[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 89 (Friday, May 26, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1145-E1146]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        OFFICE ON WOMEN'S HEALTH

                                 ______


                       HON. CONSTANCE A. MORELLA

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 25, 1995
  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, today Congresswoman Nita Lowey and I, 
together with 14 of our colleagues who serve on the executive committee 
of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues, introduced legislation 
to establish permanent statutory authority for the Public Health 
Service Office of Women's Health.
  With this bill, we hope to create an enduring structure within which 
the current well-documented ongoing needs and gaps in research, 
[[Page E1146]] policy, programs, and education and training in women's 
health will continue to be addressed. It will ensure that important 
initiatives--in breast cancer detection and eradication, in the 
promotion of healthy behaviors and disease prevention, in improved 
public information about women's health, in better informed health care 
professionals, among others--will reach fruition.
  Senator Olympia Snowe has introduced similar legislation in the 
Senate. Our bills are similar to the measure adopted by both the House 
and Senate last year, but that did not achieve final passage.
  Mr. Speaker, the Public Health Service's Office on Women's Health, 
established within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health in 
1991 by the Bush administration, is the focal point for women's health 
activities in the Department of Health and Human Services. By 
administering crosscutting initiatives across the PHS, the OWH is able 
to fill gaps in knowledge, and to initiate and synthesize program 
activities in ways that no other single PHS agency or office could 
accomplish alone.
  I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this important 
legislation.


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