April 20, 2022

Minnesotans Travel to DC for Leadership and Advocacy

On April 20, 2023 by LeadingAge

Several members of LeadingAge Minnesota attended LeadingAge's annual Leadership Summit in our nation’s capital city this week. LeadingAge Minnesota attendees visited with several members of Congress and their teams to discuss issues that our providers are facing all across the state.

We had the opportunity to meet with members and staff from the offices of:

• Representative Finstad (R-MN01)
• Representative Angie Craig (DFL-MN02)
• Representative McCollum (DFL-MN04)
• Representative Omar (DFL-MN05)
• Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN06)
• Senator Klobuchar (DFL)
• Senator Tina Smith (DFL)

Throughout the day, Minnesota’s congressional delegation heard directly from our members on the challenges they currently face in our sector. We expressed our concerns with President Biden’s recent Executive Order that would hold hostage Medicaid funding by imposing a harmful condition on a portion of Medicaid payments based on turnover rates in nursing homes. We also shared frustration about minimum staffing standards in an industry already facing extreme staffing shortages.

Supporting solutions

Our members advocated for several bills that would support our workforce and the seniors we serve, including:

• Our Direct Care Workforce and Family Caregivers Act and the Direct CARE Opportunities Act: The bills would authorize $1 billion in competitive grants to support increasing direct care workforce positions and for the creation, recruitment, training, and retention of the direct care workforce. Sen. Kaine’s bill would allocate the funding to the Department of Labor; Rep. Scott’s bill would give the funding to HHS’s Administration for Community Living. Bill numbers in the last Congress: S. 2344 / HR 2999.
• Building America’s Health Care Workforce Act: This bill would extend CMS’s Temporary Nurse Aide (TNA) waiver flexibilities for 24 months beyond the Public Health Emergency, enable TNAs to continue working in their current roles, and put their on-the-job experience and training toward the 75-hour federal CNA training requirement. The legislation was first introduced last Congress in response to CMS’s announced rollback of certain 1135 waiver modifications implemented at the beginning of the pandemic. It was reintroduced this year by Representatives Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Madeleine Deane (D-PA). Bill number in the current 118th session of Congress: HR 468.

You can review a complete list of federal bill priorities from LeadingAge here.