Congratulations to the members of the California Sleep Society!!!
The California Sleep Society Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Senate Bill 132 (Denham) was signed into law today (October 23, 2009) by Governor Schwarzenegger; this bill was sponsored by the CSS to establish the uniform training and educational requirements for sleep technologists. Since it is a 2/3 urgency bill, this means that it is effective today, not January 2010 like most of the bills. The bill is now Chapter 645; please refer to a link on our website for the language of this bill. Special thanks to everyone who took the time to send in a signature request letter. Close to 150 letters were sent to the Governor by members of the California Sleep Society. The path for this bill started on November 6, 2007 at a meeting with the Respiratory Care Board (RCB) in Monterey, in which it was announced that California sleep labs could be fined and the Department of Health notified if the labs did not have respiratory technologists on staff, as per the Respiratory Care Practice Act. The California Sleep Society was started on December 4, 2007 and had numerous meetings with the RCB, California Medical Board, California Medical Association, American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), and other interested parties to develop SB 1526 last year that received strong bipartisan support but was ultimately vetoed by the Governor on September 27, 2008. Subsequently, we developed SB 132, which also received strong bipartisan support and, thanks to the efforts and tireless work of our Sacramento lobbyist (David Gonzalez), Senator Jeff Denham's staff, Ted Thurn and Bruce Blehart of the AASM, and your Board, the bill was signed into law today. This is a great victory for the sleep profession!

Sincerely, California Sleep Society Board of Directors

Clete A. Kushida, MD, PhD, RPSGT, President
Al Reichert, MA, RPSGT, President-Elect
Michael Salemi, RPSGT, Secretary-Treasurer
Alon Avidan, MD, MPH
Michael Cohen, MD
Milton Erman, MD
Sharon Keenan, PhD, RPSGT
Glenn Roldan, RPSGT
Paul Selecky, MD
Kimberly Trotter, MA, RPSGT