2008 Session Proposals
Summary of Proposals of CSL 2008 Session
September 17, 2009
The purpose of the CSL is to develop proposals for legislation at both the state and federal levels. At its Annual Session the CSL holds hearings on the proposals that have been submitted by its members to determine which of those proposals should be carried forward. Finally, the proposals to be carried forward are prioritized to select the top ten state proposals and top four federal proposals.
The proposals submitted for the 2008 session are provided here. Within group the proposals are listed in order of proposal number. The complete text of the proposal may be obtained by clicking on the title.
For proposals that have been authored by State legislators, the bill summary is provided. Additional information including the full text of such bills is available through the Bill Information page of the California Legislature information web site.
Summary of the State Legislative Proposals
AP – Senior Assembly Proposal SP – Senior Senate Proposal
AP-1 Senior Assembly Member Phyllis Purcell: Free Public Transportation.
This proposal makes free public transportation available for seniors funded by a tax of $3 on driver’s licenses.
This proposal requires more disabled persons’ and veterans’ parking spaces to satisfy the increasing population and requires they be wide enough to safely disembark from the vehicle
AP-3 Senior Assembly Member Shirley Krohn: Sunset Date for Financial Elder Abuse Reporting.
This proposal removes the repeal date of the Financial Elder Abuse Reporting Act.
AP-4 Senior Assembly Member Evelyn Friedman: HIV/AIDS Education for Seniors.
This proposal requires physicians and health care providers to provide seniors with information regarding HIV/AIDS prevention and testing.
AP-6 Senior Assembly Member Austin E. Lucero: Food Safety Labels.
This proposal requires that packaged food sold in California include an obvious marking of the date after which the contents should not be consumed.
AP-7 Senior Assembly Member Austin E. Lucero: Hearing Aid Availability and Cost.
This proposal requires that hearing aids be made available for over-the counter sales and vendors be encouraged to submit a plan to the Hearing Aid Dispensers Bureau.
AP-8 Senior Assembly Member Austin E. Lucero: Pharmaceutical Expiration Date.
This proposal requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to include a “best before” date on packaging.
AB 1370 (Solorio) Drugs and devices: labeling: expiration date: best before date.
Existing law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, requires the State Department of Public Health to regulate manufacture, sale, labeling, and advertising activities related to food, drugs, devices, and cosmetics in conformity with the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. A violation of these provisions is a crime.
Existing law classifies a drug or device as misbranded if the department determines that the drug or device is liable to deterioration and the drug or device is not packaged and labeled in a form and manner and set forth in regulations of the department.
This bill would require that the label contain a “best before” date in addition to the expiration date of the effectiveness of the drug or device. By expanding the definition of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
3/31/09: To Committee on Health.
AP-9 Senior Assembly Member Alice Loh: Nursing Home Reform.
This proposal increases staffing levels in nursing homes, and ensures Departmental protection and guidance for high-quality care.
AP-10 Senior Assembly Member Alice Loh: SSI/SSP Yearly Adjustments.
This proposal requires consideration of UCLA’s Elder Standard Index to guide the yearly adjustment of SSI/SSP benefits.
AP-11 Senior Assembly Member Roland Gerbracht: Elder Abuse Crimes Classification.
This proposal requires that the penal code be amended to include specified crimes committed against elders and dependents.
AP-12 Senior Assembly Member Roland Gerbracht: Sexual Abuse or Touching of Elders.
This proposal adds infliction of unjustifiable sexual abuse or touching to the list of crimes against elders.
AP-13 Senior Assembly Member Samuel Park: California Senior Citizens’ Club.
This proposal appropriates funds for the establishment of the California Senior Citizens’ Club that will help support the CSL causes and proposals in the future.
This proposal requires the mobilization of paratransit and other modes of transportation to move disabled and seniors to a safe place to receive services during a natural disaster.
AP-15 Senior Assembly Member Billie Taylor: Ombudsman Witness for Notarized Documents.
This proposal requires an ombudsman to witness documents executed by SNF patients that require a jurat or acknowledgement by a notary public.
AP-16 Senior Assembly Member Lola Young: Elder Economic Security Index.
