Call your State Assembly Member for a "Yes" on AB 685!

What: As early as Tuesday, August 28th, the CA State Assembly could vote on AB 685, the Human Right to Water Act.

Find your Assembly Member’s Capitol office phone number here.



Call today Monday, August 27, and early Tuesday, the 28th to ask your Assembly Member for a “Yes” Vote on AB 685.

First: Identify yourself by name and where you live.

Second: In 2009, it was great to have bi-partisan support on AB 1242, the first version of AB 685, that Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed. We need that bi-partisan support again now to be sure Gov. Brown will sign AB 685. 

• If your Assembly Member is a Democrat, remind your Member that on June 1, 2011, he/she voted “Yes” on AB 685 and that it was held on the Senate Appropriations “suspense file” for over a year. Because the Senate Appropriations Committee amends removed potential state liability, it goes back now to the Assembly for “concurrence” and a floor vote. Although the opposition still raises the liability issue, it's a red herring.
• If your Assembly Member is a Republican ask for a “Yes” vote stating that it is time all communities have safe water for drinking, cooking and sanitation, especially those communities that for years have paid both for contaminated tap water they can’t use and for bottled water. Remind Republican Assembly Members that the Appropriations Committee removed potential state liability, so there’s no reason for a "No" vote.
  

Third: Why is your call necessary?
We need a strong Assembly bi-partisan “Yes” to be sure Gov. Brown signs this bill. Last year, Gov. Brown declared, "Clean drinking water is a basic human right... protecting the water we drink is an absolutely crucial duty of state government." It is thrilling to contemplate that finally AB 685 will be signed into law - the first Human Right to Water Act passed by any state.

AB 685 was first voted on by the full Assembly on June 1, 2011 and passed to the Senate.  On August 25, 2011, the Senate Appropriations Committee put it on the “suspense file” for no action. Just this August 21st, after considerable grassroots effort, Senate Appropriations voted 5-2 to send it to the Senate floor where it passed on basically a party-line vote 22-16. These have been narrow and hard-fought victories. 

Please call today, Monday, and tomorrow, Tuesday, and be part of the Assembly victory.

Thank you,



Nancy Price
Earth Democracy Leadership Team and Jean Hays, Randa Solick, Shirley Kinoshita, Joan Bazar, and Lois Fiedler in California for the Human Right to Water and Health