% of the credit hours from like 30 to 40% of the credit
• </c><01:16:04.239><c> hours</c> um that ends up in credit hours um that ends up in credit hours generated

Summary: The Senate Education Committee met with a quorum and first considered two concurrent resolutions. SCR 76, sponsored by Sen. Amanda Bledsoe, would create a Kentucky School for the Deaf Governance Task Force to examine the school’s future governance and its relationship with the Kentucky Department of Education. Bledsoe described the school’s long history and said the task force would give the small deaf-school community more voice. The committee adopted the resolution unanimously with favorable expression. The committee then took up SCR 131, sponsored by Sen. Max Wise, to continue the Efficient and Effective Districts Task Force from 2024. Wise said the prior task force met about 10 times and focused on student achievement and district policy, and the new version would continue that work as a legislature-only task force. The resolution passed unanimously with favorable expression. Members next considered HB 240 on primary school promotion. Rep. Truitt explained that the bill would require students who are not ready in kindergarten to repeat kindergarten, while a committee substitute softened the approach by allowing a school to hold a child back in kindergarten but requiring action in first grade. He said the bill aligns with existing reading-screening efforts and is intended to strengthen early literacy foundations. The committee adopted the substitute and passed the bill unanimously with favorable expression; Sen. Williams briefly explained his support as favoring performance-based advancement. The committee also approved HB 298, which would change the identification of schools for comprehensive support and improvement from every three years to annually, require KDE recommendations during management audits, add professional development in reading and math, and require effective instructional resources. The committee substitute also allowed districts with multiple CSI schools to contract for a turnaround vendor. The bill additionally carried employee-misconduct provisions from prior sessions, including disclosure requirements for applicants; the only change discussed was removing the word “investigation” from one disclosure section. HB 298 passed unanimously with favorable expression, and the committee also adopted a title amendment. Finally, the committee heard HB 424 on employment at public postsecondary institutions. Rep. Tipton said the bill would require performance and productivity reviews for faculty at least every four years, clarify appointment and removal authority for presidents at certain institutions, and expand “cause” for dismissal to include failure to meet performance and productivity requirements. Dr. Ray Horton, speaking for faculty groups, proposed a small substitute that would tie any performance measures to existing employment contracts to preserve academic integrity and avoid unintended changes to tenure processes. Members discussed how tenure works at Kentucky universities, and the committee was still in the middle of considering the proposed substitute when the transcript ended.

Transcript Highlights:

• c> team's</c> Coach Weeks credits the team's Coach Weeks credits the team's championship<00:16:58.200
• So, this is going to make auditing of these funds, you know, they're going instead of having to audit
• </c> funding and and some of the auditing funding and and some of the auditing processes.<01:30:38.880
• </c> they're going instead of having to audit they're going instead of having to audit two<01:32:09.080
• </c><01:32:14.800><c> So</c> the auditing. So the auditing.

Transcript Highlights:

• Next thing I'll note before I hand over to Lori is that their last audit contained 211 findings, most
• Representative Dow, this is a credit— sorry, Mr. Lou, direct us to the line, please.
• So I'm going to take us to page two on the budget quick facts, and I'm looking at the FY 24 audits.
• To my knowledge, in the review of the most recent audit, there were no findings that required them to
• I don't recall that as we reviewed the audit.

Committee: House House Appropriations & Finance

Transcript Highlights:

• I mean, we get audited 12 to 14 times a year.
• We get audited 12 to 14 times a year, between the local, state, internal, and federal.
• How many audits do we get, Jamie? Can you talk about that? So many.
• , by an outside audit firm.
• An independent audit, for example, by an outside audit firm, reconcile the audit comments and come back

Committee: Senate Transportation

Summary: The Senate Transportation Committee held an informational hearing on the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s 2026 draft business plan and next steps for the project. Chair Cortese opened by noting major changes since the 2024 plan, including new leadership, a bottoms-up review, scope changes in the Central Valley, loss of federal funds, and renewed interest in private investment and value capture. The Authority’s CEO, Ian Chaudhary, presented the project as moving into a construction and track-laying phase, citing progress on Central Valley structures, right-of-way acquisition, utility relocations, and a new procurement for track and systems. He said the plan reflects a more disciplined, optimized approach, with the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment targeted for revenue service around 2033 and the broader Phase 1 corridor envisioned as commercially viable through ancillary revenues, public-private partnerships, and future private financing. Committee members questioned the Authority about station relocations, single-tracking, tax increment financing, utility relocation authority, transparency, and the feasibility of private financing. Chaudhary said the Merced and Bakersfield station locations were still under discussion with local governments and that no contracts had been finalized. He defended the reduced scope and single-track approach as a just-in-time strategy to avoid overbuilding, while maintaining high-speed standards. He also said the Authority was exploring land value capture, broadband, energy, and other corridor-based revenue sources, but acknowledged that some tools would require legislative action and that private financing options were still being evaluated. Several senators expressed support for the project but raised concerns about permitting delays, local opposition, constitutional and statutory limits, and the need for stronger accountability. The Legislative Analyst’s Office and the High-Speed Rail Inspector General then gave critical assessments of the draft plan. LAO staff said the plan assumes major statutory changes, understates risk, lacks transparency about scope changes, and may not fully fund even the smaller Merced-to-Bakersfield segment once borrowing costs and other uncertainties are considered. Inspector General Ben Belknap said the draft plan does not comply with newer statutory requirements in SB 198 and AB 377, citing three main deficiencies: unauthorized scope changes to the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment, an inadequate funding plan that omits financing costs, and missing procurement milestone dates. He said the Authority’s presentation obscures the true cost and schedule impacts of the project changes, and that incomplete reporting limits legislative oversight. The Authority responded that it would address the OIG’s findings in the final business plan, and committee members indicated they expected a written response on compliance issues.

