[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 16, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 16, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATION

  (Mrs. ROUKEMA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.]
  Mrs. ROUKEMA. Mr. Speaker, today we are going to debate the balanced-
budget amendment, and discuss how we go about getting our fiscal house 
in order by the year 2001.
  Let us not go back to the future yet--let us deal today with a 
problem in the here and now--the appalling state of our Nation's child 
immunization rate. This is not some abstract fiscal concept--this is 
literally a matter of life and death we are playing with here.
  This morning, the Centers for Disease Control released a devastating 
report showing yet again that our immunization rate among young 
children is declining--markedly in our urban and inner-city areas.
  Once more, we see that either through ignorance or apathy, too many 
parents are failing to get their children the immunizations they need 
in the first two years of life.
  CDC stressed the life-saving importance of these vaccines, and 
stressed what I have been saying all along: When it comes time for 
children to start elementary school, we require immunization, and 
parents find a way of getting their children their shots. But it is 
even more important that these children get the necessary vaccines 
before they start school--in the first two years of life.
  I call explicitly on the Children's Defense Fund, the Department of 
Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service and the American 
Academy of Pediatricians to endorse and push for passage of my 
legislation, the Child Immunization Incentive Act.
  My bill would require parents on AFDC, to certify that their child is 
immunized as a condition of receiving their welfare check! Like we do 
with elementary school, we must tell parents that if these children 
aren't immunized, there's no welfare check!
  It is a national disgrace, that in this country, with the best 
medical care on the planet, that our child immunization rates rank down 
with Third World nations, and that children are still dying every year 
from preventable illnesses!
  I ask my colleagues to cosponsor my bill and reverse these appalling 
trends, take action, and pass the Roukema Childhood Immunization 
Incentive Act.

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