The U.S. House has passed a bill that could make it easier for people who care for disabled relatives to get a break from time to time.

The Lifespan Respite Care Act authorizes the federal government to award grants to state or private agencies that will coordinate services for these family caregivers. The grants will be used to recruit and train workers to take care of people who can’t be left alone; the workers will visit homes for a few hours several times a week in order to give relatives a chance to leave the house.

Similar legislation also passed the Senate.

The bill authorizes the grants in increasing amounts each year for five years, starting with $30 million in 2008. But it does not appropriate the money, so it can’t take effect unless the next Congress funds it.

Still, U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin yesterday said the bill’s passage was cause for celebration. Langevin said he has been trying to get it passed since 2002. This year Langevin, who had been the bill’s chief sponsor in previous years, allowed Republican Rep. Mike Ferguson of New Jersey to reintroduce the legislation, thinking that Republican sponsorship would improve its chances of passing.

“That did the trick,” Langevin said in a phone interview.

Langevin is sensitive to the need for respite care because his 11-year-old nephew suffers from autism and can’t be left alone. Langevin’s brother and sister-in-law have been getting respite care through an autism agency.

But someone with another illness may not be able get help, Langevin said.

“Right now there are respite care programs in some capacity or other, but it’s a hodgepodge,” Langevin said. “What this program does, it’s going to make respite care available across the spectrum of disabilities or chronic conditions and across the spectrum of income levels.”

The bill also creates a National Resource Center on Lifespan Respite Care that will coordinate efforts nationwide.