Public Policy & Action

• Federal Budget
• Older Americans Act Reauthorization
• Long-Term Services & Supports
• Elder Justice
• Advocacy Toolkit

Resources

For Professionals

• NCOA Expert to Testify on Senior Poverty, Hunger, and the Older Americans Act
• Reverse Mortgages Can Be a Lifeline for Seniors of Modest Means, But Counseling is Critical
• NCOA Expert to Testify on Reverse Mortgages
• Deeper Federal Budget Cuts on the Horizon
• Farm Bill, SNAP Debate Spills into June
• Balancing Incentive Program: Highlighting State Approaches and Progress - Past Event
• MIPPA: What We’ve Learned, and What’s Next - Past Event

For Older Adults and Caregivers

• 5 Ways to Save Money on Your Medications
• Fiscal Cliff Deal: What It Means for Seniors

For Advocates

• Deeper Federal Budget Cuts on the Horizon
• Farm Bill, SNAP Debate Spills into June
• Preventing Funding Cuts for Healthy Aging Programs: What You Can Do to Help - Past Event

Federal Budget

Cutting the federal budget deficit is the hottest topic in Washington, DC—and programs serving older Americans will not be spared.

Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act (OAA) are all facing cuts.

Other programs that serve vulnerable seniors are likely to be targeted as well, including Senior Corps, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Section 202 Housing for the Elderly, and the Community Services Block Grant Program (CSBG).

Protecting Vulnerable Seniors

We believe that reducing the federal budget deficit is important to our nation’s economic future and will require difficult choices and shared sacrifice.

But spending cuts should not be made at the expense of economically disadvantaged seniors and younger Americans. Due to the recent economic downturn, more seniors than ever need assistance and support to make ends meet. 

Funding for seniors programs, including the OAA, is a cost-effective investment. Empowering seniors to remain healhty and economically secure in their own homes and communities reduces spending on more costly entitlement programs.

Every $1 provided to the aging services network also is leveraged by nearly $3 in non-federal support.

Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security would increase out-of-pocket costs and reduce retirement income supports—something vulnerable seniors simply cannot afford.

Deficit Reduction

Budget Materials from the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO)
NCOA currently chairs this coalition of 68 national aging organizations, which has developed analyses and priorities on the following areas of the federal budget:

• Overall Budget Principles and Priorities
• Community Services
• Health
• Income Security

President Obama's Deficit Reduction Plan
Read Living Within Our Means and Investing in the Future: The President’s Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction.

Effects of the Sequester

• NCOA State-by-State Tables
• White House Fact Sheet: Examples of How the Sequester Would Impact Middle Class Families, Jobs and Economic Security
• House Appropriations Committee - Democrats' Report on Discretionary Spending Reductions Since 2010
• Under Threat: Sequestration’s Impact on Nondefense Jobs and Services, Report by Sen. Harkin
• Office of Management & Budget Sequestration Update Report to the President and Congress for Fiscal Year 2013
• NDD United Campaign

Center on Budget & Policy Priorities Resources on the Federal Budget

Kaiser Family Foundation Resources on Deficit-Reduction Debate

FY13 Proposals

FY13 Budget Request Includes Both Investments, Cuts for Senior Programs
Read our analysis of President Obama's FY13 budget proposal.

Aging Program Funding Table
See a table of proposals for aging program funding for FY11 through FY13.

NCOA Issue Briefs

• Investing in the Health & Economic Security of Older Adults
• Funding for Elder Falls Prevention
• Funding for the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program
• Funding for the Elder Justice Act

Administration on Aging FY13 Budget Proposal
See AoA's budget request for FY13.

FY13 OAA Appropriations Letter to Sens. Harkin and Shelby
Read the March 29, 2012 letter signed by 18 Senators asking for an increase in OAA programmatic funding levels. 

want to live in a country where

older adults don't have to choose between paying for medicine or food.