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Committee advances bill requiring Department of Aging to publish local AAAs' compliance reports
Summary
The House Aging and Older Adults Services Committee voted unanimously to advance House Bill 372, which would require the Department of Aging to post annual compliance reports for each area agency on aging on its public website; an amendment that aligned language with monitoring criteria was adopted unanimously.
The House Aging and Older Adults Services Committee voted unanimously to advance House Bill 372, which would require the Department of Aging to annually publish compliance reports for each area agency on aging on the department's public website.
Supporters said the measure would increase transparency and help identify areas needing improvement in services for older Pennsylvanians. "There's nothing more important than keeping our citizens here in the Commonwealth safe and free from abuse and financial exploitation," Representative Lou Schmidt said during the committee hearing.
A staff member summarized the bill on the record, saying HB 372 "amends section 22-11(a) of the Administrative Code to require the Department of Aging to annually publish compliance reports for each area agency on aging on their public website." Schmidt, the prime sponsor, told the committee the proposal grew out of questions raised during an appropriations hearing and praised Department of Aging staff for cooperating on improvements.
Chairman Madden offered Amendment A00026, which the chair and sponsor described as aligning the bill's language with the monitoring criteria the committee had discussed previously. The amendment was presented as an agreed change; the committee adopted it without objection. "Amendment A00026 makes changes to the language and aligns the bill with the monitoring criteria that we heard about last week," the chair said.
After adoption of the amendment, the committee chair asked for negative votes; none were recorded. The committee clerk announced the bill "passes unanimously out of committee." Representative Schmidt thanked the chair and members before the meeting moved to the next agenda item.
The bill, as amended, would require the Department of Aging to post compliance information for each local area agency on aging (often referred to as AAAs) on the department's public website. The committee record does not specify a timeline for when the department would begin posting the reports if the bill becomes law.
