Supporting Caregivers Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1146 To amend the Older Americans Act of 1965 to require the Assistant Secretary for Aging to identify and disseminate best practices for the National Family Caregiver Support program, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 11, 2019 Mr. CASEY (for himself and Ms. COLLINS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To amend the Older Americans Act of 1965 to require the Assistant Secretary for Aging to identify and disseminate best practices for the National Family Caregiver Support program, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Supporting Caregivers 4 Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1146.IS S1146 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1146 IS SEC. 2. NATIONAL FAMILY CAREGIVER SUPPORT PRO- 1 GRAM. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 214 of the Older Ameri- 3 cans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3020e) is amended— 4 (1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘NUTRI- 5 TION EDUCATION’’ and inserting ‘‘TITLE III RE- 6 LATED ACTIVITIES’’; 7 (2) by striking ‘‘The Assistant Secretary’’ and 8 inserting the following: 9 ‘‘(a) NUTRITION EDUCATION.—The Assistant Sec- 10 retary’’; and 11 (3) by adding at the end the following: 12 ‘‘(b) NATIONAL FAMILY CAREGIVER SUPPORT PRO- 13 GRAM.— 14 ‘‘(1) BEST PRACTICES.—Not later than 1 year 15 after the date of enactment of the Supporting Care- 16 givers Act, and every 2 years thereafter, the Assist- 17 ant Secretary shall— 18 ‘‘(A) identify best practices relating to the 19 program carried out under section 373, includ- 20 ing— 21 ‘‘(i) procedures and tools to assess the 22 needs of caregivers; 23 ‘‘(ii) procedures and tools to monitor 24 and evaluate the performance of State pro- 25 grams under such section; 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1146.IS S1146 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1146 IS ‘‘(iii) the development and use of care- 1 giver service plans; 2 ‘‘(iv) the use of evidence-based care- 3 giver support services; 4 ‘‘(v) the implementation of State pro- 5 grams under such section; 6 ‘‘(vi) best practices identified by the 7 Family Caregiving Strategy under section 8 3 of the RAISE Family Caregivers Act (42 9 U.S.C. 3030s note) and best practices 10 identified by the Family Caregiving Advi- 11 sory Council under section 4 of that Act; 12 and 13 ‘‘(vii) any other issue determined rel- 14 evant by the Assistant Secretary; 15 ‘‘(B) disseminate the best practices de- 16 scribed in subparagraph (A) to all State agen- 17 cies, all area agencies on aging, and any entity 18 that has contracted with an area agency on 19 aging to carry out the services under section 20 373; and 21 ‘‘(C) make such best practices available to 22 the public. 23 ‘‘(2) GRANTS OR CONTRACTS FOR ACTIVITIES 24 OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE.—The Assistant Sec- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1146.IS S1146 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1146 IS retary shall make grants to or enter into contracts 1 with States, public or private nonprofit agencies or 2 organizations, institutions of higher education, or 3 other organizations, including tribal organizations, 4 for conducting activities of national significance to 5 promote quality and continuous improvement in the 6 support provided to family caregivers and older rel- 7 ative caregivers through the program carried out 8 under section 373 through activities that include, 9 with respect to such program, program evaluation, 10 training, technical assistance, and research. 11 ‘‘(3) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—Of the 12 funds appropriated under section 216 to carry out 13 this subsection for a fiscal year, not more than 5 14 percent may be used by the Administration for ad- 15 ministrative expenses. 16 ‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms 17 ‘child’, ‘individual with a disability’, and ‘older rel- 18 ative caregiver’ have the meanings given those terms 19 in section 372.’’. 20 (b) AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS.—Section 373(g)(2)(C) 21 of the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3030s– 22 1(g)(2)(C)) is amended to read as follows: 23 ‘‘(C) LIMITATION.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1146.IS S1146 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1146 IS ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A State may not 1 use more than 15 percent of the total Fed- 2 eral and non-Federal share available to the 3 State to provide support services to older 4 relative caregivers. 5 ‘‘(ii) REQUEST.—An area agency on 6 aging may submit a request to the State 7 for a fiscal year to exceed 15 percent of 8 the total Federal and non-Federal share 9 available to the area agency on aging to 10 provide support services to older relative 11 caregivers. The State shall grant such re- 12 quest for such fiscal year to the area agen- 13 cy on aging that submits such request if— 14 ‘‘(I) the request includes a dem- 15 onstrated need within the service area 16 of such area agency on aging; and 17 ‘‘(II) the State determines that, 18 if it grants such request, the State 19 will be able to comply with the limita- 20 tion under clause (i) for the fiscal 21 year. 22 ‘‘(iii) REPORTS.—To the extent prac- 23 ticable, the Assistant Secretary shall pre- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1146.IS S1146 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 1146 IS pare, and make available to the public, an 1 annual report on— 2 ‘‘(I) how many requests were 3 granted under clause (ii) during the 4 year covered by the report; 5 ‘‘(II) for each request granted, 6 the percentage of total Federal and 7 total non-Federal funding used to 8 serve older relative caregivers by geo- 9 graphic location of such request dur- 10 ing the year covered by the report; 11 ‘‘(III) the number of family care- 12 givers and older relative caregivers re- 13 ceiving support services within the 14 service area of each individual area 15 agency on aging nationwide; 16 ‘‘(IV) the number of family care- 17 givers and older relative caregivers re- 18 ceiving support services within the 19 service area of each individual area 20 agency on aging nationwide, disaggre- 21 gated by each service described in 22 paragraphs (1) through (5) of sub- 23 section (b); and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1146.IS S1146 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •S 1146 IS ‘‘(V) any other information deter- 1 mined appropriate by the Assistant 2 Secretary. 3 ‘‘(iv) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.— 4 Nothing in clause (ii) shall exempt a State 5 from complying with the limitation under 6 clause (i) for a fiscal year.’’. 7 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 8 216(b) of the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 9 3020f(b)) is amended— 10 (1) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 11 inserting ‘‘;’’; 12 (2) in paragraph (4), by striking the period and 13 inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 14 (3) by adding at the end the following: 15 ‘‘(5) to carry out section 214(b) (relating to the 16 National Family Caregiver Support program) 17 $3,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 18 2024.’’. 19 (d) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 411(a) of 20 the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3032(a)) is 21 amended— 22 (1) by striking paragraph (11); and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1146.IS S1146 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •S 1146 IS (2) by redesignating paragraphs (12) through 1 (14) as paragraphs (11) through (13), respectively. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1146.IS S1146 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS