April 30, 2024 Advocacy Alert
Make Your Ask for FY 2025 OAA Funding
Reach Out to Your Senators and Representatives with Our New Grassroots Toolkit
April 30, 2024
FY 2024 appropriations are finally done, but appropriations season is heating up again on Capitol Hill for FY 2025 funding, and we need you to act now!
In USAging’s annual appropriations request letter to Congress, we outlined the critical importance of investing in OAA and other vital discretionary programs that help older adults live with independence at home. As always, we will follow up on our requests via meetings with the key appropriations leaders. But that’s not enough: we need Congress to hear directly from their constituents—and that’s where you and our new FY 2025 appropriations campaign come in.
Why We Need Your Advocacy
Our collective goal is to ensure that members of Congress recognize that funding for the Aging Network’s programs and services needs to be significantly increased on a long-term basis for three reasons: to serve the rapidly growing numbers of older adults who need them, to meet the greater complexity of needs among the older adults you serve and to address the workforce challenges that are affecting older adults’ access to services.
In our FY 2025 appropriations asks, USAging urges Congress to significantly increase funding for three subtitles of the Act: Title III B (Supportive Services), Title VI (Native American Aging Programs) and Title III E (National Family Caregiver Support Program). For the Aging Network to meet the growing needs of older adults, it’s past time to grow the baseline!
Take Action Now!
Contact your Representatives and Senators NOW to advocate for funding for OAA programs and services. Read USAging’s appropriations request letter and use our grassroots templates to customize your asks to reflect your agency/program: AAA template, Title VI template. Give your members of Congress a sense of how their communities are affected—take the time to localize what this funding means for the older adults and caregivers in your community, tribe or state.
STEP 1: Put Your Requests in Writing! Send a letter requesting their support. Putting the letter on your agency’s letterhead is ideal, but if that is not feasible, send it from your Advisory Board or even yourself as a private citizen. Or do all three! Use our templates (AAA/Title VI) but customize to your agency/community. Send the letter via email to their DC and district offices. You can find the contact information here: www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.
STEP 2: Make Your Support for OAA Funding Public.
- Attend any virtual events/town halls your Senators and Representatives are hosting during the upcoming congressional recesses (House and Senate: May 27–31) and raise OAA funding during the Q&A!
- Find out whether any of your agency's stakeholders know the Members of Congress serving your community or if they will be seeing them at any virtual events. If so, ask that they put in a good word for OAA funding and its impact in your community.
STEP 3: Schedule Meetings and Visits with Your Lawmakers. Request virtual meetings or invite your lawmaker to an onsite visit when members of Congress will be in their states and districts in May (see dates above). Get on their local calendars NOW and engage them in your May Older Americans Month activities or other events! Individual site visits, even if virtual, are also a great opportunity to educate your elected officials about the critical services you provide to their constituents. All you have to do is ask! (Tip: Put the request in writing. Call or email the DC office to ensure your request gets to the scheduler.)
STEP 4: Engage Your Provider Network. Urge your vendors/providers, advisory board members and other important stakeholders to send their own letters to Congress. Please do all you can to amplify the message and engage others who understand the value of OAA in their community! Forward this Alert to your networks or edit it to be best received by your agency’s advocates.
Stay tuned for more updates from USAging and check out USAging’s FY 2025 appropriations campaign page for additional advocacy resources, and as always, we thank you for your advocacy!
--
If you have questions or concerns about this Advocacy Alert or USAging’s policy positions, please contact the USAging Policy Team, Amy Gotwals, Olivia Umoren and Seth Ickes at policy@usaging.org.