On Thursday, February 6, the LeadingAge Board of Directors arrived in Washington, DC, for its quarterly meeting. In a typical year, the board reserves this winter meeting to discuss and adopt LeadingAge’s policy platform for the next year and beyond.

Admittedly, 2025 is proving to be anything but a “typical” policy year. With threats to funding and program stability afoot in Washington, the board thoughtfully considered what LeadingAge is currently doing on the advocacy front and what we should remain focused on in the coming months. Then, the board affirmed our 2025 LeadingAge Policy Platform and advocacy goals, just as it has done each February for as long as I can remember.

While we can’t ignore the political rhetoric permeating advocacy discussions in Washington these days, LeadingAge remains laser-focused on the government actions members rely on to help them advance and protect the interests of their organizations, team members, residents, clients, and family members. In short, we’re committed to doing everything possible to ensure you can continue delivering high-quality services and supports to an expanding older population with increasing needs.

Many of our policy goals are not new. For example, we will continue our ongoing efforts to:

• Resist proposed cuts to Medicaid.
• Obtain robust affordable housing funding.
• Support innovative policy solutions that strengthen the aging services workforce.
• Expand hospice services.
• Maintain and expand home and community-based services.
• Safeguard the transparency and adequacy of Medicare Advantage plan provider payments.
• Restore the funds that have been cut from home health programs.
• Guarantee access to Medicare home health.
• Ensure continued access to nursing homes by, among other things, stopping the federal minimum staffing mandate.

Make no mistake. Achieving these and other goals outlined in our policy platform will be challenging, and success won’t come easily. However, the board—and I—believe that LeadingAge can succeed if every member contributes to the effort.

What can you do?

Respond promptly to LeadingAge Action Alerts, especially in the coming weeks and months. Our website makes it easy for you to urge your senators and representatives to take specific actions to support older adults. And your participation makes a real difference. Be sure to describe how proposed policy changes may impact your organization and its residents and clients. Act today by urging Congress to do right by older adults during the upcoming budget reconciliation process.

Email us with data and personal examples we can use to persuade policymakers to support our policy proposals and oppose funding cuts. We want to know how your residents and clients will be personally affected if public support for services is reduced or eliminated. For example:

• If Congress cuts Medicaid, how many people in your nursing home will have no way to pay for their care? How will a Medicaid work requirement affect your team members or the younger people with disabilities whom you serve?
• If rent subsidies are reduced, how many older people in your communities will lose their current housing and possibly face homelessness?
• If funding for service coordinators is eliminated, how will residents access essential services? What will happen to those residents if access is interrupted?
• These and other personal perspectives have always been vital to our advocacy efforts. However, as the pace of change accelerates, the stakes continue to rise, and our public conversations grow increasingly polarized, we must act with a new sense of urgency to educate policymakers, regardless of party, so we can effectively advocate for the changes we need. We will also use these real-life examples to educate other audiences, in and outside government, so our advocacy messages are not overlooked or ignored.

I assure you that LeadingAge will continue working diligently to ensure that Congress and the administration recognize your mission, appreciate your work, and take significant action to support the older adults you serve. I do not doubt that your trust in LeadingAge and our advocacy partnership will amplify our voice and lead us to success.

LeadingAge and its members are in this together. And now it’s time to get to work.

The stakes couldn’t be higher.