Featured Policy: The Elder Justice Act - Posted June 5, 2007

On March 29th, the Elder Justice Act was reintroduced in both the House and Senate. The primary sponsors of S. 1070 are Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). The primary sponsors of the House bill, H.R. 1783, are Representatives Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and Peter King (R-NY). One of the major purposes of the Elder Justice Act is to provide a dedicated funding source for older adult protective services (OAPS). The Elder Justice Act would be to states' OAPS what federal law is to states' child protective services programs in that it will provide funding for victim services, technical assistance to OAPS and a federal focus on elder abuse. This bill is very comprehensive in its strategy to address elder abuse in that it combines law enforcement, public health, and a social service approach to study, detect, treat, prosecute, and prevent elder abuse, neglect and exploitation. For a summary of the bills as well as other information visit the Elder Justice Coalition’s website.

CARIE has been a member of the Elder Justice Coalition for many years and is very active in advocating for the passage of an Elder Justice Act. The Elder Justice Coalition is asking advocates to contact their House and Senate members to simply ask that they co-sponsor the Elder Justice Act. In Pennsylvania, Senator Specter is already a co-sponsor and CARIE received assurances from our request to Senator Casey that he would also sign-on. The current Pennsylvanian co-sponsors from the House are Representatives are Jason Altmire, Patrick Murphy, Allyson Schwartz, and Joe Sestak. To get contact information for members of Congress, go to Congress Merge for more information. The Elder Justice Coalition has also updated its “Tool Kit for Elder Justice Act Advocacy Work” that provides tips for communicating with members of Congress.

Please contact your members of Congress with the simple request of "Please sign-on as a co-sponsor of the Elder Justice Act."  Please share this information with any friends or colleagues who you believe may be willing to help advocate for this important issue.  You may contact Kathy Cubit if you need any other information and to let me know what response you receive.  Thank you in advance for any help you can provide to this advocacy effort.