This proposal defines eligibility for means-tested senior benefit programs as a percentage of the county-specific elder economic security index.
AB 324 (Beall) Aging: Elder Economic Security Standard Index.
Existing law, the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, creates the California Department of Aging, with prescribed duties, including the state plan on aging.
This bill would require the department to report data from the Elder Economic Security Standard Index (Elder Index), as defined, for each service area included in the state plan, if specified conditions are met.
Existing law requires each area agency on aging to create a plan for its planning and service area that considers available data and population trends, assesses the need for services, identifies sources of funding for services, and develops and implements a plan for the delivery of services based on the need.
This bill would also require that the plan utilize the Elder Index, specify the cost of meeting basic needs for elders in each service area, and identify which elders are living at or below the Elder Index, as prescribed.
10/11/09: Vetoed by Governor.
AP-17 Senior Assembly Member Lola Young: Nursing Home End-of-Life Privacy.
This proposal requires nursing homes to provide privacy for a resident who has been diagnosed as terminal.
AP-18 Senior Assembly Member Richard Wolfe: Certification of Unlicensed or Uncertified Caregivers.
This proposal requires that all unlicensed or uncertified persons providing care and supportive services be certified by the State.
AP-19 Senior Assembly Member Richard Wolfe: Grading System for Nursing Homes.
This proposal establishes a user-friendly compliance grading system for long-term care facilities.
AP-20 Senior Assembly Member Martin Tucker: Medi-Cal Monthly Allowances.
This proposal increases the monthly allowance for personal and incidental needs for a Medi-Cal beneficiary.
AP-21 Senior Assembly Member Dorothy Sorensen: Convalescent Care Facility Personal Equipment.
This proposal requires convalescent care facilities to permanently identify patient’s personal equipment.
AB 249 (Carter) Health facilities: marking Patient devices.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities, including long-term health care facilities, by the State Department of Public Health. Violation of these provisions constitutes a misdemeanor. Existing law also requires long-term health care facilities to implement a theft and loss program, as specified, including a written patient personal property inventory.
This bill would require, as part of the written patient personal property inventory in long-term health care facilities, a listing, by a unique identification number, of all patient-owned mobility, hearing, or breathing equipment, including, but not limited to, canes, walkers, wheelchairs, hearing aids, and oxygen equipment. Because the bill would create a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
10/11/09: Vetoed by Governor.
This proposal requires corporations owning more than 5 nursing homes to identify a single entity that is accountable for care and operation.
AB 1457 (Davis) Long-term health care facilities: admission contracts.
Existing law requires specified information to be included on the admission contract or abbreviated admission contract when a patient is admitted to a long-term health care facility.
This bill would add the requirement that the abbreviated contracts of admission and contracts of admission include, for entities that own 5 or more long-term health care or similar facilities nationwide, the name of the owner and the name and contact information of a single entity that is fully accountable for all aspects of patient care and operation at the facility.
10/11/09: Chaptered: Chapter 532, Statutes of 2009.
AP-25 Senior Assembly Member Phyllis Purcell: Funding for Congregate and Home-Delivered Meals.
This proposal authorizes the CDA to accept donations from pharmaceutical manufacturers and dispensers to increase the funding for congregate and home-delivered meals.
SP-1 Senior Senator Marion Faustman: Universal Health Care.
This proposal requires the adoption of a premise that health care is a basic human right and the creation of a universal health care system.
SP-2 Senior Senator Clifford C. Erven: Goods and Services Tax.
This proposal creates an investigative committee to determine the feasibility of a goods and services tax plan to be presented to the citizens for adoption.
SP-3 Senior Senator Richard H. Griswold: Property Tax Exemptions.
This proposal increases the homeowner’s property tax exemption from $7,000 to $27,000 for seniors.
SP-4 Senior Senator Dorlores G. Wright: At-Risk Older Adult Suicide Prevention.
This proposal requires the inclusion of at-risk older adults in the Department of Health’s target suicide population list.
SP-5 Senior Senator Richard Lundin: Long-Term Care Facility Security.
This proposal increases security and surveillance at all long-term care facilities and provides security training.
