Testimony Excerpts from Senate Roundtable on Older Americans Act

Leaders urge, keep SCSEP as is

Testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Retirement, Security and Aging about the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act, leaders of nine of the most well-known aging organizations spoke about the importance of keeping SCSEP intact.

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AARP

Jo Reed
National advocacy coordinator, federal livable communities and consumer issues

"…The reauthorization should not be encumbered by amendments that make major changes in the existing SCSEP program or its original, dual job opportunity and community service mission. …AARP opposes proposals that:

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Alliance for Retired Americans

George Kourpias
President

"Many of our members receive the benefits of (the Older Americans Act) in their everyday lives. …I hear time and time again what a difference the programs made possible by the Older Americans Act have made in the lives of our Alliance members. …

The Older Americans Act also supports the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), which provides part-time jobs to…the most needy seniors…. Participants in this program work directly for thousands of faith-based organizations and government agencies. …Last year alone, SCSEP participants provided these agencies with close to 46 million hours of paid community service. This cost-effective program needs to continue without any major changes.

Also, the number of older adults in poverty and at risk will increase significantly, according to the Census. By 2008, there will be 6.7 million persons aged 55 or over below poverty, a 22% increase from 5.5 million in 2000; by 2015, this number will increase to 9 million low income older Americans. Clearly the need for SCSEP is growing. …"

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Asociacion Nacional Pro Personas Mayores
(National Association for Hispanic Elderly)

Carmela Lacayo
President and chief executive officer

"…Participants in the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) have been enormously helpful in contributing to the noteworthy achievements of the OAA congregate meals and home-delivered meals programs. These nutrition programs, which have helped millions of older Americans over the years, could not have achieved their current success without the exceptional assistance from Title V participants. …

…Congress, in our view, has wisely included targeting language in the OAA to direct services to those seniors with the greatest economic need and the greatest social need, with particular attention to low-income aged minorities. …A good example is the SCSEP, which had nearly a 45 percent minority participation rate for the program year ending June 30, 2004—the most recent year that official public information is available. …

…There is an old adage that one should not attempt to fix something when it is not broken. This clearly applies for the SCSEP, and especially the proposal to "denationalize" Title V and to turn the program over to the states. …We oppose this for several reasons:

…Title V should not be folded into the Workforce Investment Act. …Congress tackled that issue more than 30 years ago and wisely decided that a SCSEP was needed for people 55 or older with poor employment prospects because of their limited education, outmoded work skills, long-term detachment from the workforce, and other limitations. Congress wisely opted for this approach when it became readily apparent that general employment and training programs oftentimes overlooked or ignored people 55 years of age or older. Congress realized that older workers were historically underserved by general employment and training programs. …

…The unacceptably low participation rate for older workers in (comprehensive work and training programs) following the creation of SCSEP is a powerful reason to continue the SCSEP in its current form…

…Title V does not need a radical overhaul. A much sounder approach is to continue underlying core principles that have made the program successful. …SCSEP should continue to target older Americans who have poor employment prospects. …

…One of the hallmarks of the SCSEP is the community service aspect through which Title V SCSEP participants provide valuable services for aged community residents as well as the community at large. …Many important programs flourish or are helped significantly by the services provided by SCSEP participants. …"

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Leadership Council of Aging Organizations

Barbara Kennelly
Chair

"…To strengthen and enhance the OAA:

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National Asian Pacific Center on Aging

Clayton Fong
President and chief executive officer

"…Replacing the national sponsors with a block grant to the states would inevitably displace low-income seniors, and particularly aged minorities. States will simply not be able to locate projects in areas where there are high concentrations of minorities to the same extent that national minority aging organizations currently do. …Minority seniors will not be adequately served without the continued levels of support for the national organizations that are dedicated to the needs and concerns of minority seniors. …Finally, we cannot overemphasize the importance of the dual nature of SCSEP. Community service and employment training are a powerful combination. …"

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National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs

Laura Howard
Executive director

"…NANASP proposes that the OAA reauthorization…Maintain the Title V Senior Community Service Employment Program's (SCSEP) vital, historic focus on community service, which significantly benefits nutrition programs and the entire aging population. …SCSEP allows older adults who must work to stay independent but who may not have the education or resources to compete with younger workers. Workers under the SCSEP program provide incredible value to the aging network that needs dedicated staff, but has increasingly limited funds. …"

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National Association of State Units on Aging

