COLLOQUY
The Senior Alliance's Monthly Advocacy Update July 23, 2024
Volume 5.7 |
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Welcome to The Senior Alliance's advocacy newsletter, COLLOQUY! This monthly e-mail is a look at the issues, legislation, and events impacting aging. |
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U.S. House Appropriations Committee Cuts
On July 10th, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee passed the Fiscal Year 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. Unfortunately, this bill proposes a series of budget cuts to aging services, including: -
A $37 million cut to home-delivered and congregate meal nutrition programs.
- No funding for the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), a workforce training program designed specifically for older adults who are looking to get back into the workforce.
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No federal funding for states to provide Adult Protective Services.
- A $450 million cut to the Social Security Administration's administrative budget.
This appropriations bill still must be marked up and voted on by the Senate Appropriations Committee before going to each of the full chambers for a final vote. To send a message to your federal legislators about these cuts, click here. |
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Older Americans Act Reauthorization
The Older Americans Act (OAA) of 1965, which created Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs), is set to expire at the end of Fiscal Year 2024 and needs to be reauthorized before then. The reauthorization process opens up the opportunity for vital updates to the Act to support older adult's health, well-being, and ability to age well at home and in the community. USAging, the national association of Area Agencies on Aging, developed several recommendations for changes to the Act. The recommendations are meant to encourage Congress and the Administration to update the Act in ways that enable continued innovation, flexibility, and greater capacity to meet the needs of the nation's growing aging population and caregivers.
A few of their top recommendations include: -
Increasing authorized funding levels to meet the needs of the growing older adult population and rising costs of service delivery.
- Ensuring that AAAs and other Aging Network community-based organizations are able to meet their mission by securing health care or other private funding to serve more older adults.
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Allowing Title III-D health and wellness programs to be evidence-informed--not just evidence-based.
- Unifying and modernizing the Title III-C nutrition funding streams and programs.
While the Senate Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions Committee and the Senate Aging Committee have both held hearings about reauthorizing the Older Americans Act, no reauthorization bill has passed through any committee thus far.
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Protections for Vulnerable Adults Introduced in Michigan Senate
Before going on summer recess, several Michigan Senators introduced bills that would place additional penalties on the perpetrators of abuse and financial exploitation against vulnerable adults. In addition to penalties, further protections, including personal protection orders, would be created to prevent these situations from occurring. -
SB 922, introduced by Sen. Klinefelt (D-Eastpointe), would create personal protection orders specifically to address situations involving financial exploitation of vulnerable adults, as well as threats or acts of violence against such individuals.
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SB 923, introduced by Sen. Anthony (D-Lansing), would amend the Michigan Penal Code to make targeted embezzlement from a vulnerable adult a predicate offense of racketeering. This change would expand the statute of limitations for recovering property in such cases from six years to 10 years.
- SB 924, introduced by Sen. Hertel (D-Saint Clare Shores) would extend the protection from using or obtaining a vulnerable adult's money or property through fraud, deceit, coercion, or unjust enrichment from the vulnerable adult's lifetime to beyond their death.
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SB 925, introduced by Sen. Irwin (D- Ann Arbor) would allow individual counties or regions to create a vulnerable adult multidisciplinary team that would coordinate with various agencies to work on preventing and intervening in cases of abuse and financial exploitation against vulnerable adults.
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USAging Award
The Senior Alliance received an "Aging Innovations and Achievement" award at the July conference of our national Area Agencies on Aging association, USAging. The award was for restructuring our Michigan Medicare Assistance Program (MMAP) to a 100 percent community model with regular health insurance counseling hours scheduled at trusted organizations throughout our service region. For three consecutive years, our amazing MMAP team has also been recognized as the state's MMAP Team of the Year.
To find out when our MMAP team is in a community center near you, click here. |
Join our Advisory Council!
The Senior Alliance is currently looking for older adults to serve on its Advisory Council. Created by the Older Americans Act, the Advisory Council plays an important role in the development of our Multi-Year Plan and advocacy efforts. The Advisory Council meets seven times per year on the second Monday of meeting months. Meetings begin at 9:30 a.m. and last about 90 minutes. Typical agendas include updates on the agency, advocacy initiatives, as well as projects and programs.
If you are interested in volunteering to become a member of our Advisory Council, please contact Amanda Sears at asears@thesenioralliance.org. |
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