| Success---CA. Child Custody Bill AB 2416 Passes Assembly by Unanimous Consent, Moves to Senate
At Fathers & Families we receive many letters from divorced or separated military servicemembers with painful but preventable family law problems. California AB 2416 will help protect the loving bonds that servicemembers share with their children.
Fathers & Families has worked closely with Assemblyman Paul Cook, the American Retirees Association, and others on AB 2416, and earlier this month thousands of you responded to our Action Alert in support of the bill. We are pleased to announce that this week the bill passed the Assembly by unanimous consent. The bill will now go to the Senate.
To learn more about the bill and to read Fathers & Families’ official support letter, see our AB 2416 Campaign page here.
Bills don’t pass by unanimous consent by accident—this victory was achieved because Fathers & Families’ legislative representative Michael Robinson and assistant legislative representative Nicole Silverman have spent months lobbying legislators and gathering support for AB 2416. We’ve been at the forefront of this issue, successfully working to help pass military parent legislation in dozens of states.
The first major success occurred in 2005 under Robinson’s direction with the passage of California SB 1082, which helped address servicemembers’ custody and child support problems. Fathers & Families organized a campaign in support of the bill, and the Senate Judiciary Committee Analysis of SB 1082 made specific note of your calls and letters. We’ve also had some success with federal legislation on this issue–to learn more, click here.
F & F is creating real, tangible family court reform today, but our deep, professional involvement in Sacramento requires money–contribute to the organization which fights for you by clicking here.
Together with you in the love of our children,
Glenn Sacks, MA
Executive Director, Fathers & Families
Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S.
Founder, Chairman of the Board, Fathers & Families
Melissa Hodgdon
Deputy Director, Fathers & Families
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Signs into Law Bill to Protect Disabled Parents from Family Court Financial Abuses
 Although federal law is clear, judges are often ignoring it and calculating veterans’ disability compensation into divorce settlements as a divisible asset. Very often these payments are the only assets a veteran has. When judges include it as income, it creates great hardship for those veterans, who rarely have the resources to hire legal help to contest the taking of their benefits.
Arizona HB 2348, a bill to protect disabled parents from these family court abuses, was just signed into law by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (pictured). Thanks goes to Arizona House Member Frank Antenori, who sponsored the bill, as well as Mark Beres of the American Retirees Association and the ULSG, and Fathers & Families’ legislative representative Michael Robinson, who worked with Beres. Robinson was also instrumental in the passage of a similar bill, SB 285, in California last year.
F & F is also working with advocates and legislators on similar legislation in numerous other states. The abuses being committed in family court concerning disabled parents’ VA benefits remind many F & F supporters of their own experiences in family court–a lack of respect for the law, violations of due process, fathers (and sometimes mothers) being financially plundered and shook down for money they don’t owe, and similar abuses.
Many of you participated in Fathers & Families‘ January Action Alert in support of HB 2348–thanks again for your participation. |
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