Sometimes you can heal from a torn ACL. For another ACL, it may not be repairable after the recently proposed Department of Health and Human Services reorganization and layoffs.
This ACL is the Administration for Community Living, which oversees aging and disability services to ensure older adults and people with disabilities can live where they choose with the ability to participate fully in their communities. Like an anatomical ACL, which is often vital to maintaining quality of life, so too is this ACL whose programs and services improve the quality of life for millions of older adults and persons with disabilities of all ages.
The proposed HHS reorganization shows no regard for the rich history of the Older Americans Act, one of the main laws administered by the ACL. We mark its 60th anniversary in 2025 and it stands as a program which has succeeded in its mission beyond all measures. The mission and goal of maintaining the independence, dignity and health of the older adults it serves.
Just days after the HHS reorganization was announced, 50 percent of the ACL workforce was laid off. This was done in the most callous and capricious manner with dedicated public servants being forced to stand in line only to be told they could not enter their place of employment.
Both the reorganization and the layoffs came with scant explanation or rationale. This proves beyond a doubt that no information can be as dangerous as misinformation.
The largest program in the Older Americans Act is its nutrition program. A majority of older adults receiving OAA meals report better health and consume more fruits, vegetables and protein foods. A new Harvard study following 100,000 middle aged adults found a healthier diet led to healthier aging and fewer chronic diseases, making the OAA nutrition a model for Make America Healthy Again versus a victim of this reorganization.
It is also a model of a federal program with great return on investment, with federal funds covering about only 40 percent of the total program costs and the millions it saves Medicare and Medicaid each year through reduced hospitalizations, nursing home stays and emergency department visits.
ACL operates a national aging network where decisions are made by those closest to those they serve with over 600 area agencies on aging, nearly 20,000 service providers, 281 tribal organizations, and one Native Hawaiian organization representing 400 tribes.
If this reorganization was about efficiency, how does parceling a successful agency into three separate agencies accomplish that? The added bureaucracy alone makes this a real stretch.
To that older adult who relies on ACL for a daily meal needed for good health; to that family caregiver, like a grandparent caring for grandchildren, who relies on ACL for important training and support; to that low-income older worker who gets a community service job from the Older Americans Act: How could we explain the interruption or ending of any of these services because the program was transferred to an agency with no knowledge, expertise or in some cases even staff to run the program?
There is a simple solution: Respect the law. Maintain an independent ACL and abide by the law to keep the vital programs of the Older Americans Act under the statutorily established Administration on Aging. And don’t proceed with the layoffs in ACL until a full review of its impact on programs and services for vulnerable older adults is established. As the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee are planning, hold hearings and meetings to get the answers that so many people need right now.
No older adult, no service provider, no caregiver, was ever consulted about this plan. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., do the right thing and realize that a one-size-fits-all reorganization and layoff plan does not fit all. In fact, it can do real harm to some of the most vulnerable people in our nation.
I have worked with the OAA for more than 40 years, first as a congressional staffer, then directing the 1995 White House Conference on Aging (authorized by the OAA), and now as an advocate. I know its daily value and significance for those it serves. I know the dedicated staff and volunteers who keep these programs running.
They deserve better than to be treated this way.
Bob Blancato is executive director of the National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs.