Monthly Archives: March 2017

WRIGHTSVILLE -- Kenneth Janski, after spending about 15 of the past 17 years in Arkansas prisons, said he volunteered to extend his current sentence.

Janski opted to remain in a faith-based program aimed at preventing repeat prison stays. He could have withdrawn to complete a substance-abuse course, which the Arkansas Board of Parole ruled in July 2016 was the last prerequisite for his release.

"I chose to stay here until I graduate," said Janski, who is in his fourth prison stint since early 2000, according to prison records. His most recent conviction was on domestic battery and drug charges in 2013, records show.

Janski is one of about 200 male inmates participating in Pathway to Freedom, an 18-month Christianity-focused rehabilitation program at the Arkansas Department of Correction's Hawkins Unit on its Wrightsville campus.

People who graduate from the program have been shown to be less likely to return to prison, Department of Correction spokesman Solomon Graves said.

A Little Rock-based nonprofit administers the pre-release program, one of several aimed at preparing prisoners to re-enter society and thus reduce the number of them who return to prison after their releases. The state's 51.8 percent recidivism rate, according to Graves, means more than one of two people released from prison returns within three years.

Pathway to Freedom does not have comparable recidivism data from its six-year run. Of 115 program graduates released from prison, about 15 percent were jailed again, which is far lower than the statewide average, program director Scott McLean said. However, McLean noted, not all of those graduates have been out for three years.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was allowed to observe the program in action, on a day when a group of men from multiple Northwest Arkansas churches traveled to the prison unit for a regular seminar. Officials did not restrict access to the prisoners or their living spaces.

Walter E. Hussman Jr., the newspaper's publisher, serves on the nonprofit's board of directors. When the program was on the cusp of folding last year because of a lack of funding, Hussman led efforts to save it after reading an article in the newspaper, McLean said.

Many inmates, including Janski, spoke before and after a worship leader gave a prisoner-targeted sermon, part of a tightly packed schedule structured around the theme of the day, reconciliation.

Pathway to Freedom, which the state sanctions but does not fund, is one of multiple pre-release programs in Arkansas aimed at curbing recidivism. McLean said he would like to add a stronger workforce-based component to the program to increase its appeal for inmates.

Janski, whose body bears tattoos of swastikas and a White Aryan Resistance pyramid, according to Department of Correction records, said the culture in the Hawkins unit is far more subdued than in general population prisons.

"It's like life on the streets times 100," Janski said of the typical prison experience. "Everybody is trying to get over on one another."

Minutes later, Janski danced while a visiting Christian band performed songs of worship. He stood, smiling, in the front row.

"I wanted more," said Janski, who applied five times for the program before he was accepted. "[There is] not much rehabilitation in ADC except what you take advantage of yourself."

McLean formed the nonprofit in 2011 after the national Prison Fellowship shut down its InnerChange Freedom Initiative in Arkansas and other states as funding declined. McLean had moved to Arkansas from Kansas to run that program.

Formerly a work-release site, the low-security unit includes three barrack-style living areas. Cots and bunk beds are clustered together, away from a bank of toilets that have no privacy dividers.

Two of the 75-member barracks are dedicated to inmates actively participating in the program. The third is for new enrollees, as well as graduates awaiting transfer to other programs or other units. A computer lab, library, cafeteria and health care station are spread throughout the facility.

Pathway to Freedom leases the site at no cost, McLean said.

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2015, Pathway to Freedom spent $444,000 to run the program, according to its tax filing. About $280,000 of that was spent on salaries, including the $82,000 McLean received.

The Department of Correction covers the costs to feed, house and provide health care to inmates in the program, just as it does for all state prisoners, at a rate of roughly $60 per day, Graves said.

Costs to run the program -- which includes educational lessons on entrepreneurship, anger management, finances, parenting and other topics -- fall to the nonprofit.

Pathway to Freedom picks its enrollees from volunteer applicants. People from all religious backgrounds can enroll, but classes are taught -- and the broader messaging stems from -- a Christ-focused perspective, McLean said.

Since its inception, 893 inmates have enrolled in Pathway to Freedom -- including those currently in the program -- and 291 have completed all 18 months, McLean said.

"We don't make it easy," he said. "You have to give up a lot."

About one in three program participants drop out or are kicked out shortly after they arrive, McLean said.

Inmates who participate must make sacrifices -- such as losing television-viewing privileges until they graduate -- and all must hold jobs of some sort.

Eligibility is not solely based on an inmate's crime. A medium- or lower-custody classification -- which is based on factors such as disciplinary records, length of stay and escape history -- is one of the primary requirements to join.

"A guy who tried to kill a policeman can be here and be part of this program," said Mark Warner, deputy warden of the Wrightsville prison.

For one year after their release, graduates are connected with churches, program volunteers and mentors who try to help them re-enter society.

Last July, the Parole Board told Janski that he would earn release after finishing a 12-month program focused on drug and alcohol abuse, said John Felts, chairman of the Board.

Janski's decision to remain in Pathway to Freedom delayed him from taking that course. He can request that the Parole Board reconsider its decision after he completes the faith-based program -- which includes substance abuse education in its curriculum -- but there is no guarantee the program will be accepted as a substitute.

If not, when Janski graduates in April, he'll still face having to take that yearlong class.

"The reason that is the case is because it's a religious-based program, and we've been advised by the [attorney general's] office and [Department of Correction] folks that we cannot mandate a program like that," Felts said. "Even though they request it, we cannot mandate that."

Multiple inmates in the program have informed parole officers that they wish to complete Pathway to Freedom before being paroled, McLean said.

Tyrone Hampton, in his eighth prison stay since February 1991, said he recently told a parole officer of his wish to complete the program before he's released. The Parole Board hasn't decided his case yet.

"I don't think the way that I thought," Hampton said of how the program influenced him. "It took me from being a gang-banger to a disciple of Christ."

Hampton is serving a 25-year prison sentence stemming from a 2010 conviction of possessing a controlled substance. He was sentenced as a habitual offender. Hampton said the substance was methamphetamine and that he intended to sell it.

Dating to the early 1990s, Hampton has been convicted on carnal abuse, and several burglary and theft charges, according to his inmate records.

"I wanted things quick and easy," Hampton said.

Northwest Arkansas churchgoers toured the unit during the March 10 seminar and helped lead religion-based sessions. Volunteers facilitate the seminars eight times a year, McLean said.

"We all need a second chance in life" said 56-year-old Steve Sanchez, a first-time volunteer who worships at Harvest Time church in Fort Smith. "I've done a lot of wrong in my life. I just was lucky and didn't get caught."

Grant Nesbit, a part-time worship leader at Harvest Time, led a half-hour sermon. "I'm surprised they let me come back [to speak] because I'm liable to say anything," he said before removing the microphone from its stand and beginning his session.

Nesbit drew from Revelation 3:16, which in the King James Bible says, "So then because thou art lukewarm ... I will spue thee out of my mouth."

Nesbit urged his audience to not be "lukewarm" or "apathetic" and to fully embrace God.

At times, he used humor to connect, such as when he asked members of the group to raise their hands if they cry.

"If you lie, you fry," he said to laughter. "Get your hands up, babies."

Nesbit, who said he was imprisoned at one point in his life, told members of his audience that he wanted to update them on what's going on in the world.

He said he is disgusted by politics, protesters, modern music and the way young people seem to be attached to their cellphones. He then shared his displeasure about teenagers congregating at malls, saying they sometimes bump into him as a form of intimidation.

"I love God, and I will lay hands on you," he said in mock response before joking about striking the teenagers -- whom he called "little punks" -- in their faces with his knee.

Nesbit told the prisoners that he didn't travel from Fort Smith to "patronize" or "baby" them during his session.

"You need me to kick you in the ask, not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country," Nesbit said, adding about his flirtation with profanity: "That scared the leaders."

He later repeated the famous line from President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address with the word "God" in place of "country" before closing the talk with a prayer.

Graves, who said he heard portions of the sermon, said a "greater level of frankness" is required when addressing inmates who don't want to listen to someone they feel is manipulating them.

"That's what makes the program successful," he said.

McLean said jailhouse sermons must strike a balance between being "firm and loving."

"You're not going to come in here and play patty-cake," he said. "They're not going to hear you."

Nesbit's audience laughed, clapped and was responsive throughout the talk. They then moved into smaller groups for a discussion about reconciliation.