SP-6 Senior Senator Joseph F. Murphy: Silver Alert Program.
This proposal establishes a missing persons program called Silver Alert to protect persons suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia who roam away from home.
SB 38 (Alquist and Correa) Emergency Services: Silver Alert System.
Existing law authorizes use of the federally designated emergency alert system to inform the public of local, state, and national emergencies.
This bill would require law enforcement agencies that are informed of a missing senior person, who is 65 years of age or older, and that determine the missing person has an impaired mental condition and there is information available that, if disseminated to the general public, could assist with the safe recovery of the missing person, to request, absent extenuating investigative needs, activation of the emergency alert system within the appropriate local area. By imposing new duties on local law enforcement agencies, the bill would create a state-mandated local program.
The bill would require the Department of the California Highway Patrol, in consultation with the Department of Justice and representatives from other organizations to develop policies and procedures providing instruction specifying how law enforcement agencies, broadcasters participating in the emergency alert system, and any other intermediate emergency services agencies that may institute activation of the system and, where appropriate, other supplemental warning systems shall proceed after a law enforcement agency receives a qualifying report of a missing senior person.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.
6/23/09: passed by Assembly Public Safety Committee; re-referred to Appropriations.
SP-7 Senior Senator Joanna K. Kim-Selby: Stroke Education Campaign.
This proposal implements a stroke education campaign to prevent the incidence of strokes.
SP-8 Senior Senator Joanna K. Kim-Selby: Senior Volunteer Month.
This proposal proclaims the month of May to be Senior Volunteer Month to honor volunteers.
SCR 28 (Correa) Senior Volunteer Month.
This measure would declare May 2009 to be “Senior Volunteer Month” to honor the contributions of California’s senior volunteers.
5/29/09: Chaptered: Resolution Chapter 39, Statutes of 2009.
SP-9 Senior Senator Joanna K. Kim-Selby: Automated Defibrillator Awareness.
This proposal creates a statewide symbol for automated external defibrillators and develops a public awareness campaign.
SP-10 Senior Senator Jim Levy: Access to Community-Based Services.
This proposal provides seniors and disabled increased access to services in the most integrated settings and requires the adoption of policies to allow them to remain in their communities.
SP-11 Senior Senator Richard Lundin: Financial Institution Financial Abuse.
This proposal prevents financial institutions from targeting and abusing seniors, preventing seniors from entering into bad investments.
SP-12 Senior Senator Kathleen Mesler: Witnessing Seniors’ Power of Attorney.
This proposal requires a member of a local governmental agency or community-based organization to witness when a senior signs a power of attorney before a notary public.
SP-13 Senior Senator Horace D. Mann, Jr.: Meals on Wheels Mental Health Outreach.
This proposal requires the Department of Mental Health to establish a model suicide prevention program utilizing a meals-on-wheels outreach approach.
SP-14 Senior Senator Robert O. Jaffee: Paratransit Service Project Funding.
This proposal requires local transportation agencies receiving transportation funding to give priority for paratransit service in underserved and rural areas.
SP-15 Senior Senator Connie Eaton: Affordable Housing Shortage for Seniors.
This proposal requires the standardization of zoning requirements, permits and impact fees on second units or companion units to provide more affordable housing for seniors.
SP-16 Senior Senator William Young: Expanded In-Home Support Services.
This proposal expands IHSS to include support for activities in volunteer, social or other community functions.
SP-17 Senior Senator Bruce Steir: Elder Death Reporting.
This proposal requires long-term care facilities to report deaths and mandated reporters to report all alleged or suspected abuse to the coroner immediately or within 24 hours.
AB 535 (Ammiano) Elder death review teams: information requests.
Existing law allows a county to establish an interagency elder death team to assist local agencies in identifying and reviewing suspicious elder deaths. Under existing law, the team may request specified information for their review, subject to prescribed confidentiality requirements.
This bill would allow the elder death team to request and obtain copies of certificates of death from the local registrar of births and deaths, subject to any fee requirements.
Under existing law, deaths are required to be registered with the local registrar of births and deaths in the district in which the death occurs. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to enforce the laws pertaining to vital records, including certificates of death. Existing law requires the department to implement an Internet-based electronic death registration system.
