Registered nurses and health care workers across California call on Governor Newsom to ensure hospitals remain open and fully functioning in the event of a major earthquake by promptly vetoing SB 1432. This bill would allow hospital executives to delay critical seismic safety standards, placing workers’ and patients’ lives at risk.

"Lawmakers are gambling with our lives by letting hospitals off the hook from complying with earthquake safety requirements without delay," said Michelle Gutierrez Vo, RN and president of California Nurses Association. "Hospitals have had more than 30 years, an entire generation, to make our hospitals – one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure in an emergency – safe for workers and the public. The industry management executives  have recklessly failed to prioritize investment in necessary seismic upgrades that are critical to protect our patients and community in the event of an emergency.”

It's been 30 years since the 1994 Northridge earthquake revealed the fragility of California’s hospital infrastructure. Legislators took action, setting 2030 as the deadline to improve seismic protections for the state’s  hospitals. Still, today, as many as one in four hospital buildings would still need to be evacuated and closed after a major earthquake and most likely will never open again.

If signed into law by Gov. Newsom, SB 1432 would allow hospitals to delay meeting vital seismic compliance deadlines by an additional five years without essential steps to increase transparency, ensure accountability, and prevent automatic extensions without agency oversight. Earthquake safety delay would exacerbate health inequities for rural, Medi-Cal, and other medically underserved communities where many hospitals have failed to meet seismic safety standards.

"This is outrageous and we are depending on Gov. Newsom to put his foot down and veto this legislation," said Gutierrez Vo. "In times of crisis, we need our hospitals to be standing and functional. Delaying the seismic upgrade deadlines is just a complete giveaway to the hospital industry — and California’s  workers, patients, and communities will pay the ultimate price."

For decades, CNA nurses have stood strong against the hospital industry’s attempts to delay life-preserving earthquake safety requirements. Nurses know that hospitals must invest in earthquake safety measures to keep hospitals open and fully functioning in the event of a major earthquake. CNA is urging Gov. Newsom to veto SB 1432 before the September 30 deadline.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and more than 175,000 RNs nationwide.