[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 26 (Tuesday, March 4, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E365]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E365]]
 LEGISLATION TO ESTABLISH PERMANENT STATUTORY AUTHORITY FOR THE PUBLIC 
                HEALTH SERVICE OFFICE ON WOMEN'S HEALTH

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CONSTANCE A. MORELLA

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 4, 1997

  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, today, along with 20 of my colleagues, I 
will be reintroducing legislation to establish permanent statutory 
authority for the Public Health Service Office on Women's Health. 
Senator Olympia Snowe has introduced similar legislation in the Senate.
  With this bill, we hope to create an enduring structure within which 
the current well-documented ongoing needs and gaps in research, 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.
  The Public Health Service's Office on Women's Health, established by 
the Bush administration and now within the Office of the Secretary, 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.
  In addition, the bill also makes permanent offices on women's health 
at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for 
Health Care Policy and Research, the Health Resources and Services 
Administration, and the Food an Drug Administration; these agencies 
currently have offices or coordinators which were established 
administratively and could be abolished at any time. Women's health 
offices at the National Institutes of Health and the Substance Abuse 
and Mental Health Services Administration have been made permanent in 
previous legislation.
  I urge my colleagues to join us in cosponsoring this legislation.

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