Kathy Leitch
President

Diane Justice
Executive director

Kathy Miller
Public policy associate

"…Enhance the capacity of the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) to respond effectively to the unique employment, economic and social needs of older persons by balancing community service and unsubsidized placement exceptions; reducing statutory and regulatory barriers to participation of older workers in SCSEP…; developing reasonable performance expectations particularly regarding unsubsidized placements. …"

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National Caucus and Center on Black Aged (NCBA)

Karyne Jones
President and chief executive officer

"…NCBA supports retaining the current operational structure of the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) utilizing national sponsors and state aging units. The system has served the goals of the legislation and the clients very effectively. …The benefits of workers moving to private sector or direct government employment are many, the most important being making room for new participants as more baby boomers become eligible. …"

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National Council on the Aging

Howard Bedlin
Vice president for public policy and advocacy

"…The primary controversy from the last reauthorization concerned the Title V Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP).

SCSEP is our nation's most effective workforce program for low-income older Americans and NCOA strongly hopes that it is not again a source of controversy in this reauthorization. The best course for Congress to take with Title V is to continue it as it is, with minor improvements.

The 2000 reauthorization of the OAA made significant changes in the SCSEP…and it took four more years—until late 2004—for the Department of Labor to issue final regulations for those changes. Thus, the sponsoring agencies and the program participants are still adapting to the new rules and systems that were only recently made final.

We are concerned that the Department of Labor may propose far-reaching structural changes to SCSEP, such as eliminating the historic emphasis on community service (which benefits program participants, the aging network, and communities served), eliminating national sponsors, eliminating service to participants under 65, and eliminating fringe benefits for participants. The President's budget proposal…clearly pointed to an intention to eliminate national sponsors and block grant the funds to the states, in addition to other significant legislative changes.

NCOA strongly opposes these changes, which would make the program far worse, not better. Such changes are unwarranted, and would be disruptive and harmful to older workers and communities. …

We suggest that SCSEP can be improved by developing measures of grantee performance that more closely reflect Congressional intent and by streamlining performance data collection.

In summary, SCSEP is a proven program that has a good track record of providing training and placement for difficult-to-serve populations of older adults. The program should be allowed to continue doing what it does well. …"

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National Indian Council on Aging

Traci McClellan
Executive director

"…The WHCOA delegates overwhelmingly supported maintaining the dual structure and purpose of Title V, the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP). …SCSEP is directed to a particularly difficult to serve segment of older Americans—low-income seniors. …We are passionate about this program because we strongly believe that if we were not conducting this program, seniors in Indian Country would not have access to the program and the mostly rural and reservation communities they reside in would not benefit from their service.

…The national sponsors have a proven track record of serving the most vulnerable older Americans, which generally include minorities and American Indian Elders. To eliminate their participation in the program's administration would leave these Elders under served; and, that has never been Congress' intent since the program was created. …

Second, we also urge the Committee to require that the federal agency administering SCSEP take into account the specific economic and cultural environment of seniors in assessing and evaluating placement in unsubsidized employment. Placement rates tend to move in concert with employment rates in a community; and, community differences must be accounted for in program evaluation and assessment. …

Third, in recognition of the unique legal and political status of American Indians, the law allows our organization to have a separate equitable distribution to be developed in consultation with the Secretary. This allows our organization to serve American Indians regardless of location where we have been assigned by the U.S. Department of Labor. DOL, however, has never worked with us to allow this service to occur, so we are restricted to serving in counties assigned by DOL instead of following the law. We would urge the committee to strengthen this language during the reauthorization, thus allowing for greater access to SCSEP by American Indian Elders.

Fourth, income calculation changes and constant revisions to the data collection system since the regulations were finalized in 2004 have caused more staff time to be spent on administrative tasks than on direct service to the Elders, host agencies and prospective employers, which is the focus of SCSEP. The SCSEP participants suffer for these continual disruptions and changes mandated by the agency. NICOA would strongly recommend that Congress not allow the agency to make changes to the program that are unrelated to identified problems without first seeking Congressional approval. Similarly, NICOA requests that Congress require greater cooperation between DOL and the Administration on Aging to ensure Title V is meeting the needs of low-income older Americans first and foremost. …

Finally, we cannot overemphasize the importance of the dual nature of SCSEP. Community service and employment training go hand in hand. Unfortunately, program assessment and measurement places more emphasis on unsubsidized employment than on community service which constitutes 80 percent of the program's focus and should be assessed on a greater scale. …

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