BILL NUMBER: ACR 158AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 20, 2010 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Yamada (Coauthors: Assembly Members Cook, DeVore, Huber, Lieu, V.B ManuelB Perez, Salas,and SaldanaSaldana, Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall, BillB Berryhill, TomB Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, CharlesB Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Coto, Davis, DeB Leon, Emmerson, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Logue, BonnieB Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, Portantino, Ruskin, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, AudraB Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, and Tran ) (Coauthors: Senators Cedillo, Wiggins, and Wolk) APRIL 14, 2010 Relative to Women Veterans Recognition Month. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST ACR 158, as amended, Yamada. Women Veterans Recognition Month. This measure would proclaim the month of May to be Women Veterans Recognition Month. Fiscal committee: no. WHEREAS, The August 2009 California Research Bureau report, "California's Women Veterans: The Challenges and Needs of Those Who Served" made all of the following findings; and WHEREAS, Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee founded the Army Nurse Corps, which the Army Reorganization Act of 1901 permanently established. In 1908, the pioneering team of 20 Navy nurses became "the Sacred Twenty." The Army and Navy did not commission these women as officers. Nevertheless, that act marked the first time a reserve corps of the Army and Navy included women; and WHEREAS, Women entered the Armed Forces when Congress established the Women's Army Corps in 1942 and Women in the Air Force in 1943, which commissioned women as officers and paid women the same benefits as men including pay and protection; and WHEREAS, During the Vietnam War, approximately 7,000 women were deployed as nurses, medical personnel, and as general support personnel; and WHEREAS, During the Persian Gulf War, the federal government deployed approximately 41,000 women who flew combat aircraft, operated missile placements, served on ships, drove in convoys, and performed other roles in a combat environment; and WHEREAS, In the early 1990s, Congress and the Department of Defense lifted restrictions that prevented women from training for and working in over 260,000 military occupational specialties; and WHEREAS, Women make up 13 percent of the troops deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom which is the largest wartime deployment of women in history; and WHEREAS, Eight percent, or nearly 167,000 veterans living in California, are women, which is the greatest proportion of female veterans in the country; and WHEREAS, More than 200,000 women are serving in the military as truckdrivers, convoy security, gunners, medics, military police, and helicopter pilots as well as working in intelligence, maintenance, communications, and other logistical and operational support areas; and WHEREAS, There are 3,326 women serving in the California National Guard, which is 15 percent of the total number of men and women enlisted; and WHEREAS, Women veterans reluctantly seek care in Veterans Affairs hospitals, a mostly male patient environment where physicians do not practice health care specific to women; and WHEREAS, Eighty percent of servicewomen have reported being sexually harassed or have suffered military sexual trauma (MST), which the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, defines as "sexual harassment that is threatening in character or physical assault of a sexual nature that occurred while the victim was in the military, regardless of geographic location of the trauma, gender of victim, or the relationship to the perpetrator"; and WHEREAS, In 2007, 46,000 women veterans reported MST. Although one in three women was sexually assaulted while in the military, women underreport MST and few cases get to military court, in part, because survivors must continue to live and work with their perpetrators. Some women veterans were assaulted by their superior officers; and WHEREAS, Women veterans who have suffered MST are nine times more likely to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than women without sexual assault histories; and WHEREAS, Women returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom are at a higher risk for depression than men. They are also more likely than male veterans to have experienced serious psychological distress; and WHEREAS, Women veterans are four times more likely than their civilian counterparts to become homeless. Many veterans' homeless shelters do not accept women veterans with children even though this demography is growing; and WHEREAS, California's women veterans need recognition and respect for their military service; and Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby proclaims the month of May to be Women Veterans Recognition Month; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.