[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17379]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           SENIOR SAFETY ACT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise today to encourage passage of the 
Seniors Safety Act, legislation I introduced along with Senators 
Daschle, Kennedy, and Torricelli in March 1999. Eight additional 
Senators have signed on as cosponsors since then. Despite this broad 
support, however, the majority has declined even to hold hearings on 
this bill to fight crime against America's senior citizens. As 
Grandparents' Day approaches this Sunday, and as this Congress comes to 
a close, I urge the majority to join with us in our efforts to improve 
the safety and security of older Americans.
  During the 1990s, while overall crime rates dropped throughout the 
nation, the rate of crime against seniors remained constant. In 
addition to the increased vulnerability of some seniors to violent 
crime, older Americans are increasingly targeted by swindlers looking 
to take advantage of them through telemarketing schemes, pension fraud, 
and health care fraud. We must strengthen the hand of law enforcement 
to combat those criminals who plunder the savings that older Americans 
have worked their lifetimes to earn. The Seniors Safety Act tries to do 
exactly that, through a comprehensive package of proposals to establish 
new protections and increase penalties for a wide variety of crimes 
against seniors.
  First, this bill provides additional protections to nursing home 
residents. Nursing homes provide an important service for our seniors--
indeed, more than 40 percent of Americans turning 65 this year will 
need nursing home care at some point in their lives. Many nursing homes 
do a wonderful job with a very difficult task--this legislation simply 
looks to protect seniors and their families by isolating the bad 
providers in operation. It does this by giving Federal law enforcement 
the authority to investigate and prosecute operators of those nursing 
homes that engage in a pattern of health and safety violations. This 
authority is all the more important given the study prepared by the 
Department of Health and Human Services and reported this summer in the 
New York Times showing that 54 percent of American nursing homes fail 
to meet the Department's ``proposed minimum standard'' for patient 
care. The study also showed that 92 percent of nursing homes have less 
staff than necessary to provide optimal care.
  Second, the Seniors Safety Act helps protect seniors from 
telemarketing fraud, which costs billions of dollars every year. My 
bill would give the Attorney General the authority to block or 
terminate telephone service where that service is being used to defraud 
seniors. If someone takes your money at gunpoint, the law says we can 
take away their gun. If someone uses their phone to take away your 
money, the law should allow us to protect other victims by taking their 
phone away. In addition, my proposal would establish a Better Business 
Bureau-style clearinghouse that would keep track of complaints made 
about telemarketing companies. With a simple phone call, seniors could 
find out whether the company trying to sell to them over the phone or 
over the Internet has been the subject of complaints or been convicted 
of fraud.
  Third, the Seniors Safety Act punishes pension fraud. Seniors who 
have worked hard for years should not have to worry that their hard-
earned retirement savings will not be there when they need them. My 
bill would create new criminal and civil penalties for those who 
defraud pension plans, and increase the penalties for bribery and graft 
in connection with employee benefit plans.
  Fourth and finally, the Seniors Safety Act strengthens law 
enforcement's ability to fight health care fraud. A recent study by the 
National Institute for Justice reports that many health care fraud 
schemes ``deliberately target vulnerable populations, such as the 
elderly or Alzheimer's patients, who are less willing or able to 
complain or alert law enforcement.'' This legislation gives law 
enforcement the additional investigatory tools it needs to uncover, 
investigate, and prosecute health care offense in both criminal and 
civil proceedings. It also protests whistle-blowers who alert law 
enforcement officers to examples of health care fraud.
  This legislation is intended to focus attention on the particular 
criminal activities that victimize seniors the most. Congress should 
act on this bill now--when it comes to protecting our seniors, we have 
no time to waste. I am eager to work with the majority on this bill, 
and would be happy to consider any constructive improvements. 
Protecting seniors should be a bipartisan cause, and I want to pursue 
it in a bipartisan way. So I urge my colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle to look at this bill and work with us to improve the security 
of our seniors.

                          ____________________