2012 Session Proposals
Summary of Proposals for CSL 2012 Session
September 6, 2013
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.
Summary of the State Legislative Proposals
AP – Senior Assembly Proposal SP – Senior Senate Proposal
AP-2 Senior Assembly Member Eleanor Bloch: Emergency Transportation.
This proposal directs the Governor to mobilize paratransit vehicles, paramedics or any other mode of transportation that can be safely used to move the disabled and senior populations to a safe place where they are able to quickly receive needed services in the event of an earthquake or other natural disaster.
AB 918 (Cooley) Emergency services: preparedness.
The California Emergency Services Act sets forth the duties of the Office of Emergency Services with respect to specified emergency preparedness, mitigation, and response activities within the state. This bill would require the office, on or before July 31, 2015, to update the State Emergency Plan to include proposed best practices for local governments and nongovernmental entities to use to mobilize and evacuate people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs during an emergency or natural disaster.
8/28/13: Approved by Governor; chaptered as Chapter 187, Statutes of 2013.
AP-3 Senior Assembly Member Henry Borenstein: The Aging in Place Act.
This proposal establishes the aging in place act for the purposes of supporting, funding, educating, advocating for and promoting healthy aging in aging-friendly communities.
AP-5 Senior Assembly Member Richard L. Dahlgren: Senior Center Month.
This proposal proclaims the month of November 2013, and every November thereafter, to be “Senior Center Month” to recognize the contributions of California Senior Centers.
AP-6 Senior Assembly Member Gloria Duran: Nursing Facilities: Antipsychotic.
This proposal requires the State Department of Public Health to research and review existing or proposed practices at nursing facilities for addressing the mental health of nursing facility residents without the use of antipsychotic drugs.
AP-7 Senior Assembly Member June Glasmeier: Mandated Reporting for Notaries Public.
This proposal includes notaries public within the definition of mandated reporters of suspected financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult for purposes of the Elder Abuse Independent Adult Civil Protection Act.
AB 477 (Chau) Elder and dependent adult abuse: mandated reporting.
Existing law, the Financial Elder Abuse Reporting Act of 2005, establishes procedures for the reporting of suspected financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult, as defined. These procedures require mandated reporters of suspected financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult, as defined, to report known or suspected instances of financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult, as specified. Existing law makes a violation of the reporting requirements subject to a civil penalty.
This bill would include notaries public in the definition of mandated reporters of suspected financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult and would require a notary public, if he or she end insert has observed or has knowledge of suspected financial abuse in connection with providing notary services, to report the known or suspected instance of financial abuse. The bill would provide that this requirement is applicable only when the notary public knows that the victim of the suspected financial abuse is an elder or dependent adult.
Existing law makes specified reports, including reports of known or suspected financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult, confidential. Any violation of the confidentiality of these reports is a misdemeanor.
This bill would extend that confidentiality to a notary public’s report of known or suspected financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult. By increasing the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law authorizes a care custodian, clergy member, health practitioner, and an employee of an adult protective services agency or a law enforcement agency to present a claim to the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board for reasonable attorney’s fees incurred in any action against that person for making a report of known or suspected abuse of an elder or dependent adult, as specified.
This bill would additionally authorize a notary public to present a claim to the board for reasonable attorney’s fees incurred in an action against that person for making a report pursuant to these provisions.
Existing law requires a county adult protective services agency to report every known or suspected instance of abuse of an elder or dependent adult, as specified, to any public agency given responsibility for investigation in that jurisdiction of cases of elder and dependent adult abuse. Existing law also requires a county adult protective services agency to provide mandated reporters of suspected financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult with instructional materials regarding abuse and neglect of an elder or dependent adult and their obligation to report under these provisions.
The bill would require a county adult protective services agency to additionally report a known or suspected instance of abuse reported by a notary public and to additionally provide instructional materials to notaries public. By increasing the duties of local agencies, 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
9/3/13: Amended in Senate.
AP-8 Senior Assembly Member Marcia Gould: Labeling of Prescription Drugs.
This proposal requires all prescriptions to contain a notice on the prescription label of the purpose for which the drug is being prescribed, unless the patient or the physician requests that this information be omitted.
AB 396 (Fox) Prescriptions.
Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of pharmacists by the California State Board of Pharmacy and provides that a knowing violation of the law is a crime. Existing law requires every prescription, as defined, to include a legible, clear notice of the condition or purpose for which the drug is prescribed, if requested by the patient. Existing law prohibits a pharmacist from dispensing any prescription unless it is in a specified container that is correctly labeled to include, among other information, the condition or purpose for which the drug was prescribed if the condition or purpose is indicated on the prescription.
