On Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, California Senator Alex Padilla and 35th district Congressmember Norma Torres reintroduced the Basic Assistance for Student in College (BASIC) act to the state Senate. The bill aims to address ongoing basic needs insecurity among students in higher education institutions such as community colleges and four year universities nationwide.
The BASIC act had originally been introduced to the Senate in 2019 and was reintroduced in 2024, however it was never officially voted on. If passed, the bill would create a $1 billion competitive grant program for higher learning institutions to support students as they combat increasingly scarce access to basic needs. These concerns include national statistics such as one in four college students experiencing food insecurity and 1 in 10 experiencing homelessness, according to an email released by Padilla’s press office.
Padilla emphasized the bill’s goal to meet increased demand to provide college students throughout the country an opportunity to pursue their education, stating “No student should have to choose between meeting their everyday needs and pursuing higher education. The BASIC act will help bridge these gaps.”
If passed, the grant program would remain active through the Fiscal Year 2027 to 2033.The Program would be split between two areas of impact: $40 million towards identifying and combating issues of basic needs insecurity along with homelessness and $960 million for helping institutions provide housing, food, child care, health care along with other resources to students. It mandates that priority allocation be given to institutions with 25% or higher federal Pell Grant enrollment. The program will also set aside 25% of grant funding for minority-serving institutions.
The University of California (UC) Vice President Yvette Gullatt expressed support for the bill, stating that the, “UC has long advocated for federal support for basic needs and is grateful to Representative Norma Torres and Senator Alex Padilla for their continued work on this vitally important issue.”
The annual UC Basic Needs Report established that UC has served nearly 78,000 students within the last two years, approximately 6,000 of which attended the University of California, Riverside (UCR). If passed, the act could support access to free or subsidized food, temporary housing, priority access to existing on-campus child care and other resources. Students could also receive support when applying for basic needs programs and case management services.
UCR students can access the UCR Basic Needs main pantry at the Highlander Union Building room 346 or in their temporary center in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Interdisciplinary South building in room 2117B. The hours of operations for both of these services can be found on their instagram account @ucrbasicneeds or through their website.
