Bipartisan Support Key to House Aging Committee
It just could have been like attending a 34th high school reunion. After over three decades, an on-line meeting, scheduled on April 25, would bring five former senior staffers of the House Select Committee on Aging (HSCOA) and House Rules Committee back together to provide firsthand accounts to Maia Leeds, legislative Assistant, for Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) as to why the New Jersey Congressman, co-chair of the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, should call on his bipartisan caucus to endorse
H. Res. 1029, reestablishing the House Select Committee on Aging.
The House Aging Committee was not charged with drafting legislation. Its mission was to conduct investigations and hold hearing to put the spotlight on aging issues that would ultimately lead standing committees with aging jurisdiction to craft legislation to address these issues.
Washington, Dc-based groups, including the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), Social Security Works and the Alliance for Retired Americans, including this writer, along with key staff of Congressman Seth Magaziner (D-RI), the primary sponsor of the resolution participated in the discussion as to how the Rhode Island Congressman could attract more cosponsors, especially House Republican lawmakers.
Throughout the half-hour meeting, Leeds and others stressed the importance recruiting Republican lawmakers, calling for bipartisan support of H. Res. 1029. Those participating agreed with her assessment.
Ever since its establishment on Oct. 13, 1974, the HSCOA had strong bipartisan support. According to an article, Votes in Congress published in the New York Times noted the bipartisan vote. Even with the Democrats controlling the House that year, HSCOA was established by a huge bipartisan vote of 299 to 74.
However, in 1993, House Democratic belt-tightening efforts to save $ 1.5 million funding the operations of HSCOA would force it to close its door.
From the 114th Congress until he retired during the 117th Congress, in each Congressional session, former Congressman David Cicilline had introduced a resolution to bring back the HSCOA. The resolution failed gain traction and get support from either House Republic Leader Paul Ryan or Democratic House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Magaziner would ultimately pick up the baton and introduce H. Res. 1029, on Feb. 23, 2024. This resolution was referred to the House Committee on Rules for mark-up, and if passed will be considered by the full House. At press time, there are only 26 Democratic cosponsors, no cosponsors from the other side of the aisle.
Magaziner’s 213-word resolution simply amends the Rules of the House to establish a HSCOA, without legislative jurisdiction, to conduct a continuing comprehensive study and review an array of aging issues, including income maintenance, poverty, housing, health (including medical research), welfare, employment, education, and long-term
H. Res. 1029 also calls for the reestablished HSCOA to study ways that would encourage the development of public and private sector programs and policies that would keep older Americans active in their community.
The resolution would also allow the HSCOA to develop policies that would encourage the coordination of both government and private programs designed to deal with problems of aging – and to review any recommendations made by the President or White House Conference on Aging in relations to programs and policies impacting seniors.
According to Everycrs Report, the House can easily establish an ad hoc (temporary) select committee just by approving a simple resolution with no Senate or Presidential approval. It contains language establishing the committee, detailing a purpose, defining membership. Salaries and expenses of standing committees, special and select, are authorized through the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill.
Magaziner, currently out on parental leave, couldn’t make the online meeting, but Chief of Staff Clayton Schroers and Kyra Whitelaw, Legislative Assistant, came to monitor the gathering to gain insight from former staffers of HSCOA’S impact on the development of aging policy.
According to Magaziner, his staff are working hard to speak to other congressional offices about the benefits of the proposed committee and who will continue to work to raise the profile of this resolution to encourage other members to become cosponsors. “I was grateful for the opportunity to present to the Leadership Council on Aging, a national coalition of national nonprofit organizations that works on policy issues related to the well-being of America’s seniors,” says Magaziner, noting that his resolution has the support of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM) and Meals on Wheels America.”
As Magaziner works to increase the number of cosponsors for H. Res. 1029, he says: “The support of advocates is important to encouraging Congressional representatives to cosponsor this resolution.”
