From: Jennifer Taylor [jtaylor@paclac.org]
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 11:55 AM
Subject: SB 246 (Figueroa): Human Milk - Call for Action!!!!

Dear Maternal and Child Health Advocates,

Thank you for your passion and continued support of legislation to exempt breast milk from tissue bank licensing laws. As you know, SB 1785 was held up in Senate Appropriations and failed to pass out of the committee last month. Fortunately, Senator Figueroa understands the importance of this issue and decided to amend another one of her bills to include the language from SB 1785.

The new bill is SB 246 (Figueroa): Human Milk. The bill is currently in print and available at www.leginfo.ca.gov. You will see that it contains the same language as the previous bill with two minor, but important exceptions:

1) The urgency clause has been removed. The inclusion of the urgency clause meant that if the bill passed it would go into effect immediately, in September of 2006. The downside to this was that it required a 2/3 vote to pass. In order to make sure that the bill has the best chance of getting enough votes to pass, the urgency clause was removed. Now the bill only requires a simple majority (one more vote than half) to pass, but would not go into effect until January 1, 2007.

2) Senator Ortiz, Assemblywoman Runner, and Assemblywoman Strickland have all signed on as co-authors. Both Assemblywomen are Republicans and both Senators are Democrats. This bi-partisan support may be crucial in helping the bill pass through the legislature!

The bill will be heard in the Assembly Health Committee next Tuesday, June 27^th at 1:30pm. This means that we need everyone to kick their advocacy efforts into high gear between now and Tuesday. Please call, fax, and email members of the Assembly Health Committee to let them know how important their YES on SB 246 vote is! To help you in your efforts I have attached an updated fact sheet (w/ the new bill number), and a list of contact information for every member on the Assembly Health Committee.

Andrea and I will be traveling to Sacramento on Tuesday to register our support at the Health Committee hearing and help make sure that the bill passes on to Assembly Appropriations. We will also be dropping off information on the bill to every member of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. We learned an important lesson when the first bill got stuck: Don’t underestimate the importance of Appropriations!!!! We’ll send you an email on Wednesday to let you know how the hearing went and to discuss our next steps.

Thank you for the opportunity to work with you on this campaign. We are constantly impressed by your energy and dedication to this issue. Keep up the great work!!!

Sincerely,

Jennifer

Jennifer L. Taylor, MPH

Program and Public Policy Manager

PAC/LAC

13743 Ventura Blvd. Suite 330

Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

Phone (818) 788-6850

FAX: (818) 788-6950

www.paclac.org

-Quality Care for Mothers and Babies-