Senior Independence Act of 2006
SENIOR INDEPENDENCE ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 21, 2006)
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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I have been told that you can measure the greatness of a society by how well it treats its young, how well it treats its old, and how well it treats those who have difficulty caring for themselves. So I rise in strong support of this bill, which reauthorizes the Older Americans Act.
At the outset, I want to commend and thank Chairman McKeon; Ranking Member Miller; Subcommittee Chairman Tiberi; and the subcommittee ranking member and my colleague from Texas, Mr. Hinojosa, for an excellent bipartisan bill. I also want to extend my sincerest appreciation to the staff persons on both the majority and on the minority sides.
Mr. Speaker, I have a Seniors and Eldercare Task Force composed of a wonderful group of experts who advise me on key issues regarding seniors in my district back in the great city of Chicago. This act advances many areas of concern to my district. Foremost, it expands access of younger grandparents to the National Family Caregiver Support Program, and it encourages States to adopt Kinship Navigator programs for relative caregivers. My district has over 10,000 grandparent-headed households. So the bill aids these caregivers with services that help in their caregiving responsibilities. Further, the bill promotes community-based services via self-directed models of care. This bill will reduce instances of abuse and neglect and improve data collection on the subject, building on the ideas promoted by my colleague from Illinois, Mr. Emanuel.
I am also happy that the bill emphasizes the importance of mental health in many ways, drawing on the spirit of the Positive Aging Act, sponsored by Mr. Kennedy. And I want to commend Mr. Ehlers for his efforts to make sure that the mental health component of this legislation is strong.
Mr. Speaker, Hubert Humphrey once said that the moral test of government is how it treats those in the dawn of life, the children, and those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly. The Senior Independence Act of 2006 ensures that our senior citizens would have a greater opportunity for a happy, meaningful, and productive life. I commend the Education and the Workforce Committee for a tremendous piece of legislation.
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