- The ARC - California Edition -

The Internet and Legislation

The new legislative season is upon us with hundreds of bills having already been introduced by our eager state legislators. Typical of the proposals tracked by the Arc-California Health Promotion and Disability Prevention committee during the past two years were the prevention of drowning through use of barriers, and the prevention of brain injury through use of helmets.

Also our committee supported legislation to improve the prevention of disease through immunization, the improvement of health care for pregnant women, as well as a number of measures concerning discrimination in employability and insurability as a result of a person having a genetic condition, or as the result of some "genetic" test.

California law consists of the state constitution, and tens of thousands of other subjects which are arranged into 29 groupings that are known as CODES. Sometimes, it seems that every codified subject is designated to be modified each year as the annual number of proposed changes (called bills) reaches over 4,000 in this state. As an advocate for wellness and for the prevention of disability, it is timely to bone up on the issues which are being pursued in Sacramento during this 1997- half of the two-year debating season.

But where do we go to get the necessary information -- the newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, the library? The difficulty with these “normal” channels is that the information they provide are often way too brief, or we obtain it way too late.

But then came the INTERNET. California is one of 45 states that now makes information available on the Internet about their legislative process. The federal government is also quickly joining the crowd.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html