Email Template Dear [Representative or Senator NAME]: On behalf of Direction Home Akron Canton Area Agency on Aging & Disabilities, I am writing to you to share grave concerns regarding President Trump’s draft FY 2026 HHS budget because it includes a major threat to the ability of older adults to age well at home and in the community. The proposed budget will dismantle the coordination of cost-effective aging programs and services under the Older Americans Act (OAA), such as those offered by our agency as well as the other 613 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) that serve millions of older Americans and their caregivers around the country. The President’s draft budget proposes to split OAA programs into two different HHS agencies, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The budget draft also outlined plans to zero out many critical aging programs that support the older adults in our region, such as OAA’s evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention program (Title III D) and elder rights (Title VII) efforts to prevent elder abuse and neglect, among others. Splitting up OAA programs into two different federal agencies undermines the fact that the different titles and subtitles programs are all part of ONE delivery system established by Congress in the Act. The Act works so well because of that cohesive approach, allowing AAAs to provide a wide range of person-centered services to meet the needs of older adults and caregivers as efficiently as possible. The split of OAA programs into different HHS Agencies threatens our ability to coordinate care and will disrupt critical services that are keeping people out of hospitals and nursing homes. A common example to illustrate the impact: Funding for our most needed combination of services include Home Delivered Meals (proposed to move to ACF), Emergency Response System and Personal Care Services (proposed to move to CMS). At an average of $788 a month, we can manage and adjust meals and personal care hours to meet our budget and the needs of the individual. On average we can keep someone at home in the community on these services for 2 years. Under the proposed budget breakup of the OAA, we would no longer be able to effectively manage these critical service plans. People will prematurely move to nursing home care, increasing Medicaid costs. The OAA turns 60 this year and has been a tremendous success by offering healthy aging, transportation, nutrition, case management, social engagement, caregiver support and many other in-home services. If the proposed breakup of the programs and the elimination of major initiatives in the OAA goes forward, it will severely impact the ability of older adults and caregivers in our area to get the services and supports they need to remain living at home and in the community versus facing placement in institutional settings, as well as drive cost inefficiencies through unnecessary and wasteful administrative burden on federal, state and local aging agencies. Please do all you possibly can to ensure that federal administration of OAA programs follows the law, and the OAA programs that were formerly at the Administration for Community Living are moved intact to ACF. I also ask for your support to prevent the elimination of critical services to older Ohioans in the FY 2026 appropriations bills. I look forward to your reply and your assistance on this matter. Sincerely, [YOUR NAME] [YOUR AGENCY NAME and YOUR TITLE] [YOUR CONTACT INFO] | 