White House Conference on Aging

Delegates Show Strong Support for SCSEP

By Bob Levey

Should America continue to provide jobs and job training for its poorest elderly adults? The 2005 White House Conference on Aging has answered that question with a resounding yes.

Meeting in Washington in mid-December, the Conference strongly urged that the Older Americans Act be reauthorized by Congress. Reauthorization would provide money to continue the Senior Community Service Employment Program, or SCSEP.

For 40 years, SCSEP has provided individuals 55 years of age and older with job skills training to enable them to re-enter the workforce. They work in part-time, minimum-wage jobs with government and non-profit organizations around the country. To participate, a person must earn less than 125 percent of the federal poverty level. That amounts roughly to an annual income less than $12,000 for an individual, $16,000 for a couple.

Delegates to the four-day White House Conference voted on 73 resolutions — everything from turning public libraries into one-stop-shopping senior centers to improving Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Reauthorizing the Older Americans Act attracted more support than any other resolution. Of the 1,169 delegates in attendance, 1,061 voted yes. The Conference urged a deadline of mid-June 2006 for Congress to act on the Older Americans law.

Delegates recommended that SCSEP retain its "vital, historic focus on community service' and that national organizations continue to be funded along with state agencies. Currently, 13 national organizations receive funds from the U.S. Department of Labor to operate programs around the country. (Senior Service America's program is the third largest, administering a $51 million grant and funding more than 100 agencies in 23 states and the District of Columbia. The largest SCSEP programs are directed by Experience Works and the AARP Foundation.)

Some delegates urged that current funding levels be increased by as much as 40 percent. But the Conference officially urged "a substantial increase"—without recommending an exact number of dollars.

David M. Walker, the comptroller general of the United States, poured cold water on the chances for any increase. He told the Conference that soon Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits will consume 41 percent of the federal budget, leaving little left over for anything else — especially for any program that might want more than it's getting now.

Walker called the federal deficit "a tidal wave" that is already in the trillions, and heading higher. He predicted that the aging of America's 78 million Baby Boomers will make federal deficits even greater.

Only a handful of members of Congress attended the White House Conference or participated in pre-conference planning. There was no discussion of how the Conference's priorities could be turned into legislative reality. The final recommendations, which will be compiled by the Conference's policy committee, will be issued in 2006.

President Bush did not attend. He was the first sitting President since Richard Nixon not to address a White House Conference on Aging. There have been five White House Conferences on Aging, the first in 1961, the most recent in 1995.

Mike Leavitt, the Secretary for Health and Human Services, told the conference that he is "looking forward to working with Congress to reauthorize the Older Americans Act." Leavitt and two other high officials who spoke at the first formal session, were the only visible presence of the Bush Administration.

Dorcas R. Hardy, the chair of the policy committee, told a press briefing that she was "confident" that Congress would act quickly on the Older Americans Act. She said the passion of the delegates on this issue was "obvious," and "would be heard."

In one committee session, delegates urged reauthorization of the Older Americans Act so that the "oldest, poorest and least skilled older workers do not fall through the cracks." One delegate called the Older Americans Act "the one government program that really delivers."

Others said the SCSEP program was so effective that it should be offered to slightly younger people, too. One proposal by a small break-out group—not specifically adopted—urged that 50 become the minimum age.

Other WHCoA Resolutions

Bob Levey spent 36 years as a reporter and columnist at The Washington Post. He has written extensively on the problems of the elderly in America .