[DOCID: f:hc8ih.txt]





109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 8

  Expressing the sense of Congress that the National Family Caregiver 
  Support Program should be fully funded continue efforts to provide 
 relief and necessary services to individuals who perform informal or 
  unpaid care for the elderly and care for children under 18 years of 
                                  age.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 4, 2005

 Ms. Millender-McDonald submitted the following concurrent resolution; 
   which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of Congress that the National Family Caregiver 
  Support Program should be fully funded continue efforts to provide 
 relief and necessary services to individuals who perform informal or 
  unpaid care for the elderly and care for children under 18 years of 
                                  age.

Whereas the need for long-term care is expected to increase in future years and 
        will place additional demands on both public and private resources;
Whereas, in fiscal year 2001, long-term care services for individuals of all 
        ages cost over $151 billion, of which $98.5 billion was spent on public 
        programs;
Whereas the expansion of current programs is needed just to meet the needs of 
        the increasing elderly population that is anticipated to double in size 
        by 2030;
Whereas although family members provide the majority of most long-term care, 
        most public funding is spent on institutional care;
Whereas community-based and home services that could best assist families are 
        limited in their availability;
Whereas each year one in three Americans provides uncompensated care to one or 
        more ill or disabled family members or friends;
Whereas nearly 52 million Americans--31 percent of the adult population between 
        20 and 75--offer ``informal care'' to a family member or friend who is 
        ill or disabled;
Whereas approximately one in five Americans care for a sick family member at 
        some point in their lives, demonstrating the ongoing nature of most 
        informal care;
Whereas adults in their 40's and 50's are more likely to care for an ill elderly 
        relative than are adults in their twenties or seventies;
Whereas the National Long-Term Care Survey indicates that if the work performed 
        by informal caregivers was to be replaced by paid home care, the 
        resulting costs would rise from $45 billion to $94 billion each year; 
        and
Whereas the National Family Caregiver Support Program, established in 2000, 
        offers relief and necessary services to individuals providing informal 
        or unpaid care to the elderly, as well as to older persons who are 
        caring for children under age 18: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),  
That it is the sense of Congress that the National Family Caregiver 
Support Program, subpart 1 of part E of title III of the Older 
Americans Act of 1965, (42 U.S.C. 3030s--3030s-2), should be fully 
funded to continue efforts to provide relief and necessary services to 
individuals who perform informal or unpaid care for the elderly and 
care for children under 18 years of age.
                                 <all>