Lobby Day, the final day of the 2024 LeadingAge Leadership Summit, was the highlight of the conference for many members. It was a day for active advocacy—face-to-face—with lawmakers or their professional staff. More than 240 LeadingAge provider members headed to Capitol Hill to visit the offices of their elected representatives in the Senate and House. Some were here for the first time, while others were veterans of many such visits during long careers in aging services.

We gathered the comments and stories below from a group of members returning from visits to the Hill.

Diane Smith, national finance & development manager, CSI Support & Development, Warren, MI

Visited: Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Gary Peters (D-MI); Reps. John James (R-MI), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), amd Hillary Scholten (D-MI).

“As representatives of affordable senior housing, we were hammering on full funding for Section 202 Housing, renewing PRAC budgets, and support of the Affordable Housing Credit Act. We use the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program to develop and reinvest in our portfolio.

“We talked to our co-op system, which, you know, was really intriguing, and said the Section 202 program was not funded for some number of years, then was brought back in a different form in 2018. But it [now provides] a lower amount of capital so we have to marry the tax credit program with Section 202, so we need to use them concurrently to be able to build and reinvest back in our communities. I think that was something that caught people’s attention.

“We also talked about the need for service coordination and why it’s so important to help people stay in their homes, and safely age in place and delay premature entry into a higher level of care, which is very expensive for this population. I think that resonated with some folks. What was interesting was many of them related [these issues] to their own retirements; one woman had a grandmother who was in affordable housing and who lived there until she was 96.”

The organization: “We’re a co-op, headquartered in Michigan, but also work in Maryland, Massachusetts, and California providing affordable housing for seniors.”

Yuvette Bozman, executive director, residential housing, McGregor, Cleveland, OH

Visited: Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Reps. Shontel Brown (D-OH) and Joyce Beatty (D-OH).

“I was selected for the Leadership Academy, and offered the opportunity to be involved with Lobby Day. This is my very first time  and the experience was wonderful. 

“We spoke with Sen. Vance’s staffer on the issues relating to the CMS staffing rule, and then had some discussions around our affordable housing. I was able to participate in discussion with Beatty’s staff, and Shontel Brown’s. We shared our concerns re the CMS staffing mandate, and  affordable housing.”

The organization: “Our residential housing  includes assisted living, independent living, and a nursing home.”

R. Kevin McFeely, president & CEO, Futura Age, Tacoma, WA

Visited: Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA). “We met Rep. Kilmer, and staff for the two senators.”

“We talked about the staff shortage issue, and the legislation that’s being proposed to address that. We talked about immigration, the three-day stay for Medicare, so many things. I explained to them I’ve been doing this for well over 30 years, and it’s kind of disappointing that I’m still having the same conversation 30 years later! I challenged all of them to have this fixed before I retire. We talked about CMS penalties, how technology has been carved out, and the CNA lockout, and how that’s really impacting communities.

“We shared that in the state of Washington on any given day, we have 641 people that are boarding in hospitals, instead of being transferred to skilled nursing because we don’t have the staff. I used an example: One of my communities has 211 beds, but we can only staff 130 of them—a little more than half—and that really impacted them.”

The organization: “Futura Age has two communities, one in Seattle [LTC, rehab, assisted living, memory care] and one in Tacoma, WA [life plan community].”

Kim Thompson, chief experience officer, Sun Health, Surprise, AZ

Visited: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).

“We really wanted to talk about the nursing home mandates, as well as Medicare Advantage plans. Plus the CNA lockouts. We wanted them to be conscious of how [these] impact seniors in America. Their [staff] understood the issues. They had ideas and they were definitely positive in supporting us.”

The organization: “We have three continuing care retirement communities.”

Kathy Martin, president and CEO, Glenmeadow, Longmeadow, MA

Visited: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Edward Markey (D-MA); Reps. James McGovern (D-MA) and Richard Neal (D-MA).

“We started with Sen. Warren’s staff, and had a lively conversation about Medicare Advantage and about some of our specific workforce challenges that Massachusetts has. And she was very receptive. She probed very deeply so she had done her homework to know what some of the issues were, for our membership.

