Contribution is a First Amendment fundamental right. It says that. And im quoting buckley. Or citing buckley. And then it says what level of scrutiny should we apply to that case . Buckley suggestions that its something less than strict scrutiny in the First Amendment context for contributions. Thats the instruction that i as lower court judge have in the First Amendment context. But this was an equal protection challenge. Okay . Its not just contributions, its the inequality of contributions thats the problem here. This system favors Major Party Candidates over minor party candidates. And normally when we have a fundamental right in equal protection analysis, we apply strict scrutiny. And so i was faced with a situation where you take the this little scrutiny out of the amendment context. Or do you apply the normal scrutiny under the equal protection context . And i pointed to two excellent opinions by wonderful district judges in the area. Okay. All right. I really did read it. So he
Costing us. There are 14,000 new reports each year of senior abuse which includes financial exploitation. In as many as 90 of financial cases, the senior is victimized by someone he or she knows well w. Unfortunately the real case is even worse. Many of the cases are never reported because they are not going to report financial exploitation, particularly when it involves a Family Member. As a consequence the true incidence of this abuse is not known. Identifying victims is particularly difficult because we maners take a look. In addition since victims who have had their assets stolen by Family Members to be criminally prosecuted, the stolen money is rarely recovered. This loss can undermine the health and Financial Security of older people. Combating Financial Abuse of seniors is primarily the responsibility of state and local agencies, particularly Adult Protective Services agencies. Prevention and response to cases of abuse require coordinated efforts, including state and local agenc
With the clients financial records which aps must have to substantiate substantiate. Are permed under statutory acceptance to prevent fraud and authorized investigation. A revised federal guidance clarifying the client records may be shared with aps in a timely manner would mean Financial Abuse could be stopped much earlier. I believe financial snugs would welcome this clarification. Secondly, Financial Institutions should be granted authority to temporarily freeze accounts when theres evidence the owner is being defrauded, for example, sending money to a jamaican lottery scam in time to contact affirm ps or take other measures. I hope this committee and congress will look at their own decades of research into elder abuse, some of which are on evidence here. This is a partial stack of all the many reports from the many, many hearings that go back almost five decades now, will would at own research in elder abuse to stop and prevent incidents can be reduced as they have for other victim
Kept us from achieving solutions. We must identify those who are in the best position to determine red flags early on and encourage reporting to other governmental agencies. In maine we discovered one of the most valuable rediscourse among others to develop senior life. Senior life was created to increase identification and report reporting it. Prior to this, we met with representatives from the banks and Credit Unions to identify barriers to reporting abuse and financial exploitation. What we learned is the system lacked a feed back laup so often. Training is involved of three components. Frontline staff are trained to identify red flags for elder abuse and financial exploitation and manage. Participations are and aps is better but the main office of securities has agree and determine whether to investigate the case or refer it to another federal or state agency. The benefits of this reporting or referral system are far reaching. It leads to improved safety and other customers of the
Welcome this clarification. Secondly Financial Institutions should be granted the authority to temporarily freeze accounts when theres evidence the owners being deprived of. For examples example sending money to a jamaica lottery scam to provide time to contact aps or take other measures. Some of which are on evidence here. This is a partial stack of all the many reports for the many hearings that go back almost five decades. This not only will protect assets over the longterm but to reduce demands on Medicare Medicaid and publicly funded programs. We hope this will be the first of a series of hearings and actions to address elder abuse and financial exportation we stand ready to work with you to strengthen our ability to protect our parents and grandparents. Thank you for your your testimony had no senator collins has introduced you but we would love to hear your opening comments. Thank you mr. Chairman. Im a prosecutor with the King County Prosecutors Office in seattle washington. 14