[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 12, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H1756-H1758]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AUTOMATIC DEFIBRILLATION IN ADAM'S MEMORY ACT
Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 389) to authorize the use of certain grant funds to
establish an information clearinghouse that provides information to
increase public access to defibrillation in schools.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 389
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Automatic Defibrillation in
Adam's Memory Act''.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT.
Subsection (c) of section 312 of the Public Health Service
Act (42 U.S.C. 244), as amended by Public Law 107-188, is
amended--
(1) at the end of paragraph (5), by striking ``and'';
(2) by redesignating paragraph (6) as paragraph (7); and
(3) by inserting after paragraph (5) the following:
``(6) establish an information clearinghouse that provides
information to increase public access to defibrillation in
schools; and''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) and the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. John) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus).
General Leave
Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 389.
[[Page H1757]]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, what I have before me is an emergency external
defibrillator, and that is the purpose of the bill we have on the floor
as we speak. It is an incredible device that saves lives, and that is
what this legislation is a means to address.
As one of the original co-sponsors of this bill and as a proud member
of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, I would like to commend all of
those who have worked to bring this legislation to the floor.
This is a training model of an AED, an acronym that stands for
Automatic External Defibrillator. While the training device cannot save
a life, AEDs can and have in every corner of the States. While many
know about our Chicago airports which have lead the Nation establishing
public access to defibrillation programs, I would like to tell you the
story about Sean Morely. Sean is a 13-year-old boy from Buffalo Grove,
Illinois, whose life was saved because of an AED. While playing
baseball Sean was hit in the chest by a fastball. He went into sudden
cardiac arrest, a condition where the victim's heart most commonly
flutters in the chest, but does not provide the body with oxygenated
blood. Within 10 minutes, there is nearly zero chance of saving a
cardiac arrest victim's life. But Sean was lucky. A passing police
officer from another district used the defibrillator in the trunk of
his car to restore a normal heart beat for the young athlete.
It is important to realize that defibrillation is the only way to
restart a sudden cardiac arrest victim's heart. Without that
defibrillator, this story would have had a much different ending.
Stories like these have driven State governments to pass bills
requiring AEDs in numerous locations. The Adam Act will help our local
communities by setting up a national clearinghouse to provide schools
with how-to and technical advice to set up public access defibrillation
programs. It will ensure that schools have access to the appropriate
training, successful fund-raising techniques, and other logistics
involved. This is particularly helpful to smaller school districts that
do not have the local resources such as a major hospital that often
exist in more urban areas.
The clearinghouse will also collect data on a large scale, an effort
to allow for research with issues related to cardiac death in children
and adolescents.
Over 200,000 Americans die each year of sudden cardiac arrest
including children. The American Heart Association estimates that about
50,000 of these victims' lives could be saved each year with a strong
chain of survival. The chain of survival includes an immediate call to
911, early CPR and defibrillation, and the arrival of early advanced
life support.
Please do not think that your community does not need this type of
assistance. Consider that the average emergency response time is about
12 minutes. That is 2 minutes after a cardiac arrest victim is beyond
help. The small cost in supplying this technology to our schools will
be returned in full and by the length of service of years to the
community for each young life saved.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate all my friends and colleagues who have
worked on this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JOHN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
Shimkus) for this piece of legislation, and I also want to thank my
distinguished colleague from California (Mrs. Capps) for being the
prime sponsor of this very important piece of legislation, House
Resolution 389, the Adam Act or the Auto Defibrillation in Adam's
Memory Act. This is an important piece of legislation that will
authorize the appropriation of resources to establish a much-needed
clearinghouse providing information to increase public awareness to
successful life-saving tools and programs.
Mr. Speaker, as we all know, heart disease is the single leading
cause of death in America. This year alone over 1 million people will
suffer from cardiac attacks, or coronary attacks. Over half of these
people will die, and half of those will die before they reach the
hospitals. Additionally, 60 percent of the heart-related deaths are due
to cardiac arrest, and half of those occur in the patient before they
can reach the hospital.
It is vitally important to ensure that victims of heart disease and
cardiac arrest are able to receive immediate medical attention, first
responders right at the site. The Adam Act will help enable Americans
to recognize and respond to incidences of heart disease and cardiac
arrest by providing schools with the guidance and resources necessary
to set up public access defibrillation programs. H.R. 389 will work to
ensure that schools have access to the appropriate training, fund-
raising techniques and other logistical requirements for successful
life-saving programs. This is a very important and good bill, and I
urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important bill, a
life-saving piece of legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), chairman of the full committee.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, let me congratulate the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) for this extraordinary bill. This is indeed a
life saver. There are many things we do in this House that affect
people's pocketbooks or the way in which we do business in this country
or the way in which we live in our communities. This one saves lives.