“I’m ready to work with anyone, from either party, to deliver results for Rhode Island—and that includes finding common ground on important legislation like H. Res. 1029,” says Magaziner. “I believe there’s still room for bipartisanship, and ensuring we address issues for seniors across the country should be an area where we can all agree. I will continue to urge my Republican colleagues to work together with Democrats to move our country forward,” he says.
Former Congressional Staffers Call for Passage of H. Res. 1029
“A House Aging Committee would centralize Congress’s consideration of older American issues and could be of assistance to authorizing committees with legislative jurisdiction over agencies and programs important to seniors,” says Max Richtman, NCPSSM’S President and CEO, explaining why NCPSSM will directly encourage House members to cosponsor H. Res. 1029.
According to Richtman, a 16year veteran of Capitol Hill, the pros outweigh the cons on supporting Masgaziner’s resolution. A House Aging Committee would centralize Congress’s consideration of older American issues and could be of assistance to authorizing committees with legislative jurisdiction over agencies and programs important to seniors. However, it would take staff and clerk hire (money) away from the authorizing committees.
Like Magaziner, Richtman observes that bipartisan support for programs and agencies important to senior has a mixed record. “There is some bipartisan agreement on the Older Americans Act (OAA). But even on OAA, bipartisan action can vary widely, says Richtman, especially when Republicans want to make across the board cuts to non-defense discretionary spending, including OAA, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program.
“And there appears to be no bipartisan agreement on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” he says.
Richtman, a former Staff Director of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, says that the upper chamber sees the value of the Senate Aging Committee, noting that he believes that it has operated in a bipartisan manner.
“A good gauge to see if House lawmakers consider aging policy to be a bipartisan issue is if the Older Americans Act gets renewed on a bipartisan vote this year,” notes Blancato, stressing that “this will be a good test.”
Robert Weiner, President of Robert Weiner Associates News, saw the negative impact of the HSCOA being abolished. As Staff Director of the Health and Long-term Care Subcommittee from 1975-76 and the former Claude Pepper’s (D=FL) Chief of Staff (1976-80) when he chaired the full committee, Weiner knew how shortchanged seniors would be when the committee was abolished. “I always have wanted that decision reconsidered.,” he said.
“Reform” instead of facts on Social Security have unfortunately now become the political value system norm, and age discrimination has crept back more and more, from hiring and firing in everything whether private sector or politics. The Aging Committee and its members were and could again be a wedge of power representing older Americans of both parties,” says Weiner, who was a close confident of Pepper until he died in 1989.
Looking back, “We got legislation passed abolishing age-based mandatory retirement, as well as Medicare expansion of home health care, standards for cancer insurance, a major Social Security protection deal co-authored by Pepper, and many other laws by initial press during our investigations and then working closely with the standing committees on the bills,” says Weiner.
Some say that Cicilline’s efforts to pass the resolution to reestablish the HSCOA stalled because of the standing committee’s fear of loss of power in the legislative process. “This is anything but new. We did, and any new committee must, cooperate with, meet with, and support the standing committees’ efforts. Pepper always made friends and cooperated. We worked closely with chairs and leaders from Gus Hawkins (DCA) to Gladys Spellman (D-MD) to Dan Rostenkoswski (D-ill) to House Speaker Tip O’neill (D-mass) and Republican leader Bob Michel (R-ill),” remembered Weiner.
The key to getting Magaziner’s resolution passed is for the Congressman to actively work to expand the co-sponsorships by taking co-sponsorship sign-up sheets and have conversations around the House floor and cloakrooms and thereby get to well over 100,” says Weiner.
At the on-line meeting, former Senior Staff of HSCOA and Washington, Dc-based aging groups, Rhode Island senior advocates, praised Congressman Josh Gottheimer’s co-sponsorship of H. Res. 1029. Increasing the number of co-sponsors to over 100, especially recruiting GOP lawmakers, might just give the resolution traction this Congress. Hopefully, Congressman Brian K. Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and the moderate Democratic and Republican members of his caucus will see the value of following Gottheimer’s lead. Yes, aging should be considered a bipartisan issue, just like it was in 1974 when both Democrats and Republicans rallied to establish HSCOA.