[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 25489-25490]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        HOUSE PASSAGE OF S. 3164

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I would like to commend Senator Bayh 
for his efforts on S. 3164, the Protecting Seniors from Fraud Act, 
which the House passed today. This bill, which I cosponsored along with 
Senators Grams and Cleland, will greatly assist federal, state, and 
local efforts to crack down on crime committed against older Americans. 
Although I wish the Congress had also acted on additional proposals to 
protect elderly Americans, including S. 751, the Seniors Safety Act, I 
am glad that we were at least able to pass this legislation.
  I have been concerned for some time that even as the general crime 
rate has been declining steadily over the past eight years, the rate of 
crime against the elderly has remained unchanged. That is why I 
introduced the Seniors Safety Act with Senators Daschle, Kennedy, and 
Torricelli over a year ago. The Judiciary Committee refused to hold 
hearings on this bill, which provides a comprehensive approach to a 
variety of problems affecting seniors today.
  Thankfully, the Republican majority was less hostile to S. 3164, 
which includes one of the titles from the Seniors Safety Act. This 
title does two things. First, it instructs the Attorney General to 
conduct a study relating to crimes against seniors, so that we can 
develop a coherent strategy to prevent and properly punish such crimes. 
Second, it mandates the inclusion of seniors in the National Crime 
Victimization Study. Both of these are important steps.
  The Protecting Seniors from Fraud Act includes important proposals 
for addressing the problem of crimes against the elderly, especially 
fraud crimes. In addition to the provisions described above, this bill 
authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to 
establish local programs to prevent fraud against seniors and educate 
them about the risk of fraud, as well as to provide information about 
telemarketing and sweepstakes fraud to seniors, both directly and 
through State Attorneys General. These are two common-sense provisions 
that will help seniors protect themselves against crime.
  I hope that when Congress reconvenes in January, we will consider the 
rest of the Seniors Safety Act, and enact even more comprehensive 
protections for our seniors. The Seniors Safety Act offers a 
comprehensive approach that would increase law enforcement's ability to 
battle telemarketing, pension, and health care fraud, as well as to 
police nursing homes with a record of mistreating their residents. The 
Justice Department has said that the Seniors Safety Act would ``be of 
assistance in a number of ways.'' I have urged the Senate Judiciary 
Committee to hold hearings on the Seniors Safety Act as long ago as 
October 1999, and again this past February, but my requests have not 
been granted. Now, as the session is coming to a close, we are out of 
time for hearings on this important and comprehensive proposal and 
significant parts of the Seniors Safety Act remain

[[Page 25490]]

pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the unfinished 
business of this Congress.
  Let me briefly summarize the parts of the Seniors Safety Act that the 
majority in the Congress has declined to consider. First, the Seniors 
Safety Act 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 telemarket 
fraud, which costs billions of dollars every year. This legislation 
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, this 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. The 
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.
  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 offenses in both criminal and civil proceedings. It also 
protects whistle-blowers who alert law enforcement officers to examples 
of health care fraud.
  I commend Senators Bayh, Grams, and Cleland for working to take steps 
to improve the safety and security of America's seniors. We have done 
the right thing in passing this bipartisan legislation and beginning 
the fight to lower the crime rate against seniors. I urge consideration 
of the Seniors Safety Act. It would provide a comprehensive approach 
toward giving law enforcement and older Americans the tools they need 
to prevent crime.

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