The PCL Insider: News From The Capitol

OH THE SUSPENSE! APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEES TAKE ON SPENDING BILLS 

Today both the Assembly and the Senate Appropriations committees are finally taking up their "suspense files," where bills that are deemed to cost the state more than $150,000 await the committees' approval. 

This is a prudent approach.  If the legislature passed all the bills that cost the state a lot of money, the state would be operating in the red.  (Oh, wait, we are.  But at least we do so deliberately.)

Here's some insider information about the suspense file:

When the committees take up their suspense files there is neither testimony nor time to convince members to vote one way or another. The chair of the committee simply reads through the bill list and states whether the bill passes out of the committee and if it does so on a party line vote or unanimously. 

How does the committee make these decisions about hundreds of bills? They get help.

Either the Speaker of the Assembly or the President Pro Tem of the Senate, known informally as "leadership," has the real say as to whether a bill is passed off the suspense file. Often leadership asks each legislator with multiple bills "on suspense" to rank their own bills and drop their lesser priorities. This again, is a prudent idea; if the Legislature passed out every costly good idea without taking in new funds, we'd be broke.

So what does this mean for environmental advocates?  Clearly, we need to make a case to leadership that our key environmental bills on the suspense file are important and must be passed out of the Appropriations Committee and continue their journey through the Legislature. Also, we need to ensure that the authors of our top priority bills prioritize those bills as well.  In short, we must make the case that if the State is going to spend money, it should spend some to protect our heath, our air and water, and our state's wild lands and animals.

As this message is being sent out, the chairs of both committees are reading through the hundreds of bills on suspense and are revealing their fate. All but one of PCL's priority bills are on suspense and, since we've done our work as advocates, we believe they'll all be sent on for a vote on the floor. If that's not the case, you'll hear from us.

SINKING TO A NEW LOW: FAUCET COMPANIES BATTLE TO KEEP TOXIC LEAD IN THEIR PRODUCTS

This week, PCL was dismayed to hear of an attempt to disrupt and delay implementation of California's newest public health protection law, formerly known as AB 1953 (Chan).

The law, signed by Governor Schwarzenegger last September, helps prevent the leaching of toxic lead into local water supplies by reducing the lead content of new plumbing fittings and fixtures installed in California.
 
The same companies that fought tooth and nail against AB 1953 when it was making its way through the legislature last year have returned to Sacramento to "clarify and implement" the new state policy.

They've convinced Senator Ron Calderon to insert language into SB 651 which, if passed, would create new legislative hurdles and stymie effective implementation of the new lead standard.

PCL is working with a number of environmental, health, public safety, and community-based organizations to fight off this industry ploy.

When Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 1953 he declared that California "needs to make sure that the water we consume is safe for everyone, especially our children." We hope the Governor maintains that commitment and speaks out against this latest attack on public health.