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2024 CA Legislative Session Wrapped Up!
AVFCA Sponsored, Inspired and Supported
Legislation Signed into Law 

This is the first of three emails in which A Voice for Choice Advocacy will summarize the 2024 CA Legislative Session, what you can be doing in the next few months with upcoming elections and the start of the new legislative session in January, as well as exciting Federal Legislation moving through Congress! 

October 8, 2024 CA Legislature Update: The California legislature recently concluded its regular session, having introduced and discussed over 2,000 bills this year, with approximately 1,000 making it to the Governor’s desk. By the September 30 deadline, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed over 900 bills into law and vetoed the rest.  While vetoes can be overridden with a two-thirds vote, this is unlikely—the last override occurred in 1979.

As in the past 9 years, A Voice for Choice Advocacy (AVFCA) remained active in the Capitol this year lobbying for your health rights.  It was a great year for AVFCA’s goal to “Get Toxics Out” of California.  In 2024, AVFCA supported 35 health rights-related bills, with half signed into law, including two AVFCA-specific bills. AVFCA also succeeded in amending a problematic bill to remove our opposition.

Three particular wins from the 2024 CA Legislative session AVFCA is excited to share: 

✔ SB-1266 (Limón) for which AVFCA was the primary stakeholder was signed into law:  Expands on a previous ban on Bisphenol-A (BPA), to prohibit any children’s feeding, sucking or teething product that contains ANY form of bisphenol at a detectable level above 0.1 parts per billion.

✔AB-2515 (Papan) which was inspired by an AVFCA legislative proposal was signed into law: Prohibit any person from selling any menstrual products that contain regulated perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).  This bill improved on a similar bill vetoed by the Governor last year to include important regulatory authority, so the law can be enforced by the Department of Toxic Substances and Control.

✘✔ AB-1830 (Arambula) was amended due to AVFCA’s advocacy:  Would have required ALL corn masa flour sold or distributed in California to be fortified with synthetic folic acid. A Voice for Choice Advocacy’s efforts in working with Asm Arambula’s staff and the Senate Health Committee staffer amended AB-1830 to ensure that both fortified and unfortified masa flour products will be available in California, allowing consumers to have a choice in where they source their folate/folic acid.

AVFCA's legislative team consists of our Legislative Director (Lea Jones), our newly hired Legislative Assistant (April Robinson), our Grassroots Director (Karen Amigon), and myself (Christina Hildebrand).  I am not paid for any of the countless hours I put into A Voice for Choice Advocacy (ususally 60+ hours a week) and while AVFCA's legislative team thankfully discounts their rates, AVFCA still stives to pay a fair hourly rate.  Our legislative team is AVFCA's biggest expense annually, beyond lawyers fees for our two SB 277 court cases.  Sponsoring and supporting bills is an important part of AVFCA's work, as it allows AVFCA's Legislative Team to interact with legislators and their staff in a positive way showing them AVFCA is more than just an organization that exists to oppose bad bills.  AVFCA had hundreds of meetings with legislators and staffers in 2024 to discuss bills and build these relationships for future years.  This allows A Voice for Choice Advocacy to continue to be the leading legislative organization lobbying for your health rights in the California Capitol. 

Since 2015, A Voice for Choice Advocacy has been sustained only by grassroots donations, as well as my own significant donations.  We are so thankful to everyone who has generously donated to our organizations.  However, AVFCA always needs your help to make our efforts sustainable.  AVFCA does not often ask for donations, but if you appreciate the legislative work we do, AVFCA asks you to donate as generously as you can - no amount is too little or too great!  If you are not already, please consider becoming a monthly donor: www.avoiceforchoiceadvocacy.org/donate

AVFCA cannot do this without you!
Simialr to last month, for the next 7 days we have a matching donation up to $20,000
Please DONATE anything and everything you can TODAY
so we can maximize on this donation!

Other than the above mentioned bills, here are other notable bills AVFCA actively engaged on that were signed into law this year.  You can find details for all the bills AVFCA supported and opposed on our website: https://avoiceforchoiceadvocacy.org/legislation-top/advocacy-legislation/

✔ AB-2316 (Gabriel): Prohibits public schools from providing any food containing specified substances, including, among others, red 40 and yellow 5.

✔ SB-1147 (Portantino): Requires a study of the health impacts of microplastics in drinking water, including bottled water

✔ AB-347 (Ting): Requires the adoption of regulations for the enforcement of prohibitions on the use of PFAS in certain products

✔ AB-2300 (Wilson): Prohibits intravenous solution containers and intravenous tubing for use in neonatal intensive care units, nutrition infusions, or oncology treatment infusions made with intentionally DEHP

✔ SB-707 (Newman): Requires apparel or textile article producers to form and join a producer responsibility organization, and submit a complete plan for the collection, transportation, repair, sorting, recycling, and the safe, proper management of apparel and textile articles in California

✔ SB-1053 (Blakespear): Requires "recycled paper bags" to be made from a minimum of 50% postconsumer recycled materials and prohibits the sale of reusable grocery bags made with plastic film material 

✔ AB-2236 (Bauer-Kahan): Revises the single-use carryout bag exception to include bags provided before the customer reaches the checkout that are designed to protect a purchased item from damaging or contaminating other purchased items

✔ AB-2851 (Bonta): Requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control, in consultation with affected local air pollution control and air quality management districts, to develop requirements for facility-wide fence-line air quality monitoring at metal shredding facilities

✔ AB-1864 (Connolly): Requires a notice of intent to be submitted before the applicaiton of pesticides within one-quarter mile of any schoolsite

✔ AB-2552 (Friedman): Prohibits the use of first and second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide in and around wildlife habitat areas

✔ SB-1117 (Laird): Authorizes Secretary of Food and Agriculture to establish procedures for, and conduct announced/unannounced periodic spot inspections on products labeled as organic.

✔ SB-1046 (Laird): Requires a program environmental impact report that streamlines the process to develop and site small and medium compostable material handling facilities or operations for processing organic waste

 SB-1099 (Nguyen): Requires reporting of various data to the Legislature and online, including the number of research projects utilizing residual screening samples and the number of inheritable conditions identified from the Birth Defects Monitoring Program

✔ AB-772 (Jackson): Exempts “drop in day care centers” from verifying and maintaining files on children’s immunizations or tuberculosis testing
✔ SB-1091 (Menjivar): Limits the cost of complying with requirement(s) to provide an accessible path of travel to a school ground greening project to 20% of the adjusted construction cost of the school ground greening project

AVFCA cannot do this without you!
For the next 7 days we have a matching donation up to $20,000
Please DONATE anything and everything you can TODAY
so we can maximize on this donation!

Together we can make change happen!

C

Christina Hildebrand
President/Founder
A Voice for Choice Advocacy, Inc.
[email protected]
www.AVoiceForChoiceAdvocacy.org