Update July 15, 2014: Next hearing is scheduled for Monday, August 4th at 10am, before the CA Senate Appropriations Committee.
Update May 28, 2014: AB1516 passed the Assembly floor today 53-19. The bill will now move onto the State Senate.
Update May 23, 2014: The Assembly Appropriations Committee approved AB 1516 and the bill will move onto the Assembly floor for vote. THANK YOU to all of our supporters for your advocacy, as well as the Safety Net team at the Women’s Policy Institute. Special thanks to Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez for authoring this legislation, as well as Appropriations Chair, Assembly Member Mike Gatto and all committee members who supported the bill!!
Update April 9, 2014: The Assembly Human Services committee approved AB 1516 and the bill will move onto the Assembly Appropriations committee. We will be providing tools and ideas on how you can help support this important bill in the future. Thanks to all our friends for supporting our mission!
It’s a big week for California babies at the State Capitol. For the first time ever, diaper need will be formally discussed. Kind of a big deal around these parts!
Assembly Bill 1516, introduced by Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez (D-80, San Diego), would make two significant changes to the California Welfare and Institutions Code:
- An amendment to the Welfare-to-Work Article would provide an additional $80 monthly supplement for children 0-2 years, who are living in CalWORKs-assisted households. This supplemental income could be used by parents to help meet their children’s basic needs, including diapers and formula.
- Creation of a new program, the Unmet Diaper Need Financing Fund, would provide financial resources to social service agencies for the purpose of helping to meet the diaper needs of the communities they serve. Agencies that work in largely impoverished communities could qualify for financial assistance to be used to help families gain accessibility to clean diapers.
We are excited AB 1516 has been introduced and is up for consideration, as its passage would have a tremendous impact on the families that we work to serve. We’re currently organizing our efforts to show support for AB 1516 and let our legislators know how important the issue of diaper accessibility is to low income families of California.
The first hearing to consider AB 1516 is this Tuesday, April 8th in front of the Human Services Committee at the State Capitol in Sacramento. We are organizing a small delegation to attend the hearing to show support, and Lisa Truong, our Founder and Executive Director, will testify in front of the committee.
This is a great opportunity for us to let the California State Assembly know that diaper need is a real and significant issue in our communities. If you are interested in showing your support, you can contact your Assembly Member to tell them that you support #AB1516. If you need to look up your Assembly Member, you can do so HERE.
We’ll be sure to post updates following the hearing on Tuesday, and we’ll continue to let you know of important legislative action items.
Read our letter of support here.