98th Congress > House > Vote 815
Sponsor: ANDREWS, Ike Franklin (D-NC)
Description: TO SUSPEND THE RULES AND PASS H.R. 4785, A BILL AMENDING THE OLDER AMERICANS ACT OF 1965 TO AUTHORIZE APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEARS 1985, 1986, AND 1987. (MOTION PASSED;2/3 REQUIRED)
Bill summary: (Measure passed House, amended, roll call #355 (406-12))
Older Americans Act Amendments of 1984 -
Title I: Amendments Regarding Objectives and Definitions
- Amends the Older Americans Act of 1965 to declare as objectives of such Act that our older people should: (1) have available a comprehensive array of community-based, long- term care services adequate to appropriately sustain them in their communities and in their homes; and (2) participate fully in the planning and operation of
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community-based services and programs provided for their benefit.
Title II: Amendments Regarding the Administration on Aging
- Renames the Administration on Aging the Office on Aging (the Office). Provides that the Office shall be headed by the Commissioner on Aging. Requires the Office, in addition to assuming the duties and functions of the Administration on Aging, to consult with national organizations representing minority individuals to develop and disseminate training packages and to provide technical assistance efforts designed to assist State and area agencies in providing services to older individuals with the greatest economic or social needs.
Authorizes funds to be appropriated for FY 1985 through 1987 for the Federal Council on Aging.
Directs the Secretary to issue regulations for the administration of the Older Americans Act of 1965.
Prohibits the Secretary from making grants or contracts under such Act for training, research, and discretionary projects and programs until the Secretary develops and publishes general standards to be used in evaluating such projects and programs.
Title III: Grants for Programs on Aging
- Defines: (1) an "older individual" as any individual who is 60 or older; and (2) "multipurpose senior centers" as community facilities for the organization and provision of a broad spectrum of services, including the provision of health, social, nutritional, and educational services and provision of facilities for recreational activities for older individuals.
Authorizes funds to be appropriated for FY 1985 through 1987 for social service grants and nutrition project grants under the Older Americans Act of 1965.
Requires each area agency on aging to: (1) specify annually in its area plan the amount of funds spent for each category of services in the preceding year; (2) provide assurances that it will give particular attention in providing services to low-income minority older individuals; (3) include minority individuals on the advisory councils which the agencies are required to establish; (4) provide community-based, long-term care services designed to retain individuals in their homes, thereby deferring unnecessary, costly institutionalization, and designed to emphasize the development of client-centered care management systems as a component of such services; and (5) facilitate the involvement of long-term care providers in the coordination of community-based long-term care services and work to ensure community awareness of and involvement in addressing the needs of residents of long-term care facilities.
Requires a State's plan under such Act in planning and operating its long-term care ombudsman program to consider the views of area agencies on aging, older individuals, and provider agencies.
Authorizes funds to be appropriated for FY 1985 through 1987 for the surplus commodity program under such Act.
Provides for grants for: (1) counseling regarding appropriate health and life insurance coverage; and (2) services designed to enable mentally impaired older individuals to attain and maintain emotional well-being and independent living through a coordinated system of support services.
Title IV: Training, Research, and Discretionary Programs Related to Aging
- Revises provisions of the Older Americans Act of 1965 relating to training, research, and discretionary programs. Directs the Commissioner to make grants and enter into contracts for training, research, and discretionary programs related to aging in order to: (1) provide comprehensive and coordinated nondegree education, training programs, and curricula at institutions of higher education and at other educational organizations for practitioners in the fields of nutrition, health care, supportive services, housing, and long-term care; (2) provide inservice training opportunities to the personnel of State offices, area agencies, senior centers, and nutrition sites to strengthen their capacity to remain responsive to the needs of older individuals; and (3) provide courses on aging and dissemination of information about aging. Directs the Office on Aging to conduct both: (1) long-term educational activities to prepare personnel for careers in the field of aging; and (2) short-term inservice training and continuing education activities for State and area agency personnel, and other personnel, in the field of aging.
Requires the Commissioner, in making grants and contracts for training, research, and discretionary programs related to aging, to: (1) give special consideration to the recruitment and training of persons to care for sufferers of Alzheimer's disease and other neurological and organic brain diseases and providing family respite serivces for such sufferers; and (2) ensure that all personnel training projects include specified information.
