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“Mod Squad” Dems kill environmental bills
Canciamilla, other moderates bring down wetlands, toxics bills; other bills in jeopardy
Troubling new ways to kill environmental bills are emerging in the California State Assembly, and you might be surprised who is leading the charge: a group of eighteen business-centric, “moderate” Democrats that make up the Assembly Moderate Caucus.
Led by Assembly Member Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg), the Assembly Moderate Caucus has defeated two high-priority environmental bills in the last month. Senate Bill 1477, authored by Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto), would have protected California's vital wetlands in the wake of yet another Bush administration rollback, a re-interpretation of the Clean Water Act that removes protection from seasonal and “non-navigable” wetlands. Unfortunately, that describes the majority of California’s wetlands, which help maintain a clean supply of drinking water. Assembly Bill 1940, authored by Wilma Chan (D-Oakland), would have required chemical manufacturers to provide detection methods to the state for over 85,000 potentially dangerous chemicals. Both of those bills died without getting to the Assembly floor, largely due to the Moderate Caucus' tactics.
SB 1477 died in the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife committee, chaired by Canciamilla. (Canciamilla scored 76% in our 2003 California Environmental Scorecard and 60% in 2002.) Canciamilla refused to accept amendments in committee to allow the bill's author, Sher, to compromise with industry opponents. Needing nine votes to pass, the bill failed in committee 6-7 on June 22, with Moderate Caucus members Canciamilla, Nicole Parra (D-Hanford), and Barbara Matthews (D-Tracy) voting against the bill, and Dario Frommer (D-Los Feliz) not voting. (Rudy Bermudez, D-Norwalk, also did not vote.)
In June, the Moderate Caucus circulated a members-only “Red Alert” list of a dozen bills they wanted to kill, infuriating other members of the Democratic caucus. "If you are going to work against your colleagues' bill on the floor, you should at least tell them," said one lawmaker, according to the Los Angeles Times (see archived story). "People were very insulted that there was this secret document."
One of the bills the "Mod Squad" targeted was AB 1940 (authored by Wilma Chan, D-Oakland), a CLCV-supported bill that would have required chemical manufacturers to provide methods to the state to detect over 85,000 potentially dangerous chemicals.
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