Dear PERK members,
Another victory in California!!! AB 659 will be amended, striking the word “expected!” It’s the best news for Californians when we win any battle. California is one of the toughest states in the country. Each victory is symbolic of the hard work all the medical freedom activists are doing. Victories like this show enough people are doing their part.
That’s exactly what happened today!
The Health Committee held a hearing for AB 659. The Committee Chair Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman informed the bill author Assembly member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry that the bill would not make it out of the committee without the word “expected” being changed. The bill author agreed to change it to “recommend.” Some of the reasons cited included declining school enrollments and hard times after the pandemic. These are exactly the concerns the PERK team has brought up numerous times in our one-on-one meetings with legislators. We even created graphics and floor alerts to visually show the declining enrollment factor and the repeated request to change the misleading language of the bill.
I want to thank our entire team for the endless hard work on these bills, including AB659. A huge thank you to ICAN Legislate for teaming up with us again to fight these critical battles in California. Together, our lobbyist in our C4’s, ICAN Legislate and PERK Advocacy has done a tremendous job strategically opening doors with meetings at critical crossroads on this bill. Just last week we met with the right legislators reinforcing the need for the bill to be amended and fix the misleading language. We were able to put the right pressure on specific legislators and alert others to do the same. Our concerns were highlighted in the Senate Health bill analysis.
When you see the action count below with over 62,000+ tweets sent via PERK’s advocacy tool, our presence is known at the capitol. Twitter is a useful tool for digital grassroots advocacy.
62,532 Tweets
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We strategically targeted caucuses, like the Latino Caucus, that would likely resonate with our concerns. We are respected, legislators and their staff know our team and organization by name. Together, we have all shown that the medical freedom movement in California has become a “voting block” of constituents with power to change bad policy.
We are awaiting the exact language of the amendment. We will let you know any important updates once we see the amendments in writing. Thank you to Michael Baum’s legal team and law firm, Wisner Baum, for their continued persistence in the battle of AB659. Thank you to all organizations, leaders, and PERK members, who took action on opposing this bill. In the meantime, congratulations to all, on another California victory!
Sincerely,
Amy Bohn
PERK President