“We all gathered together to go to Sen. Markey’s office and had the same kind of conversation about workforce. And we just came from a meeting with Rep. Neal’s staff, where we talked about workforce and the connections between higher education policy and aging services policy in terms of a pipeline for workforce development. One of the other members who was with us talked about how Medicare Advantage has presented an incredible challenge, because it can take a long time to get authorizations and [the plans] sometimes reevaluate and come back three years later to ask for the money back, which is just backwards!”

The organization: “Glenmeadow has been operating since 1884. And we offer independent living, assisted living, and home care, and we are just starting respite care.”

Kevin Rusenstrom, customer service director, SeniorAge, Springfield, MO

Visited: Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Eric Schmitt (R-MO).

“We were able to visit with the senators’ teams. They’re very interactive, and they did want to hear what our concerns were. Affordable housing was a big issue, and the CNA lockout rule. 

“In my world [SeniorAge is an AAA], we assist people with grant money and we can help them with a rent payment or mortgage payment, but we’re finding that those payments are high, up to as much as $1,500. “We’re glad we can assist them and have the grant money to do that, but really find that they need affordable housing. If that grant money goes away, what’s going to happen to them?

The organization: SeniorAge is an Area Agency on Aging, based in Springfield, MO, serving 17 counties.

Ken Young, president, United Church Homes, Marion, OH

Visited: Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) “We met with one of his staff members.”

“We talked to Vance’s office about our concern with moving forward on the staffing mandate for skilled nursing; the senator is supportive of us and trying to roll that back. He is on the Aging Committee. [We also said] we’re very interested in funding for affordable housing, particularly for service coordination and for new development.

“I shared that in our experience, especially with our nursing home communities, the enforcement of this mandate is going to have very serious consequences for us, but also industry-wide, because there’s a nursing shortage and then to have to pay increasing wages for those nurses, without any tie to a quality index, is going to put nursing homes, especially faith-based nonprofits, in jeopardy.”

The organization: “We have a number of continuing care retirement communities in Ohio, and own and operate around 60 affordable housing communities around the country. We also have a joint-venture hospice, provide service coordination, and have home health care and home care services.”

Anne Rolfe, administrator, health center, McLean, Simsbury, CT

Visited: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Christopher Murphy (D-CT).

“It was really exciting to be here, to actually go and try to make a difference with LeadingAge, it was great to be involved. Going there with Mag Morelli of LeadingAge Connecticut and other peers in different settings was nice, to see how different issues affect them. It was eye-opening.”

Advice about Lobby Day to other first-timers: “Oh, go! I’m not from Connecticut originally, I’m from Ireland, but a U.S. citizen now. It was terrific to be part of this. You can show up and make a difference!”

The organization: Life plan community.

Karen Stran, chief operating officer, Seniors Resource Center, Wheat Ridge, CO

“This year, if it was not the best, it was in the top two years of meetings I’ve had. All the aides we met were well-informed, asked great questions, and were genuinely interested in the issues we brought them.”

Advice about Lobby Day to others: “Do it! It’s fun, it’s neat to walk around the halls of power and see where our laws are made, to be a part of it, and to understand how accessible our lawmakers really are, they invite you in and they listen.”

The organization: Adult day program, in-home care, care management, respite and caregiver support.

Katie Weiss, board chair, Aging in America, Haverstraw, NY

Visited: Staff of Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY); Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Marcus Molinaro (R-NY).

“At every discussion we were emphasizing the critical needs in workforce development/pipeline, and budget to keep our services open. There were powerful stories about how staffing limitations at SNFs back up the pipeline so that hospitals can’t discharge patients … which leads to other patients not being admitted to the hospital for timely care. Also discussion of how providers are “pulling people off the street, solving their messed up life situations, training them, and losing them to other jobs within six months.”

“The nursing home challenges affect all of us directly. Another powerful discussion point came around staffing mandates—that New York long-term care facilities can’t meet the current NYS staffing mandates which are lower than the expected federal levels. Unachievable. At each stop, I made a pitch for supporting affordable housing, especially with care coordinators. The staff members were, by and large, well-briefed and receptive, especially those in the Senate offices.”