This bill would require the registrar of births and deaths in a county that elects to participate in the Internet-based electronic death registration system to provide specified information to the chair, co-chair, or the agent of the chair or co-chair upon request of a county death review team.
1/31/10: Died.
SP-18 Senior Senator Richard Lundin: Statewide Elder Protection Courts.
This proposal requires the establishment of courts to exclusively adjudicate cases associated with older Californians.
SP-19 Senior Senator Craig Orange: Prescription Medication Labels.
This proposal doctors to inform pharmacies of the purpose of prescriptions and the pharmacy to list the information on the label.
SP-20 Senior Senator George Winslow: Crosswalk and Sidewalk Safety.
This proposal requires the use of safety and accessibility measures in sidewalks, crosswalks, and curbs to protect seniors and disabled.
SP-21 Senior Senator Dolores G. Wright: Senior’s Sport Fishing Licenses.
This proposal that the fee for a sport fishing license be waived for persons over 75 years.
SP-22 Senior Senator Connie Eaton: CSL Funding Repeal Date.
This proposal extends the repeal date for contributions to the California Fund for Senior Citizens.
SB 91 (Correa and Alquist) Income taxes: designated contributions: senior citizens.
Existing law allows taxpayers, until January 1, 2010, to contribute amounts in excess of their personal tax liability for the support of the California Fund for Senior Citizens. Existing law repeals the contribution provisions for these funds either on the September 1 following the calendar year for which the Franchise Tax Board estimates that the minimum contribution amount will be less than a prescribed amount or on January 1, 2010, whichever occurs first.
This bill would, under this latter limit, extend the operation of those contribution provisions until January 1, 2015.
8/6/09: Chaptered: Chapter 29, Statutes of 2009.
SP-23 Senior Senator Bill Young: Support for the Ombudsman Program and the Senior Legal Hotline.
This proposal requires the immediate reinstatement of State core support of the Ombudsman Programs and the Senior Legal Hotline; and assistance to restore and expand the Federal funding for California’s Senior Legal Hotline.
AB 392 (Feuer and Jones) Long-term health care facilities, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
Existing law provides for the licensure of long-term health care facilities by the State Department of Public Health. Under existing law, the Long-Term Care, Health, Safety, and Security Act of 1973, the department may assess penalties for violation of prescribed state and federal requirements. Moneys collected as a result of the penalties imposed pursuant to these provisions are required to be deposited into either the State Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account or the Federal Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account, and used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the protection of health or property of residents of long-term health care facilities, including reimbursing residents for personal funds lost and costs associated with informational meetings.
Existing law establishes the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman in the California Department of Aging. Under existing law, the office is responsible for, among other things, investigating and resolving complaints and concerns communicated by or on behalf of patients, residents, or clients of long-term care facilities, as defined. Existing law authorizes the California Department of Aging to allocate all federal and state funds for local ombudsman programs according to a specified distribution schedule.
This bill would appropriate $1.6 million from the Federal Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account to the California Department of Aging for local ombudsman programs, to be used before the end of the 2009-10 fiscal year.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
8/6/09: Chaptered: Chapter 102, Statutes of 2009.
Summary of the Federal Legislative Proposals
AFP – Senior Assembly Proposal SFP – Senior Senate Proposal
AFP-1 Senior Assembly Member Alice Loh: Cost-of-Living Adjustment for Social Security.
This proposal authorizes SSA to replace the federal poverty line and COLA adjustment with the elder economic security standard index.
AFP-2 Senior Assembly Member Bernard Weintraub: Nursing Home Ownership Disclosure.
This proposal requires private investment groups who own more than five nursing homes to disclose information related to operational ownership.
AFP-3 Senior Assembly Member Lola Young: Federal Poverty Guidelines.
This proposal requires the re-evaluation and adjustment of the federal poverty guidelines to more accurately reflect senior’s basic cost of living.
AJR 6 (Beall) Elder Economic Security Standard Index.
