I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2786 
To amend the Older Americans Act of 1965 to provide social service agencies 
with the resources to provide services to meet the unique needs of 
Holocaust survivors to age in place with dignity, comfort, security, and 
quality of life. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 1, 2011 
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (for herself and Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Older Americans Act of 1965 to provide 
social service agencies with the resources to provide serv-
ices to meet the unique needs of Holocaust survivors 
to age in place with dignity, comfort, security, and qual-
ity of life. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Holocaust Survivors 
Assistance Act of 2011’’. 
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TITLE I—PURPOSES; FINDINGS; 
DEFINITIONS; GRANTS 
SEC. 101. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to include ‘‘older individuals who are Holo-
caust survivors’’ to the list of groups that receive 
preference for services as defined in section 
305(a)(2)(E) of the Older Americans Act of 1965, 
(2) to designate within the Administration on 
Aging an individual to have responsibility for older 
individuals who are Holocaust survivors, and 
(3) to create a grant program to increase and 
improve transportation services for older individuals 
with preference to those older individuals who are 
Holocaust survivors. 
SEC. 102. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) During the Holocaust, which took place be-
tween 1933 and 1945, an estimated 6,000,000 Jews, 
as well as millions from other targeted groups, were 
murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. 
(2) Approximately 127,000 Holocaust survivors 
remain in the United States, and thousands pass 
away each year. 
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(3) Holocaust survivors are getting older and 
frailer, and will be seeking additional support and 
assistance from social service providers to enable 
them to age in place. Providers face increased levels 
of demand from vulnerable individuals without any 
additional revenue to cover needed services. 
(4) All Holocaust survivors are at least 65 
years old with approximately three quarters of them 
older than 75 and a majority in their 80s and 90s. 
(5) More than half of all Holocaust survivors 
who emigrated to the United States from the former 
Soviet Union after 1965 fall beneath 200 percent of 
the Federal poverty threshold and constitute an ex-
tremely vulnerable at-risk population in the United 
States. 
(6) Holocaust survivors continue to live with 
the mental and physical scars of the unconscionable 
trauma caused by the Holocaust. 
(7) While institutionalized settings are bene-
ficial for some older people, long-term care facilities 
can have an adverse effect on Holocaust survivors. 
For many Holocaust survivors, institutionalized set-
tings reintroduce sights, sounds, smells, emotions 
and routines which can induce panic, anxiety, and 
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