Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke on the Senate floor Monday about the critical need to reauthorize and to increase funding for the Older Americans Act (OAA), which expired in 2011. As The Hill reported, "Only 10 percent of nearly 17 million older adults in low-income households receive meals from the federal government, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO)."
Here is Sen. Sanders' speech in its entirety:
Mr. President, I want to touch on an issue that does not get, I think, the attention that it deserves. My view is that a nation is judged not by how many billionaires and millionaires it has, but by how it treats the most vulnerable people among us.
And if we look at the greatness of a nation in that respect, the sad truth is that the United States today does not get particularly high marks. And that is true not only in the way we treat our children, but it is also true in the way we treat our seniors.
Mr. President, yesterday at my request, the Government Accountability Office (the GAO) released a new report that found that nearly 4 million seniors in our country are what they call "food insecure." And that means that these seniors do not know where their next meal is coming from. What that means is that nearly 4 million American seniors may skip dinner tonight because they do not have enough money to buy food today.
Millions of seniors every day, in my state of Vermont and around this country, have to juggle with their limited budgets their ability to buy food, their ability to buy medicine, or, in the wintertime, their ability to keep themselves warm in their homes. Those are not the choices that seniors in this country should be forced to make.
Transcript of Sen. Sanders' speech continues below.
Mr. President, there is a myth out there pushed by corporate and monied interests that suggests that seniors in this country are doing just great. That all seniors are comfortably middle class. But to those people who hold those views, they really have not looked at the reality of life for many seniors in this country.
Mr. President, the truth is--and this is really a shocking truth--that 20% of seniors in America live on an average income of $7600 dollars a year. Now, between you and me, I don't know how anybody can live on $7600 dollars a year, let alone older people who need more medicine and more healthcare.
The GAO recently found that more than half of all older American households have absolutely no retirement savings. So you're looking at families where people are 55 or 60--they have zero saved for retirement because for many, many years they have been working at wages that have been totally inadequate, preventing them from putting money into the bank.
Mr. President, many seniors, obviously, have worked their whole lives, they have raised kids, but sadly many of them do not have the resources they need to live a secure retirement.
Mr. President, as I mentioned a moment ago, we have seniors in this country who are going hungry. The GAO report found that fewer than 10% of low-income seniors who needed a home-delivered meal in 2013 received one. In other words, what we have created here in Congress over the years are good and effective programs, like the Meals on Wheels program, that provide nutritious food to the most vulnerable people in this country--seniors who cannot leave their homes. And yet, what the GAO report discovered is that fewer than 10% of low-income seniors who needed a home-delivered meal in 2013 received one.
Mr. President, I have gone to many senior citizen locations around this country, and I know that many senior citizens enjoy coming out and getting a congregate meal. They go to senior centers, and they're able to socialize with their friends. They get a good and nutritious meal at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, fewer than 10% of low-income seniors who need a congregate meal receive one. The need, in fact, is growing among seniors. GAO found that a higher percentage of low-income seniors are "food insecure" now--24% in 2013--than they were in 2008 when the number was 19%.
So the problem is becoming more acute. One in three low-income seniors aged 60 to 69 are food insecure, yet fewer than 5% receive a meal at home, and fewer than 5% receive a congregate meal in a senior center. GAO found that seniors with a disability, minorities, and older adults living on less than $10,000 a year were even more likely to be hungry. Overwhelmingly, those seniors are not getting the help they need.
The report also found that 16 million older adults from all income levels report difficulties with one or more daily activities, such as shopping, bathing, or getting dressed. More than two-thirds of these seniors do not get the help that they need.
These programs ... many of the programs, Mr. President, that are designed to provide support to seniors--in terms of Meals on Wheels, in terms of the congregate meal program, and in terms of a variety of other programs--are funded by the Older Americans Act. The Older Americans Act was first passed by Congress in 1965, the same year that Medicare and Medicaid were passed. This year, all three programs are celebrating their 50th anniversary.
Mr. President, I requested this study to see how seniors have been faring in recent years. GAO reported that, while the number of older adults in America has increased from 56 to 63 million Americans, the Older Americans Act funding provided to states has gone down since 2009. In other words, the need has gone up, but the funding has gone down. At current funding levels, less than 2/10ths percent of federal discretionary spending is going to achieve its original purpose.
Mr. President, common sense tells us that putting money into prevention, keeping seniors healthy, in the end run not only prevents human suffering, but also saves us money. If a senior is malnourished, that senior is more likely to fall, break a hip, end up at the hospital at huge expense for Medicaid and Medicare. It makes sense to me, it seems, that we fund adequately this important program, which keeps seniors healthy, independent, out of hospitals and nursing homes, and that that is what we should be doing.
And that is why I sent a letter to my colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee calling for a 12% increase in funding for the Older Americans Act programs, such as the nutrition programs. Thirty-two colleagues joined me on that letter, and I hope that when we see the funding level for the Older Americans Act this year, we will see an increase for these important programs. We should not be giving more tax breaks to those who [don't] need them; instead, we should be expanding nutrition programs and other services for seniors.
I also encourage my colleagues to support the bill reauthorizing the Older Americans Act, S.192, and I look forward to working with you to reauthorize and expand these critical programs for seniors.
Thank you, Mr. President, and I would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.