by the El Reportero’s staff
SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. last week joined a lawsuit against the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to halt the implementation of a Bush Administration “midnight regulation” that could potentially “endanger a woman’s right to contraception,” including emergency contraception given to rape victims, a Brown’s declaration said.
“California has carefully and thoughtfully struck a balance between the right to use contraceptives and the right of healthcare providers to abstain from administering them,” Attorney General Brown said. “This illegal and stealth regulation threatens to erode women’s hard fought privacy rights,” the release said.
Poised to take effect on the day of President-Elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, the regulation under-cuts state contraception laws and jeopardizes billions of dollars in federal public health money.
On December 19, 2008, DHHS issued the regulation, one of several highly controversial “midnight regulations” issued in the waning days of the Bush Administration. The regulation purports to implement three federal funding restrictions designed to force states to permit healthcare providers to refuse to provide certain health care to which the providers have a religious, moral or ethical objection. If California does not comply with the new federal regulation, it stands to lose millions, if not billions, in federal funding.
Arts commission could lose jobs funding
According to a statement from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the legislative action surrounding jobs funding for the arts in the Economic Recovery Package in Congress is picking up speed. Americans for the Arts has been working with Congressional leaders to build support for this emergency funding for local and state arts organizations to prevent job losses during this recession.
Last week the House Appropriations Committee approved a plan that included $50 million in supplemental grants funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, and a number of other provisions that can benefit the arts. This week, the House will be considering the recovery legislation on the fl oor, and a number of votes are expected.
The Senate will be starting their debate on the bill on Friday and continuing through next week. While the Senate Appropriations Committee did not include an arts jobs funding provision in their version of the bill, advocates still have several opportunities over the next few days to change the fi nal outcome. Amendments could be made to the Senate bill or the House arts funding provision itself could prevail in the final House/Senate conference bill.
Commissioner Luis R. Cancel is asking the public to ask your member of Congress and Senators to support the arts in the legislation.
