PERK

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SB 866 and SB 871 upates and Call To Action

Amy Bohn

The Senate Rules Committee met Feb. 9th at 1:30pm and no bills were referred to any committees.

Senator Tony Atkins, Rules Committee Chair, started the meeting by addressing the public's concerns that these bills were being fast-tracked (Watch here: https://youtu.be/yf80qqXos3U) . She clarified that the Senate had voted (31 - 6) to dispense with Article IV, Section 8(a) of the CA Constitution and to suspend Joint Rules 55, thereby waiving the 30 day in print rule, for ALL bills introduced in the Senate (not just the two vaccine related bills). She further explained that for COVID planning, this made it easier to coordinate sending as possible to a committee so as to reduce the number of hearing dates needed. She ended with saying that even with the 30 day in print rule being waived, there will be no committee hearings until March.

PERK also submitted a letter request to the Senate Rules Committee for SB 871 to be referred to the Health, Education, and Judiciary committees and for SB 866 to be referred to the Health and Judiciary committees. While we oppose these bills, having them referred to multiple committees slows down the process and gives us multiple opportunities to kill the bill.

CALL TO ACTION

Contact the Senate Rules Committee:
(916) 651-4120

Calling is best, but if you are not able to call, then please email:
Chinook.Shin@sen.ca.gov

Here is the Rules committee contact info:

And make the following two requests:

“Hi. My name is ***** and I live in *****. I am calling to ask that …

  1. SB 871 be referred to the following three committees: Health, Education, and Judiciary

  2. SB 866 be referred to the following two committees: Health and Judiciary

Thank you so much.”

If you want to provide more information, feel free to add …

  • SB 871 should be referred to the Education Committee because 27% of teens (870,000 kids) and 65% of 5-11 year olds (2.3 million kids) are not currently vaccinated for COVID-19. This could lead to independent study options being overwhelmed. Also, if a large number of students leave the public school system, this will have a fiscal effect on schools.

  • SB 871 should also be referred to the Judiciary Committee as it is removing completely the Personal Beliefs Exemption. This removes the legislative process for adding future vaccine requirements for school attendance.

  • SB 866 should be referred to the Judiciary Committee because it removes the ability of parents to be involved in the medical treatment of their minor children.

You can also make an appointment TODAY to meet with your CA State Senator today to discuss SB 871 and SB 866.
Find your rep here: https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/ (Note: No need to contact your Assembly Member yet)

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Background Information: This CTA is urgent due to the Senate voting yesterday to waive the 30 day waiting period for taking action on bills that are introduced in regards to SB 871 and SB 866. This means the timeline is moved up for when these bills can be heard and voted on in committee and on the floor. SB 866 (Wiener. Minors: vaccine consent) allows minors 12 years and older to consent to vaccines including the COVID-19 vaccine and SB 871 (Pan. Public health: immunizations) adds COVID-19 to the list of diseases children must be immunized against in order to attend school without the option of a personal beliefs exemption. 

SB 871 Public health: immunizations (Pan): Would require the COVID-19 vaccine to attend in-person daycare and K-12 public or private school, starting January 1 2023. It would also remove the personal belief exemption from future CDPH added vaccines and removes the 7th grade exemption for Hepatitis B. (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB871)

SB 866 Minors: vaccine consent (Weiner): Would remove parental consent and “authorize a minor 12 years of age or older to consent to vaccines that meet specified federal agency criteria. The bill would authorize a vaccine provider, as defined, to administer a vaccine pursuant to the bill, but would not authorize the vaccine provider to provide any service that is otherwise outside the vaccine provider’s scope of practice.” (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB866)