Dear Friends:

AJFCA recently joined a national effort, led by AARP, to urge members of the House of Representatives to pass the bipartisan Recognize, Assist, Include, Support, and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregivers Act (H.R.3099). This bill unanimously passed the Senate last December and now awaits review by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. With only a few weeks left in the legislative calendar, the House must pass this legislation as soon as possible. 

As illuminated in a letter sent by the coalition to House Committee leadership, the U.S. is home to approximately 40 million family caregivers who, in 2013, provided unpaid care valued at about $470 billion. Looking after older adults or adults/children with functional limitations or disabilities, family caregivers face enormous physical, mental, and financial challenges. 

The RAISE Family Caregivers Act would implement the federal Commission on Long-Term Care's bipartisan recommendation that Congress require the development of a national strategy to support family caregivers. Moreover, the bill would create an advisory body comprised of members of the private and public sectors to advise and make recommendations on a national caregiving strategy. This bill would help address the unique needs of family caregivers, enabling them to provide the critical care that their loved ones depend on.

If your agency serves a large number of family caregivers, we hope you would consider reaching out to Chairman Kline's primary staffer on this issue,  Jenny Prescott, and/or his committee Staff Director Juliane Sullivan to voice your support for the RAISE Family Caregivers Act, explain why family caregivers are an important issue to your agency, and urge the committee to pass the legislation and bring it to the floor of the House for a final vote. You can reach these staffers by email or by phone at 202-225-7101,

Furthermore, if your agency serves a smaller number of caregivers but would like to help advocate for the RAISE Family Caregivers Act, we encourage you to click here to see if your member(s) are currently a cosponsor of the legislation. If they are not, please consider calling your member and asking that they become a cosponsor of H.R.3099 and support the legislation when it comes for a vote. Contact information for each member can be found here.  For further information, please contact Liz Leibowitz , Director of Government Affairs, either by email or by phone at 202-736-5881.