An inmate in one of the sessions volunteered that he had recently written a letter to his son, whom he had abandoned, and asked for forgiveness. He said he also sent a letter to his father, asking to know why he was abandoned as a child -- "What was wrong with me?" -- but he did not receive a response.

The church volunteer leading the discussion praised the inmate for reaching out to his son and breaking a multigenerational pattern.

A Section on 03/19/2017

Print Headline: Program sets inmates on new path; 18-month Christianity-based effort aims to reduce recidivism

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Program sets Arkansas inmates on new path; Christianity-based effort aims to reduce recidivism - Arkansas Online

[Ed. Note: To see exactly what this former Reagan insider has to say about Trump and the fiscal threats from politics and the debt ceiling, David Stockman is sending out a copy of his bookTrumped! A Nation on the Brink of Ruin And How to Bring It Backto any American willing to listen before it is too late. To learn how to get your free copyCLICK HERE.]

Speaker Ryans Obamacare repeal and replace plan, as Ive been predicting, is a complete fiscal disaster.

Not only will it add $1.1 trillion to the Federal deficit over the next decade, but, more importantly, it reforms exactly nothing.

It leaves Obamas big Medicaid expansion virtually in place, swaps one kind of tax credit for another in the individual insurance market and leaves the huge, perverse tax subsidy amounting to upwards of $350 billion per year for employer plans completely untouched.

This latter point exemplifies the Profiles in Cowardice that suffuses the Ryan Plan; and shows that if the legislation ever does make it through the House and Senate, it will cost every penny as much as Obamacare when all the vote getting deals are finally done.

From a fiscal perspective, the Ryan plan starts $1.1 trillion in the hole on a ten-year basis because it repeals, appropriately, the individual and employer mandates and the Obamacare taxes on providers, high cost plans, medical devices and high income taxpayers.

The mandates would have generated nearly $300 billion in fines over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and upwards of $800 billion from the Obama tax grabs.

So the new plan is bleeding $1.1 trillion in red ink before the black ink is dry on the remainder of its 123 pages.

Likewise, an earlier draft of the Ryan plan provoked an outcry from fiscal hawks in the Freedom Caucus and Republican Study group because it established a new entitlement in the guise of reform.

In typical fashion, however, the revised plan puts a fig leaf over Ryans age-based tax credit entitlement by eliminating Bill Gates eligibility for a $4,000 tax credit (hes 61) along with a few million other American households in the super-affluent tier.

I doubt, however, whether anyone who can do 5th grade math will be fooled by Ryans double shuffle. The new provisions still amount to a massive tax credit entitlement that in some ways is for more profligate than Obamas health exchange premium subsidies.

In theory, upwards of 95% of households are eligible to claim some or all of these tax credits which range from $2,000 to $4,000 per person based on age brackets. Thats a multi-trillion entitlement under any other name.

Then again, the tax credit for individual policies is only the tip of the medical entitlement iceberg.

The U.S. has a sweeping medical entitlement system that will cost more than $24 trillion over the next decade, but Ryans new plan simply perpetuates the status quo.

These entitlements amount to almost double the 10-year cost of $13.2 trillion for social security. And 7X the $3.3 trillion cost for benefits like foods stamps and welfare.

Yet the crushing cost inflation and excessive utilization that has ballooned the U.S. health care system to 18% of GDP (compared to 10-12% for virtually all other developed countries) results directly from these massive government subsidies.

They foster a perverse system of socialism for beneficiaries and crony capitalism for the providers and their various cartels.

The heart of the problem is a giant third-party payment system that essentially eliminates market pricing and consumer shopping behavior. The result is overutilization of services, overpricing, and free-riding.

When virtually everything is paid for by third-parties, you do not have price-conscious, shopping-oriented, cost-minimizing consumers who have their own money at risk just several hundred million cost-indifferent patients with various kinds of prepaid cards (e.g. medicare, Medicaid, blue cross, employer plans, etc).

Needless to say, there is no such thing as a true free market when their are no real consumers.

What passes for the health care market today is just a bureaucratic clearing house where provider cartels attempt to maximize their billings while insurance companies, HMOs, PPOs and utilization review and pre-approval agencies seek to minimize what they certify for payment.

