As California gets back to re-opening, the California legislature is back at work, albeit on a limited basis.  Outlined below are an update on key issues relating to A Voice for Choice Advocacy’s mission of xxxxxxrmed choice and transparency of what goes into your body (scroll down for more details on each):

·       Summary of bills going through the CA legislature

·       AB 1898: Menstrual Product Right to Know Act 2020 (Garcia) [Action Alert]

·       Letter to Superintendent Thurmond regarding concern over School Vaccination Rates

·       CA School Reopening Guidelines [Action Alert]

·       Federal: HR 6666 Trace Act vs HR 6800 Heroes Act

Summary of bills going through the CA legislature

Usually the Assembly and Senate have around 3000 bills that they work on in any given legislative year.  That has been severely curtailed this year with the shorter session and the focus on COVID-19 specific legislation or legislation without budgetary impact.  There are 357 bills in the Assembly and 225 bills in the Senate at this time.  There are three bills that remain that we are supporting this year:

·       AB 1989 (Garcia): The Menstrual Product Right to Know Act 2020 (More details below)

·       AB 2762 (Muratsuchi): Cosmetics: Safety

·       SB 1237 (Dodd) Nurse-midwives: scope of practice

[Action Alert] AB 1989 (Garcia): The Menstrual Product Right to Know Act 2020

The Menstrual Product Right to Know Act 2020 passed through the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee 6-1 and through the Assembly Appropriations Committee 16-0.  It next heads to the Assembly floor next week.  Please be sure to call your Assembly Member (http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/)this week and ask them to support AB1989, and share with them that being able to make an xxxxxxrmed choice of what goes into or on one’s body is extremely important to you.  We asked Assembly member Garcia to introduce this bill because we feel labeling menstrual products is extremely important.  However, this also is a great bill to start or continue conversations with all legislators on the importance of xxxxxxrmed choice and transparency of what goes into your body in general and to continue to build a positive relationship with your legislators.  Many legislators are having virtual town halls, which make it easy to join them and share your concerns.

Letter to Superintendent Thurmond regarding concern over School Vaccination Rates

On June 3, 2020, Assembly member Marc Levine and 5 other legislators wrote a letter to Superintendent Tony Thurmond, outlining their concern that TK-12th Grade students may pose a public health threat because they may be behind in their vaccinations.  On June 8, 2020, A Voice for Choice Advocacy responded outlining why there would be no public health threat even if children were not vaccinated due to the lack of access to pediatricians’ offices.  You can read both letters here: https://avoiceforchoiceadvocacy.org/letter-regarding-concern-over-ca-school-vaccination-rates-june-2020/. 

[Action Alert] CA School Reopening Guidelines

Superintendent Tony Thurmond and the California Department of Education released their official guidelines on how to reopen schools: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/documents/strongertogether.pdf.  These are guidelines, not orders, so schools have some leeway in how they interpret them.  The guidelines include:

·       Wearing masks

·       Cleaning and sanitization

·       Temperature and symptom checks

·       Limiting student/teachers to “bubbles” of 12

·       Social distancing – desks 6 feet apart

·       Reduced bus capacity

·       No general lunch or recess – restricted to “bubbles”

·       Staggered learning (2 days a week)

Now is the time to contact your school and your school district and voice your concerns and preferences.  While AVFCA recognizes schools will comply with the guidelines to be safe, two key issues where we see parents can make a difference is in requesting masks not be worn by children in the classrooms and for schools to use non-toxic cleaners with no spraying while children are in the classrooms.  Public schools are having Board meetings either in person or virtually, so find out when your next one is and make sure you give public comment. 

Federal: HR 6666 Trace Act vs HR 6800 Heroes Act

Much has been written in recent weeks on HR 6666 (The COVID–19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone (TRACE) Act) which would put one trillion US dollars towards COVID-19 Testing, tracing and contacting.  This bill, while it got a lot of attention, has not gone anywhere, and is unlikely to.  However, HR 6800 (The Heroes Act) is moving forward and puts three quarters of a trillion US dollars towards COVID-19 Testing, tracing and contacting, specifically:

The Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in coordination with State, local, Tribal, and territorial health departments, shall establish and implement a nationwide evidence-based system for—

(1) testing, contact tracing, surveillance, containment, and mitigation with respect to COVID–19;

(2) offering guidance on voluntary isolation and quarantine of individuals infected with, or exposed to individuals infected with, the virus that causes COVID–19; and

(3) public reporting on testing, contact tracing, surveillance, and voluntary isolation and quarantine activities with respect to COVID–19.

If you are concerned with contract tracing and the invasion of your privacy, please contact your FEDERAL congress representative and share your concerns with both HR 6666, but more importantly HR 6800.

Be positive, stay safe, love those around you and keep planting seeds and waking people up.

C

If you found this xxxxxxrmation helpful and appreciate the work A Voice for Choice Advocacy is doing, please support us by making a donation today.

Christina Hildebrand

President/Founder

A Voice for Choice Advocacy, Inc.

www.avoiceforchoiceadvocacy.org

408 835 9353

WWW.AVOICEFORCHOICEADVOCACY.ORG

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