GAM ZU L’TOVAH!!!
We have news… not what we were hoping for, but we have made good progress.
The bill passed in the Assembly on Wednesday the 24th, 134 Yea’s vs. 3 Nay’s. And it was delivered to the Senate. But, the Senate ended their session yesterday without voting on the Senate version of the Crohn’s and Colitis Fairness Act – Restroom Access Act. They passed it into Rules Committee which is what they do with bills that did not get voted on. This means that if they choose to go back into session this fall it can come up again for a vote. Unfortunately, there is no guaranty they will do this. Typically they are only in session from January to June and then not again until next year. They will decide in the fall if they need to go back into session.
If they do not go into session until next January, the process must start again. However, the Sponsor of the bill in Assembly – Assemblywoman Paulin’s office said the process would be much quicker this time. The sponsors would remain on the bill for both the Senate and House side and it will quickly sail through the Assembly. It was almost a unanimous vote in favor with only two nays (the third one is claiming it was a mistake of the clerk). Then it will go back to the Senate. It also passed the Senate Health committee with 14 yays, 2 yays with reservations and one absent. So the bill clearly is seen as a positive addition. There is just a lot of competition in getting it to the floor.
The CCFA is working tirelessly to continue having constituents reach out to the office of Senator Hannon – the sponsor of the Bill in Senate, and to the office of the Speaker of the Senate – Senator Flanagan, and in arranging meetings with Senator Hannon and Senator Flanagan.
In terms of timing, we should continue the push through the summer, and if we see them considering a fall session we will ramp it up then as well.
We should also all thank our Assembly people for voting for the bill. It is nice to let them hear appreciation after the fact. It can’t hurt to continue to reach out to our Senators asking for support when the bill comes up although this may be better done when we get closer to a vote.
We will get this done… not as quickly as we hoped but it will happen! Thanks for all you are doing!
