We in the California Senior Legislature (CSL) are approaching the end of the 1999-2000 bill proposal year. Following is a list of bills that have resulted from senior legislator proposals and a few others the CSL is
supporting.

If you find one or more bills on this list that you support, please contact the local office of your Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin 445-7014 and Senator Wesley Chesbro 445-6508 to seek their active support. The Senate Bill (SB) or Assembly Bill (AB) precede the name in each listing.

* AB 1753 (Romero) Alzheimer's Caregiver Training and Certification. This bill will enact the Alzheimer's Training and Credential Act of 2000, which will establish minimum training requirements for staff at any Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE) that offers specialization in Alzheimer's care.

* AB 629 (Vincent) Statewide Elder Abuse Reporting Number. Hearing postponed in Senate Health & Human Services at request of author. This is a two-year bill introduced in 1999. It will establish a toll-free telephone number to report suspected cases of elder and dependent adult abuse.

* AB 2136 (Maldonado) Respite Care. This bill will establish a statewide respite care program for families and caregivers for the frail elderly, functionally impaired adults and children who require 24-hour supervision.

* AB 2137 (Maldonado) In-Home Support Services (IHSS) Background Check Fee Waiver. Passed to Senate June 1. This bill will provide fee waiver of fingerprint background check to eligible applicants.

* AB 1875 (Davis) Multi Service Senior Program (MSSP). (SB 1461, next, & AB 1875 are similar bills.) Both SB 1461 and AB 1875 will require the state to obtain federal financial participation to expand the services of the Multipurpose Senior Service Programs (MSSP).

* SB 1461 (Escutia) Medi-Cal Long-Term Care. This is bill will require the Health Services to seek expansion of the federal waiver in order to obtain federal financial participation under the Medi-Cal program for 50,000 MSSP slots.

* SB 1601 (Perata) Medicare Prescription Drugs. This bill will provide Medicare-eligible persons with the financial assistance to purchase Medicare supplemental insurance for prescription drug coverage.

* AB 2786 (Bates) Affordable Housing for the Elderly. This is bill will require all unclaimed money from a deceased person's estate that is permanently escheat to the state be deposited in the Affordable Housing for the Elderly Fund.

* AB 1740 (Ducheny) Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program Funding. Co-sponsored by the Coalition for Coordinated Advocacy will augment the Fiscal Year 2000-01 Budget by $6.3 million.

* AJR 42 (Alquist) Pharmaceutical Relief for Seniors will implement the voluntary Medicare prescription drug benefit contained in the President's FY 2001 budget.

* AB 591 (Wayne) Patient's Bill of Rights-Clinical Trials. Being held in Senate Appropriations; no action since September 1999. This bill will define routine patient care costs associated with specified clinical trials for life threatening conditions.

* AB 1820 (Wright) Geriatric Practitioners. This is bill requires every hospital in the state to have sufficient number of individuals on staff who are specifically trained in geriatric medicine and who will see every admitted patient older than 60.

* AB 1818 (Villaraigosa) Senior Center Bond Act.This is bill would have authorized the issuance of bonds in the amount of $225 million for the purpose of acquiring, renovating or constructing senior centers or funding startup costs of senior center programs. Note-Gov. Davis vetoed this bill at the end of June.

* SB 898 (Dunn) LTC Insurance Premium Renewal. Failed Assembly Insurance Committee August 1999; will be presented again. This bill will require long-term care insurance premiums and specified policy conditions to be guaranteed renewable or non-cancelable.

* AB 1819 (Shelley) Elder Abuse. This bill will require an elder and dependent abuse training course for every city police officer or deputy sheriff at a supervisory level and below who is assigned field or investigative duties.

* AB 1846 (Strickland) Home Modification for Aging in Place. This bill will establish a program through the California Department of Aging to educate the people of California about aging in place (at home) and the benefits of home modifications for seniors.

* SB 1448 (Hughes) Restricts Medi-Cal recovery from heirs. This bill will restrict and define the authority of the state to recover Medi-Cal from heirs, dependents and surviving families.

* SB 1742 (Hughes) Financial Abuse of Mentally Impaired Elder Adults. This bill will create a pilot program to reduce incidence of financial abuse perpetrated against mentally impaired elders. It will provide for early intervention and protection for vulnerable adults.

* AB 1950 (Pacheco) Conservatorship. This bill prohibits anyone with connection to the conservatorship process from mismanagement, fraud or taking any portion of an estate for their own personal use.

Mary Dennison is a Senior Senator on the California Senior Legislature. If you have questions about any CSL legislation, please contact her at 707-442-3164.

The CSL, formed by the Older California Act, has about a 70 percent success rate-70 percent of their sponsored bills ultimately become law.