The 2008 General Assembly Session
High and Low Points

The 425th General Assembly session, which convened on January 9 and adjourned on April 7, considered 2,651 bills and approved 748 bills.

Just like all sessions, the 2008 session had its high and low points. Certainly, one of the high points was approving emergency legislation to deal with the foreclosure nightmare to help the people caught up in this tragedy. The Governor has already signed these bills into law. The new laws: make mortgage fraud a felony, subject to tough criminal penalties…lengthen the time it takes to actually foreclose on a home from 15 days to 90 days…require lenders to make sure that a prospective buyer has the income to afford monthly mortgage payments when the interest increases to the highest rate…toughen requirements for people to qualify for a lender’s license….outlaw mortgage-rescue scams, which result in people losing their homes.

Also approved was legislation to require CareFirst Blue Cross, beginning in 2009, to contribute $4 million annually to the state’s Senior Prescription Drug Assistance Program to help low-income seniors, who are in the Medicare coverage gap, pay for their necessary life -saving medicines. Seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D receives no coverage from their insurers when the cost of their drugs exceeds $2,510 and until the senior spends $5,726. That coverage gap is known as the “donut hole. READ MORE (.pdf)