Aging in America News

| How the Older Americans Act Carries Forward the Promise of the Great Society

| Robert Blancato

| July 14 marks the 60th anniversary of the Older Americans Act (OAA), the first of three landmark Great Society programs signed into law in 1965, followed later by Medicare and Medicaid. The OAA grew out of the first White House Conference on Aging in 1961 and responded to growing national concern over the lack of community-based services for older adults and the desire by policymakers to improve the status of older Americans. The OAA set out to help older adults age with dignity, independence, and support.

The OAA has met all the criteria of a successful law, proving its value through cost savings, and appreciation by the millions of older Americans it serves daily. It has been a great return on investment, saving the federal government untold billions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid hospital and long-term care costs by preventing costly admissions and providing lower-cost community and home-based services.

The OAA’s largest program, the Senior Nutrition Program, serves daily meals to an estimated 2.2 million older adults either at community meal sites or delivered to their homes. The OAA provides support and training to over 800,000 family caregivers, combats isolation and loneliness through its network of 11,000 senior centers, and promotes healthy aging through grants for falls prevention and chronic disease self-management. It specifically addresses needs of our Native American elders. It helps to combat elder abuse through its funding for Adult Protective Services and the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, with the latter conducting over 590,000 consultations and investigations of abuse and neglect in 2022.

This should have been a year of celebration, marking 60 years of success, but instead, it is a moment of consternation. It began with the OAA in limbo. Congress failed to renew the law before it expired in September 2024, and even though the Senate passed a bipartisan extension, the House failed to act. The process needed to start fresh in 2025 but the early 2025 announcement of layoffs and a full-scale reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services complicated matters. Elimination of the Administration for Community Living, the agency responsible for running the Older Americans Act programs, alarmed advocates. To top it off, a leaked early version of the President’s budget eliminated funding for key OAA programs such as adult protective services, the long-term care ombudsman, and falls prevention grants.

In recent weeks the situation has improved slightly. The final Presidential budget restored funding for most cut programs and maintained flat funding for major OAA programs. At the request of advocates including myself, the Administration agreed to keep all OAA program together in a newly named Administration for Children, Families and Communities.

Yet perhaps the most insidious action taken against the Older Americans Act has just occurred. Funding has been withheld for Title V of the OAA, the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), the only federal program providing part-time employment r nearly 50,000 low-income older adults. These older workers provide over 40 million staff hours annually in local public and nonprofit agencies, such as libraries, schools, and senior centers. Due to Department of Labor’s failure to release all FY2025 appropriated funds, thousands of older workers either have been or will be furloughed.

This shabby treatment of the OAA, a program that does so much for older adults, is absolute policy ageism. There remains time to remedy this situation. Funding decisions for next year are currently before Congress. At a minimum, Congress must improve upon the President’s proposed funding levels. Factoring in rising costs, flat funding over the past two years is the equivalent of a double-digit cut. More immediately, Congress must demand that the Labor Department release SCSEP funds so that not a single low-income older adult misses a paycheck.

Six decades since it began, the OAA continues to fulfill its promise, providing essential services that help millions of older Americans maintain their independence and dignity in their communities. The success of the Older Americans Act speaks for itself. Now it’s time for all of us who care about older adults to raise our voices, both in appreciation for what the OAA has accomplished and in action to ensure its continued success for generations to come.

Robert Blancato is the president of Matz, Blancato & Associates in Washington, DC. In that capacity, he serves as the Executive Director of the National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs, National Coordinator of the Elder Justice Coalition, and the National Coordinator for Defeat Malnutrition Today coalition.