Gov. Brown mounts frantic finish to sign or veto bills before deadline
By Steven Harmon
San Jose Mercury News
© Copyright 2011, Bay Area News Group
Posted: 10/10/2011 06:13:20 AM PDT
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown capped a month of bill signings and vetoes with a frantic final day Sunday, dispatching nearly 200 of the 600 bills the Legislature had sent him in the final weeks of the legislative session.
The governor signed bills to require insurers to offer health care coverage to autistic children, to allow children 12 and older to get the HPV vaccination without parental consent and to forbid teens under 18 from using tanning beds.
Brown also signed legislation prohibiting the impounding of cars at sobriety checkpoints and vetoed another that would have required doctors to inform women of a condition that masks potential cancer in mammograms.
He had until midnight Sunday to complete his work and according to his staff, was busy writing signing messages and vetoes up to the end.
Thousands of families and advocates for autistic children were rallying in Sacramento when Brown signed SB946, which mandates that insurers offer behavioral health treatments to autistic children.
"This is a critical victory for thousands of California children and families," said the author of the new law, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "For many of them, having this therapy covered by their insurance is the difference between despair and hope.
"The science clearly shows that treating the mind through behavioral therapy," added Steinberg, "is no different than treating a broken arm or a heart condition."
California joins 27 other states that mandate coverage for medically necessary autism treatment.
Brown noted, however, that the California law will expire if the autism health care coverage of SB946 is not included as an essential benefit established under national health care reform.
"There are remaining questions about effectiveness, duration and cost of the covered treatments that must be sorted out," Brown wrote in a signing statement. "There is still much work to be done."
Bill critics
A health plan group criticized Brown and the bill as setting a bad precedent for "nonmedical" coverage that will drive up health care costs.
"At a time when families and businesses struggle to afford health coverage, SB946 is going to drive up health care costs for families and businesses by nearly $850 million a year by transferring responsibility for educational services to health insurers," the California Association of Health plans said in a statement.
"Shifting that nonmedical cost burden onto private insurers won't make the cost go away; it will simply make insurance harder to get and less affordable and accessible for millions of Californians."
Brown took the side of the powerful physicians' lobby, the California Medical Association, in his veto of SB791. It would have required doctors to inform patients of a condition -- dense breast tissue -- that masks potential cancer in mammograms.
The legislation also recommended that women seek additional screening to check whether the dense breast tissue was blocking signs of cancer in their mammograms.
Physicians argued that would create unnecessary panic among all women with dense breast tissue.
"Every patient needs health information they can use," Brown wrote in his veto. "For women, that likely includes information about breast density. But the notice contained in this bill goes beyond information about breast density. It advises that additional screening may be beneficial.
"If the state must mandate a notice about breast density -- and I'm not certain it should -- such a notice must be more carefully crafted with words that educate more than they prescribe," Brown wrote.
Advocates for the bill called it a tragic day for women. Amy Colton, a breast cancer survivor who fought for the bill, said she was devastated over Brown's veto.
"He says it shouldn't be legislated, and I agree, it shouldn't have to be legislated," said Colton, a Santa Cruz resident. "But the medical community has known about this for 35 years and done nothing. How many more women have to die?"
No tanning teens
Making tanning beds off limits to teens under 18 will save lives, said Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, the author of SB746, which Brown signed.
"If everyone knew the true dangers of tanning beds, they'd be shocked," Lieu said. "Skin cancer is a rising epidemic and the leading cause of cancer death for women between 25 and 29."
Brown also:
Signed AB353, which prohibits local police from impounding vehicles at sobriety check points just because the driver was found to be without a license.
Signed AB499, allowing children 12 and older to receive vaccinations to prevent HPV (human papillomavirus) without parental consent. The bill slipped through the Legislature without fanfare, but the issue became a focal point during the Republican presidential primary when U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann criticized Texas Gov. Rick Perry for signing a similar bill.
Signed AB506, which requires local governments to take certain steps before they can file for bankruptcy.
Vetoed AB172, which would have set up a new website publicizing government contracts and audits. Instead, Brown issued an executive order asking agencies to post contracts and audits on existing websites.
Vetoed AB325, which would have required private businesses to provide bereavement leave. In his veto message, Brown said he believes the vast majority of businesses provide bereavement leave, but that a mandate would "add a more far reaching private right to sue than is contained in related statutes."
Last day
600 bills made it to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk in the final days of the legislative session on Sept. 9. He had until Sunday to sign or veto them, lest they automatically become law.
If he does neither, they automatically become law.
You can find the governor's actions on all the bills on the governor's website. Go to the link, Governor Brown Issues Legislative Update:
http://gov.ca.gov/s_pressreleases.php.
Online
You can find the governor's actions on all the bills on the governor's website. Go to the link, Governor Brown Issues Legislative Update:
http://gov.ca.gov/s_pressreleases.php
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