Legislators return to Sacramento this week as the Legislature reconvenes after its spring recess. This week, policy committees will continue their review of 2010 legislation, focusing primarily on fiscal bills – bills that have state costs. According to rules of the Legislature, fiscal bills must be approved by policy committees before the April 23, 2010 deadline. Once approved, these measures will be sent to either the Senate’s or Assembly’s Appropriations committees for their fiscal review. 

Many of the bills scheduled for hearing in the coming weeks simply continue legislators’ tendency to place special-interest agendas before the interests of citizens. For instance, public employee unions that have historically opposed school choice and charter schools are sponsoring AB 2320 (Swanson) and AB 2363 (Mendoza) which attempt to limit or restrict charter schools. Both measures are scheduled to be heard Wednesday of this week in the Assembly Education Committee. Despite wide public support for charter schools, teacher and public employee unions have steadily sponsored bills that incrementally limit charter schools’ success and autonomy. 

Before the recess, legislators also demonstrated their obligation to special-interests when the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill (S.906 on a party-line vote (3-2). SB 906 (Leno, D-San Francisco) makes several unnecessary changes to the state Family Code related to the definition of marriage by replacing the term “marriage” with the phrase “civil marriage,” attempting to create a new class of marriage.

The bill includes language that sponsors assert will clarify that religious institutions would not be required to perform marriages that violate their religious tenets.

However, despite Senator Leno’s and supporters’ claims, SB 906 is actually a direct assault against the more than 7 million voters that supported Proposition 8. Supporters have repeatedly stated that this bill is necessary to assist in their efforts to repeal Proposition 8 in a future election.

The purpose of SB 906 is to further undermine and confuse marriage, by creating multiple marital categories such as “religious marriage,” “civil marriage” or “non-civil marriage.” These multiple marriage designations would lead to new definitions of each, eventually giving the Courts opportunity to redefine marriage.

SB 906 is now on the Senate Floor. Please join CFC in opposing SB 906 by contacting your state senator and ask him or her to oppose any effort to undermine marriage and California voters. You can contact your senator by visiting the CFC website.

This Week Inside the Capitol is a weekly update of bills monitored by California Family Council (CFC) www.californiafamily.org.