[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 128 (Saturday, October 9, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10921-S10922]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       MAMMOGRAPHY QUALITY STANDARDS REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2004

  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 4555, which was received 
from the House and is at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 4555) to amend the Public Health Service Act 
     to revise and extend provisions relating to mammography 
     quality standards.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I am pleased that today the Senate will 
pass the Mammography Quality Standards Reauthorization Act of 2004, 
H.R. 4555. It is fitting that Congress is reauthorizing the Mammography 
Quality Standards Act, MQSA, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This 
important bill is about saving lives. That is what the MQSA does. 
Accurate mammograms detect breast cancer early, so women can get 
treatment and be survivors.
  Mammography is not perfect, but it is the best screening tool we have 
now. I authored MQSA 12 years ago to improve the quality of mammograms 
so that they are safe and accurate. Before MQSA became law, there was 
an uneven and conflicting patchwork of standards for mammography in 
this country. There were no national quality standards for personnel or 
equipment. Image quality of mammograms and patient exposure to 
radiation levels varied widely. The quality of mammography equipment 
was poor. Physicians and technologists were poorly trained. Inspections 
were lacking.
  MQSA set Federal safety and quality assurance standards for 
mammography facilities for: personnel, including doctors who interpret 
mammograms; equipment; and operating procedures. By creating national 
standards, Congress helped make mammograms a more reliable tool for 
detecting breast cancer. In 1998, Congress improved MQSA by giving 
information on test results directly to the women being tested, so no 
woman falls through the cracks because she never learns about a 
suspicious finding on her mammogram.
  Now Congress is renewing MQSA through 2007 and laying the foundation 
to improve it even more in the future. Next year, the Institute of 
Medicine, IOM, and the General Accountability Office, GAO, will release 
studies examining a number of issues relating to MQSA and mammography. 
These issues include ways to improve physicians' interpretations of 
mammograms, ways to ensure that sufficient numbers of adequately 
trained personnel are recruited and retained at all levels, and access 
to mammography. I look forward to receiving these IOM and GAO 
recommendations and considering them in the next MQSA reauthorization.
  This legislation that the Senate passed today was passed by the House 
of Representatives earlier this week and now heads to the President for 
his signature. I acknowledge and thank Congressman Dingell for his 
longstanding leadership and work on MQSA, and appreciate the work of 
the House Energy and Commerce Committee on this issue. I thank Senators 
Gregg and Kennedy for working with me to make sure that the Senate made 
MQSA a priority in this Congress and that we reauthorized it this year. 
I also want to acknowledge Senator Ensign for his important work on 
MQSA. Senator Ensign joined me in introducing our MQSA reauthorization 
bill, S. 1879, that passed the Senate earlier this year.
  I thank the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, American Cancer 
Society, National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations, American 
College of Radiology Association, Y-ME National Breast Cancer 
Organization, and the National Breast Cancer Coalition for their input 
and advice during this reauthorization of MQSA.
  This year about 216,000 cases of breast cancer are expected to be 
diagnosed and over 40,000 women are expected to die of breast cancer in 
this country. MQSA saves lives. That is why it is so important that 
Congress is renewing and working to strengthen MQSA.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be 
read a third time, passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the 
table, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record 
without intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 4555) was read the third time and passed.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, just to clarify, the bills we just passed 
are fairly significant pieces of legislation, the most significant of 
which is a bill which Senator Kennedy and I and many people in this 
body have been working on.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from New Hampshire. 
He is right, we have just passed very important legislation, one of 
which is to reauthorize our mammogram quality standards. We have worked 
very hard on a bipartisan basis. I would like to thank him for his 
collegiality and cooperation. I see him smiling. Did I interrupt?
  Mr. GREGG. I am happy to yield the floor to the Senator from 
Maryland.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. It was a little chaotic. I wanted to be quickly 
complimentary.
  Mr. GREGG. I appreciate that.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Literally, we are going to ensure the safety and 
security of our mammograms. I just finished the Race for the Cure in 
Baltimore. I did more of a ``walk for the cure'' this morning. But when 
you look at the survivors and you know what early detection from 
mammograms has meant, we really have done a good job.
  I thank the Senator.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, let me thank the Senator from Maryland for 
her generous comments and her hard work, especially on the mammogram 
bill which we just passed. I was trying to highlight one of these 
pieces of legislation which essentially saves the taxpayers from paying 
out a $100 million windfall to people who give loans to students. Those 
individuals were getting paid mostly by banks at 9.5 percent. This will 
roll that back to a reasonable interest rate of 4 percent. We will take 
those additional monies that have been saved and use them to waive the 
repayment requirements for teachers on their student loans for teachers 
who go into underserved areas and teach special needs kids. This is a

[[Page S10922]]

very important event and something that needed to be done, or we would 
have ended up with a windfall to these lenders and these individuals 
who go out and teach in these tough schools on difficult subject 
matters would have ended up with large student loans.
  This is a very positive step. I thank the Senator from Massachusetts 
for his efforts in this area as the ranking member of the committee, 
and I thank the entire committee for its cooperation and appreciate the 
attention of the Senate.
  I yield the floor.

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