No one can guarantee that this will happen, but the legislation I am here to talk about today can be a powerful new tool to help crack down on those who prey upon older Americans. We are all targets of people who commit fraud. We all need to be on our guard. But it is an ugly fact that criminal activity against seniors, inflicting physical and economic harm, is a significant and persistent problem. For instance, while violent victimization rates for other segments on society continue to fall, those same rates for seniors are no lower than there were in 1993.
Seniors are a particularly attractive target for a host of scammers and schemers.
For example, telemarketing fraud disproportionately hurts Americans over the age of 50. Fraud and abuse in the health care sector continues, too, despite some success in recent years. My bill will help combat health care fraud and abuse, protect nursing home residents, prevent telemarketing fraud, safeguard pensions and increase penalties for crimes against seniors. We must strengthen the hand of law enforcement to combat those predators who plunder the savings that older Americans have worked their lifetimes to earn. Seniors, not telemarketing scammers or pension robbers, deserve to reap the rewards of a lifetime of work.