Hello everyone,
 
I found out some astonishing news today.  Our goal was to keep our bill
out of the suspense file since that is where it died last year.  And the
first version of our bill said that any money for a study had to come out
of existing funds.  The author's office and I were unaware that since the
Department of Fish and Game has no funds of their own, monies will have
to be appropriated for the study.  The analysis from the Assembly
Appropriations Committee has no choice but to put the cost at over the
threshold of $150,000.00.  This means that our bill will go to the Assembly
Appropriations suspense file.  (This Committee is chaired by a supporter,
Assemblywoman Migden, so please DO NOT direct any frustrations toward her
or the committee).  That's the bad news.  The good news is that the
chairwoman, Carole Midgen, as a supporter of our bill will most likely
allow it a hearing unlike the silent death it faced in the Senate.  And we
do have many supporters on her committee thanks to your great letter
writing-- keep it up.
 
It is clear that we will have to amend our bill to keep it from dying in
the Senate so I will need all of you to take a good look at the Senate
Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee and see
if your State Senator sits on one of those committees.  You will have to
work very hard in your district (getting letters of support from everyone
you possibly can) to make sure that we pass both of those committees with
whatever amendment we put in.
 
You can find out the members of both of these important Senate committees
by visiting the Californians for Ferret Legalization page at
http://www.ferretnews.org.  Scroll down to Legislators- Know your local
California representative, and click on that the word Legislators and you
will be taken to our page that lets you enter your zip code to find out
the name of your Assemblymember and State Senator.  If you don't know who
represents you, enter your zip code to find out.  Then return to the page
and go to the link that says "Senator's Home Pages".
 
This will take you to the California State Senate page and at the bottom
will be a link that says Committees.  Click on that link and you will go to
the page that describes the various committees.  The policy committees are
described as standing committees so on the left side of the page you will
see a link that says "Standing".  Click on that and you will see a list of
policy committees which includes the Senate Appropriations and Senate
Natural Resources Committee.  When you click on the committee names you
will then see a list of the members, and the areas they represent, and will
know if one represents you.
 
I will be furnishing the same information I have in the last updates about
voting history etc.  but please don't wait for that.  Get active now and
enlist the help of your friends and family.  If you are active with a
ferret club, take the information about your Senator to the next meeting
and make sure everyone present is given a copy and knows which Senator is
theirs.
 
This is an example of a situation where it would have been a very big help
to be a help to be able to rely more on our professional lobbyist but his
time does cost something, and funds are always a consideration.  I have to
make sure we can mail first class to the people on our mailing list when a
committee is about to vote and that is expensive.  If you haven't
contributed to the effort to legalize ferrets, please consider helping out.
Checks can be made out to Californians for Ferret Legalization and sent to
the address below.
 
All of us have to do our part so please, don't think others will do it for
you.
 
Jeanne Carley
Californians for Ferret Legalization
410 Mountain Home Road
Woodside, CA  94062
(650)851-3750
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[Posted in FML issue 2677]