Pam Augstin comes to the Activity and Recreational Center [ARC] in Normal every Wednesday for lunch. ARC is a peace meal congregate site. Augstin not only comes for a weekly salad, she comes for the camaraderie.
"We started sitting in at a table that had some regular people there and so we just all kind of chit chat and became friends," Augstin said. "And it's been an enjoyable experience for me because I pretty much was sitting at home and not doing anything."
Jewel Johnson is another regular at ARC. She was concerned her meals could one day be go away.
"The meals would be cut, which would impact my income," Johnson said. "We're all on fixed income, and congregate meals help me budget my grocery bill and and it's economical."
Those meals are under threat as Congress is looking to make significant changes to various federal safety-net programs. It's through the reconciliation bill that advocates for older Americans are fighting.
One of those advocates is Susan Real, CEO of the Eastern Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging that represents McLean County and other Central Illinois counties. Her agency led a day of action at ARC in response to the Trump administration's attempts to cut programs under the Older Americans Act, which Congress passed 60 years ago.
One of the key operations the act created was the Administration for Community Living [ACL]. It is responsible for providing services to older Americans so they can live independently.
Two months ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismantled the ACL and consolidated its services into other departments. Services such as Meals on Wheels and meals served at community sites would be separated between departments — the Administration for Family and Children and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Some lawmakers saw this as a reorganization of programs they consider redundant or wasteful. Advocates like Real warned the changes could lead to service delays that will leave older Illinoisans in a dire situation.
"It's looking at an efficient unit within HHS and this action of breaking it up or dismantling it is turning it into an inefficient unit," Real said.
In east-central Illinois, a delay in services could affect up to 24,000 older adults who rely on the meals for their survival, Real said.
"Many of them report that they they feel healthier by receiving the meals," she said. "And that some of them, many of them, report that it's the most nutritious meal that they actually received during the day and and many of them reported that's where they get their their full nutrition, meaning they get more out of the delivered meal."
Real also fears the reconciliation bill now in Congress will slash funding for these types of services, forcing nonprofits across the country to reduce services or shut down.
The Eastern Central Illinois Aging Agency would struggle to continue and would have to use what Real calls contingency planning. The agency, she said, would have to cut support for at-home caretakers and utility assistance. Even with these cuts, Real said the agency could still close.
Real has lobbied Illinois' congressional delegation about the importance of funding to support older Americans, and was discouraged to see Republicans push through major cuts to safety-net programs, including Medicaid and SNAP, formerly food stamps.
Central Illinois Republican House member Darin LaHood said he felt comfortable with voting yes on the reconciliation bill since Medicaid was cut by $700 billion rather than the originally proposed $880 billion.
“If you listen to what people thought was going to happen to Medicaid, that everyone was going to be cut off Medicaid, there would be real damage to the program, that didn’t happen,” LaHood said.
He said a new work requirement for Medicaid would reduce the government price tag. Medicaid is expected to be a key area of disagreement as Congress negotiates the reconciliation bill in the Senate.
But Jewel Johnson offered a message for Congress.
"Any negative cutting of funds to these programs will be detrimental to older Americans," she said. "And the measure of a country is how you treat your poor, your seniors [and] those who are less fortunate."
