WOOD TV NBC 8 Grand Rapids: Peters bill would support age-friendly communities

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, and a Republican senator have introduced legislation that would update the Older Americans Act.

The idea of Senate Bill 1536 is to make aging in America more convenient and comfortable by making services easier to access.

"What this legislation does is make sure that we have age-friendly communities," Peters told 24 Hour News 8 Thursday. "These are communities that are designed so that folks can age in place (and) have services, whether it's transportation, it's health care, it's recreation. And it's really surprising that we don't really look at this in a very coordinated fashion and it's certainly time to do that."

Peters and Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas introduced the bill last week with the support of a number of national groups representing seniors. It  has been referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions