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The California Senior Legislature (CSL) is a volunteer body that proposes legislation regarding senior citizens at both state and federal levels. The CSL was founded in 1980 by Senator Henry Mello through ACR 129 (Assembly Concurrent Resolution), that the California Commission on Aging called a session of the Silver-Haired Legislature, a forum through which older Californians could develop their legislative priorities. In 1982, through SCR 44 (Senate Concurrent Resolution), this group became the California Senior Legislature and holds an annual legislation session.
In October 2023 the California Senior Legislature (CSL) adjourned the 43rd Annual Legislative Session and announced the following 2024 Top State Legislative proposals which include a reference to which Governor’s Master Plan for Aging (MPA) goal is addressed.
AP-2: Hospitals: Patient Discharge Summary – MPA Goal 2: Health Reimagined (Senior Assembly Member Gene Dorio, Santa Clarita, CA)
This measure would enact legislation that would require a hospital to standardize the patient discharge summary, including specified information, in order to improve communication and provide continuity of medical care during the patient’s transition to the home or another facility.
SP-6: Ralph M Brown Act: Teleconferencing – MPA Goal 1: Housing for All
(Senior Senator Stefan Lipson, El Cerrito, CA)
This measure would authorize teleconferencing with respect to county based Advisory Councils, Committees, Commissions, and their attendant Work Groups, Committees, and Subcommittees established for aging and disabilities issues in the same manner as it was during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
AP-8: Hospice Standards – MPA Goal 2: Health Reimagined
(Senior Assembly Member Joan Yacovone, Agoura Hills, CA)
This measure would require the State of California to make various reforms relating to hospice, including strengthening hospice standards by requiring inspections every 3 years, as specified, requiring the recertification for hospice-enrolled patients to be conducted by at least one independent physician in conjunction with the hospice physician, and adopting recommendations provided in the California State Auditor Report 2021-123 to require collaboration between specified State Departments to address fraud and abuse identified in the report and protect patients.
AP-7: Confidential Marriage – MPA Goal 3: Inclusion & Equity, Not Isolation (Senior Assembly Member David Tetzlaff, Mission Viejo, CA)
This measure would protect elders from abuse by providing a contestability provision for family members to void a confidential marriage due to misrepresentation or abuse within 4 years of the deceased elder’s death.
SP-8: Personal Needs Allowance – MPA Goal 5: Affording Aging
(Senior Senator Helen Lopez, El Centro, CA)
This measure would increase the personal needs allowance from $35 to $50 per month.
AP-1: Grandparents: Caregivers Support – MPA Goal 4: Caregiving that Works (Senior Assembly Member Mark Cox, Yucaipa CA) This measure would require the CA Department of Aging, in consultation with the Department of Justice, the State Department of Social Services, and Stakeholder Groups, to conduct a study to examine the issues faced by grandparents who are 60 years of age or older and are the primary caregivers for their grandchildren.
SP-3: Healthcare for Older Adults and People with Disabilities – MPA Goal 2: Health Reimagined
(Senior Senator Karen Gorback, Thousand Oaks, CA)
This measure would authorize a State Study for the purpose of designing public policy addressing the development, deployment and regulation of Artificial Intelligence in the field of Health Care, particularly in relation to the care of Older Adults and People with Disabilities.
SP-10: Skilled Nursing Facilities: End-of-Life Privacy – MPA Goal 2: Health Reimagined
(Senior Senator Antonio Rodella, Anaheim, CA)
This measure would require the Administrators of Skilled Nursing Facilities in the State to work with a resident who has been diagnosed as having less than 5 days to live, or with the resident’s family, to provide sufficient privacy for the dying resident so that the family or clergy or both may be with the resident and provide a dignified death and giving of the last rites.
AP-5: Automated External Defibrillators – MPA Goal 2: Health Reimagined
(Senior Assembly Member Milissa Meyer, Indian Wells, CA)
This measure would require any recreational building, as specified, in a Senior Living Community to maintain an AED on the premises. This measure would also request that the legislation require the entity in charge of the buildings to provide training to employees related to the use of an AED.
SP-9: End of Life Advance Directive – MPA Goal 2: Health Reimagined
(Senior Senator Steve Mehlman, Beaumont, CA)
This measure would permit an individual who is diagnosed with terminal dementia to make an advance directive requesting aid-in-dying drugs, if at a later date, the individual becomes likely to die within 6 months. This would also require that an individual suffering from terminal dementia is not required to self-administer the aid-in-dying drugs. This measure further proposes that the State Department of Public Health update its Annual Report on the End of Life Option Act to include information related to patients that make those advance health care directives.
SFP-1: Federal Personal Needs Allowance
(Senior Senator Helen Lopez, El Centro, CA)
This proposal would increase the Federal minimum personal needs allowance to $50 per month.
For more information on the California Senior Legislature contact Janice Bailey, Executive Director, at (916) 767-4382 or jbailey@seniorleg.ca.gov
Click on link below to learn about the Governor's Master Plan on Aging. Ventura County Area Agency on Aging also has a Master Plan on Aging for Ventura County.
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