[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 118 (Monday, September 13, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CHILDREN'S ASTHMA RELIEF ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. FRED UPTON

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 13, 1999

  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce H.R. 2840, 
Children's Asthma Relief Act of 1999, legislation providing a 
comprehensive, community-based response to the increasingly serious 
incidence of childhood asthma. I am pleased that my colleague, Henry 
Waxman, is the original cosponsor of this bill.
  Chronic asthma is a serious and growing health problem confronting 
our nation, and particularly our nation's children. The Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention reports that 6.4 percent of our 
population report having asthma--a dramatic 75-percent increase over 
the last two decades. Childhood asthma has increased even more 
dramatically--over 160 percent since 1980--and is the most common 
childhood chronic disease. It is particularly prevalent among the urban 
poor, in all likelihood because of lack of access to health care and 
the high number of allergens in the environment. Asthma deaths have 
tripled over the past two decades, despite improvements in clinical 
treatment. In my own state, 5.7 percent of the population, or 542,300 
Michiganders suffer from asthma.
  The legislation we are introducing today will help us marshal and 
coordinate our resources to much more effectively wage war against this 
significant threat to our nation's health. First, the bill creates a 
$50 million program within the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant 
program to assist communities in areas with a high prevalence of 
childhood asthma and a lack of access to medical care to establish 
treatment centers. In addition to providing medical care on site and in 
various areas of the community through ``breathmobiles,'' the centers 
will also provide education to parents, children, health providers and 
others on recognizing the signs and symptons of asthma, provide 
medications, and provide training in the use of these medications. The 
centers will also provide other services, such as smoking cessation 
programs and home modifications to reduce exposure to allergens.
  In order to be eligible to receive grants under this program, 
applicants will be required to demonstrate that they will coordinate 
the services they are offering with other federal, state and local 
programs that may be serving these children and their families. 
Further, grantees are required to demonstrate that they are getting 
results and making progress in improving the health status of children 
in the program.
  The bill encourages coordination of services in several other ways. 
First, it establishes a $5 million matching grant program to encourage 
states to incorporate asthma prevention and treatment services in their 
state Child Health Insurance Programs. Second, it makes reducing the 
prevalence of asthma and asthma-related illnesses among urban 
populations an explicitly allowable activity under the Preventive 
Health and Health Services Block Grant program. Third, it requires the 
director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, acting 
through the National Asthma Education Prevention Program Coordinating 
Committee, to identify all federal programs that carry out asthma-
related activities and develop, in consultation with these agencies and 
voluntary health organizations, a federal plan for responding to 
asthma. Finally, it requires the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention to conduct surveillance activities that will help us get a 
better handle on the prevalence and severity of asthma and the quality 
of asthma management.
  With these provisions in place, I am convinced that we can 
significantly advance our efforts to reduce the prevalence and severity 
of asthma in communities across the nation. I encourage you to sign on 
as a cosponsor and work with Representative Waxman and me for the 
passage of this law.

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