II 109th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 3533 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES June 16, 2006 Mr. Coleman introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs A BILL To require the Department of Homeland Security to carry out certain activities with respect to delivering training in age-appropriate basic life supporting first aid skills to school children, including funding of a program to provide this education to the public.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Community Response System Initiative Act of 2006 or the CRSI Act.

2.

Findings

Congress finds the following: (1)Injury remains 1 of the top killers in America, effecting over 2,400,000 children who needlessly die each year. Fifty percent of these lives could have been saved if prompt aid were administered prior to the arrival of emergency medical services. (2)Part of any comprehensive emergency preparedness plan must include educating the public on how to prepare for and react in an emergency situation. (3)The need for citizen-based emergency preparedness training at the community level has never been greater. The Citizen Corps and mayors from across the country agree that educating children in age-appropriate life supporting first aid, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the Heimlich maneuver, and blood-borne and biohazardous precautions, is an important component of meeting this need. On June 5, 2006, the United States Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution urging mayors to form a Community Response System Initiative Committee to address this issue. (4)Studies have shown that providing children with life supporting first aid skills training increases their willingness to assist others in a medical emergency by 57 percent. (5)Eighty percent of schools surveyed stated that cardiopulmonary resuscitation training is best provided in a school setting. (6)In 2001, 101,537 Americans died of unintentional injury deaths. (7)In 2003, 479,305 Americans died due to heart attacks, which was 1 of every 5 deaths in the United States overall. (8)In the United States, 1,200,000 new and recurrent coronary attacks occur each year. (9)The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has concluded that if members of the public learned life supporting first aid, there would be significant potential for reducing the more than 22,000 preventable highway deaths that occur in the United States each year.

3.

Basic life supporting first aid education for children

(a)

Definitions

In this section— (1)the term age-appropriate means information, education, and skills suitable for the individual to understand and perform; (2)the term appropriate municipal entity means an agency of a unit of local government that is an emergency response provider or provides other similar medical services or training, including a fire department, law enforcement agency, hospital, school nurse, or emergency medical services provider; (3)the term children means individuals under the age of 18 years enrolled in grades kindergarten through 12; (4)the term emergency medical professional means an individual certified by a State in emergency medical services; (5)the terms emergency response provider and local government have the same meaning as in section 2 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101); (6)the term life supporting first aid includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the use of an automatic external defibrillator, the Heimlich maneuver, blood-borne and biohazardous precautions, bleed control, and other life-sustaining procedures in the event of an emergency; and (7)the term selected organization means the organization contracting with the Secretary of Homeland Security under subsection (b). (b)

Authority

The Secretary of Homeland Security, acting through the Chief Medical Officer, shall enter into an agreement with an organization, under which such organization shall provide funds to appropriate municipal entities to provide education and training in life supporting first aid to children, including scene safety procedures. (c)

Eligibility

The selected organization shall— (1)have experience in, and the sole mission of, training individuals (especially children) to be active bystanders, equipped with life supporting first aid skills to assist during emergencies; (2)recognize that life supporting first aid techniques are essential to maintaining life before the arrival of emergency response providers; (3)use only emergency medical professionals as instructors to teach life supporting first aid techniques to children and adults; (4)work with Federal, State, and local government entities and the private sector to highlight the importance of public emergency preparedness and effective emergency response; (5)have developed and implemented, before the date of entering a contract under subsection (b), a testing component for evaluation, accountability, and data collection; and (6)be an affiliate of the Citizens Corps of the Department of Homeland Security. (d)

Use of funds

(1)

In general

Funds provided under this section by the selected organization to an appropriate municipal entity shall be used— (A)to create age-appropriate educational materials regarding life supporting first aid to be distributed to children; (B)to conduct training and clinical instruction of children in life supporting first aid; and (C)for data collection and statistical analysis. (2)

Priority

In providing funds to appropriate municipal entities under this section, the selected organization shall give priority to emergency medical services, fire departments, law enforcement agencies, hospitals, and school nurses.

4.

Authorization of appropriations

There are authorized to be appropriated $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2007 through 2010 to carry out this Act .