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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Supporting Caregivers 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. NATIONAL FAMILY CAREGIVER SUPPORT PRO2 GRAM. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 214 of the Older Ameri4 cans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3020e) is amended— 

5 (1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘NUTRI6 TION EDUCATION’’ and inserting ‘‘TITLE III RE7 LATED ACTIVITIES’’; 

8 (2) by striking ‘‘The Assistant Secretary’’ and 

9 inserting the following: 

10 ‘‘(a) NUTRITION EDUCATION.—The Assistant Sec11 retary’’; and 

12 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

13 ‘‘(b) NATIONAL FAMILY CAREGIVER SUPPORT PRO14 GRAM.— 

15 ‘‘(1) BEST PRACTICES.—Not later than 1 year 

16 after the date of enactment of the Supporting Care17 givers Act, and every 2 years thereafter, the Assist18 ant Secretary shall— 

19 ‘‘(A) identify best practices relating to the 

20 program carried out under section 373, includ21 ing— 

22 ‘‘(i) procedures and tools to assess the 

23 needs of caregivers; 

24 ‘‘(ii) procedures and tools to monitor 

25 and evaluate the performance of State pro26 grams under such section; 


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1 ‘‘(iii) the development and use of care2 giver service plans; 

3 ‘‘(iv) the use of evidence-based care4 giver support services; 

5 ‘‘(v) the implementation of State pro6 grams under such section; 

7 ‘‘(vi) best practices identified by the 

8 Family Caregiving Strategy under section 

9 3 of the RAISE Family Caregivers Act (42 

10 U.S.C. 3030s note) and best practices 

11 identified by the Family Caregiving Advi12 sory Council under section 4 of that Act; 

13 and 

14 ‘‘(vii) any other issue determined rel15 evant by the Assistant Secretary; 

16 ‘‘(B) disseminate the best practices de17 scribed in subparagraph (A) to all State agen18 cies, all area agencies on aging, and any entity 

19 that has contracted with an area agency on 

20 aging to carry out the services under section 

21 373; and 

22 ‘‘(C) make such best practices available to 

23 the public. 

24 ‘‘(2) GRANTS OR CONTRACTS FOR ACTIVITIES

25 OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE.—The Assistant SecVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1146.IS S1146

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1 retary shall make grants to or enter into contracts 

2 with States, public or private nonprofit agencies or 

3 organizations, institutions of higher education, or 

4 other organizations, including tribal organizations, 

5 for conducting activities of national significance to 

6 promote quality and continuous improvement in the 

7 support provided to family caregivers and older rel8 ative caregivers through the program carried out 

9 under section 373 through activities that include, 

10 with respect to such program, program evaluation, 

11 training, technical assistance, and research. 

12 ‘‘(3) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—Of the 

13 funds appropriated under section 216 to carry out 

14 this subsection for a fiscal year, not more than 5 

15 percent may be used by the Administration for ad16 ministrative expenses. 

17 ‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms 

18 ‘child’, ‘individual with a disability’, and ‘older rel19 ative caregiver’ have the meanings given those terms 

20 in section 372.’’. 

21 (b) AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS.—Section 373(g)(2)(C) 

22 of the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3030s– 

23 1(g)(2)(C)) is amended to read as follows: 

24 ‘‘(C) LIMITATION.— 


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1 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A State may not 

2 use more than 15 percent of the total Fed3 eral and non-Federal share available to the 

4 State to provide support services to older 

5 relative caregivers. 

6 ‘‘(ii) REQUEST.—An area agency on 

7 aging may submit a request to the State 

8 for a fiscal year to exceed 15 percent of 

9 the total Federal and non-Federal share 

10 available to the area agency on aging to 

11 provide support services to older relative 

12 caregivers. The State shall grant such re13 quest for such fiscal year to the area agen14 cy on aging that submits such request if— 

15 ‘‘(I) the request includes a dem16 onstrated need within the service area 

17 of such area agency on aging; and 

18 ‘‘(II) the State determines that, 

19 if it grants such request, the State 

20 will be able to comply with the limita21 tion under clause (i) for the fiscal 

22 year. 

23 ‘‘(iii) REPORTS.—To the extent prac24 ticable, the Assistant Secretary shall preVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1146.IS S1146

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1 pare, and make available to the public, an 

2 annual report on— 

3 ‘‘(I) how many requests were 

4 granted under clause (ii) during the 

5 year covered by the report; 

6 ‘‘(II) for each request granted, 

7 the percentage of total Federal and 

8 total non-Federal funding used to 

9 serve older relative caregivers by geo10 graphic location of such request dur11 ing the year covered by the report; 

12 ‘‘(III) the number of family care13 givers and older relative caregivers re14 ceiving support services within the 

15 service area of each individual area 

16 agency on aging nationwide; 

17 ‘‘(IV) the number of family care18 givers and older relative caregivers re19 ceiving support services within the 

20 service area of each individual area 

21 agency on aging nationwide, disaggre22 gated by each service described in 

23 paragraphs (1) through (5) of sub24 section (b); and 


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1 ‘‘(V) any other information deter2 mined appropriate by the Assistant 

3 Secretary. 

4 ‘‘(iv) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.— 

5 Nothing in clause (ii) shall exempt a State 

6 from complying with the limitation under 

7 clause (i) for a fiscal year.’’. 

8 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 

9 216(b) of the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 

10 3020f(b)) is amended— 

11 (1) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 

12 inserting ‘‘;’’; 

13 (2) in paragraph (4), by striking the period and 

14 inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

15 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

16 ‘‘(5) to carry out section 214(b) (relating to the 

17 National Family Caregiver Support program) 

18 $3,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 

19 2024.’’. 

20 (d) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 411(a) of 

21 the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3032(a)) is 

22 amended— 

23 (1) by striking paragraph (11); and 


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1 (2) by redesignating paragraphs (12) through 

2 (14) as paragraphs (11) through (13), respectively. 

Æ 


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