Bernie Sanders: Boost funding for seniors

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is leading a push for Congress to approve a 12 percent funding increase for programs that benefit seniors.

Sanders, who’s mulling a 2016 White House bid, says the funding is needed to expand seniors’ access to family caregiver programs, meals and transportation.

“The demand for these programs is great and in many areas of the country vulnerable seniors are on waiting lists for services that they desperately need,” Sanders, the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, wrote in a letter to the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

The letter was signed by 32 members of the Senate Democratic Conference.

{mosads}In the letter, sent to Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sanders said, at a minimum, Congress should increase the funding for the programs by $225 million over 2015 spending levels.

“A 12 percent increase, though insufficient to address the significant growth in the senior population, would be an important step toward meeting existing demand,” Sanders wrote.

Appropriators are expected to begin work next month on spending bills for fiscal 2016, which begins Oct. 1. Republicans must first adopt a joint conference agreement on their competing budget blueprints in both chambers.

The Sanders letter was signed by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Angus King (I-Maine), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).