Senators Ron Wyden and Herb Kohl

For eldercare stakeholders, one of the most meaningful outcomes of the Senate debate on the federal recovery package may have been a floor discussion concerning the direct-care workforce.

In offering an amendment to the bill, a more robust version of Retooling the Health Care Workforce for an Aging America Act, Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) extracted a promise from the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee that the needs of the long-term care workforce will be considered in health care reform. Read the full story

Capitol Hill

On Wednesday, the U.S. House and Senate reached a compromise on the economic recovery package, bringing the total cost to $789 billion.

Complete details were unavailable as of press time. According to various news reports, even though the deal had been struck, lawmakers still had not seen a final summary of the bill, which emerged from conference committee talks in a much expanded form, having doubled in size from roughly 778 pages to a whopping 1434 pages. Read the full story

ANCOR is inviting direct support professionals and their supporters to rally in Washington, D.C. next month to show their support for H.R. 1279 (pdf).

DSPs to DC will convene workers, people with disabilities and their family members, providers, and advocates to “deliver a unified message about the direct support workforce crisis and the need to pass legislation to help stabilize this critical workforce,” according to an ANCOR email. The event will be held on September 8 and 9, in conjunction with ANCOR’s Governmental Activities Seminar.

Read the full story