The next 2 weeks are critical
Call your Senator and Assembly Member this week!
Take action TODAY - AVFCA has made it easy to call!

August 16, 2022 Update: Last week both the Senate and Assembly Appropriations committees voted on which bills pass out of the Suspense File.  To recap: Bills that meet a certain fiscal threshold ($50,000 or more from the general fund or $150,000 or more from a special fund) are automatically referred to the Suspense File of the Assembly or Senate Appropriations Committee.  The Appropriation Committees can also place any other bills below the threshold in the Suspense File if they want to.  The Appropriations Committee votes on whether to pass a bill from the Suspense File to the floor, or keep the bill held in suspense, effectively killing it.  There is no public testimony given during the Appropriations Committee suspense hearing, and no public vote is recorded from committee members.  Bills often are amended while in suspense, but it is never made public who motioned for the amendment or how lawmakers voted on it. 

SB 866 did not go to the Appropriations Committee and is already on the Assembly Floor.  The other 4 "Bad" Bills that A Voice for Choice Advocacy is opposing all made it out of the Suspense file, sending SB 1479 (amended) and SB 1419 to the Assembly floor and AB 2098 and AB 1797 to the Senate floor.  These bills can be voted on by the full Assembly and Senate any time this week or next.  They must be voted on by midnight August 31, 2022 to move forward to the Governor's desk, or otherwise they are dead for the year.

TAKE ACTION THIS WEEK - CALL YOUR DISTRICT ASSEMBLY MEMBER AND YOUR SENATOR:  
1) If you don't know who they are, find your State Senator and Assembly Member by putting your address into this locator (https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/). 

2) Then find your Senator's contact information here: https://www.senate.ca.gov/senators and call both their Capitol office and their District office(s) asking them to oppose AB 2098 and AB 1797.
Sample Script: "I am a constituent.  I am calling to ask the Senator to vote No or Abstain on AB 1797, Assembly Weber’s Immunization Registry bill, and AB 2098, Assembly Member Low’s COVID misinformation/disinformation bill, when they are voted on on the Senate Floor.”
If you wish to share more details on why:
AB 1797 – Will require all vaccinations for all Californians to be entered into the California Immunization Registry, with no way for private consumers to opt out.  This is the first step to vaccine passports and discriminating people based on their vaccine status.
AB 2098 – The CA Medical Board already has the ability to discipline doctors for giving misinformation or disinformation to patients in their office.  This bill is duplicative and unnecessary.   The CA Medical Board does not currently support this bill.

3) Then find your Assembly Member's contact information here: https://www.assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers and call both their Capitol office and their District office(s) asking them to oppose SB 866, SB 1479 and SB 1419.
Sample Script: "I am a constituent.  I am calling to ask the Assembly member to vote No or Abstain on SB 866, Senator Wiener’s Vaccine Minor Consent Law, SB 1479, Senator Pan’s school COVID testing bill, and SB 1419, Senator Becker’s medical privacy bill when they are voted on on the Assembly Floor.”
If you wish to share more detials on why:
SB 866 – Will create an environment where pharmaceutical companies can coerce teens into getting vaccines with incentives and bribes.  It does not account for special needs teens who are not capable of making informed medical decisions on their own.
SB 1479 – Is unnecessary and with the amendments does nothing that schools don’t already do.  It just creates more busy work for schools when they should be focusing their attention and funds on teaching and the education of our children.
SB 1419 – Would force parents to go to court to get their children’s medical records in times of emergency, potentially causing delayed medical care, or in times of death.

A Voice for Choice Advocacy's Legislative Team, including myself, our director and our two lobbyists, have been doing all we can to ensure the demise of the five remaining "bad" bills, including hundreds of meetings with legislators and staffers, sending emails registering our opposition, and organizing grass roots campaigns among other things...But we can't do this without your support!  While A Voice for Choice Advocacy's lobbying activity in the Capitol is important, your positive constituent relationships with your CA State Senator and Assembly Member (https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/) and their staff are critical to assisting with A Voice for Choice Advocacy's efforts in the Capitol.  If you haven't already, please also be sure to sign up for their newsletters, go to their events, and ask their staff for a meeting.  The next 2 weeks are critical.

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

Together we can make change happen!

C

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