On Wednesday afternoon, on Jan. 15, 2025, U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) chaired the first Senate Aging Committee hearing of the new Congress, entitled “Improving Wellness Among Seniors: Setting a Standard for the American Dream.” The hearing put the spotlight on America’s senior health, personal and community safety and the benefits of socializing and working later in life.

Witness Dawn Carr, Ph.D., director of FSU Claude Pepper Center, told the attending Senators that it’s time to reframe aging policy to promote healthy aging, noting that this “will require an expansion of our current aging-related policy goals.” These goals must emphasize supporting healthy aging throughout a person’s lifespan, she said.

“It means expanding healthy aging research, improving health care literacy and access, and incentivizing health behaviors and health interventions based on optimal health function goals,” said Dr. Carr, adding that this means “thinking about viewing older people as a critical resource that improves our society, rather than as a barrier to societal progress.”