As a result, the medical professions and delivery system have morphed into Washingtons greatest crony capitalist lobby.

The consequence, in turn, is high prices, endless hassles over coverage and pre-approvals and a complete loss of consumers sovereignty over their own health care costs and quality. And that is what the public whether it fully recognizes it or not fundamentally objects to about Obamacare.

At the end of the day this is health care socialism and it is what will finally bankrupt America. Yet Speaker Ryans Obamacare Lite plans keeps that system fully in place. After all, the K-Street lobbies which essentially drafted his bill would have it no other way.

Needless to say, if you lay an unreformed Medicaid program and ultra-generous tax credits on the current inefficient and bloated system the only thing that will result is an eventual fiscal hemorrhage.

The Obamacare exchange premium subsidies would have cost about $900 billion over the next decade. But I am more than confident that the new Ryan medical credits will cost every bit of that amount and probably a lot more. How could it be otherwise, when families with a quarter million dollars of annual income are eligible for the largesse?

But the real skunk in the woodpile is Ryans smoke and mirrors on Medicaid. According to CBO, the current law will cost $5.2 trillion over the next decade, and when we add in the state matching share the total taxpayer cost is about $8.5 trillion.

Yet I see no reason to believe that Obamacare Lite will cost any measurable amount less.

In the first place, the new Ryan Plan does not repeal the Obama Medicaid expansion to cover everyone up to 138% of the poverty line. The 11 million recipients Obama added to bring the Medicaid rolls to about 70 million would stay the same.

The only thing the Ryan plan does is that after 2020, anyone eligible for the expansion, but not on the rolls as of December 31, 2019, will be funded at the standard Medicaid matching rate of about 57% on average, not 90%.

But whatever savings that produces will be negated by Ryans sop to the GOP governors. Namely, the new $100 billion innovation grant program to the states for subsidizing high cost populations (pre-existing conditions) and other purposes.

In short, the Federal Medicaid cost would be about $600 billion annually by 2027 compared to CBOs current estimate of $650 billion under current law. And by the time they get done with the vote-count deal making, even that small savings will likely disappear entirely.

Ultimately, the Ryan bill amounts to shuffling the deck chairs on Americas fiscal Titanic.

Neither the GOP Congressional contingents nor Donald Trump explained to the American public that the problem is really too much health insurance and way too much government spending and subsidization of consumer medical costs.

In order to pacify the K-Street medical lobbies and the approximate 35 red state governors and legislators, Ryan has just fuzzed up Medicaid and transformed the Obama premium subsidies into even more generous tax credits.

But it wont work. If the House leadership cannot round up the votes for a deficit neutral repeal and replace bill which is totally out of reach in the current draft they will not bring it to the House floor for a vote before the Easter recess or anytime soon thereafter.

Back in the day, I learned a powerful lesson peddling the Reagan spending cuts as mild as most of them were. Namely, that if the courage-challenged House GOP back-benchers do not see a path to Senate passage they wont walk the plank in the first place.

And they especially dont want to have to explain their wasted vote to angry crowds of Soros and DNC instigated crowds at town meetings from now until the next election.

I have been arguing that the Donald is the Great Disrupter who will bring the nations mutant system of debt-ridden, Bubble Finance crashing down. His nave belief that Obamacare can be fixed with block grants, tax credits and interstate insurance competition (which already exists) is a case in point.

Soon the Congressional GOP will fracture over Obamacare Lite, and I dont know who puts it back together.

Regards,

David Stockman for The Daily Reckoning

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Obamacare Lite: A Fiscal Fraud - Daily Reckoning

The request includes $5.1 billion in overseas contingency operations funds so the department can accelerate the campaign to defeat ISIS and support Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2017 In a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan today, President Donald J. Trump asked for another $30 billion for the Defense Department in this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, to rebuild the armed forces and accelerate the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jeffery Self, 8th Security Forces Squadron, advances toward opposing forces during a training scenario at Kunsan Air Base, South as part of exercise Beverly Pack 17-2, a no-notice training exercise used to improve responses to base threats, March 7, 2017. President Donald J. Trump is asking Congress for an additional $30 billion in fiscal 2017 Defense Department funding to meet urgent military readiness needs. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jeff Andrejcik

The fiscal 2017 budget amendment provides $24.9 billion in base funds for urgent warfighting readiness needs and to begin a sustained effort to rebuild the armed forces, according to the presidents letter.

