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On the governor's desk

On the governor’s desk
Before adjourning last week, the Legislature passed over 600 pieces of legislation for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto or sign into law. Schwarzenegger, who has until October 11 to decide on these proposals, often waits until the last moment for many of these signings and vetoes. If you haven’t yet contacted the governor’s office to ask for his veto of SB 54, which would require the state to validate and recognize same-sex marriages performed outside of California prior to November 5, 2008, and SB 572, which would require the governor to annually proclaim May 22 a day of “significance” honoring homosexual icon Harvey Milk, you still have time to do so. (See contact information below.) 
SB 471 (Romero), another bill on the governor’s desk, will promote curricula developed by California’s embryonic stem-cell agency – which prioritizes morally questionable embryonic stem-cell research – and establishes stem-cell and biotechnology education and workforce development as a state priority. Already, this week, with the celebration of “Stem-Cell Awareness Day” yesterday, California’s stem-cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, promoted activities for children and visits to high-school science classes by stem-cell researchers. 
A little good news
While CFC opposes SB 54, SB 572, and SB 471, we support the following bills on the governor’s desk. Legislators recently have made legislative strides in removing barriers on husbands and wives who want to adopt and by increasing penalties on those who engage in human trafficking or modern-day slavery. Dealing with adoption, AB 154 (Evans), which conforms California statute on fiscal payments with recent changes in federal law, and AB 428 (Fletcher and Ma), which allows the attorney general to provide pertinent criminal history information – needed in the adoption of a child – to foreign governments. 
California, with its international borders, large transportation hubs, and immigrant population, has increasingly become a prime destination for the thousands victimized by the modern-day scourge of human trafficking. Two bills on the governor’s desk – AB 17 (Swanson) and SB 557 (Yee) would substantially increase the penalties on those found guilty of this rising, abhorrent crime. 
You can contact the governor about any of these bills by calling his Sacramento office at (916) 445-2841, by using CFC’s legislative action center, or through the governor’s own online contact system. Don’t delay! 
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