Item 11. Letter from James L. Young, Assistant Secretary, Depart- Item 12. Letter and enclosures from James L. Young, Assistant Item 14. Letter from Jeanna D. Tully, Director, Office of Revenue Item 15. Letter from Odell W. Vaughn, Deputy Administrator, Appendix 3. Letters from individuals and organizations: Item 1. Letter and enclosure from Joyce Leanse, director, National Item 2. Letter and enclosure from Judith Assmus Riggs, director, Item 3. Letter from Harvey C. Davis, acting director, Matura Action Item 4. Letter and enclosures from David L. Adams, human aging Appendix 4. Statements submitted by the hearing audience: Burger, Opal, Winterset, Iowa... Drorbaugh, Majorie, Creston, Iowa... Fee, Vernon R., St. Charles, Iowa.. Young, Marion W., Des Moines, Iowa- THE NATION'S RURAL ELDERLY MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 1976 U.S. SENATE, SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING. Winterset, Iowa. The committee met at 9:45 a.m., pursuant to notice, in the Madison County Multipurpose Center, 114 North Second Street, Winterset, Iowa, Hon. Dick Clark, presiding. Present: Senator Clark and Representative Thomas R. Harkin. Also present: William E. Oriol, staff director; Deborah K. Kilmer, professional staff member; David Harf, legislative assistant to Senator Clark; John Guy Miller, minority staff director; and Alison Case, assistant clerk. OPENING STATEMENT BY SENATOR DICK CLARK, PRESIDING Senator CLARK. The meeting will now come to order. Let me welcome all of you here this morning; I am particularly pleased that you came by. This is, of course, a hearing of the Senate Committee on Aging. I want to start off by particularly thanking the Hillbilly Band. You were great. [Applause.] We are very pleased that you came. I also want to thank the people who made the arrangements for the facilities of the center for us to use. We have a number of witnessesactually, panels of witnesses-today. We were scheduled to start at 9:30, but we are a little bit past that, so I think we will go right ahead. I want to make a brief opening statement and then we are going to hear from Mr. George Orr, executive director of the Iowa Commission on Aging. Today the Senate Committee on Aging is represented here in Winterset at the start of a major inquiry into the problems and way of life of the Nation's rural elderly. In other words, we are emphasizing in these hearings, not just problems of the elderly, but, more specifically, problems of older people who live in small towns and in rural areas generally. I asked that we meet in this community in order to set a tone of grassroots participation in all or most of the hearings that follow. Our subject-or group of subjects-is best seen up close. We cannot hope to know what's happening in rural America if we simply stav in Washington, D.C., and that is why these hearings are being held here. I have been a member of the Senate committee since January 1975. Last year, when the Older Americans Act was up for extension. I suggested to our committee chairman, Senator Frank Church of Idaho, that the committee hold a hearing to determine whether older Americans in rural areas were receiving their fair share of attention and help under that act. He agreed, and I chaired that hearing. I was very glad to have the opportunity to do so. The witnesses made a great case for flexibility and responsiveness in Federal requirements. As a result of the hearings, I attempted to advance legislation to achieve those purposes. We didn't achieve all that we wanted to, I must say, but I will certainly be offering legislation again in the next session as well. FEDERAL PROGRAMS FOR RURAL ELDERLY Federal policy on the rural elderly is not expressed solely through the Older Americans Act that you are familiar with. There are, of course, many other programs that affect older people. There are programs like the medicare program. It is supposed to provide equitable benefits to all older Americans throughout the Nation, but if, as in many parts of Iowa and other States, the older persons can't get to a doctor or if they have no doctor to get to, then one wonders how effective such programs are. There are housing programs that the Federal Government sponsors through the Department of Housing and Urban Development and through the Farmers Home Administration, but again, if bureaucratic insistence upon inflexible standards stay blind to rural needs, then Congress certainly ought to act. Then there is, also, the U.S. Department of Transportation which has funded literally hundreds of small transportation bus systems intended to serve the elderly and the handicapped. But again, if redtape and fragmentation are getting in the way of real development of transportation systems which can become a working part of the community in which they serve, it is very hard for them to achieve that goal. I could give other examples of Federal policies and practices which I think disturb many of us in the way they are sometimes carried out. I particularly will invite testimony on this at this hearing and other hearings. I will do so because I believe that we, as a Nation, have failed to do what we said we were going to do when we held the White House Conference on Aging in 1971. We said that we were going to develop a national policy on aging. Certainly we have made progress since then, there is no doubt about that, and I think we are proud of the progress that has been made with centers of this kind and many of the programs that you are familiar with. But in terms of arriving at a set of national objectives and working toward them, we frankly have a very, very long way to go yet. Now part of the problem has been within the executive branch. In my opinion. President Ford and his predecessors have beeen somewhat reluctant-in some cases, rather negative-when it comes to action on aging. I know that the President, in fact, went on record for 2 years in a row as favoring the so-called medicare reform plan which would actually cost medicare participants more and give them