[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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