The legislature's Select Committee on Aging will now be known as simply the Committee on Aging.
The change is more than semantic: It signifies a higher profile and a greater policy-making role for the panel.
"We will be able to develop legislation and get it out for a vote,'' said Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, the committee chairwoman, said during a Capitol press conference this morning. As a select committee, the panel was prohibited from referring bills directly to the House and Senate floor; they had to be approved a second committee, a cumbersome process that resulted in some legislation dying before it could be presented.
Prague said Sen. President Donald Williams approved the committee's upgrade after reviewing whether it would cost any extra money "and it doesn't,'' she said.