somewhat less. That measure was successfully opposed. Another part of the problem has been the rather strange and strained economic state of the Nation-obviously inflation, along with unemployment. I think in many cases we have not faced up to those problems either. In any case, we know that there are a number of programs that are working effectively in this part of the State and we are particularly anxious to hear about those. So the purpose of these hearings, simply put, is to listen to people who are involved in them. EXAMINATION OF PROGRAMS Most of our witnesses-in fact, all but a very few-are people who are over 60 or over 65, and we simply want to hear from themwhether they think these programs are working. If so, in what way they are working. We also want to hear about their weaknesses. In other words, what are we doing right, what are we doing wrong, and what should we be doing better? That is really what it is all about in one sentence. With that we will start. I did want to introduce three or four people so if you have a need to contact them or need particular information, and so forth, you will know who they are. On my immediate right here is Bill Oriol, the staff director for the Senate Committee on Aging: John Guy Miller, at the far end, is the minority staff director; Debbie Kilmer, in the middle, is a professional staff member of the Committee on Aging; Alison Case, assistant clerk of the committee; and Annabelle Short, who is the court reporter. Now we will be keeping an exact record that will be published. Those of you who wish to have copies, please leave your name with us before we leave, or drop a letter to me, Senator Dick Clark, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., and we will be happy to send those to you. Well, I would like to start. We are going to be holding six hearingsfour of them in Iowa, one in Nebraska, and one in South Dakota-in the next 3 days. We are going to be hearing first from George Orr, the executive director of the Iowa Commission on Aging, who has a long history of public service to the State of Iowa. George, we are very pleased to have you come down to visit with us. Then we are going to be having a panel of people from various areas nearby: Mr. Goeldner, Mrs. Hazel Stroeber, Mr. Willis Sprunger, and Mrs. Lucille Anderson. Following that, we are going to be hearing from Woodie Morris, and then another panel with Mr. Pals, Mrs. Forsyth, and Jack Fickel. That will take us up to about 12 noon, I think. We also have a form in case there are others here who do not have an opportunity to speak and who would like to be included in the record. It simply says: Dear Senator Clark: If there had been time for everyone to speak at the hearing in Winterset, Iowa, on August 16, 1976, concerning the Nation's rural elderly, I would have said the following. So if you have testimony you would like to submit or write out, and so forth, we would be very happy to include that in the official record of the hearing as well.1 So. George you may proceed in any way you think appropriate. 1 See appendix 4, p. 90. STATEMENT OF GEORGE W. ORR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, IOWA COMMISSION ON AGING, DES MOINES, IOWA Mr. ORR. Thank you, Senator. Senator Clark, members of the committee, and the others who have come here to work on these hearings, ladies and gentlemen, I am George Orr. I am a new director to the program but not new to Iowa, since I was born and raised in this State. I have a few things I would like to highlight with the Senator's and your indulgence. You know, it seems to me that not having had direct experience with this, other than my natural life processes which somewhat qualify me for my job, we are long overdue to address the problems that I think will confront all of us at one time or another. We are long overdue and, as I think about it, I guess I really had not given it a whole lot of thought. Maybe you did not either until it is right there, and then we try to figure out the best way that we can help. I think that many people have been put out into retirement-and I don't say this as a dig at our distinguished U.S. Senator-because of mandatory retirement. As I look around and I see us working with our program to employ older Iowans-reemploy, I should say, because they want to work because they are productive everything is going for them and they can look back on a lifetime of experience to bring those resources together. We seem to satisfy many of the things that we are trying to do in this program which is to cause people to be independent longer, maybe forever to stay in their homes and to be happier in that respect. "I STILL HAD A LOT IN ME" I talked to so many Iowans who said, "Well, gee whiz, I still had a lot in me," and you can tell by talking with a person because they are out working at something else now that they do have a lot to offer. So I am wondering-this is my own view, Senator-whether maybe that could be a basic problem. If you want to look at just what 5 years would mean in terms of continued employment for those in high stress, those who are capable physically, mentally, and in all other respects, what a difference this would make. Well, that is something that seems to me that maybe we ought to start looking at. I think if I read the experts around the country, those who write gerontology, that this is the coming thing to consider using these valuable human resources a longer period of time. I am particularly happy to be here with you because this is, I think, following Senator Clark's lead, what we really need. This is where the U.S. Congress can become aware. Right here is where the problems are that confront Iowans. I think it is wonderful that this round of hearings is going to reach so many Iowans and I am just pleased as punch that we have got a full room here today. The Senator was kind enough to write me a letter here a few weeks ago and he has asked for a more detailed report on some of the things that we are doing that are of concern to his special committee. For in |