NEWS: With Bipartisan Vote, Sanders Leads HELP Committee in Historic Reauthorization of the Older Americans Act

WASHINGTON, July 31 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today led the committee in a bipartisan 20-1 vote to reauthorize, expand, and strengthen the Older Americans Act (OAA) – critical legislation that will substantially increase funding for services for older Americans. This reauthorization marks the second largest authorized funding level increase in the history of the OAA. 

“I am very proud that this committee came together – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – to call for a 44% increase in funding for the Older Americans Act over the next five years,” said Sanders. “This legislation begins to pay attention to the urgent unmet needs of millions of seniors in America and what we must do as a society to reduce the senior poverty rate, to reduce senior hunger, and to improve the health and well-being of some of the most vulnerable people in our country. Not only does the Older Americans Act save lives and ease human suffering, it saves money. In fact, it costs less to feed a senior for an entire year through the Older Americans Act than it does for a senior to spend one night in a hospital.”

This legislation would authorize an increase in OAA funding from $2.3 billion this year to $2.76 billion in Fiscal Year 2025 – a 20 percent increase in funding compared to last year, $450 million more in funding.

Over the next five years, this legislation would authorize the Appropriations Committee to spend 44% more on the OAA than it currently does – taking funding levels from $2.3 billion in 2024 to $3.3 billion in 2029 – for a total of $15 billion.

First signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the OAA has provided vital nutrition, social, economic, and health services to millions of vulnerable seniors for nearly six decades.

In America today, 12 million seniors are at risk of going hungry and are worried about not having enough food to eat. Nearly 95% of adults over the age of 60 have a chronic health condition and 80% have two or more chronic conditions like high blood pressure, arthritis, and diabetes. More than 11 million older Americans receive critical social and nutrition services from the OAA.

Over 2 million seniors receive nutrition services each year under the OAA.

Due to a lack of funding, roughly four out of five seniors who need a home-delivered or congregate meals do not receive one and many are put on waiting lists that can last for several months. This legislation begins to reverse that trend.

The OAA was last reauthorized in 2020.

For video of Sanders’ remarks, as well as the bill text and section-by-section of the OAA, click here.