Bush has proposed plan that would reduce federal funding by $50 million
By Peter Sachs / The Bulletin
WASHINGTON - When Connie Brown re-entered the work force two years ago at age 55, she was one of 20 older job-seekers in Central Oregon who had a leg up in an often-stressful process.
Many employers might have overlooked her resume because of her age. But she found a part-time job at the Bend Senior Center almost immediately after enrolling in a federally funded program. She got up to speed on computer software and quickly became acquainted with many of the patrons at the center.
But potential changes to the program that paved her way into a job, the Senior Community Service Employment Program, could jeopardize future placements of older workers. As Congress begins work on updating the Older Americans Act, which includes the senior work program, the Bush administration has proposed lopping off nearly $50 million from the program's $436 million annual budget by 2007.
To adjust for the smaller budget, the U.S. Department of Labor last week proposed raising the minimum age for seniors to enroll from 55 to 65 as part of its plan to streamline the program. That change would make half of the program's current participants ineligible, several experts said.
Federal money is currently available for 900 seniors in Oregon, 20 of them in Central Oregon.
"On a number of instances, our organization has raised significant concerns on what the Department of Labor is proposing," said Jerry Cohen, AARP's Oregon state director.
Repeated calls for comment to the White House's budget office and to the Department of Labor were not returned.
The federal program gives grants to nonprofit agencies across the nation to provide employment counseling, training and placement services for low-income older Americans. The job that seniors receive are meant to help them re-enter the work force, but local organizations often cap the amount of time seniors can spend in a given job at 18 months.
Seniors work part time, are paid minimum wage and have their earnings subsidized by federal grants.
Brown was laid off after just a few months when a new agency in Bend took charge of the federal program and declared that she had worked long enough at the senior center. "It was a huge shock," she said, "because I loved my job at the senior center."
Even though Brown's stint at the senior center was shorter than she wanted, the skills she picked up helped her get another job on her own - doing office work for a Bend company that monitors individuals on probation.
"The most important thing to me is that feeling of being productive and contributing to society," Brown said. Changing the minimum age would be "a big mistake," she said.
Her career had taken her as high as vice president of a real estate investment company, but she said a disability forced her to scale back her work. Having a part-time job is vital for her, she said, since Medicare doesn't cover all of her medical expenses.
Many agree that the federal program for seniors that benefited Brown is important because older workers have different needs than the rest of the population. They have just as much desire to work as younger employees, but have more difficulty getting jobs, especially if they lack computer skills, experts told a Senate committee last week.
But changing the minimum age "would radically redirect the focus of the program," Sigurd Nilsen, a Government Accountability Office director, said at the hearing of the Special Committee on Aging, which is led by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. If the age were changed, people younger than 65 would have to go through other programs for job placement, but probably would not get the personal attention that they can get through the employment program for seniors, he said.
Agencies that make use of senior workers also expressed concern with changing the rules.
Nancy Coyote, a regional manager for the National Park Service in Portland who oversees the employment program for seniors, said it would make it more difficult to find eligible people.
The Deschutes and Ochoco national forests together employ up to 13 seniors at a time. Statewide, the Park Service has spots for 99 seniors. Older workers placed in those jobs handle tasks ranging from clerical work to maintaining campgrounds and leading interpretive snowshoeing tours on Mt. Bachelor.
AARP's Cohen said increasing the enrollment age would harm both seniors who want to work and organizations like the Forest Service that rely on them.
"We certainly are hearing more and more angst and requests for job placement (and) job support ... for folks in their 50s," Cohen said.
With such demand, he said, it does not make such sense to raise the minimum age, especially with more people entering that age bracket.
For seniors like Brown, the federal program is an essential way for them to stay active and engaged, and earn money.
"It's hugely important," Brown said. "In every community, there are those older people that need to find employment."