Friday, September 1, is the last day for fiscal committees to meet and report bills to each house’s floor. What this means is that if AB5, AB659, AB1028, AB1078, SB596 and SB407 do not move off of the fiscal committee’s (Appropriations’s) suspense files by Friday, they are DEAD. The Assembly’s and Senate’s Appropriations Committee’s Suspense Hearings will be held Friday “upon adjournment of” their respective Floor Sessions, which will be a time TBA. Although we, technically, have Friday to call – and will – the time to act is now.

WHICH BILLS:

• Assembly Bill 5 (Zbur, D-Los Angeles): makes teacher and staff training to create a “safe and supportive learning environment” for LGBQT+ and questioning pupils compulsory; training includes how to profile possible LGBQT+ students and “LGBQT+ hostile” families; show students how to change name and gender ID, access opposite-sex facilities and health care services, locate organizations that support LGBQT+ youth (e.g. residential shelters, Glitter Families, Chosen Families), and form secret clubs; no training on how to support desisting or de-transitioner pupils.
• Assembly Bill 659 (Aguiar-Curry, D-Napa, Yolo, Sonoma): state-sanctioned false advertising, fear-mongering, and propaganda for Big Pharma companies (Merck will be the first) to send out letters to every 6th grade-aged child advising them of the State’s “recommendation” that they be fully immunized against HPV before admission or advancement to 8th grade. The D.O.F determined this bill is duplicative and not necessary due to prior legislation, the fact that children 12+ already have access to the HPV vaccine, and schools currently include standardized curriculum regarding sexually transmitted diseases.
• AB1028 (Wicks-D, Berkeley, Piedmont; Wiener, D-SF): will remove the requirement that a health practitioner report to law enforcement when they suspect a patient has suffered been assaulted or abused unless the injury is by firearm, child abuse, or elder abuse. Need we say more?
• Assembly Bill 1078 (Jackson, D-Riverside): strips local school boards of their authority to decide what curriculum and materials are best-suited for their community’s values and needs by defunding, investigating, and fining school districts and doxing individual board members for rejecting State-selected content; prohibiting removal of “diverse” or “inclusive” materials; and raising threshold for removing “any other” materials from simple majority to 2/3 majority vote.
• Senate Bill 407 (Wiener, D-SF): requires potential foster care families to “sign a document” promising to affirm children in their care, regardless of other factors that might be at play, and be subjected to additional “assessments,” or otherwise be disqualified from fostering. Over 60% of foster families are religious and would not be able to affirm a child as conflicting with their religious beliefs. Therefore, SB407 will eliminate over 60% of the eligible foster family pool and leave even more foster children in the already overburdened foster care system.
• Senate Bill 596 (Portantino, D-Los Angeles): silences and criminalizes concerned adult citizens demanding answers and solutions from elected officials by jailing them up to 1 year and/or fining them up to $1,000 for “substantially disrupting” a board meeting, or harassing or threatening school board members. [Note: we do not condone harassing or threatening anyone ever; however, because there are current laws prohibiting this (e.g. PC 422, 646.9) SB596 is unnecessary given its chilling effect on legitimate exercises of constitutionally-protected, fundamental rights].

WHAT TO DO RIGHT NOW:

In the words of my warrior sister Erin Friday: “Hit Hard,  Hit Often. If they are not passed off of the suspense file on 9/1/23, they are dead.  Let’s go in for the kill ……..”

1. Call RIGHT NOW. Leave voicemails after hours (before 8 a.m. and after 6 p.m.).
   1. “My name is X. I am a constituent of the representative (if you are, if not, do not say either way). I am calling to register my opposition to AB5, AB659, AB1028, AB1078 (if calling Senate Appropriations Members) OR SB596 and SB407 (if calling Assembly Appropriations Members) and ask that these bills remain in the suspense file. These bills will result in substantial expenditure of state money and loss of revenue to the state. Plus they are dangerous, unconstitutional, and illegal. They cannot become law. Thank you!”
2. FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. Bcc to all your email contacts. Explain, “These are really dangerous bills endangering children and inching us closer to an authoritarian, digital dictatorship. If any of these pass in California, they will pass in your state, next, because, so goes California, so goes the rest of the country. Plus, we now know Gavin is gunning for POTUS.”
3. Call, again, on your way to work. Call again on your way back home.
4. REPEAT 1-3 Thursday.

NUMBERS TO CALL:

On Assembly Bills AB 5, AB 659, AB 1028, AB 1078 call Senate Appropriations Committee Members + Leadership, including Gavin Newsom (916) 445-2841:

On Senate Bills SB 407 and SB 596 call Assembly Appropriations Committee Members + Leadership, including Gavin Newsom (916) 445-2841:

RISE UP AND KILL THESE BILLS!

For more information on these bills, click linked titles, above, or visit our RESOURCES page here: https://fltjllp.com/resources/#legislature.