WASHINGTON, March 5 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, on Thursday, March 7 at 11:00 a.m. ET will lead the committee in a hearing titled, “The Older Americans Act: Supporting Efforts to Meet the Needs of Seniors.”

“Today in America, it is no secret that too many seniors are struggling to get by,” said Chairman Sanders. “In the richest country in the history of the world, it is unacceptable that millions of seniors are living in poverty and struggling to put food on the table while one out of every four of our nation’s seniors is trying to survive on an annual income of less than $15,000 a year. With our nation’s rapidly aging population, this is an issue that will only get worse if we do not act now. We must address this crisis before it is too late. Increasing funding for the Older Americans Act is an important way to do just that.”

First signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Older Americans Act (OAA) has provided vital nutrition, social, economic, and health services to millions of vulnerable seniors for nearly six decades. These highly effective services have not only saved lives they have saved taxpayers money.

With a rapidly aging population, a strong and well-funded OAA is critical to addressing and combatting the many crises faced by seniors in America. From 2010 to 2020, the share of residents 65 or older grew by more than a third – the fastest rate of any decade in 130 years. By 2035, the number of Americans aged 60 and over is expected to rise to nearly 95 million.

Nutrition programs established by the OAA are able to feed a senior for an entire year for the same cost as one night in the hospital. If 10 percent of older Americans with at least one chronic condition were to enroll in the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program funded by the OAA, the U.S. could save $6.6 billion in health care costs. OAA-funded prevention programs have been estimated to reduce the number of falls by seniors by up to 55 percent and reduce annual health costs by up to over $900 per participant. Falls by older Americans result in $50 billion in medical costs each year with the majority paid by Medicare and Medicaid.

In April 2023, forty-two senators, including Chairman Sanders and Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), sent a letter to Senate appropriators requesting a doubling in funding for OAA programs.

The OAA was last reauthorized in 2020 and will expire on September 30, 2024.

Details
What: Hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to consider “The Older Americans Act: Supporting Efforts to Meet the Needs of Seniors”
When: 11:00 a.m. ET, Thursday, March 7, 2024
Where: Room 430, Dirksen Senate Office Building. The hearing will also be livestreamed on the HELP Committee’s website and Sanders’ social media pages.
Who:
Panel I
Ramsey Alwin, President and CEO, National Council on Aging
Ellie Hollander, President and CEO, Meals on Wheels America
Michelle Branham, Secretary, Florida Department of Elder Affairs
Martha (Marti) Y. Kubik, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor of Nursing, College of Public Health, George Mason University
Dorothy Hutchins, Virginia Older Adult, Alexandria, VA

Panel II
Alison Barkoff, Principal Deputy Administrator and performing the duties of the Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging, Administration for Community Living, US Department of Health and Human Services