And when we have these important bills we ought to really be grateful
to the authors who bring them forward and who gave so much time and
attention to it, as the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) has done.
This bill, H.R. 389, the Automatic Defibrillation in Adam's Memory
Act, is a simple clarification of a grant program authorized already by
the Public Health Security and Bio-terrorism Response Act for States,
Indian tribes and localities to develop and implement public access
defibrillation programs. Because many schools also serve as community
meeting places, several communities are considering placing the AEDs in
their schools. In order to assist the schools interested in installing
these AEDs, this bill clarifies that the public access defibrillation
program grant dollars already authorized may also be used to establish
information clearinghouses to assist in these efforts.
Automatic external defibrillators, AEDs, are widely used by emergency
personnel and health professionals to assist individuals suffering from
sudden cardiac arrest. The use of AEDs has proven effective to save
lives when following the chain-of-survival plan developed by the
American Heart Association, which includes an immediate call to 911,
early CPR and defibrillation, and early advanced life support.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in this country. AEDs
have proven helpful in reducing the number of cardiac arrest fatalities
and expanding the use of these medical devices will undeniably help
save more lives.
Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) and
my friend, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. John), for all the work
our committee did in a bipartisan fashion to bring this bill forward.
The gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. John) may not remember this, but
when Dudley LeBlanc was a senator in the State senate in Louisiana, I
watched as he suffered a massive cardiac arrest in the house chamber.
And I watched as a defibrillation team came in and saved his life in
front of all the other members, a dramatic, if you will, example of how
this technology can really save lives.
Again, I thank both the gentlemen, but also to all the members of the
Committee on Energy and Commerce for the great work they have done in
bringing this bill forward. I urge my colleagues in the House to adopt
it expeditiously.
Mr. JOHN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the
gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps), a prime sponsor of this life-
saving piece of legislation.
Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding me time.
[[Page H1758]]
Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to rise in support of H.R. 389, the
Automatic Defibrillation in Adam's Memory Act.
As co-chair of the Congressional Heart and Stroke Coalition and
Caucus, I was proud to join with the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
Shimkus) in introducing this bill last year and again this year. And I
want to thank my colleague from Illinois for his leadership on this
issue. For the last few years, Congress has passed several bills to
expand the use of automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs.
We have provided protections for good Samaritans, encouraged State
and local governments to place AEDs in their buildings, and provided
funds for their communities to purchase these devices.
The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) and I have recently been
urging the Architect of the Capitol to acquire AEDs and place them
around the grounds.
{time} 1230
We hope we will see movement on this very soon, and now, with this
legislation before us, we are starting to get them into schools. Some
have suggested that AEDs will become as prevalent as fire
extinguishers. We can only hope so. Rescue professionals know firsthand
their cost effectiveness.
This bill would create a national clearinghouse of information about
AEDs and public defibrillation so that schools can begin placing them
throughout their facilities. We do not usually think of children at
school as being a high risk group for heart attack, but it has been
known to happen, and schools, let us keep in mind, often serve as
community meeting places where the public can gather at various events.
Think of the times when schools are used as disaster centers. Add to
this the parents, teachers and staff at the schools, and it only makes
sense to be assured that they have the life saving devices such as AEDs
available.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. JOHN. Mr. Speaker, we have no further speakers, and I yield back
my time.
Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I, too, want to mention the support from my colleague who just spoke,
the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps), who has really become a
champion on a lot of health care-related items, and so when we get her
on our team that is a good teammate to have, and I do appreciate that.
There is a health care crisis in America. There is a health care
crisis in rural America. I think the point that 10 minutes, the
response time being 12 minutes for the response time from most
paramedics, 10 minutes is too short of a time. They cannot get there.
That poses this need for this bill. That chain of survival, the E-911.
We had the E-911 Caucus that helped us locate individuals, CPR,
defibrillation and other life support measures.
This is an important bill and I appreciate the committee and my
friends on the Democratic side for helping move this expeditiously to
the floor. I ask my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 389.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of
those present have voted in the affirmative.
Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be
postponed.
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