I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3749 
To amend the Older Americans Act of 1965 to expand the Senior Community 
Service Employment Program. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 20, 2011 
Ms. RICHARDSON 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 expand the 
Senior Community Service Employment Program. 
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 ‘‘Expanding Opportuni-
ties for Older Americans Act of 2011’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The downturn in the national economy has 
adversely affected millions of workers in all age 
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groups, but it has disproportionately burdened work-
ers age 55 and older. 
(2) During the period from 2005 through 2007, 
more than 900,000 workers age 55 and older lost 
jobs they had held for the preceding 3 years or 
longer. Such older workers constitute a quarter of 
long-tenured workers who lost their jobs during this 
period. 
(3) Older workers experience substantially 
longer periods of unemployment than younger work-
ers and are more likely to exhaust their unemploy-
ment insurance benefits. 
(4) Older workers are comparatively less suc-
cessful than younger workers in finding new jobs. 
Only 55 percent of workers age 55 and over who 
had been long-tenured before losing their jobs during 
the period from 2005 through 2007 were reemployed 
in January 2008, compared to 72.6 percent of work-
ers ages 25 to 54. 
(5) Unemployed older workers who succeed in 
obtaining new employment are more likely than 
younger workers to be underemployed, holding part- 
time jobs that pay lower wages. 
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SEC. 3. EXPANSION OF SENIOR COMMUNITY SERVICE EM-
PLOYMENT PROGRAM. 
(a) REDUCTION OF AGE OF ELIGIBILITY TO AGE 
52.—Title V of the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 
U.S.C. 3056 et seq.) is amended by striking ‘‘age 55’’ each 
place it appears and inserting ‘‘age 52’’. 
(b) ELIMINATION OF REQUIREMENT THAT ELIGIBLE 
INDIVIDUAL BE UNEMPLOYED.— 
(1) ESTABLISHMENT
OF
PROGRAM.—Section 
502(a)(1) of such title (42 U.S.C. 3056(a)(1)) is 
amended by striking ‘‘unemployed’’. 
(2) RECOMMENDATIONS.—Section 503(a)(2)(C) 
of such title (42 U.S.C. 3056a(a)(2)(C)) is amended 
by striking ‘‘unemployed’’. 
(3) 
CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—Section 
518(a) of such title (42 U.S.C. 3056p(a)) is amend-
ed by striking paragraph (8). 
(c) INCREASE IN INCOME LIMITATION FOR ELIGIBLE 
INDIVIDUALS.—Section 518(a)(3)(A) of such title (42 
U.S.C. 3056p(a)(3)(A)) is amended by striking ‘‘125 per-
cent of the poverty line’’ and inserting ‘‘200 percent of 
the poverty line’’. 
(d) INCOME DEFINED.—Section 518(a)(4) of such 
title (42 U.S.C. 3056p(a)(4)) is amended— 
(1) by inserting ‘‘by an eligible individual’’ after 
‘‘received’’; 
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(2) by striking ‘‘an eligible individual submits’’ 
and inserting ‘‘such eligible individual submits’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following: ‘‘Such 
term does not include income received by a member 
of such eligible individual’s household other than 
such eligible individual.’’. 
(e) HOURS PER WEEK GRANTEE MAY PERMIT PAR-
TICIPANT TO WORK.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 502(b) of such title 
(42 U.S.C. 3056(b)) is amended by adding at the 
end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(4) HOURS PER WEEK GRANTEE MAY PERMIT 
PARTICIPANT TO WORK.—No limit of fewer than 40 
hours per week may be placed on the number of 
hours per week a recipient of a grant under this title 
may permit a participant to work in a job assisted 
by this title.’’. 
(2) 
CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—Section 
518(a)(2) of such title (42 U.S.C. 3056p(a)(2)) is 
amended by striking ‘‘part-time,’’. 
(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 517(a) of such Act 
(42 U.S.C. 3056o(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘2007, 
2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011’’ and inserting ‘‘2012, 
2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017’’. 
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