[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4821 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4821

To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants 
   to the States with respect to dental health programs for children.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 11, 2000

 Mrs. Capps (for herself, Mr. Norwood, Ms. Carson, Mr. Romero-Barcelo, 
 Mr. Frost, Mr. Inslee, Mr. Payne, Mr. Towns, Mr. McNulty, Mr. Barrett 
   of Wisconsin, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Markey, Mr. Upton, Mr. Baird, Ms. 
 Danner, Ms. Kilpatrick, Mrs. Meek of Florida, Ms. Lee, Mr. Baldacci, 
Mr. Gilchrest, Mr. Wynn, Ms. Roybal-Allard, Ms. Millender-McDonald, Mr. 
  Gonzalez, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Hastings of Florida, Mrs. Maloney of New 
 York, Mrs. Thurman, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mrs. Clayton, Mr. Pastor, 
and Mr. Hoyer) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                         Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants 
   to the States with respect to dental health programs for children.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Children's Dental Health 
Preservation Act of 2000''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Dental disease in very young children is a significant 
        public health problem affecting nearly one in five children.
            (2) Children from low income families are much more likely 
        to experience dental and oral disease.
            (3) Children from rural areas are much more likely to 
        experience difficulties in obtaining adequate access to oral 
        health care.
            (4) Most oral and dental diseases of pre-school children 
        could be prevented or more effectively managed with an 
        increased focus on their oral health.
            (5) Significant numbers of pre-school children have 
        inadequate oral health prevention available to them or they are 
        unable to access existing programs.
            (6) Public health prevention methods and oral health 
        promotion programs have been successful in some States, but 
        there are few if any successful comprehensive national oral 
        health preventive and/or health programs.
            (7) Use of screening, triage, health promotion, targeted 
        disease prevention and disease management can limit or prevent 
        most common oral and dental disease.
            (8) Pre-school children who experience early dental disease 
        are susceptible to painful symptoms, and are at a much higher 
        risk for recurring dental diseases throughout life.

SEC. 3. DENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN.

    The Secretary of Health and Human Services (referred to in this 
section as the ``Secretary''), acting through the Administrator of the 
Health Resources and Services Administration, shall make grants to 
States for the purpose of--
            (1) identifying children eligible for Federal programs at 
        risk of developing dental caries and for provision of 
        preventative and therapeutic services in accordance with State 
        practice acts to reduce oral disease occurrence; and
            (2) training of health care professionals to educate 
        parents on oral disease prevention.
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