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AARP California ended the 2009 Legislative year with a number of important victories. At the close of the regular session, Governor Schwarzenegger signed 12 additional AARP-supported bills bringing the total for the year to 15 bills.

Here are highlights of some important bills from the 2009 Legislative year:

In August, Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 392 (Feuer), urgency legislation that immediately restored 1.6 million dollars for the Long-Term Care Ombudsman program. The bill will help ensure the protection of over 250,000 older Californians, many of whom are elderly and live in nursing facilities.

In June, a broad team effort of both Capitol and Legislative District members and staff was successful in pushing back an effort to pass AB 761 (Calderon) this year. The bill would have allowed mobile home parks to circumvent local ordinances and raise rental rates by substantial amounts (when a vacancy occurs). Additionally, more than 200 AARP members made phone calls to help prevent passage of this bill for the rest of the year.

In May, the Governor signed AB 23 (Jones) -- "Cal-COBRA" legislation, which extends subsidized health insurance to employees of small employers (2-19 people) who are involuntarily terminated and are eligible for funds available under the American Recovery Act.

Additionally, our AARP California Capitol Action Team ended the year with Governor Schwarzenegger signing approximately a dozen bills.

Here is a complete list of AARP-supported bills signed by the Governor:

AMERICAN RECOVERY ACT
SBX3 24 (Alquist) Federal Stimulus

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT / VOTING RIGHTS
AB 30 (Price) 17 year old voter pre registration

FINANCIAL SECURITY / REVERSE MORTGAGES /
CONSUMER PROTECTION
AB 329 (Feuer) Reverse Mortgage Elder Protection Act
SB 94 (Calderon) Mortgage Loan Modifications: Restrictions on Upfront Fees SB 98 (Calderon) Life Insurance Fraud: Stranger Originated Life Insurance
AB 370 (Eng) Unlicensed Contractors

LONG TERM CARE FACILITIES
AB 215 (Feuer) Long term care facilities: Center for Medicare -- Ratings
AB 407 (Beall) Disclosures: Nursing Home Closures
AB 1169 (Ruskin) Transparency: Retirement Living Facilities

MEDI-CAL: ELIGIBILITY
AB 1269 (Brownley) Working Disability Program

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: RESEARCH
AB 292 (Yamada) Personal income tax contributions -- Alzheimer's Disease

PRESCRIPTION: LABELING
SB 470 (Corbett) Labeling

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
SB 23 (Padilla) Manufactured Housing: Emergency Preparedness Plans

Many thanks to our Capitol Action Team and all of you who contacted your legislators and the Governor in support of these important bills!