[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11705-11706]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          OLDER AMERICANS ACT

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, the Senator from Maine is about to 
speak I believe on the Older Americans Act.
  While she is here on the floor, I wish to take a moment to express my 
personal appreciation to her and to Chairman Alexander for an issue 
that arose during the course of the Older Americans Act.
  I have a very strong concern that older Americans, particularly as 
they approach the end of their lives, are not getting their wishes 
honored. In fact, very often nobody even knows what their wishes are 
about how they would like to be treated at the end of their lives. Do 
they want to be at home? Do they not particularly care about using all 
the medical apparatuses available to them? Do they want to be in the 
hospital and have everybody take every available measure? That should 
be their choice. It should be an informed choice and a choice that we 
should honor.

[[Page 11706]]

  I sought language within the Older Americans Act to try to empower 
that. There were difficulties with it, and those difficulties were 
resolved by the willingness of Chairman Alexander to ask Chairman 
Collins to hold a hearing on this subject in the Select Committee on 
Aging and for all of the chairmen and ranking members on the two 
committees to send a letter to the Government Accountability Office to 
lay out the case and put a factual brief before us for that hearing.
  This would not have happened without the courtesy of Senator Collins. 
This is an aging committee thing that she has been willing to do to 
resolve an issue that actually started in the HELP Committee. It was 
very gracious of her. She has been a leader on these end-of-life issues 
for a long time. I didn't want to miss this chance to express my 
appreciation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, before the Senator from Rhode Island 
leaves the floor, let me thank him for his kind comments. I have 
enjoyed working with him on issues such as hospice care and advanced 
planning. I know these issues are very important to him, as they are to 
me. I am happy we are able to collaborate on a GAO request and also on 
a hearing later this year.
  So I thank him for his efforts in resolving this issue so that the 
reauthorization of the Older Americans Act could go forward.

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