[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 686 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.686

                       One Hundred Eighth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE FIRST SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
           the seventh day of January, two thousand and three


                                 An Act


 
To provide assistance for poison prevention and to stabilize the funding 
                   of regional poison control centers.

    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 ``Poison Control Center Enhancement 
and Awareness Act Amendments of 2003''.

 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
        (1) Poison control centers are our Nation's primary defense 
    against injury and deaths from poisoning. Twenty-four hours a day, 
    the general public as well as health care practitioners contact 
    their local poison centers for help in diagnosing and treating 
    victims of poisoning and other toxic exposures.
        (2) Poisoning is the third most common form of unintentional 
    death in the United States. In any given year, there will be 
    between 2,000,000 and 4,000,000 poison exposures. More than 50 
    percent of these exposures will involve children under the age of 6 
    who are exposed to toxic substances in their home. Poisoning 
    accounts for 285,000 hospitalizations, 1,200,000 days of acute 
    hospital care, and 13,000 fatalities annually.
        (3) Stabilizing the funding structure and increasing 
    accessibility to poison control centers will promote the 
    utilization of poison control centers, and reduce the inappropriate 
    use of emergency medical services and other more costly health care 
    services.
        (4) The tragic events of September 11, 2001, and the anthrax 
    cases of October 2001, have dramatically changed our Nation. During 
    this time period, poison centers in many areas of the country were 
    answering thousands of additional calls from concerned residents. 
    Many poison centers were relied upon as a source for accurate 
    medical information about the disease and the complications 
    resulting from prophylactic antibiotic therapy.
        (5) The 2001 Presidential Task Force on Citizen Preparedness in 
    the War on Terrorism recommended that the Poison Control Centers be 
    used as a source of public information and public education 
    regarding potential biological, chemical, and nuclear domestic 
    terrorism.
        (6) The increased demand placed upon poison centers to provide 
    emergency information in the event of a terrorist event involving a 
    biological, chemical, or nuclear toxin will dramatically increase 
    call volume.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENT TO PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT.

    Title XII of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300d et seq.) 
is amended by adding at the end the following:

                        ``Part G--Poison Control

``SEC. 1271. MAINTENANCE OF A NATIONAL TOLL-FREE NUMBER.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall provide coordination and 
assistance to regional poison control centers for the establishment of 
a nationwide toll-free phone number to be used to access such centers.
    ``(b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be 
construed as prohibiting the establishment or continued operation of 
any privately funded nationwide toll-free phone number used to provide 
advice and other assistance for poisonings or accidental exposures.
    ``(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $2,000,000 for each of the 
fiscal years 2000 through 2009. Funds appropriated under this 
subsection shall not be used to fund any toll-free phone number 
described in subsection (b).
``SEC. 1272. NATIONWIDE MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE POISON CONTROL CENTER 
UTILIZATION.
    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall establish a national media 
campaign to educate the public and health care providers about poison 
prevention and the availability of poison control resources in local 
communities and to conduct advertising campaigns concerning the 
nationwide toll-free number established under section 1271.
    ``(b) Contract With Entity.--The Secretary may carry out subsection 
(a) by entering into contracts with one or more nationally recognized 
media firms for the development and distribution of monthly television, 
radio, and newspaper public service announcements.
    ``(c) Evaluation.--The Secretary shall--
        ``(1) establish baseline measures and benchmarks to 
    quantitatively evaluate the impact of the nationwide media campaign 
    established under this section; and
        ``(2) prepare and submit to the appropriate congressional 
    committees an evaluation of the nationwide media campaign on an 
    annual basis.
    ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $600,000 for each of fiscal 
years 2000 through 2005 and such sums as may be necessary for each of 
fiscal years 2006 through 2009.
``SEC. 1273. MAINTENANCE OF THE POISON CONTROL CENTER GRANT PROGRAM.
    ``(a) Regional Poison Control Centers.--The Secretary shall award 
grants to certified regional poison control centers for the purposes of 
achieving the financial stability of such centers, and for preventing 
and providing treatment recommendations for poisonings.
    ``(b) Other Improvements.--The Secretary shall also use amounts 
received under this section to--
        ``(1) develop standardized poison prevention and poison control 
    promotion programs;
        ``(2) develop standard patient management guidelines for 
    commonly encountered toxic exposures;
        ``(3) improve and expand the poison control data collection 
    systems, including, at the Secretary's discretion, by assisting the 
    poison control centers to improve data collection activities;
        ``(4) improve national toxic exposure surveillance by enhancing 
    activities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 
    the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry;
        ``(5) expand the toxicologic expertise within poison control 
    centers; and
        ``(6) improve the capacity of poison control centers to answer 
    high volumes of calls during times of national crisis.
    ``(c) Certification.--Except as provided in subsection (d), the 
Secretary may make a grant to a center under subsection (a) only if--
        ``(1) the center has been certified by a professional 
    organization in the field of poison control, and the Secretary has 
    approved the organization as having in effect standards for 
    certification that reasonably provide for the protection of the 
    public health with respect to poisoning; or
        ``(2) the center has been certified by a State government, and 
    the Secretary has approved the State government as having in effect 
    standards for certification that reasonably provide for the 
    protection of the public health with respect to poisoning.
    ``(d) Waiver of Certification Requirements.--
        ``(1) In general.--The Secretary may grant a waiver of the 
    certification requirement of subsection (c) with respect to a 
    noncertified poison control center or a newly established center 
    that applies for a grant under this section if such center can 
    reasonably demonstrate that the center will obtain such a 
    certification within a reasonable period of time as determined 
    appropriate by the Secretary.
        ``(2) Renewal.--The Secretary may renew a waiver under 
    paragraph (1).
        ``(3) Limitation.--In no instance may the sum of the number of 
    years for a waiver under paragraph (1) and a renewal under 
    paragraph (2) exceed 5 years. The preceding sentence shall take 
    effect as if enacted on February 25, 2000.
    ``(e) Supplement Not Supplant.--Amounts made available to a poison 
control center under this section shall be used to supplement and not 
supplant other Federal, State, or local funds provided for such center.
    ``(f) Maintenance of Effort.--A poison control center, in utilizing 
the proceeds of a grant under this section, shall maintain the 
expenditures of the center for activities of the center at a level that 
is not less than the level of such expenditures maintained by the 
center for the fiscal year preceding the fiscal year for which the 
grant is received.
    ``(g) Matching Requirement.--The Secretary may impose a matching 
requirement with respect to amounts provided under a grant under this 
section if the Secretary determines appropriate.
    ``(h) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $25,000,000 for each of the 
fiscal years 2000 through 2004 and $27,500,000 for each of fiscal years 
2005 through 2009.

``SEC. 1274. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

    ``Nothing in this part may be construed to ease any restriction in 
Federal law applicable to the amount or percentage of funds 
appropriated to carry out this part that may be used to prepare or 
submit a report.''.

SEC. 4. CONFORMING AMENDMENT.

    The Poison Control Center Enhancement and Awareness Act (42 U.S.C. 
14801 et seq.) is hereby repealed.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.