Bill Text: CA ACR33 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Women veterans.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 50-26-1)
Status: (Passed) 2015-06-23 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 67, Statutes of 2015. [ACR33 Detail]
Download: California-2015-ACR33-Chaptered.html
BILL NUMBER: ACR 33 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
RESOLUTION CHAPTER 67
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE JUNE 23, 2015
ADOPTED IN SENATE JUNE 18, 2015
ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 1, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 1, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 19, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Atkins
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Eggman, Irwin, Achadjian, Alejo,
Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown,
Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein,
Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'
Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Rodriguez, Salas,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk,
Williams, and Wood)
(Coauthor: Senator Fuller)
FEBRUARY 25, 2015
Relative to women veterans.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 33, Atkins. Women veterans.
This measure would proclaim June 12, 2015, as Women Veterans' Day
and urge all citizens to join in celebrating the many contributions
of women to our military forces.
WHEREAS, Women have proudly served their country throughout all
periods of the history of the United States, whether disguised as
male soldiers during the American Revolution and Civil War, as nurses
in World War I, or as combat helicopter pilots in Afghanistan; and
WHEREAS, Women have formally been a part of the United States
Armed Forces since the inception of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901, but
have informally served since the inception of our nation's military;
and
WHEREAS, During the American Revolution, women served on the
battlefield alongside the men, mainly as nurses, water bearers, often
called "Molly Pitchers," cooks, laundresses, and saboteurs, and
despite Army regulations that only men could enlist, women who wanted
to join in the fighting circumvented the rules by masquerading as
young men or boys; and
WHEREAS, In 1917, the Navy announced it would open enlistment to
women and about 12,000 female yeomen entered the Navy and filled a
variety of jobs, including draftsmen, interpreters, couriers, and
translators; and
WHEREAS, Three hundred seven women enlisted in the Marine Corps
during World War I. Like their sisters in the Navy, they were limited
to the enlisted ranks and worked mainly in Washington, D.C., doing
various administrative jobs. Women's service contributions in World
War I showed that they either had, or could quickly learn,
nontraditional skills needed by the military; and
WHEREAS, Following Pearl Harbor, Congress authorized new women's
components for each of the services and increased the number of
active duty positions in the Army and Navy Nurse Corps. In May 1942,
the Army was given the authority to establish the Women's Army
Auxiliary Corps, also known as the WAACs. The Navy, Coast Guard, and
Marine Corps followed suit, but rather than making women an auxiliary
component, they opted to enroll them in the reserves on the same
basis as their male counterparts, while the Army Air Forces enlisted
nearly 1,100 female civilian volunteers who earned their silver wings
as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP); and
WHEREAS, At the end of World War II in 1945, of the approximately
12 million people remaining in the Armed Forces, about 280,000 were
women; and
WHEREAS, With the passage of the Women's Armed Services
Integration Act of 1948, women became a permanent part of the United
States military, but women continued to be restricted to 2 percent of
the military population. That restriction was finally lifted in 1967
with the amendment of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act,
which also opened senior officer ranks to women; and
WHEREAS, The early 1990s were a historic time for women in the
military with over 40,000 women deploying in support of the Persian
Gulf War, making women service members more visible in the eyes of
the public. In addition, in 1992, the Defense Authorization Act
repealed combat exclusion laws that had prevented women from flying
combat aircrafts; and
WHEREAS, Women who have served in the United States military are
often referred to as "invisible veterans" because their service
contributions, until the 1970s, went largely unrecognized by
politicians, the media, academia, and the general public; and
WHEREAS, Even though women have been officially serving in the
military since the creation of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901, they
have not always been considered qualified for veteran status for the
purpose of receiving benefits from the Department of Veterans
Affairs. Even after women were granted veteran status, issues of
access, exclusion, and improper management of their health care still
remained; and
WHEREAS, It was not until well after World War II that women who
served in the military began to officially be recognized as veterans;
and
WHEREAS, In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many of the
contributions made by women in World War II were formally recognized
through laws that granted these women with veteran status for their
time in service. This opened the doors for women to take advantage of
programs, opportunities, and benefits from the federal and state
governments, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other veteran
service organizations; and
WHEREAS, The 1980 decennial census marked the first time that
information on women veterans was ever captured in a large national
survey. At the time of the 1980 decennial census, women made up just
over 2 percent of the veteran population. Today, that proportion has
increased to almost 8 percent; and
WHEREAS, Over the past 20 years, the Veterans Health
Administration (VHA) has introduced initiatives designed to improve
health care access and quality of care for women veterans; and
WHEREAS, In 2008, VHA's Women Veterans Health Strategic Health
Care Group began a five-year plan to redesign the nation's health
care delivery system for women. A fundamental component of this plan
was to ensure that all women veterans had access to comprehensive
primary care from skilled women's health providers; and
WHEREAS, There are currently over 2 million women veterans living
in the United States and Puerto Rico, and of those 2 million, 165,962
make California their home; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby proclaims June 12,
2015, as Women Veterans' Day, and urges all citizens to join in
celebrating the many contributions of women to our military forces;
and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