This bill would instead require that every prescription include a legible, clear notice of the condition or purpose for which the drug is prescribed, unless the patient or prescriber requests that this information be omitted. The bill would also require that every prescription container be correctly labeled to include that information, if so indicated on the prescription, unless the patient or prescriber requests that this information be omitted.
By revising these requirements, the knowing violation of which would be a crime, the 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.
2/19/13: From Printer
AP-9 Senior Assembly Member Michael Haas: Disclosure of Agency Action Concerning Seniors.
This proposal requires, no later than January 1, 2014, every State, County and City Agency to file summary reports on senior-related complaints with the Department of Justice. The proposal would require the Department of Justice to make this summary information available to the public and for the information to be organized by agency, date of complaint, nature of complaint, dates of agency action, and the disposition of the complaint. This proposal would also authorize the Department of Justice to require these reports for the years 2000-2013, inclusive.
AP-12 Senior Assembly Member Jack Hanson: Funding for Senior Transportation.
This proposal would authorize a county, or a group of counties acting jointly, to impose a motor vehicle fuel excise tax in order to provide funding for transportation services and meal delivery services to seniors, and other related purposes, subject to local voter approval in the county where the tax is imposed.
This proposal removes the termination date for the surcharge that is not to exceed Yz of 1 percent, uniformly applied to a subscriber’s intrastate telephone service to allow service and equipment providers to recover costs incurred under the program.
SB 129 (Wright) Deaf and disabled telecommunications program.
(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law requires the commission to oversee administration of the state’s telecommunications universal service programs, including the deaf and disabled programs, which are funded through the Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program Administrative Committee Fund. Existing law, until January 1, 2014, requires the commission to establish a surcharge, not to exceed 0.5%, that is uniformly applied to a subscriber’s intrastate telephone service charges to allow providers of the equipment and service provided pursuant to the deaf and disabled programs to recover their costs. Existing law, until January 1, 2016, requires the commission to submit a report on the fiscal status of the programs to the Legislature on or before December 31 of each year. Existing law requires the report to include, among other things, an evaluation of options for controlling program expenses and program efficiency, as specified.
This bill would extend imposition of the surcharge until January 1, 2020. The bill would extend the reporting requirements until January 1, 2021, and would require the commission to submit the report to the Legislature on or before March 1 of each year. This bill would also require the report to include an evaluation of any modification to the program that would maximize participation and funding opportunities under similar federal programs. As part of the report that is due no later than March 1, 2014, this bill would require the commission to evaluate options for controlling the program costs of providing speech generating devices, and include any information on barriers to participation by eligible subscribers.
(2) Existing law requires the commission to design and implement a program to provide access to a speech-generating telecommunications device to any subscriber who is certified as having a speech disability at no charge additional to the basic exchange rate. Existing law also requires the commission to expand the deaf and disabled program to include assistance to individuals with speech disabilities, including assistance in purchasing speech-generating devices, accessories, and mounting systems, and specialized telecommunications equipment.
This bill would delete the first provision, described above, that requires the commission to expand the program to include assistance to individuals with speech disabilities, including assistance in purchasing speech-generating devices, accessories, and mounting systems, and specialized telecommunications equipment.
(3) Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that existing members of the Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program Administrative Committee should serve out their current terms of office as members of the committee, but not to exceed July 1, 2003. Existing law requires the committee to develop and submit, not later that October 1, 2002, recommendations to the commission for administration and governance of the deaf and disabled programs, as prescribed.
The bill would repeal these provisions.
(4) Under the Public Utilities Act a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission by a public utility is a crime.
Because the bill would require an order or decision of the commission to extend the surcharge funding the deaf and disabled programs and because a violation of these requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime.
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.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
9/4/13: Passed by Assembly; to Senate for concurrence.
AP-19 Senior Assembly Member Shirley Krohn: Adult Residential Facilities: Training: LGBT Issues.
This proposal requires current regulations to be amended to provide on-the-job training on the additional topic of cultural competency or sensitivity in aging lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender minority issues for all personnel in adult residential facilities.
AB 663 (Gomez) Care facilities: training requirements.
Existing law requires the administrator of an adult residential care facility or an administrator of a residential care facility for the elderly to undergo training, including specified subjects, including, but not limited to, business operations and the psychosocial needs of the facility residents. Existing law also requires the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman to sponsor training of ombudsman, to be completed prior to certification as an ombudsman.
This bill would require the administrator and ombudsman training to include training in cultural competency and sensitivity in issues relating to the underserved aging lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.
9/5/13: Enrolled.
AP-20 Senior Assembly Member Shirley Krohn: California Care-Receiver Protection Act of 21012.
This proposal requires every person who works as a caregiver to pass a criminal background check and drug test before providing in-home assistance to California’s elderly, blind, and disabled populations.
AP-25 Senior Assembly Member Charles J. Molnar: Crimes Against Elders and Dependent Adults.
This proposal requests the legislature to commission a study regarding the feasibility of establishing a state program, in conjunction with a non-profit agency, to conduct criminal background checks on all home service providers and in-home care providers for elder or dependent adults.
AP-29 Senior Assembly Member Gerald Richards: Powers of Attorney.
This proposal requires the California Law Revision Commission to study, hold public hearings throughout the state, and report to the Legislature whether it would be advisable to repeal the provisions governing the Durable Power of Attorney and replace them with the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, and, if the California Law Revision Commission finds that it is advisable, the Legislature repeal the Durable Power of Attorney and enact the Uniform Power of Attorney Act.
AP-32 Senior Assembly Member David Siegrist: Fishing Licenses: Expiration.
This proposal requires that a state fishing license expire one year from the date of issuance.
This proposal requires tactile surfaces to be placed before stairways in public buildings as a warning for sight impaired seniors.
AP-34 Senior Assembly Member Margaret Sowma: Hospital Disclosures: Additional Costs.
This proposal requires hospitals to disclose to patients all costs associated with a procedure before the patient undergoes that procedure, especially those costs that are not covered by the patient’s health insurance.
AP-36 Senior Assembly Member Evelyn L. Tom: Pharmacies: Senior Patient Prescription List.
This proposal requires that, upon the request of a senior patient purchasing a new prescription, a pharmacist, as defined, shall be required to prepare and provide a summary list, in both hard copy and electronic format, which contains all of a senior patient’s prescription drugs.
AP-37 Senior Assembly Member George F. Tucker: Long-Term Care Ombudsman Funding.
This proposal would secure funding for Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs through an annual fee charged to care facilities, and in accordance with prescribed requirements.
This proposal would require pharmaceutical industries, dispensing pharmacies, and manufacturers of sharps to provide an approved sharps disposal container with products requiring the use of hypodermic needles or other similar devices. This measure would require City and County Governments to develop a sharps collection and disposal plan that is approved by the State Department of Public Health and the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, and to have sufficient collection and disposal sites within their jurisdictions.
AP-41 Senior Assembly Member Richard Wolfe: Mandating Caregiver Requirements.
This proposal requires unlicensed and uncertified persons, excluding family members or friends as to be determined, to receive certification training in order to provide in-home supportive services for the elderly, blind and disabled.
AP-42 Senior Assembly Member Julia Rosenberg: Long-Term Health Care Facilities: Patient Property.
This proposal requires long-term health care facilities to record the serial number of any assistive device, including, but not limited to, wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, hearing aids, and walkers on the patient’s written personal property inventory upon the patient’s admission, and give the patient a copy of the personal property inventory.
This proposal requires all doors in public restrooms and dressing room facilities to open outward.
SP-3 Senior Senators Connie Eaton and Alice Loh: Property Tax.
This proposal gives California Seniors who are 65 years of age or older an increased homeowner’s property tax exemption in an amount, to be adjusted based on an appropriate cost-of-living index, of the full value of a primary place of residence.
SP-5 Senior Senator Sol Fingold: Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse and Neglect: Gag Clauses.
This proposal provides that any provision in a settlement agreement for a civil action for physical abuse, neglect or financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult shall not include a gag clause or any provision that prohibits contact or cooperation with law enforcement agencies, state agencies, other governmental entities, a protection or advocacy agency, or the defendant’s current employer if the defendant’s job responsibilities include contact with elders or dependent adults, and if the settlement agreement does not include such a gag clause or no contact provision, the clause or provision is void as against public policy
SP-6 Senior Senator Erwin F. Fromm: Preserving Senior Independence.
This proposal allows the board of supervisors of specified counties to increase the fee for a certified copy of a death record by up to $3, provided the moneys are used to fund a program for seniors, as specified.
This proposal extends the sunset date of the voluntary contribution relating to the California Fund for Senior Citizens to January 1, 2020.
AB 247 (Wagner) Personal income taxes: voluntary contribution: California Fund for Senior Citizens.
Under the Personal Income Tax Law, taxpayers are allowed to contribute amounts in excess of their tax liability for the support of the California Fund for Senior Citizens until the year in which a specified the minimum contribution is not received, or January 1, 2015, whichever occurs first.
This bill would extend the date of January 1, 2015, to January 1, 2020.
9/5/13: Enrolled.
SP-11 Senior Senator Jim Levy: Long-Term Care Strategic Planning.
This proposal develops a long-term care strategic plan for the purposes of establishing policies and regulations that make it possible for qualified persons with advanced age or disabilities to remain in their homes and communities and avoid unnecessary institutionalization.
SP-14 Senior Senator Austin Lucero: Personal Amplifier Listening Devices.
