LeadingAge’s Sloan Comments on Ruling to Vacate Nursing Home Staffing Mandate
April 8, 2025
WASHINGTON, DC — LeadingAge President/CEO Katie Smith Sloan has released a statement following the ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in favor of the association’s lawsuit to vacate the Biden Administration’s federal staffing mandate for nursing homes. LeadingAge is an association of nonprofit, mission-driven providers of aging services, including nursing homes.
“Our nonprofit, mission-driven members — many of whom have served their communities for decades — understand the true essence of caregiving. Our stance has always been clear: Imposing mandates rather than addressing funding adequacy and workforce sufficiency is wrong-headed.
The mandate ignored the critical interdependence of funding, care, staffing, and quality, and would have severely impacted our ability to provide the care and services that our nursing home members, along with providers in other care settings such as home health and hospice, deliver every day.
Quality care and staffing go hand-in-hand. Without dedicated nurse aides, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and other essential staff, care simply cannot happen. This overreaching rule was misguided, and today’s ruling demonstrates the importance of a thoughtful, sustainable path forward that supports both care quality and workforce development.
We celebrate this win with our co-plaintiffs: the American Health Care Association, the Texas Health Care Association, and several Texas providers. Today’s ruling is a victory that strengthens our resolve and propels our ongoing advocacy on behalf of our 5,500 members across the country. We are more determined than ever to continue fighting for the policies that older adults and their caregivers desperately need. We look forward to joining many of our members on Capitol Hill this week as they engage with their representatives, demanding meaningful action to better support older adults and those who serve them. This is just the beginning of our relentless effort to ensure that our nation’s long-term care infrastructure is built to last.”
LeadingAge represents more than 5,500 nonprofit aging services providers and other mission-driven organizations serving older adults that touch millions of lives every day. Alongside its members and 36 partners in 41 states, LeadingAge uses advocacy, education, applied research, and community-building to make America a better place to grow old. Its membership encompasses the entire continuum of aging services, including skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care, affordable housing, retirement communities, adult day programs, community-based services, hospice, and home-based care.