March 30, 2023 Advocacy Alert




Urge Your Senators to Increase FY 2024 OAA Funding

Call Your Senators TODAY and Urge Them to Sign on to the OAA Appropriations Letter!


March 30, 2023
 
Members of Congress aren’t letting up with their efforts to request additional investments in Older Americans Act (OAA) funding for FY 2024! This week, Senator Bernie Sanders (DVT), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, took the lead once again on this year’s Senate OAA appropriations letter. He is requesting a DOUBLING of OAA funding in FY 2024, an amount that aligns with USAging’s current appropriations requests. We are calling for your advocacy support once again to ensure we collect enough signatures to convince the Senate Appropriations Labor/HHS/Education Subcommittee to highly consider these requests!

The deadline for Senators to sign the OAA Appropriations letter is next Tuesday, April 4. This letter is ONLY for Senators so please do your outreach to your respective Senators and encourage others in your community to do the same! 

About the Letters

In a new letter to his fellow congressional colleagues, Senator Sanders is calling for all Senators to support his request to Senate Appropriations Labor/HHS/Education Subcommittee leaders to allocate $4.63 billion to OAA for FY 2024. Last year, this letter had 41 cosigners and we hope that, with your advocacy efforts, we can surpass that number this year!

Your advocacy is already working, and we thank you for your efforts in this appropriations season! We are excited to share the House FY24 OAA Title III Funding letter from last week received 91 signatures! Your continued advocacy is vital to the FY 2024 annual appropriations process and will help determine next year’s OAA funding. Senator Sanders’ sign-on letter is just one of thousands sent to Appropriations Committee leaders regarding funding requests for various federal discretionary programs. Now more than ever, we need you to contact your Senators and drive signatures to the OAA letter!

Read the Sanders OAA Appropriations sign-on letter.
  
Action Requested

Call your Senators and ask them to sign on to the letter circulated by Senator Sanders on OAA funding.

STEP 1: Call the DC office and ask for the staff member who handles Older Americans Act or appropriations issues. You can reach them through the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202.224.3121 or find the number on your Senator’s website.

STEP 2: Tell them about the Sanders OAA Appropriations letter and offer to email them a link to the letter if they have not already seen it. Tell them they can sign their boss on via Quill. Please note, the link to letter can only be accessed by Members of Congress and their staffers.

If they ask for a staff contact for Senator Sanders, tell them to contact Michaela Brown at Michaela_Brown@help.senate.gov.

STEP 3: Let them know exactly why you want your Senator to sign on to this letter. Give local statistics that demonstrate the need for an increase in OAA funding and make sure to highlight the growing demand for services in your community.

Encourage other advocates to do the same! Urge colleagues, advisory board members, volunteers and clients to make calls to their Senators, as well. We have one week to take action, so we need you and your colleagues to act fast on these requests!

Be proactive! You don’t have to wait for a new bill or letter to come out for you to engage your Members of Congress! You can reach out to them at any time and let them know about the priorities of your members and why it’s important for them to consider them in their legislative efforts. Next month’s Aging Policy Briefing & Capitol Hill Day is a perfect time to set up an in-person meeting with the congressional staffers to highlight the needs of your members and to give them an opportunity to get to know you! Reach out to them today and request a 30-minute meeting on the Hill! 

--
If you have questions or concerns about this Advocacy Alert or USAging’s policy positions, please contact Amy Gotwals at agotwals@usaging.org and Olivia Umoren at oumoren@usaging.org.


USAging Fact: Learn about your peers’ work—and how it can fit into your agency’s goals! The AIA Awards recognizes successful and innovative programs that USAging members have developed to serve older adults. Get inspiration from our 2023 winners!