community and home-based services such as respite care, adult day care, training for informal care givers, and home health care. Harenberg traveled extensively throughout the state, viewing senior programs and speaking with individual organizations. As Chair of the Committee on Aging, Harenberg held numerous public hearings, beginning in 1981 on such diverse topics as energy needs, elder abuse, long-term care, the status of older women, mandatory Medicare assignment, adult homes, Medigap insurance, and age discrimination in employment. Harenberg also expanded the membership of the Committee's Advisory Council, composed of older persons and their advocates, in an effort to elicit a wider range of ideas for legislation and broader-based support for the Committee's legislative efforts. Through these visits and hearings, and with the advice of its Advisory Council under Harenberg's leadership, the Committee on Aging developed and enacted significant legislation to improve the lives of older persons. Recognizing the very important role that families play in providing care to older persons, Harenberg, in his first year as Chairman, sponsored experimental legislation that created some of the first respite programs in the nation, assisting family caregivers and improving the quality of life for the dependent elderly persons. Harenberg led efforts to eliminate age-based discrimination in employment and housing. Additionally, he succeeded in securing passage of a sliding scale of real property tax exemptions for elderly homeowners. Other gains the Committee won for the older New Yorkers in 1984 included the statutory establishment of Enriched Housing programs and further funding increases for Community Services for the Elderly. Creation of the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage Program (EPIC), established to help income-eligible seniors with the high costs of prescription drugs, was achieved in 1986 through Harenberg's persistent leadership and the support of many statewide senior advocacy organizations. A 1996 cost analysis of the EPIC program showed savings of $40 million as a consequence of delayed need for institutionalizing many of New York's elderly. In addition to his efforts here in New York State, Harenberg has been a strong advocate for New York's elderly at the federal level of government. Strongly critical of federal efforts to cut funding for health care, housing and other senior services, Harenberg was an active delegate at the 1981 White House Conference on Aging and has worked for improved Medicare benefits, as well as for increased funding of the Older Americans Act. Harenberg was successful in securing enactment of spousal impoverishment