[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 140 (Monday, November 17, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H8000]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        NATIONAL CARE CORPS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New Mexico (Ms. Michelle Lujan Grisham) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, I rise 
during National Family Caregivers Month to recognize the millions of 
family caregivers who do incredible work every day and to talk about 
the future of caregiving in this country.
  Right now, the vast majority of care services in the United States 
are provided by family caregivers. They do this out of love for their 
loved ones, to restore and maintain respect and dignity, and because 
the vast majority of disabled adults and seniors rely on Medicare as 
their primary insurance, and Medicare does not pay for long-term care 
services, and they are barely ineligible for Medicaid, which might.
  Forty-nine million Americans provide more than 520 billion in care to 
seniors and adults with disabilities every year. They manage a range of 
really difficult responsibilities because they have a friend or a loved 
one who is older or who has a disability and is in need of extra help.
  I know how tough it is to be a family caregiver because I am one. My 
mother, who lives with me in New Mexico, relies on me to oversee her 
care and also provide financial support. These are difficult 
arrangements for a number of reasons. Having a parent rely on a child 
when they have spent their life being the caregiver can be a tough 
transition to make.
  But family caregivers navigate that relationship while taking the 
time to call insurance companies and hospitals to ensure their loved 
one is getting proper care and while often having to use their own 
resources to cover many of the costs associated with that care.
  They do it out of love, and they do it because they know that their 
mother or their husband or their friend wants to remain as independent 
as possible, and they know that they want to live out their lives with 
dignity. I think they have earned that right.
  But these family caregivers cannot do it alone. They need someone to 
take their sister to her appointment and when they get busy with a day 
at work or to make sure that their dad takes his medication while they 
attend a parent-teacher conference.
  Already in this country, we have got more than 4 million men and 
women who have chosen direct care as a career and provide these kind of 
services on a paid basis, but if you look at the sheer demographics, 
that is not nearly enough.
  As the baby boom generation continues to age, demand for services 
will increase. The gap between the number of family caregivers and 
direct care workers and the number of people who need services will 
continue to grow.
  In 2010, there were seven potential caregivers for every person over 
the age of 80. By 2030, that ratio is projected to drop by almost half, 
to 4.1.
  In the direct care workforce, demand is projected to grow, so that 
the U.S. will need to add at least 1 million more direct care workers 
over the next 10 years.
  So we face real challenges in growing a workforce that will help meet 
the needs of our population. At the same time, our economy continues to 
slowly recover from the Great Recession.
  Young people looking to enter the workforce, along with workers who 
are willing to retrain, want to find jobs in a field that is growing 
and can provide them with some job security.
  So I see two challenges that I think can be solved with one 
coordinated national effort called Care Corps. My bill, H.R. 5288, 
creates a national Care Corps that will place volunteers and 
communities to work with seniors and individuals with disabilities who 
need a little extra support to live independently.
  In return for their services, volunteers will receive health 
insurance and other benefits, along with a postservice educational 
award. This award can be used to pay for up to 2 years of attendance at 
an institution of higher education or to pay back educational loans.
  But I want to end with what I think will be the program's legacy if 
we are able to get this done. Care Corps provides an opportunity for 
intergenerational relationships, for seniors and our young people to 
learn from each other, and for us as a country to gain a better sense 
of our history to the people that lived it.
  Anyone who has ever been a caregiver will tell you not just that it 
was challenging, but that it was incredibly rewarding.
  So I want to thank our family caregivers who are already filling a 
serious void in this country, and I want to urge my colleagues to 
support them by supporting the National Care Corps Act.

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