Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding and his important leadership on this bill and on the committee. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2035, the Lifespan Respite Care Reauthorization Act of 2019, legislation that I introduced with my good friend and colleague from Washington State, Mrs. Rodgers. In 2002, I authored the Lifespan Respite Care Act to create a network of services and supports for family caregivers across the Nation. In the years since the bill was signed into law in 2006, the Lifespan Respite Care program has provided grants to 37 States and the District of Columbia to streamline the delivery of planned and emergency respite services, provide access to direct care services, and address the direct service worker shortage by training respite providers. I am thrilled to be here today to continue building on Lifespan Respite Care's successes and reauthorize the program. Mr. Speaker, family caregivers are a critical part of the long-term services and supports system in the United States. Approximately 43 million family caregivers provide hundreds of billions of dollars--and yes, that is billions with a B--in uncompensated care each year. In fact, in 2013, the last time that statistics were updated, uncompensated family care totaled--if you had to put a dollar figure to it--approximately $470 billion. That is more than Medicaid spending for that year.…”