BILL NUMBER: ACR 172ENROLLED BILL TEXT ADOPTED IN SENATE MAY 26, 2016 ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 9, 2016 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 9, 2016 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Hadley (Coauthors: Assembly Members Beth Gaines, Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chvez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Harper, Roger Hernndez, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, and Wood) APRIL 18, 2016 Relative to Bone Marrow Donation Awareness Month. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST ACR 172, Hadley. Bone Marrow Donation Awareness Month. This measure would designate the month of May 2016 as Bone Marrow Donation Awareness Month. WHEREAS, Since 1987, when the United States Congress authorized the establishment of a national registry of volunteer bone marrow donors, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), now publicly known as Be The Match, has facilitated more than 74,000 marrow and umbilical cord blood transplants; and WHEREAS, Be The Match states that the number of transplants facilitated through the national Be The Match Registry is "only a fraction of the people who can benefit"; and WHEREAS, One of the leading hurdles cited in a report by the Government Accountability Office is locating a suitably matched, unrelated donor, a process that is often difficult, time-consuming, and costly; and WHEREAS, Seventy percent of patients do not have a donor in their family and rely upon the national registry to find a match; and WHEREAS, California ranks number one in the nation for patients searching for a match; and WHEREAS, There is a need to enhance the understanding of the importance of bone marrow donation, and to encourage Californians to participate in bone marrow donation drives; and WHEREAS, The most prevalent problem with respect to bone marrow donation is the need for racially and ethnically diverse donors because of complex tissue types; and WHEREAS, Of the more than 13.5 million potential donors on the United States' Be The Match Registry, 40 percent are donors from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds; and WHEREAS, There is a need to engage the public to increase diversity in the registry, with the goal of finding a matching donor for all patients to receive the transplant they need, when they need it; and WHEREAS, Be The Match operates the world's largest and most diverse registry of potential bone marrow donors; and WHEREAS, The bone marrow registration process is simple; it only takes a few minutes and requires a cheek swab; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature designates the month of May 2016 as Bone Marrow Donation Awareness Month; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.