This proposal authorizes the sale of personal amplifier listening devices and encourages hearing aid manufacturers to redesign the sales and services of hearing aids to make high-quality hearing aids available to California consumers at reasonable costs, consistent with Federal Law.
SP-15 Senior Senator Richard Lundin: Statewide Elder Protection Courts.
This proposal enacts legislation that the presiding judge in each Superior Court in California encourage the adjudication of cases involving elder abuse in a coordinated and consolidated manner, similar to that established in the counties of Alameda and Contra Costa.
SP-16 Senior Senator Richard Lundin: Senior Housing: Security.
This proposal increases security and surveillance at all long-term care facilities and provides training to appropriate personnel.
SP-20 Senior Senator Joanna K. Kim-Selby: Automatic External Defibrillators: Signage.
This proposal requires the development of a universal AED symbol, and a public education program publicizing the symbol, and would require that the symbol be displayed outside of a public or private building or athletic facility if an AED is located within that building or facility.
SP-21 Senior Senator Joanna K. Kim-Selby: Stroke Symptom Education.
This proposal would require the State Department of Public Health and the California Department of Aging to implement a Stroke Education Campaign.
Summary of the Federal Legislative Proposals
AFP – Senior Assembly Proposal SFP – Senior Senate Proposal
AFP-1 Senior Assembly Member Vince B. Agor: The Reauthorization of the Federal Older Americans Act.
This proposal reauthorizes the Federal Older Americans Act.
SJR 4 (Monning) Reauthorization of the federal Older Americans Act of 1965.
This measure would memorialize the President and Congress of the United States to enact appropriate legislation reauthorizing the federal Older Americans Act of 1965.
5/20/13: Chaptered: Resolution Chapter 36, Statutes of 2013.
AFP-2 Senior Assembly Member Fran J. Givens: Hyperbaric Oxygenation Therapy.
This proposal authorizes greater access to Hyperbaric Oxygenation Therapy for the treatment of a variety of health issues to a broader range of patients including the elderly and disabled.
AFP-4 Senior Assembly Member Michael Haas: Equal Employment Opportunity.
This proposal amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of a person’s employment status.
AFP-5 Senior Assembly Member Michael LePeilbet: Social Security Benefits.
This proposal repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision of the Social Security Act so that any person who qualifies for Social Security Benefits receives the amount of benefits earned.
AFP-6 Senior Assembly Member Alice Loh: Medicare Part D.
This proposal requires the Federal Government to negotiate for the lowest available prices for prescription drugs under the Medicare Part D Program.
AFP-7 Senior Assembly Member Charles Mitchell: Health Care Practitioners: National Registry.
This proposal establishes a National Centralized Registry for the registration of all health care practitioners, to be funded by moneys allocated from the Elder Justice Act.
AFP-8 Senior Assembly Member Charles J. Molnar: Financial Elder Abuse.
This proposal requires a money wire transfer services doing business in the United States to be mandated reporters of suspected financial elder abuse.
AFP-9 Senior Assembly Member Lauren Rolfe: Medicare Coverage: Falls Risk Assessment.
This proposal creates an express Medicare reimbursement for a falls risk and prevention assessment by physicians and mid-level medical practitioners as part of the initial and annual preventative care visits provided to adults 65 years of age and older.
AFP-10 Senior Assembly Member Lauren Rolfe: Income Taxation: Deduction.
This proposal provides a tax deduction for seniors 65 years of age or older, for miles driven during volunteer activities in service of a charitable organization that is equal to the allowable business-related mileage tax deduction.
This proposal extends the physical therapy prescription review and renewal period for a patient with Parkinson’s Disease from every 30 to 90 days to, instead, every 30 days up to 180 days at the discretion of the patient’s physician.
AFP-15 Senior Assembly Member Alice Loh: Caregiver Services.
This proposal reauthorizes the Older Americans Act.
SFP-2 Senior Senator Jack B. Alderson: U. S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
This proposal requires the Department of Veteran Affairs to identify and acknowledge veterans who participated in weapons testing programs, and require the Department of Veterans Affairs to administer medical and other related services specifically to these veterans..
SFP-4 Senior Senator Richard Lundin: 442nd Regimental Combat Team Day.
This proposal proclaims a day of remembrance for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
SFP-5 Senior Senator Richard Lundin: Bataan Death March.
This proposal creates a National Day of Appreciation for survivors of the Bataan Death March and memoriam of the deceased, as specified.
SFP-7 Senior Senator John Sorensen: Personal Income Taxes: Social Security Benefits.
This proposal exempts senior citizens 65 years of age or older from paying income taxes on Social Security Benefits.
SFP-9 Senior Senator Lola Young: Income Tax Deduction: Qualifying Relative.
This proposal increases the gross income threshold for a qualifying relative from $3,800 to $10,000.
To see last year’s Program Book, click here.