Improving Lives of Older Americans Focus of Age4Action’s Policy Work

The year 2011 was eventful in aging policy and politics. The Age4Action Network has worked on a myriad of issues including the Older Americans Act (OAA) and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which were both up for reauthorization in 2011. Age4Action also focused on appropriations for Title V of the OAA, the Senior Community Services Employment Program (SCSEP), civic engagement and older workers. In this article, you will find an update on the effort the Age4Action Network put into these pressing issues to help improve the lives of older Americans.

The reauthorization of the Older Americans Act was a very important issue for Age4Action. After conducting forums across the nation, the network was able to formulate recommendations that reflected the opinions of older adults and other stakeholders. These recommendations, as well as background information on the OAA and a description of the forums, were then put into a document known as our white paper, titled: Modernizing the Older Americans Act: Recommendations for the 112^th Congress.

We then took these recommendations straight to Capitol Hill. We met with staffers and members of Congress to share our recommendations and raise awareness about the OAA. There was little action on this reauthorization in the beginning and middle of the year while Congress was more focused on appropriations and deficit reduction. It was important though, for Age4Action to make known the urgency for this reauthorization. Age4Action not only published the white paper, but also an executive summary and fact sheet, which were widely distributed.

Throughout August and September the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) and the Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging held a series of stakeholder meetings that each focused on different parts of the OAA. Brian Lindberg (Experience Wave and Age4Action) and Marci Phillips (National Council on Aging and Age4Action) were invited to testify at the meeting about SCSEP and older workers held on September 9, 2011. They discussed Age4Action’s recommendations regarding this issue, such as expanding Title V to include elder abuse and prevention and specific examples of how Title V funding is assisting older adults in finding jobs.

One of the final steps Age4Action took this year in regard to the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act was to draft legislative language. The Senate HELP committee’s Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging is working on a draft of the reauthorization and asked Age4Action to bring our recommendations forward by submitting our legislative language. The committee has been receptive to Age4Action’s suggestions and we were pleased to be able to provide our input.

Age4Action has also worked closely with the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO) throughout the year on the reauthorization of OAA. LCAO wrote a paper with recommendations to include in the reauthorization as well. Age4Action worked with LCAO to have the recommendations from the white paper included in this document.

The Workforce Investment Act, which provides workforce development opportunities for unemployed workers and employees, was up for reauthorization this year. It was important for Age4Action to provide input on this reauthorization because older workers are often overlooked in this act. WIA provides services for older adults mostly through partnership with SCSEP. Older workers are not specifically recognized in other programs, such as the Workforce Investment Boards, that assist unemployed workers in finding jobs. Age4Action worked to bring knowledge of this to legislators and provided recommendations that would include more emphasis on the older workforce.

The Senate HELP committee drafted a bill for WIA reauthorization in June 2011. Age4Action then wrote recommendations and legislative language for this bill that was also submitted in June. Senator Kohl, who supported previous Age4Action recommendations, submitted some of our proposals to the committee. Age4Action also shared our recommendations in July 2011 with Senator Sanders (I-VT) and Senator Blumenthal (D-CT).

The House side did not produce much action on WIA reauthorization this year. Age4Action’s recommendations were presented to Ranking Member Miller’s office. Representative George Miller (D-CA) is working on drafting a bill this year. Despite these efforts, neither the House nor Senate will act on WIA this year. Even though its reauthorization timeline pushes it to be done this year, the infamous congressional gridlock continues to affect all Americans and has stymied progress on reauthorization.

Another policy issue effecting older adults that Age4Action worked on was Labor/HHS appropriations. Age4Action advocated for full funding to all of these programs, especially SCSEP. Unfortunately, House Labor/HHS Subcommittee Chairman Denny Rehberg (R-MT) and Senate Labor/HHS Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) are very far apart on what they envision in a final bill. In September, the Senate Labor/HHS Committee approved a bill that funds the SCSEP at $450 million for fiscal year 2012. This is the same amount of funding the program received in fiscal year 2011, and $375 million less than in 2010, when the program received a substantial boost from stimulus funding. The House Labor/HHS Subcommittee released a draft bill, but never marked it up, or voted on it. The bill appropriated $450 million over 15 months for SCSEP, which would reduce funding for the program. There is intense pressure from leadership to finalize all 2012 appropriations before the Christmas recess.

Finally, thanks to all of you in the Age4Action Network for helping to move our agenda to improve the lives of older adults forward this year!

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