[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 17, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E749-E750]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             WOMEN'S HEALTH

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CONSTANCE A. MORELLA

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 17, 2000

  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, in 1990, the General Accounting Office 
(GAO) released a report citing the historical pattern of neglect of 
women in health research, and particularly the failure of many clinical 
trials to include women as subjects. This report led to increased 
government action on women's health research and to the creation of 
women's health offices, advisors, and coordinators in many government 
agencies.
  Today only two agencies have women's health offices in the federal 
government that have statutory authorization. They are the Office of 
Research on Women's Health (ORWH) within the National Institutes of 
Health, and the Office for Women's Services within the Substance Abuse 
and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). These women's 
health offices are federally authorized and protected by law, and they 
have performed a remarkable service to the women of this country.
  The other offices of women's health, advisors, and coordinators--the 
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Agency for Health Care 
Research and Quality (AHRQ), Health Resource and Services 
Administration (HRSA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and Food and 
Drug Administration (FDA)--face the possibility that future 
administrations will not to continue to support them, or that future 
funding will be insufficient for their needs.
  Currently these offices stimulate new initiative to improve women's 
health and are the government's champion and focal point for women's 
health.
  With this bill, we hope to create an enduring structure within which 
the currently 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 health 
behaviors and disease prevention, in improved public information about 
women's health, in better informed health care professions, among 
others--will reach fruition.
  Therefore Mr. Speaker, I along with my colleague Representative 
Carolyn Maloney, am introducing the ``Women's Health Office Act of 
2000'' which would provide statutory authorization for women's health 
offices in HHS, AHRQ, HRSA, FDA, and CDC. Such authorization would 
ensure that these women's

[[Page E750]]

health offices would continue to exist under succeeding 
administrations. The bill includes authorization for appropriations to 
ensure that future funding will be adequate to support these offices' 
missions and programs. Through a coordinating committee, the bill also 
provides for integration of all HHS programs.
  Providing statutory authorization for federal women's health offices 
is a critical step in ensuring that women's health research will 
continue to receive the attention it requires in the twenty-first 
century.

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