South Carolina General Assembly
117th Session, 2007-2008

Download This Bill in Microsoft Word format

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

H. 5025

STATUS INFORMATION

Concurrent Resolution
Sponsors: Reps. Neilson, McLeod, Leach, Agnew, Alexander, Allen, Anderson, Anthony, Bales, Ballentine, Bannister, Barfield, Battle, Bedingfield, Bingham, Bowen, Bowers, Brady, Branham, Brantley, Breeland, G. Brown, R. Brown, Cato, Chalk, Clemmons, Clyburn, Cobb-Hunter, Coleman, Cooper, Cotty, Crawford, Daning, Dantzler, Davenport, Delleney, Duncan, Edge, Erickson, Frye, Funderburk, Gambrell, Govan, Gullick, Hagood, Haley, Hamilton, Hardwick, Harrell, Harrison, Hart, Harvin, Haskins, Hayes, Herbkersman, Hiott, Hodges, Hosey, Howard, Huggins, Hutson, Jefferson, Jennings, Kelly, Kennedy, Kirsh, Knight, Limehouse, Littlejohn, Loftis, Lowe, Lucas, Mack, Mahaffey, Merrill, Miller, Mitchell, Moody-Lawrence, Moss, Mulvaney, J.H. Neal, J.M. Neal, Ott, Owens, Parks, Perry, Phillips, Pinson, E.H. Pitts, M.A. Pitts, Rice, Rutherford, Sandifer, Scarborough, Scott, Sellers, Shoopman, Simrill, Skelton, D.C. Smith, F.N. Smith, G.M. Smith, G.R. Smith, J.E. Smith, J.R. Smith, W.D. Smith, Spires, Stavrinakis, Stewart, Talley, Taylor, Thompson, Toole, Umphlett, Vick, Viers, Walker, Weeks, Whipper, White, Whitmire, Williams, Witherspoon and Young
Document Path: l:\council\bills\rm\1404htc08.doc

Introduced in the House on April 15, 2008
Introduced in the Senate on April 16, 2008
Adopted by the General Assembly on April 16, 2008

Summary: Senior Citizens

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   4/15/2008  House   Introduced, adopted, sent to Senate HJ-54
   4/16/2008  Senate  Introduced SJ-5
   4/16/2008  Senate  Referred to Committee on Judiciary SJ-5
   4/16/2008  Senate  Recalled from Committee on Judiciary SJ-5
   4/16/2008  Senate  Adopted, returned to House with concurrence SJ-5

View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

4/15/2008

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

TO URGE COORDINATION OF GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE RESOURCES IN THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA TO PROTECT OUR SENIOR CITIZENS FROM SCAMS AND OTHER SCHEMES THAT UNDERMINE THEIR FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE.

Whereas, senior citizens are the most rapidly growing segment of South Carolina's population, with 1.3 million baby boomers joining seven hundred seventy-five thousand individuals already sixty and older, and this group can be especially vulnerable to scams; and

Whereas, there were more than six thousand total fraud complaints made through the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs in 2007 and presumably many more that went unreported; and

Whereas, the top South Carolina frauds consisted of magazine subscriptions, shop-at-home/catalog sales, foreign-money offers, Internet services, prizes/sweepstakes, and lotteries; and

Whereas, it falls to government to provide support to those senior adults who have been financially exploited through calculating theft of their resources by unscrupulous persons. Therefore, it is in the public interest of the State of South Carolina to preserve and enhance the ability of its senior citizens to both provide for themselves financially and safeguard their assets; and

Whereas, to help protect our seniors' resources, the Omnibus Adult Protection Act provides penalties for those who neglect, abuse, or exploit vulnerable adults, but further protection is needed. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

That the members of the South Carolina General Assembly, by this resolution, urge coordination of government and private resources in the State of South Carolina to protect our senior citizens from scams and other schemes that undermine their financial independence.

Be it further resolved that, by this resolution, the members of the General Assembly declare protection of vulnerable adults against unlawful and unscrupulous scams to be a high priority for all tax-funded agencies and institutions.

Be it further resolved that the Lieutenant Governor's Office on Aging shall coordinate with the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Office of Secretary of State, the Office of Attorney General, South Carolina Educational Television, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, members of the Adult Protection Coordinating Council, and other state agencies, private groups, local law enforcement, solicitors, magistrates, and media organizations to shield our senior citizens from fraudulent businesses and individuals who seek to take what seniors have worked hard their entire lives to obtain.

Be it further resolved that, by this resolution, the members of the General Assembly urge the strengthening of South Carolina's efforts to protect our senior adults against fraud through an educational campaign that calls upon the voluntary resources of the civic-minded South Carolina Cable Association, South Carolina Press Association, South Carolina Broadcasters Association, and other such groups in order to create appropriate public-service announcements and special programming on commercial and cable television stations, as well as newspaper features and reports.

----XX----

This web page was last updated on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 3:48 P.M.