California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 29

Introduced by Assembly Member Brown

August 5, 2013

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 29—Relative to senior nutrition services and programs.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AJR 29, as introduced, 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.

Fiscal committee: no.

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.