July 1, 2024 Advocacy Alert




House Labor-HHS Subcommittee Advances FY 2025 Appropriations Bill 


July 1, 2024
On June 27, the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Subcommittee approved an FY 2025 appropriations bill. This bill provides a total discretionary allocation of $185.8 billion, which is $23.8 billion (11 percent) below the FY 2024 effective spending level, and $36.2 billion (15 percent) below the President’s Budget Request. The Department of Health and Human Services would take a 6.4 percent overall cut under the proposed spending bill.
Noteworthy for the Aging Network, the House bill includes $2.5 billion for the Administration for Community Living (ACL), a decrease of $21 million (less than 1 percent) below the FY 2024 level and $136 million below the President’s FY 2025 request. While this represents a smaller overall cut than HHS received or across the bill overall, we don’t yet know if most programs were level funded or if there are dramatic winners and losers. There are no additional details on ACL’s OAA funding available at the moment, as the committee’s charts were not made public. USAging has learned, however, that the House Subcommittee proposes to zero out funding for the OAA Title V Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP).
 
Next Steps
 
We expect to have full funding details for ACL’s OAA and other line items by mid-July when the full House Appropriations Committee is expected to advance this bill. However, even with modest funding cuts to ACL overall, it is imperative the Aging Network continues to push Congress to fully protect and ideally increase all titles of the OAA, but especially USAging’s priorities, which are Title III B (Supportive Services), Title VI (Native American Aging Programs) and Title III E (National Family Caregiver Support Program).
 
The rising number of older adults, the increasing complexity of needs seen in communities nationwide, workforce shortages and rising costs all demand much-needed increases for OAA and other aging and caregiver federal programs.
 
The Democratic-led Senate has yet to release its comparable bill, so advocates need to educate both Representatives and Senators at this time!
 
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 would be affected with funding cuts—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 on your Members’ websites: www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.
 
STEP 2: Make Your Support for OAA Funding Public. 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 or in-person 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 with your Members of Congress—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!

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


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