Older Americans Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I am very pleased to see that the Older Americans Act reauthorization passed the Senate last week. This law, which turns 50 years old this month, provides critical services like home-delivered meals, transportation, and elder abuse protections.
I would like to thank Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray for their efforts to pass this bill. I would also like to acknowledge the many organizations representing tens of millions of Americans who worked with me and my staff to get this bill passed, including the National Council on Aging, Meals on Wheels America, AARP, the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, and many others.
While this bill is a good step forward, I would have preferred that it go much further.
Older adults are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. Shockingly, 1 in 5 seniors is living on an average income of $8,300 per year. We learned from the Government Accountability Office last month that nearly 4 million seniors experience food insecurity and do not know where their next meal will come from. Fewer than 10 percent of low-income seniors who need a meal delivered to their homes receive one. There are seniors across the country who may not have enough money to eat dinner tonight.
For the generation that fought to defend democracy and built our great Nation, we must do everything we can to make sure that seniors do not go hungry. Older Americans should not have to choose between buying medicine or keeping a roof over their heads or having food on the table.
Providing home-delivered meals--Meals on Wheels--for seniors is not only the right thing to do, it makes good economic sense. Why is that? If frail seniors do not get the nutrition they need, they are more likely to fall and break a hip and wind up in the hospital emergency room or in a nursing home. At the end of the day, investing in nutrition which keeps seniors healthy actually saves us money by keeping them out of the hospital.
Since 2006 when the Older Americans Act was last reauthorized, the U.S. population over 60 has grown by about 30 percent. Has funding gone up by 30 percent? No. In fact, funding has been basically flat, and when you account for inflation, funding has actually decreased by about 12 percent. I strongly believe we should significantly expand funding for Older Americans Act programs.
The truth is that the priorities we hold--treating seniors with respect, making sure seniors have the food they need--have the overwhelming support of the American people. These principles are among the foundations of a just and fair society where people look forward to growing old. I thank my Senate colleagues for their support of this important reauthorization bill. I hope that my colleagues in the House of Representatives take up and pass this bill swiftly so that it can become law without any further delay.
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