Scheduled in the Senate Health Committee for Monday, March 14, 2011 is Bill S2625.
This bill is very similar to the resolution that was to go before the full Assembly on February 17, 2011. The bill would tighten the religious exemption back to the wording that parents must explain how vaccination conflicts with bona fide tenets and practices. This has a companion bill in the Assembly, A3836, sponsored by Herb Conaway. He filed this bill The Monday, 2/22/11, following ACR157 being pulled from the Assembly vote.
In response, we need to call and educate all the members of the Senate Health Committee.
They need to be called Friday, 3/11/11. Please inform them that S2625 is unconstitutional. Let them know that the Office of Legislative Services legal representation issued a statement regarding ACR157 was unconstitutional and this bill is almost identical. Also, the state Health Department issued a memo in Dec 2008, regarding the religious exemption wording and removed this discriminatory and unconstitutional language from the regulations. Ask the Senators to VOTE NO on S2625 if it is not pulled from the Agenda. (We’ve linked to the OLS statement and the state memo, which you may also want to fax and email to the Senators)
Also contact Senate President Stephen S. Sweeney, 856-251-9801 sensweeney@njleg.org and ask him to pull this bill from the agenda due to the reasons listed above.
Senator Joseph F. Vitale (D) (Vice-Chair)
District 19
732-855-7441
732-855-7558 fax
senvitale@njleg.orgSenator Diane B. Allen (R)
District 7
609-239-2800
609-239-2673 (fax)
senallen@njleg.orgSenator Dawn Marie Addiego (R)
District 8
609-654-1498
609-654-4791 fax
senaddiego@njleg.orgSenator Robert M. Gordon (D)
District 38
201-703-9779
201-703-8127 fax
sengordon@njleg.orgSenator Sean T. Kean (R)
District 11
732-974-0400
732-974-2564 fax
senskean@njleg.orgSenator Fred H. Madden Jr. (D)
District 4
856-232-6700
856-401-3073 fax
Fax: 856-232-6844
senmadden@njleg.orgSenator Ronald L Rice (D)
District 28
973-371-5665
973-371-6738 fax
senrice@njleg.orgSenator Robert W. Singer (R)
District 30
2110 W. Country Line Road
Jackson, NJ 08527
732-901-0702
732-901-0587 fax
sensinger@njleg.orgSenator Jim Whelan (D)
District 2
609-383-1388
609-383-1497 fax
senwhelan@njleg.orgSenator Loretta Weinberg (D) (Chair and S2625 Sponsor) tell her to pull the bill
District 37
201-928-0100
201-928-0406 fax
senweinberg@njleg.org
Thank you all for your diligence on this issue. They are pulling out all the stops and we are fending them off. We can not let up. This legislative cycle ends on December 31,2011 and all of the Senators and Assembly members are up for election in November.