Requires multidiscriplinary centers of gerontology to: (1) conduct research and policy analysis and function as a technical resource for the Commissioner, policy makers, service providers, and Congress; (2) recruit and train personnel; (3) conduct research toward the development of information related to aging; (4) stimulate the incorporation of information on aging into the teaching of biological, behavioral, and social sciences at colleges and universities; (5) develop training programs in the field of aging; (6) serve as a repository of information and knowledge on aging; (7) provide consultation to organizations servicing older individuals under provisions of this Act; and (8) provide data to the Commissioner on projects and activities for which training, research, and discretionary program funds are provided.
Sets forth the purposes of research and development projects under the Older Americans Act of 1965. Directs the Commissioner to select for research assistance research activities which will, within three years of enactment of this Act: (1) contribute to the establishment and maintenance of a demographic data base which contains information on the population of older individuals; (2) identify the future needs of older individuals; (3) identify the kinds and comprehensiveness of programs required to satisfy such needs; and (4) identify the kinds and number of personnel required to carry out such programs. Authorizes making grants and contracts for projects designed to identify older individuals who suffer from Alzheimer's disease and other neurological and organic brain diseases and provide family respite services and other community-based care services to such individuals.
Revises provisions relating to special demonstration projects on legal services for older individuals. Directs the Commissioner to make grants and enter into contracts to: (1) provide nationwide legal services support activities to State and area agencies on aging for providing, developing, or supporting legal services for older individuals; and (2) support demonstration projects to expand or improve the delivery of legal services to older individuals with social or economic needs.
Authorizes funds to be appropriated for FY 1985 through 1987 training, research, and discretionary programs under the Older Americans Act of 1965. Directs the Commissioner to: (1) be responsible for the administration, implementation, and making of grants and contracts for such programs; and (2) annually provide a report on the expenditure of funds for such programs.
Title V: Community Service Employment
- Amends the Older Americans Community Service Employment Act to: (1) authorize funds to be appropriated for FY 1985 through 1987; (2) increase the number of part-time employment positions provided under such Act; and (3) require a community service employment program project to post in the project workplace and to make available to each person associated with the project a written explanation clarifying the law with respect to allowable and unallowable political activities applicable to the project and to each category of individuals associated with the project. Provides that if the Secretary of Labor requires as a condition for implementing any employment program under the Older American Community Service Employment Act that a recipient of program funds place some eligible individuals in unsubsidized employment, then eligible individuals placed in a community aging program, research or discretionary project, or a program for Indians under the Older Americans Act of 1965 shall be considered to be placed in unsubsidized employment. Directs the Secretary of Labor to: (1) conduct a study to identify alternative mechanisms, supplementing the existing program under the Older Americans Community Service Employment Act, to increase community service employment opportunities for eligible individuals; and (2) report to Congress describing the results of such study and proposing draft legislation.
Title VI: Grants for Indian Tribes
- Decreases to 60 the number of individuals in a tribe who must have attained age 60 in order for a tribe to be eligible for a grant under the Older Americans Act of 1965.
Authorizes funds to be appropriated for FY 1985 through 1987 under the Older Americans Act of 1965 for grants to Indian tribes.
Title VII: Personal Health Education and Training Programs for Older Individuals
- Creates a new title at the end of the Older Americans Act of 1965. Designates that title the Older Americans Personal Health, Education and Training Act. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) establish, within the Office on Aging, an older Americans health education and training program in order to foster and promote the design and implementation of a health education and training program for Americans who are 60 or older; (2) enter into agreements with public or private institutions of higher education with capability in public health to carry out such Act; (3) pay no more than 90 percent of the cost of any project which is the subject of an agreement; and (4) report to Congress concerning the projects.
Authorizes appropriations for FY 1985 through 1987.
Title VIII: Amendments to Other Laws; Effective Dates
- Sets forth conforming amendments and effective dates.
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Bill titles: A bill to amend the Older Americans Act of 1965 to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 1985, 1986, and 1987, and for other purposes.
Original source documents: Digest of the Congressional Record vol. 105, p. 8618;
Links for more info on the vote: congress.gov