This measure would memorialize the President and the Congress of the United States to ensure economic security for all elders by taking several actions, including ensuring that federal policies and programs enable all elders and their families to meet their basic needs and using the Elder Economic Security Standard Index to modernize all federal poverty measures and guidelines, recalculate the number and demographic profile of elders whose basic needs are not being met, and evaluate the impact of public supports and any current or new federal initiatives to help elders age in place.
9/1/09: Chaptered: Resolution Chapter 92, Statutes of 2009
This proposal gives Section 8 housing vouchers to families of deployed service persons who are otherwise qualified.
AFP-5 Senior Assembly Member Jane Ann Godager: Durable Social Security Cards.
This proposal requires that Social Security cards be made of more durable material and redesigned.
AFP-6 Senior Assembly Member Foster Lopes: Social Security Cap and Contributions.
This proposal increases the maximum Social Security wage and earnings cap and lowers the current rate paid by all payers.
AFP-7 Senior Assembly Member Foster Lopes: Medical Expense Tax Deductions.
This proposal allows persons 65 and older to fully deduct all medical expenses.
AFP-8 Senior Assembly Member Margaret Sowma: Home Health Care Patient Rights.
This proposal establishes procedures for home health agencies to inform beneficiaries of their rights and to protect and promote the exercise of the rights.
AFP-10 Senior Assembly Member Patricia Wilson: SSI and SSDI Disability Reviews.
This proposal eliminates continuing disability reviews for those on SSI and SSDI whose condition is not expected to improve.
AFP-12 Senior Assembly Member Lawrence I. Hartmann: Tire Safety Information.
This proposal requires manufacturers to label tire identification numbers on both sides and requires retailers to include the id number on sales receipts.
SFP-1 Senior Senator Richard Lundin: Federal Annuitant Health Insurance Premiums.
This proposal permits federal annuitants to be eligible for “premium conversion” in order to pay their share of health insurance premiums with pretax dollars.
SFP-2 Senior Senator Joseph F. Murphy: Silver Alert Program.
This proposal establishes a federally coordinated program known as Silver Alert to locate missing persons with dementia and a federal grant program to fund states’ development.
SJR 4 (Correa and Alquist) Relative to Alzheimer’s Disease.
This measure would urge the President and Congress of the United States to act to establish a federally controlled Alzheimer’s Silver Alert program to locate missing persons with dementia and establish a federal grant program to aid states in establishing local Silver Alert programs.
8/27/09 Chaptered: Resolution Chapter 87, Statutes of 2009.
SFP-3 Senior Senator Clifford C. Erven: Deceptive Marketing Practices.
This proposal authorizes the FTC to protect seniors from certain marketing schemes that result in unanticipated credit card charges.
SFP-4 Senior Senator Joseph A. Cox: Medicare Coverage of Dental Care.
This proposal expands Medicare coverage to include dental care and dental plates.
SFP-5 Senior Senator Marion Faustman: Prescription Drug Safety.
This proposal requires the FDA to determine the best methods of ensuring prescription drug safety, including protocols for withdrawals.
SFP-6 Senior Senator John Sorensen: Unsolicited Blank Checks.
This proposal requires the regulation of the distribution of blank checks with personal identification placing the recipient at risk identity and money theft.
SFP-7 Senior Senator Horace D. Mann, Jr.: Medicare Support for Shingles Immunization.
This proposal enables Medicare to provide support for shingles immunizations for seniors.
The following proposal from the 2007 CSL Session has been authored in the current session:
SP-18 Senior Senator Mesler: Mello-Granlund Older Americans Act.
This proposal amends the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act to define disability.
AB 2160 (2008) (Carter) Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act: disability: definition
Under existing law, the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, the California Department of Aging, and local area agencies on aging administer various programs for elderly persons. This act, with certain exceptions, does not contain a definition of disability.
This bill would define “disability” for purposes of the act as either a mental or physical disability, as defined.
9/28/08: Vetoed by the Governor.
AB 152 (Carter) Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act: disability: definition
Under existing law, the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, the California Department of Aging, and local area agencies on aging administer various programs for elderly persons. This act, with certain exceptions, does not contain a definition of “disability.”
This bill would define “disability” for purposes of the act as either a mental or physical disability, as those terms are defined.
1/31/10: Died.