TRANSCRIPT of DCARA Vlog: UPDATE on AB 2072

In The News

Published on Friday, August 6th, 2010 | Source:

Hi I’m Jim Brune, Executive Director of DCARA, and also a member of CDNIAS (California Deaf Newborn Identification Advocate Stakeholders) coalition. You might have noticed last week on the www.opposeab2072.com website two Vlogs that were recently posted featuring two people: Sheri Farinha and Tara Holcomb. The two gave descriptive updates on what’s been going on with the fight opposing AB 2072.

Today I want to provide you with more updates. This past Tuesday, August 3^rd four of us went to the State Capitol—myself, Sheri Farinha (Norcal), Julie Rems Smario (Executive Director for Deaf Hope) and our lobbyist, Senator Polanco. The four of us met with Assembly member Mendoza in his office. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the amendment to the bill AB 2072.

Our amendments:

1. In the bill now is what’s titled “Visual Language”- we want that replaced with American Sign Language (ASL).
2. In the bill it explains the role of the audiologists- in our amendment we want that removed.
3. The panel that will develop the brochures to distribute to parents of deaf and hard of hearing babies, must include people who represent ASL, not “Visual Language”.
4. We want to ensure that the brochures that are developed and uploaded to the website includes translation into an ASL Vlog format.

We want to make sure our amendments are included. Assembly member Mendoza’s office did not give us a yes or no response and will investigate it further. We agreed and left.

While the four of us were still at the Capitol, we learned that the bill plans to go to the floor for the full Senate vote.

We did not expect that. Senator Polanco, our lobbyist, met with the Senate Rules Committee and was able to successfully have the bill removed from the floor and assigned to the Appropriations Committee. Why? The Appropriations Committee will look over the bill and figure out the costs related to the bill. Now that we know it will be sent to the new committee, we took advantage of this time, last Tuesday, to meet with the chair of the committee, Christine Kehoe’s Chief of Staff, Tim. We met and found out that the bill has not yet been sent to the Appropriations Committee. However, it may happen by this Thursday. What it means is that the bill will then face the committee the following Monday or Thursday (August 9th or 12th).

The Appropriations Committee will figure the costs related to the bill. If costs total over $50,000, that committee may decide to put the bill on suspense. What does “on suspense” mean? It means that Senate leaders will look at various “suspense bills”, which may include AB 2072. After viewing suspense bills, they can decide whether to keep a bill in suspense, which means the bill may die. If they decide to let the bill out of suspense, it means the bill will be allowed to go to the floor for a full Senate vote.

That means a lot will be happening over the next 8 days. Stay tuned to www.opposeab2072.com for new information and alerts this week and next week.

The fight’s not over yet! It’s important that YOU stay involved! Thank you.

[via ]