The request seeks to address critical budget shortfalls in personnel, training, maintenance, equipment, munitions, modernization and infrastructure investment. It represents a critical first step in investing in a larger, more ready and more capable military force, Trump wrote.

The request includes $5.1 billion in overseas contingency operations funds so the department can accelerate the campaign to defeat ISIS and support Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan, he said, noting that the request would enable DoD to pursue a comprehensive strategy to end the threat ISIS poses to the United States.

Continuing Resolution

At the Pentagon this afternoon, senior defense officials briefed reporters on the on the fiscal 2017 budget amendment. The speakers wereJohn P. Roth, performing the duties of undersecretary of defense-comptroller, andArmy Lt. Gen. Anthony R. Ierardi, director of force structure, resources and assessment on theJoint Staff.

Our request to Congress is that they pass a full-year defense appropriations bill, and that the bill includes the additional $30 billion, Roth said. We are now approaching the end of our sixth month under a continuing resolution, he added, one of the longest periods that we have ever been under a continuing resolution.

Crying Needs

The continuing resolution run for the rest of the fiscal year, Pentagon officials would find that extremely harmful to the defense program, Roth said.

We are essentially kind of muddling along right now in terms of borrowing resources against third- and fourth-quarter kinds of finances in order to keep things going, he said. But that game gets to be increasingly difficult as we go deeper into the fiscal year.

Under a continuing resolution, the department has to operate under a fiscal 2016 mandate, creating a large mismatch between operations funds and procurement funds, Roth explained. The department cant spend procurement dollars because theres a restriction on new starts and on increasing production, he said, but we have crying needs in terms of training, readiness, maintenance ... and in the operation and maintenance account.

The continuing resolution expires April 28, so before then, we would want a full appropriation and, of course, a full appropriation with this additional $30 billion, he said.

The Next Challenge

Roth said much of the money in the fiscal 2017 request is funding for operations and maintenance.

We're asking for additional equipment maintenance funding, additional facilities maintenance, spare parts, additional training events, peacetime flying hours, ship operations, munitions and those kinds of things, said he told reporters. This is the essence of what keeps this department running on a day-to-day basis. It keeps us up and allows us to get ready for whatever the next challenge is.

The officials said full support from Congress is key to improving warfighter readiness, providing the most capable modern force, and increasing the 2011 Budget Control Act funding cap for defense.

(Follow Cheryl Pellerin on Twitter @PellerinDoDNews)

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White House Requests $30 Billion More for US Military - to Rebuild ... - Scout

Because there is a conflict in district court rulings on his temporary travel restriction, President Trump could go ahead and implement it, some constitutional scholars believe.

The Trump administration Friday afternoon filed for an appeal of a Marylandfederal judges ruling that the revised ban violates the First Amendment by disfavoring a particular religion. The case goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Virginia.

But a federal judge in Boston approved the original order, noted attorney Robert Barnes in an interview with XM Sirius radios Breitbart Daily News.

Barnes, arguing the Constitution and federal law give the president the authorityto restrict entry to the country, said Trumpcould always do a true Andrew Jackson, the last president to challenge a court usurping authority they did not have.

Jacksons response to the Supreme Court, in that instance, was: Well, theyve issued their decision; now, they can enforce it.

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But Barnes noted Trump can argue that because the federal court in Boston approved Trumps Jan. 27 ban in a detailed 21-page order, the president would be in his legal rights to say: Theres a conflict between the courts. Until the Supreme Court addresses this, Im going to do whats appropriate to keep the country safe.'

Barnesacknowledged the media backlash that would ensue, but he noted that Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz made that argument when the Ninth Circuit upheld a block on the original order by a federal judge in Seattle.

A Hawaii judge also put a temporary block on Trumps revised ban, but an appeal of that casewould have gone to the same San Francisco-based appeals court that rejected the originalversion of the ban.

Barnes pointed out that theHawaii judge issued a nationwide injunction against Trumps order.

His basis for doing so was an extraordinary interpretation of the right to travel and the freedom of association, which before, has only been associated with U.S. citizens, Barnes told Breitbart Daily News.

