Hundreds of Bills Introduced Before State Legislative Deadline
Friday, February 18th was the bill introduction deadline for the 2022 Legislative Session.  In the weeks leading up to the deadline all bills that will be considered this year were introduced and assigned bill numbers. Now every bill must remain in print for 30 days before they can be assigned to policy committees for consideration and hearings. Early policy committee hearings will begin in March and all bills must be heard and passed by all policy committees by April 29th.

Several hundred bills were introduced in the last several weeks, including many of interest to CASA members.  We are pleased to be co-sponsoring AB 2247 (Bloom) with our NGO partners, Clean Water Action and Environmental Working Group.  The bill would require all manufacturers of PFAS or products containing PFAS to disclose the PFAS in their products on a publicly accessible database by 2024. This information is critical for water sector decision making and the database will be an important tool to facilitate source reduction programs. We look forward to getting agencies engaged on this legislation – in the coming weeks we will ask CASA members to send in letters of support to the Legislature in advance of key hearings and deadlines specific to the bill.

We will also be engaging on several other bills that will have significant impacts to the wastewater community this year. Legislation relating to water conservation, PFAS In products, microplastics, connection and capacity fees, and many other topics of interest will be considered during the 2022 session. The CASA State Legislative Committee (SLC) will meet on March 11th to discuss and take positions on all bills of interest that have been introduced this year and will continue to meet monthly throughout the legislative session.  Meetings are open to all CASA members to attend. Additionally, if you’re not already subscribed you are invited to follow along with the state legislative advocacy program through our SLC listserv. Please email Cheryl Mackelvie if you would like to be added.