Action Alert: Build Back Better Must Include More Funding for Older Adults

Congressional leaders are moving quickly to enact a pared-down $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill. LeadingAge National and LeadingAge NY appreciate the funding for programs that support older adults included in the Build Back Better Act and are urging that the final bill not only include these provisions, but also expand the funding available for older adults. As negotiations continue, please help us ask Congress to include stronger supports for older Americans and their families!

Congress must:

• Increase to at least $1 billion the bill’s current $500 million for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly funding program. Without more Section 202 housing, the benefits of the bill’s home and community-based services (HCBS) and Money Follows the Person investments cannot be realized, and low-income older adults will continue to languish on the growing waiting lists for service-connected, affordable housing.
• Preserve or increase the bill’s $150 billion for HCBS. Older adults must be able to get the help they need to age in place wherever they call home. This minimum investment will help ensure access to services as well as bolster wages of the direct care professionals (primarily low-income women of color) who deliver that care.
• Preserve or increase the bill’s key workforce investments:
  • $150 billion Medicaid HCBS expansion;
  • $1.6 billion for nursing home workforce training grants;
  • $1 billion for grants to support the direct care workforce;
  • $425 million to expand the Health Profession Opportunity Grants;
  • $20 million for technical assistance centers for supporting direct care and caregiving;
  • $40 million in funding to support unpaid caregivers’ behavioral health needs;
  • $30 million in funding for palliative care and hospice education and training;
  • $20 million for hospice and palliative nursing; and
  • $350 million for individuals to carry out non-traditional apprenticeship programs.

We can’t let up now! Without these investments in our aging services infrastructure, too many older adults will not have their basic needs met. Send a message to your members of Congress TODAY by clicking here.