Category: Advocacy

NCRA Visits The Capitol

Registration is now closed!
If you are still interested in attending, contact ED Portia Sinnott via the website contact page.

You are invited to join us June 20 in downtown Sacramento at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria for our first legislative day in perhaps a decade! The free interactive meeting runs from 9am – 4pm including lunch. You do not have to attend the whole day.

The program includes presentations from Joanne Brasch, Director of Advocacy and Outreach, California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC) and Krystal Raynes, Policy Associate, Californians Against Waste (CAW).

Topics include legislation basics, EPR and how to lobby effectively. We’ll also go over NCRA’s priority bills for the day and “role play” practice meetings with legislators.

After lunch we’ll have meetings with staff members of Assembly-member Ting, Senator Blakespear, Assemblymember Wood and Senator Weiner. (with more to come!).

Visit our Legislative Tracker for a brief overview of what’s on our radar.

NCRA Picnic, 9/23 – All Welcome

The Membership, Engagement and Activities Committee is pleased to announce the

Annual Member Appreciation Picnic
and Beach Cleanup
Saturday, September 23

Non-Members welcome!

Cleanup, 10am – 12pm
Picnic, 12:30-3pm

East Bay Regional Park District
Encinal Beach, Alameda Point Shoreline
190 Central Ave, Alameda, CA 94501

NCRA will provide:

Tamales! & More:
Nora Calderon vegan/vegetarian tamales,
nopales salad, water and beer

Please bring a salad or dessert for 8.

This is a Zero Waste event:
Bring Your Own Essentials:
utensils, plate, napkin, water bottle…
Also, buckets, grabbers, small shovels and bags for the cleanup.

Join us for a day of environmental stewardship, networking,
tamales and more!
Family, kids, friends and dogs welcome!

Non-members are encouraged to chip in $5 per adult.
No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Welcome to attend just the picnic or just the cleanup.

Register

NCRA Bills Support May Update

By Doug Brooms, ZWAC Co-Chair
The NCRA Advocacy Webpage “2022 Legislation” has been updated, as of 5/08/22. As a member of the Clean Seas Lobby Coalition, NCRA is a signatory to support letters for least 12 Bills.

Among CalRecycle’s Priority Bills, at least 18 Bills are no longer listed and presumed inactive. Another 7 Bills have been deemed as insufficient interest to NCRA. That leaves some 21 Assembly Bills and 19 Senate Bills remaining of potential interest to NCRA, mostly for support. Some are still scheduled for committee hearings, but most have been placed in the respective Appropriations Committee Suspense File. The Senate Appropriations Suspense File Hearing date is 5/19/22, and likely the same as for the Assembly Suspense File Hearing.

For a concise description of the Appropriations Committee deliberations, here is one of 12 paragraphs taken from Indivisible’s 2019 The California Legislature 101:

Appropriations committee: After passing policy committee, bills go the Appropriations Committee which analyze the fiscal impact of the bill. All bills which have a fiscal note of more than $150,000 in the Assembly and $50,000 in the Senate (this is most bills) are referred to something known as the Appropriations Suspense File. Once bills go the suspense file, legislators lobby the chair of the Appropriations Committee to take their bills “off suspense.” This process is secretive with no public visibility. In the suspenseful suspense file hearing, all the chosen bills are pulled off suspense, voted on, and passed. The others are left on the suspense file to die.

A more elucidating 2021 article is Understanding How A California Bill Dies Without Public Debate (thanks Valerie).

The number of CalRecycle Priority Bills that will be taken off of Suspense and allowed to advance, likely will be of a smaller more manageable number from which to finally select candidates for NCRA support. As always, anyone is welcome to share recommendations and to assist with drafting position letters. Thanks for considering.

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