Transcript Highlights:

• I mean, we get audited 12 to 14 times a year.
• We get audited 12 to 14 times a year—between the local, state, internal, and federal.
• How many audits do we get, Jamie? Can you talk about that? So many.
• , by an outside audit firm.
• An independent audit, for example, by an outside audit firm, reconcile the audit comments and come back

Committee: Senate Transportation

Transcript Highlights:

• in the Chairman's name to Senate Bill 1671 removes certain ADG reporting requirements relating to audits
• Lastly, it requires the ADG to submit a statement that indicates the number of independent audit results
• the Chairman's name to Senate Bill 1671 remove certain ADG reporting requirements relating to the audits
• Lastly, requires the ADG to submit a statement that indicates the number of independent audit results
• The department has agreed to implement all audit recommendations and has already made meaningful and

Bills: SB1206 , SB1254 , SB1290 , SB1421 , SB1432 , SB1515 , SB1563 , SB1641 , SB1649 , SB1670 , SB1671 , SB1747

Committees: House Commerce , House House Commerce Committee of Reference

Keywords: storm damage, catastrophic storm, hail damage, wind damage, roof repair, roof replacement, post-storm repairs, insurance claim, property and casualty insurance, adjuster, public adjuster, contractor licensing, homeowner protections, deductible waiver, insurance fraud prevention, storm chaser, residential construction contract, workers' compensation, joint check, claim solicitation

Transcript Highlights:

• If you have one that has been audited and they're not able to complete the project because of an audit
• If you have one that has been audited and they're not able to complete the project because of an audit
• He said he does not fully agree with the idea that all debits and credits can simply be matched and said

Committee: All ALC-PEER

Transcript Highlights:

• to certificated state credits after an award.
• Although the CPUC does have an existing internal audit office, those reports are rarely made public.
• For example, over the last 30 years, the CPUC has been audited by the state auditor less than once per
• AB 731 will ensure more equitable access and enable students to accumulate college credits to get on
• This bill would require that the California State University system. audit their available land, and

Transcript Highlights:

• It will count for high school credit and college credit, but we don't hold that against them if they
• It will count for high school credit and college credit, but we don't hold that against them if they
• and college credit high school credit and college credit but<04:59:23.878><c> we</c><04:59:24.000><c
• </c> they also need it for high school credit they also need it for high school credit so<04:59:27.680
• </c> maybe return something for store credit maybe return something for store credit but<05:14:21.200

Summary: The Finance Division 2 work session first took up HB 506, a bill dealing with the return of seized firearms. Members discussed how the measure would shift background-check processing for firearm returns through the Department of Safety, while the physical firearms would still remain with local police unless State Police had taken custody. The department said the bill would change which cases come to it, and members clarified that the bill concerns the background-check decision rather than possession of the firearms. The committee then voted OTP on HB 506 FN by a 7-0 roll call. The committee next discussed HB 671, establishing a kindergarten literacy readiness program. Department of Education staff explained that the bill grew out of a COVID-era Waterford contract that provided home-based early literacy support for families using federal relief funds, at a cost of about $600,000 per year, but that the program ended when those funds expired. Members raised concerns that the bill’s $1 appropriation was not realistic, that the prior program lacked sufficient outcome data, and that the references to ESSA tier-one benchmarks were unclear. The department said it was conducting a broader literacy needs assessment and updating the state literacy plan, including data from the zero-to-five range, K-5, and dyslexia-related work. Waterford representatives described the program as an early-literacy, pre-K readiness service for children ages zero to five, originally designed to work in homes with computers and internet provided where needed, and later expanded in some settings such as daycares and pre-K classrooms. They said the program used assessments at the beginning and end, had served hundreds of children, and was intended to support family engagement and kindergarten readiness. Despite that testimony, members remained concerned about funding and the lack of clear results, and one member moved to retain the bill for more information. The discussion ended with the bill retained rather than advanced.

Transcript Highlights:

• </c><00:03:14.480><c> border</c> increases the income tax credit border increases the income tax credit
• </c><00:24:16.640><c> I</c><00:24:16.880><c> think</c><00:24:17.039><c> are</c> credit tax credits uh
• which I think are credit tax credits uh which I think are so<00:24:17.600><c> important</c><00:24:18.559
• The Legislative Audit Commission will be meeting in this room at that time.
• 01:14:18.560><c> be</c> legislative audit commission will be legislative audit commission will be meeting

Committee: Senate Taxes