Reps. Chu, Jayapal, and Colleagues Demand Answers on Funding Delay for Low-Income Senior Employment Program
WASHINGTON, DC – Reps. Judy Chu (CA-28) and Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) led 40 of their colleagues in a letter to the Trump Administration demanding the immediate release of federal funding for a vital senior jobs training and community service program. The current delay has left thousands of low-income older Americans without pay and deprived communities of needed services.
In their letter to Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, the Members urged the immediate release of funding for national grantees of the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP). Through SCSEP, low-income seniors receive jobs training, earn a paycheck, and in return provide essential services to their communities. In Program Year (PY) 2022, over 42,000 seniors provided over 20.4 million hours of community service.
The letter emphasizes that SCSEP grantees rely on the DOL’s timely release of the Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL), which provides annual allotments for grantees. Although the PY2025 TEGL for state and territorial grantees was published on July 1, 2025—the start of the Program Year—the DOL has still not published a TEGL for national grantees and has not provided a timeline for its publication.
This delay has impacted national grantees operating in California, Washington, Indiana, North Carolina, and Oklahoma, among others.
“We have already begun to see the devastating impacts of this delay,” wrote the Members. “For example, the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and SCSEP national grantee, based in Washington, which serves limited-English proficient older adults from various ethnic groups, has already furloughed 800 low-income seniors due to this funding uncertainty.”
“Because there is no clear timeline for when furloughs will end, this uncertainty is causing deep distress among program participants, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck and rely on the income they earn through SCSEP to make ends meet. The funding delay is also harming entire communities, as nonprofits and other local businesses are losing the critical support of SCSEP-supported trainees and volunteers due to furloughs,” the Members continued.
The letter concludes by urging DOL and OMB to expend PY25 SCSEP funds to national grantees immediately and make them retroactive to July 1, 2025.
This letter is endorsed by: the National Asian Pacific American Center for Aging, Easterseals, Goodwill Industries International, National Caucus & Center on Black Aging (NCBA), Life Skills of America, Inc., The WorkPlace, Easterseals-Goodwill Northern Rocky Mountain Inc., Diverse Elders Coalition, National Urban League, National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA), National Council on Aging (NCOA), Institute for Indian Development, Inc., and the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF).
Click here to access the full letter.
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