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    Letter Regarding Older Americans Act Amendments

    December 15, 2011

    The Honorable Bernard Sanders, Chairman
    Retirement and Aging Subcommittee
    Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
    United States Senate
    Washington, DC 20510

    Dear Chairman Sanders:

    On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, I am writing to thank you for introducing the Older Americans Act Amendments of 2011, which reauthorizes the Older Americans Act (OAA). We share your hope that this legislation and other proposals to strengthen the OAA will receive bipartisan support in Congress early in 2012.

    Older Americans Act programs - such as in-home assistance, home-delivered and congregate meals, respite for family caregivers, preventive health services, job training and placement, and legal services - benefit individuals and their families. By helping seniors stay as independent as possible in their homes and communities, these programs also save federal and state government resources from being spent on sometimes unnecessary and often much more expensive care in hospitals and nursing homes. We understand that your legislation improves the OAA programs. In addition, your bill acknowledges that there is simply not enough money allocated for OAA programs to meet the needs of our growing elderly population.

    The National Committee also applauds you for the provision in the Older Americans Act Amendments of 2011 which requires the Secretary of Labor to revise and improve the experimental price index for the elderly, commonly referred to as the CPI-E, so that it can be considered as a replacement for the consumer price index that is being used to adjust Social Security benefits for inflation.  We believe that the CPI-E is based on a market basket of goods that more accurately reflects the spending patterns of the elderly and thus is a better index for the purpose of protecting seniors from the harmful effects of inflation.  Revising and improving the experimental CPI-E is an essential first step in its adoption as the CPI of record for the Social Security program.

    Thank you for your leadership on the Older Americans Act reauthorization. We look forward to working with you to strengthen these important programs that go a long way toward ensuring economic security and independence for older Americans and their family caregivers.

     

    Sincerely,

    Max Richtman
    President & CEO