Arlen Specter: “I support the amendment by Senator D'Amato to add funding for the support services for seniors to the additional…”

“I support the amendment by Senator D'Amato to add funding for the support services for seniors to the additional funding. They perform a very vital service as places for seniors to gather and to have their meals and to carry out the purposes of the legislation to improve the quality of life in the golden years; and especially in the context where senior benefits have come under such attack, so much concern that I heard, for example, in my travels through Pennsylvania, where there is concern about the solidity of Social Security and what is happening with Medicare. I believe it is a wise course to make an allocation from administrative costs across the board, to add the funding in the D'Amato amendment. We have funded, last year, some $300,556,000. The administration made a request to cut that funding to $291,375,000. Our Senate markup, agreed to by Senator Harkin and myself in our committee and in the full committee, was $305,556,000. So, instead of dropping the amount by more than $9 million as the administration had requested, we put an additional $5 million in. On reflection, hearing the arguments of the Senator from New York, Senator D'Amato, I think that the addition of this $40 million is well placed, so I lend my voice in support of the pending amendment.”