News from the Women's Policy Institute

 

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Women’s Policy Institute fellows are mid-way through their fellowship year and they are already putting their hardearned policy skills into practice. Fellows have worked with legislative offices to introduce four bills that will improve the health safety and economic prosperity of women and girls in California. During the first three retreats fellows learned how to develop a policy project; conduct legislative meetings with both allies and opposition; reframe the debate and communicate effectively with legislators, the media and the general public and give testimony. All four issue teams have passed their first policy committee hearing, and the reproductive justice and environmental justice team recently received media attention when their bill was featured in an Associated Press article.


From now until the end of April, fellows will be busy preparing for policy committee hearings, lobbying legislators and building their base of support. We encourage you to review this year’s policy docket and support the fellows’ legislative efforts.

The Reproductive Justice and Environmental Justice Team is working to pass AB 1963 (Nava, D–Santa Barbara), also known as “Tracking Pesticide Poisoning in California.” This bill would give state officials the resources to monitor the effectiveness of its pesticide safety program and implement the necessary safety precautions. The current pesticide safety program relies on outdated and obsolete reporting methods. AB 1963 would require that participating laboratories electronically report test results to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and other relevant state agencies. This program would protect the health and safety of farmworkers in California.

The Criminal Justice Team is working to pass AB 1900 (Skinner, D–Berkeley). This legislation would protect the health and safety of incarcerated pregnant women by requiring the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA) to set standards for how pregnant women are restrained during transportation to and from state and local correctional facilities. Shackling pregnant women puts their health at risk. Currently nearly two-thirds of county jails shackle pregnant women in ways that could cause miscarriage or other injuries. AB 1900 would ensure the health and safety of one of our most vulnerable populations.

The Economic Justice Team is working to pass SB 1084 (Liu, D–Pasadena), also known as the “California Task Force on Economic Security.” SB 1084 would create a two-year, bipartisan task force to increase economic security and reduce poverty among Californians. The Task Force would include representatives from multiple stakeholder groups, including the legislature, state agencies and the public. Through a collaborative effort, Task Force members would inventory state programs aimed at reducing poverty and would issue politically-viable and fiscally-responsible policy recommendations to improve economic security outcomes from state programs. This bill offers state leaders a unified blueprint from which to focus efforts to increase economic security and it would generate the public will necessary to enact these policy changes.

Elder Issues Team is working to pass AB 2114 (Beall, D–San Jose) the “Elder Economic Dignity Act of 2010.” AB 2114 would require the state Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) use the Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index (Elder Index) when developing their mandated area plans. Because the federal government has not updated the formula for the Federal Poverty Line (FPL), local agencies scramble to develop their own supplemental tools to measure economic need to plan for the future. Using the robust Elder Index would eliminate the need for costly and cumbersome independent research that uses various measurement tools instead of one index. This legislation would streamline the way California plans for elder services and would help the state meet the needs of our growing aging population.

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