Amended in Assembly May 9, 2016

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 172

Introduced by Assembly Member Hadley

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(Coauthor: Assembly Member Beth Gaines)

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(Coauthors: Assembly Members Beth Gaines, Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Harper, Roger Hernández, 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)

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April 18, 2016

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 172—Relative to Bone Marrow Donation Awareness Month.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 172, as amended, Hadley. Bone Marrow Donation Awareness Month.

This measure would designate the month of May 2016 as Bone Marrow Donation Awareness Month.

Fiscal committee: no.

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.