‘Speak Up & Speak Out,’ LeadingAge Members Head to the Hill on Lobby Day 2024

Hospice

WASHINGTON—Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) joined Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, and hundreds of the association’s nonprofit and mission-driven members for the kick-off of annual Lobby Day activities.

More than 225 LeadingAge members, who serve older adults and families nationwide in a range of care settings and community types, along with many leaders from the association’s state partners that represent providers in 41 states across the country, headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, April 17 on the third and final day of the organization’s Leadership Summit 2024. 

“Our purpose is noble; it is time for policymakers, the media and the public to recognize aging as a stage of life and to demonstrate through their actions that older adults and those who serve them deserve to be supported,” Board Chair Roberto Muñiz, president and CEO of New Jersey-based Parker Health Group, said on the Summit’s second day, following up on Sloan’s opening day guidance urging Summit attendees to use their time in Washington to “speak up and speak out” while on the Hill.

“You are the experts in what you do; they [lawmakers] are not,” Sloan said. “You […] recognize the urgency of ensuring that members of Congress understand what is happening outside of Washington and the enormous headwinds your organizations are facing.”

Throughout the day, members visited their elected officials in the House and Senate to discuss critical aging services issues to ensure older adults and families can access the care and services they need to age with dignity, including: 

  • Enact robust affordable senior housing funding in Fiscal Year 2025.

  • Expand hospice services to ensure access and caregiver support and fortify the hospice workforce. 

  • Ensure MA beneficiaries have equitable access to care and services, while also preserving providers’ financial viability.

  • Stop the federal nursing home minimum staffing mandate and fix the nursing home CNA training lockout.

See this one-pager for a list of all the key bills LeadingAge supports.

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