Every court decision in the 200 years prior to this has said that people who are not citizens of the United States, who are not present within the United States, have no First Amendment constitutional rights.

He explained the Constitution doesnt extend internationally to anybody, anywhere, anyplace, at any time.

The case was brought on behalf of Hawaiis leading Muslim imam, who wants to bring over family and friends fromSyria.

Trumps new order bars issuing visas to travelers from Syria and five other Muslim-majority countries for 90 days and suspends the entire U.S. refugee program for 120 days. It also caps the total number of refugees admitted this fiscal year at 50,000, instead of 110,000.

Hawaii contends Trumps order treats Muslims in the state as second class citizens, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act. The states petition cites comments by Trump and his surrogates during the campaign to argue that the temporary ban is motivated by animus toward Muslims, violating constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and equal protection of the laws.

The Hawaii judge, Barnes noted, ruled the imamhas a First Amendment constitutional right to oppose Trumps banbecause hes Muslim.

It was one of the most extraordinary interpretations of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment ever given, which is that because these are Muslim countries that were banned, where the issue of terror arises from, that that meant they had a special right to visit the [United States], he said.

Barnes pointed outthat the judge did not cite any prior decision.

Barnesargued the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Din decision last year, implicitly ruledthe right to association does not include a right to bring foreigners into the United States.

When you have law professors like Jonathan Turley or Alan Dershowitz or Jeffrey Toobin saying that the prior Ninth Circuit decision which did not go as far as this case did, as the Hawaii judge did saying it basically is bad law, then you know how bad the law actually is, Barnes said.

Reasonable restrictions

WND reported last week that if the administration continues to be thwarted by federal courts, it could implement an alternative security measure that would be authorized by the statute cited in the presidents executive order,according to a prominent Georgetown University professor.

John Banzhaf noted in an interview with WND that Germanys cabinet last month approved a measure allowing GPS ankle tracking devices for individuals who are suspected of posing a terrorist threat but havent been charged or convicted.

Banzhaf pointed out the U.S. law cited in the Trump order, 8 USC 1182(f), gives the president the authority to impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.

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If the federal-court block on the travel ban continues or the Trump administration loses the case, Banzhaf said, I think they would do well to consider the second part of that article, which permits the president to put any reasonable restrictions on which he wishes.

Its the first part of the statute, he said, that gives the president the authority to ban certain travelers.

It says that he can make an order based upon class of person. And I think any reasonable reading of that doesnt mean hes going to differentiate based upon tall people or short people or whether they have long noses or short noses, Banzhof explained.

When you say class, youre talking about ethnicity, youre talking about religion, youre talking about country of origin, he said.

The statute reads:

Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.

Trump is telling us, the Georgetown professor said, that based upon the very weak governmental structure, bordering on chaos, in many of these countries, it is virtually impossible to reasonably vet them, to be able to say beyond any reasonable suspicion these are not, in his words, bad dudes.'

The rest is here:

Trump could 'do an Andrew Jackson' to save travel ban - WND.com

SACRAMENTO >> The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Religious Freedom Act (Senate Bill 31) by a vote of 5-0 with two members abstaining. Senate Bill 31 prevents California agencies from sharing data that could be used to compile a federal registry based on religion, national origin or ethnicity.

Even our basic American values are being tested by the federal government and the current administration, and the Religious Freedom Act will prevent California from participating in the creation of a discriminatory and ineffective religious registry that tramples on the U.S. Constitution, said Sen. Lara.

On the campaign trail, then-candidate Trump proposed a Muslim registry.

No fiscal impact of Senate Bill 31 was found. The California Religious Freedom Act will soon be scheduled for a vote by the full Senate.

Speakers in support of Senate Bill 31 included Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Council on American Islamic Relations, Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights Los Angeles, the California Catholic Conference, the Sierra Club, the California Faculty Association, the California Federation of Teachers, the City of Long Beach, the City and County of San Francisco and the office of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors, Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, California Labor Federation, the State Building and Construction Trades Council, SEIU California, PICO California, ACLU of California, NextGen Climate, Public Counsel, California Immigrant Policy Center, Equality California, the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, and the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center.

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Religion Freedom Act advances from committee - Record Bee