California Legislative Deadlines

◼ Today is the legislative deadline for bills to be passed out of their house of origin. This means that a bill introduced in the Assembly must be sent to the Senate today and vice versa or the bill is dead. Two Assembly bills that have been sent to the Senate but will need us to fight there is AB 2109 and AB 2179. The CFRW Voting Body has decided to OPPOSE both AB 2109 and AB 2179. AB 2109 (Pan, D-5) would make it more difficult for parents to “opt-out” of certain vaccinations because of their personal or religious beliefs. It should not be required by the government that children must receive immunization for all “communicable” diseases. “Communicable” could be used at a later date to mean vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases and whether or not a “school-aged” child receives the shot should be the decision of the parent, not the government. AB 2179 (Allen, D-7) would allow the Department of Fish and Game to impose severe fines or penalties for relatively minor infractions, which would decrease participation in fishing and hunting in California. Democrats are chipping away at the rights of fishermen and hunters and this is just another example of governmental regulation we do not need.