We are alarmed by the announcement this morning that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will dramatically reduce its workforce and shutter critical agencies that support older adults.  

The announcement specifically calls for the Administration for Community Living (ACL), whose programs older adults and people with disabilities rely on to remain healthy and independent in the community, to be dissolved into other offices within the Department. ACL incorporates the Administration on Aging and the Administration on Disabilities, among others. The loss of an agency focused on older adults and people with disabilities will likely result in needs being overlooked and worse outcomes for older adults.   

The press release that announced these changes stated that the services ACL and the other eliminated agencies provide will be absorbed into other parts of HHS, but offered no specifics on how the programs ACL oversees will continue as the agency fires 10,000 people and closes five regional offices. HHS has provided no information about how the agency will continue vital services that people across the country rely on every day.  

If access to the programs that ACL oversees is hindered, older adults and people with disabilities will lose the ability to choose where and how they want to live and fully participate in their communities. Many will be forced into institutions when they need help with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, and eating. Families who are struggling to care for loved ones will have nowhere to turn for the training, respite, and support they need. Older adults will lose access to Adult Day Programs where they can receive meals, socialize with others, and access basic preventative care. Availability of transportation services to senior centers and doctor appointments will end. When an older adult experiences financial exploitation or abuse, the free legal services they rely on will not be available.   

This latest move is part of a pattern of attacks from this Administration on the well-being and health of older adults and people with disabilities, including the administration’s support for Congress’ planned cuts to Medicaid, DOGE’s hollowing out of the Social Security Administration, the termination of funding for research into Alzheimer’s disease and the shuttering of agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that protect older adults and others from financial fraud and abuse.