Title: Supporting Caregivers Act
Policy area: Social Welfare

Summary:
Supporting Caregivers Act
This bill reauthorizes through FY2024, and revises, programs and activities that support family caregivers of older adults.
Among other changes, the Administration on Aging must disseminate best practices and award grants to states, institutes of higher education, and other organizations to conduct activities of national significance to promote quality and continuous improvement of services and other supports provided to caregivers.
The bill also increases the cap on the amount of funds that a state may use to provide support services to older relative caregivers. In addition, individual area agencies on aging may exceed the cap, provided that there is a demonstrated need for the services and state spending overall remains at or below the cap for the fiscal year.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1146 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Supporting Caregivers Act''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL FAMILY CAREGIVER SUPPORT PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Section 214 of the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 
U.S.C. 3020e) is amended--
            (1) in the section heading, by striking ``nutrition 
        education'' and inserting ``title iii related activities'';
            (2) by striking ``The Assistant Secretary'' and inserting 
        the following:
    ``(a) Nutrition Education.--The Assistant Secretary''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b) National Family Caregiver Support Program.--
            ``(1) Best practices.--Not later than 1 year after the date 
        of enactment of the Supporting Caregivers Act, and every 2 
        years thereafter, the Assistant Secretary shall--
                    ``(A) identify best practices relating to the 
                program carried out under section 373, including--
                            ``(i) procedures and tools to assess the 
                        needs of caregivers;
                            ``(ii) procedures and tools to monitor and 
                        evaluate the performance of State programs 
                        under such section;
                            ``(iii) the development and use of 
                        caregiver service plans;
                            ``(iv) the use of evidence-based caregiver 
                        support services;
                            ``(v) the implementation of State programs 
                        under such section;
                            ``(vi) best practices identified by the 
                        Family Caregiving Strategy under section 3 of 
                        the RAISE Family Caregivers Act (42 U.S.C. 
                        3030s note) and best practices identified by 
                        the Family Caregiving Advisory Council under 
                        section 4 of that Act; and
                            ``(vii) any other issue determined relevant 
                        by the Assistant Secretary;
                    ``(B) disseminate the best practices described in 
                subparagraph (A) to all State agencies, all area 
                agencies on aging, and any entity that has contracted 
                with an area agency on aging to carry out the services 
                under section 373; and
                    ``(C) make such best practices available to the 
                public.
            ``(2) Grants or contracts for activities of national 
        significance.--The Assistant Secretary shall make grants to or 
        enter into contracts with States, public or private nonprofit 
        agencies or organizations, institutions of higher education, or 
        other organizations, including tribal organizations, for 
        conducting activities of national significance to promote 
        quality and continuous improvement in the support provided to 
        family caregivers and older relative caregivers through the 
        program carried out under section 373 through activities that 
        include, with respect to such program, program evaluation, 
        training, technical assistance, and research.
            ``(3) Administrative expenses.--Of the funds appropriated 
        under section 216 to carry out this subsection for a fiscal 
        year, not more than 5 percent may be used by the Administration 
        for administrative expenses.
            ``(4) Definitions.--In this section, the terms `child', 
        `individual with a disability', and `older relative caregiver' 
        have the meanings given those terms in section 372.''.
    (b) Availability of Funds.--Section 373(g)(2)(C) of the Older 
Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3030s-1(g)(2)(C)) is amended to read 
as follows:
                    ``(C) Limitation.--
                            ``(i) In general.--A State may not use more 
                        than 15 percent of the total Federal and non-
                        Federal share available to the State to provide 
                        support services to older relative caregivers.
                            ``(ii) Request.--An area agency on aging 
                        may submit a request to the State for a fiscal 
                        year to exceed 15 percent of the total Federal 
                        and non-Federal share available to the area 
                        agency on aging to provide support services to 
                        older relative caregivers. The State shall 
                        grant such request for such fiscal year to the 
                        area agency on aging that submits such request 
                        if--
                                    ``(I) the request includes a 
                                demonstrated need within the service 
                                area of such area agency on aging; and
                                    ``(II) the State determines that, 
                                if it grants such request, the State 
                                will be able to comply with the 
                                limitation under clause (i) for the 
                                fiscal year.
                            ``(iii) Reports.--To the extent 
                        practicable, the Assistant Secretary shall 
                        prepare, and make available to the public, an 
                        annual report on--
                                    ``(I) how many requests were 
                                granted under clause (ii) during the 
                                year covered by the report;
                                    ``(II) for each request granted, 
                                the percentage of total Federal and 
                                total non-Federal funding used to serve 
                                older relative caregivers by geographic 
                                location of such request during the 
                                year covered by the report;
                                    ``(III) the number of family 
                                caregivers and older relative 
                                caregivers receiving support services 
                                within the service area of each 
                                individual area agency on aging 
                                nationwide;
                                    ``(IV) the number of family 
                                caregivers and older relative 
                                caregivers receiving support services 
                                within the service area of each 
                                individual area agency on aging 
                                nationwide, disaggregated by each 
                                service described in paragraphs (1) 
                                through (5) of subsection (b); and
                                    ``(V) any other information 
                                determined appropriate by the Assistant 
                                Secretary.
                            ``(iv) Rule of construction.--Nothing in 
                        clause (ii) shall exempt a State from complying 
                        with the limitation under clause (i) for a 
                        fiscal year.''.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--Section 216(b) of the Older 
Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3020f(b)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (3), by striking ``; and'' and inserting 
        ``;'';
            (2) in paragraph (4), by striking the period and inserting 
        ``; and''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(5) to carry out section 214(b) (relating to the National 
        Family Caregiver Support program) $3,000,000 for each of fiscal 
        years 2020 through 2024.''.
    (d) Conforming Amendment.--Section 411(a) of the Older Americans 
Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3032(a)) is amended--
            (1) by striking paragraph (11); and
            (2) by redesignating paragraphs (12) through (14) as 
        paragraphs (11) through (13), respectively.
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