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We Need Your Help to Save the BRN!

Help Us Defeat SB 1194 (authored by Sen. Jerry Hill)

Remember this spring, when we asked for your help in defeating SB 1195 (Hill)—a bill that threatened the very existence of the BRN? Nurses showed up in large numbers in Sacramento to lobby against the bill, and you made hundreds of calls to your Senators. It was a tremendous show of nurse-strength and you were successful in stopping the legislation. Unfortunately, Sen. Hill is determined to pass this dangerous new law, and he has brought the same bill back again, this time as SB 1194. So we are calling on your help once again to kill Hill’s bill—you did it once and you can do it again!

SB 1194 is an ALEC1-inspired bill that would take away all meaningful decision making power from the BRN, and give it to a single, solitary bureaucrat—the director of the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA)—who has no specialized understanding of nursing practice or patient protection issues. It would also create a dangerous power imbalance that would allow corporations and the hospital industry to tie-up actions of the BRN with endless litigation.

Under SB 1194, The DCA director would have the authority to unilaterally veto almost any board action, decision, or proposed regulation. It also would give the director a “pocket veto” power, meaning he could overturn board actions, decisions and proposed regulations without providing any reasoning or justification whatsoever, just by letting his review period lapse. Needless to say, the director would be subject to enormous political pressure by anti-regulatory, business-friendly forces like the California Hospital Association, who are constantly trying to undo hard-won patient protection initiatives like the nurse-to-patient ratios and scope of RN practice.

As nurses, our top priority is to protect patients and ensure their health and well-being. One of the most essential tools we have for protecting patients in California is the Board of Registered Nursing, which is responsible for enforcing the Nursing Practice Act. SB 1194 is just the latest in a long-running attack on the BRN and patient protection initiatives in this state. This bill poses an existential threat to the BRN and will have harmful impacts on nurses and patients in this state. We need to do everything we can to defeat SB 1194. 

Help us save the CA Board of Registered Nursing by making phone calls to the Democratic members of the Assembly Committee on Business and Professions telling them to vote NO on SB 1194. They are:

Rudy Salas, Jr. (Chair) Dem–AD32; Phone: (916) 319-2032
Main cities in district: Bakersfield, Delano, Hanford, Lemoore, Shafter, Wasco
Richard Bloom Dem-AD50; Phone: (916) 319-2050
Main cities in district: Agoura Hills, Bel Aire, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, West Los Angeles
Nora Campos Dem-AD27; Phone: (916) 319-2027
Main cities in district: San Jose
Bill Dodd Dem-AD4; Phone: (916) 319-2004
Main cities in district: American Canyon, Calistoga, Clearlake, Davis, Dixon, Lakeport, Napa, Rohnert Park, St. Helena, Williams, Winters, Woodland, Yountville
Susan Talamantes Eggman Dem-AD13; Phone: (916) 319-2013
Main cities in district: Mountain House, Stockton, Thornton, Tracy
Mike Gatto Dem-AD43; Phone: (916) 319-2043
Main cities in district: Burbank, Glendale, La Canada, La Crescenta, Los Angeles
Jimmy Gomez Dem-AD51; Phone: (916) 319-2051
Main cities in district: East Los Angeles, Los Angeles
Chris R. Holden Dem-AD41; Phone: (916) 319-2041
Main cities in district: Claremont, La Verne, Monrovia, Pasadena, San Dimas, South Pasadena, Upland
Kevin Mullin Dem-AD22; Phone: (916) 319-2022
Main cities in district: Belmont, Burlingame, Foster City, Millbrae, Pacifica, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco
Philip Y. Ting Dem-AD19; Phone: (916) 319-2019
Main cities in district: Colma, Daly City, San Francisco, South San Francisco
Jim Wood Dem-AD2; Phone: (916) 319-2002
Main cities in district: Arcata, Blocksburg, Caspar, Crescent City, Dos Rios, Eureka, Fortuna, Garberville, Santa Rosa, Whitethorn, Ukiah

1. ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is a secretive group of corporate lobbyists and state legislators that promotes ‘model bills’ to change our rights that often benefit the corporations’ bottom line at public expense. ALEC is a front group for anti-union, anti-regulation right-wing groups and corporations that advances their legislative wish lists. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, (Sen. Hill in fact, used to be a Republican), but also increasingly “mod” Democrats, front for these proposals by introducing them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills.