Dec. 2 terrorist attack survivors were left downhearted after state legislation expected to help them and other Californians recover from terrorism and workplace violence was eviscerated Wednesday, April 19.

Assembly Bill 44, authored by first-term Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes, D-Grand Terrace, was gutted by the Assembly Insurance Committee, which is chaired by Assemblyman Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, and co-chaired by Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore.

Reyes, a Colton attorney who’s represented injured employees struggling to get medical treatment through workers’ compensation, introduced the bill Dec. 5 – the day she was sworn in and just three days after the first anniversary of the mass shooting that left 14 people dead and 22 wounded by gunfire.

“It’s disappointing, to say the least,” said survivor Ray Britain, as he drove home late Wednesday afternoon from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana after testifying before the 13-member committee in Sacramento with another survivor, Sally Cardinale.

Britain and Cardinale, who took a 5:30 a.m. flight to speak at the hearing, were among 57 San Bernardino County employees who lived through the attack by coworker Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, during a holiday party/training session at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.

Thirteen other legislators co-sponsored the legislation. Those included four members of the insurance committee, assemblymen Kansen Chu, Ken Cooley, Mike Gipson and Randy Voepel; Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside; and state Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino.

Reyes proposed revising state workers’ compensation law after Dec. 2 survivors’ medical care, medication and therapy have been denied and delayed through San Bernardino County’s self-administered workers’ comp program.

The original bill would have allowed workers or first responders hurt in a terrorist attack or incident of workplace violence to bypass a process known as utilization review, in which contracted outside physicians decide whether an injured person’s doctor’s medical request is necessary. The bill would also have extended benefits from two years to four and a half years.

Through Daly’s efforts, the bill was amended to provide only “advocacy services” to help workers injured in domestic terrorism get treatment and treatment authorization and payment for their providers if the governor declares a state of emergency, according to Reyes’ staff.

The existing worker’s compensation system failed the Dec. 2 survivors, and advocacy services already have been used for them with little positive outcome, according to survivors, Reyes and her staff.

“These victims that suffered so much pain and violence have had their experiences reduced to numbers and statistics by the utilization review process,” Reyes said in a prepared statement.

Daly’s staff did not respond to requests for comment.

The amended bill leaves out first responders and employees injured in workplace violence.

The committee, voting 13 to 0, passed the bill, which is expected to be considered by the Assembly Appropriations Committee in May.