Bill Text: CA AJR29 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Chaptered

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Bill Title: Senior nutrition services and programs: funding.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 54-18)

Status: (Passed) 2014-04-03 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 13, Statutes of 2014. [AJR29 Detail]

Download: California-2013-AJR29-Chaptered.html

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BILL NUMBER: AJR 29	CHAPTERED
	BILL TEXT

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER  13
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE  APRIL 3, 2014
	ADOPTED IN SENATE  MARCH 24, 2014
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  FEBRUARY 27, 2014
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  FEBRUARY 27, 2014

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Brown
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Achadjian, Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,
Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez,
Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Holden, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mansoor,
Medina, Melendez, Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande,
Pan, Perea, John A. Pérez, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva,
Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, and Yamada)

                        AUGUST 5, 2013

   Relative to senior nutrition services and programs.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AJR 29, Brown. Senior nutrition services and programs: funding.
   This measure would memorialize the Congress and President of the
United States to restore federal funding cuts, due to sequestration,
to senior nutrition programs, and to declare senior nutrition
services and programs exempt from further budget cuts.




   WHEREAS, The United States federal budget reductions, known as
sequestration began on March 1, 2013; and
   WHEREAS, In 2011, the United States Congress adopted, and
President Obama signed, the Budget Control Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-25,
hereafter the act), as an intended compromise and incentive to
address fundamental federal budgetary policy and direction; and
   WHEREAS, Section 302 of the act directed that, if a 10-year
deficit reduction plan was not enacted, significant amounts of
discretionary federal fiscal year 2013 funds would not be available
for spending; and
   WHEREAS, As the act mandates, and because Congress failed to pass
a bill reducing the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion, that amount
will be automatically sequestered through across-the-board federal
budget cuts from mandatory and discretionary spending in the years
2013 to 2021, inclusive, unless Congress takes alternate action; and
   WHEREAS, The cuts enacted by the act, initially set to begin on
January 1, 2013, were postponed by two months by the American
Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-240), thereby amplifying the
impact of spending reductions starting on March 1, 2013; and
   WHEREAS, The act requires that every federal program be cut
equally, including programs and services authorized by the Older
Americans Act of 1965 and administered by the Administration for
Community Living which oversees food and nutrition programs, elder
abuse prevention, caregiver support, healthy aging, and employment
for low-income seniors isolated due to extreme poverty and
disability; and
   WHEREAS, Nutrition programs provide important links to other
supportive in-home and community-based services, including
homemaker-home health aide services, transportation, physical
activity programs, home repair, home modification programs, as well
as nutrition screening, assessment, education, and counseling, and
special health assessments for diseases including hypertension and
diabetes; and
   WHEREAS, Home-delivered meal programs provide vital nutrition to
homebound individuals, and provide volunteers and paid staff
delivering meals an opportunity to check on the welfare of those
homebound meal recipients, and to report any health or other problems
those volunteers and staff may notice during those visits, which may
decrease feelings of isolation among those homebound meal
recipients; and
   WHEREAS, Congregate nutrition programs provide nutritious meals,
nutrition education, and nutrition risk screening, and provide
seniors with positive social contact with other seniors; and
   WHEREAS, Providing meals to eligible individuals can enhance their
ability to remain independent and in their own homes, thus
preventing unnecessary, costly, and premature institutionalization;
and
   WHEREAS, Older Californians are far less likely, due to age and
disability, to obtain employment to compensate for lost nutrition and
other benefits, forcing their families to back-fill with resources
intended to support their children and placing their entire family's
well-being at greater risk; and
   WHEREAS, State and federal funding reductions result in the loss
of equipment, deterioration of distribution systems, and erosion of
other innovations created by networks of community organizations,
local governmental agencies, and faith communities upon which a vast
array of food-insecure Californians rely; and
   WHEREAS, According to the California Department of Aging, the
sequester cuts will result in federal funds to these home-delivered,
congregate nutrition, and nutrition services incentive programs being
reduced by approximately an aggregate of $6.6 million during federal
fiscal year 2013-14, and approximately an aggregate of $5.09 million
in each subsequent federal fiscal year, thus depriving thousands of
California seniors of vital health and nutrition services; now,
therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature memorializes the Congress
and President of the United States to restore funding to senior
nutrition programs, similar to the way funding was restored for air
traffic control services; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Legislature memorializes the Congress and
President to declare senior nutrition services and programs exempt
from further budget cuts due to the disproportionate growth of the
aging population and the corresponding disproportionate impact of the
sequester cuts upon that population; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, to each Senator and Representative from
California in the Congress of the United States, to the Director of
the California Department of Aging, and to the author for appropriate
distribution.