[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 8, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E546-E547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       CRITICAL PUBLIC HEALTH BILLS CONSIDERED BY THE HOUSE TODAY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 8, 2008

  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the seven 
bills the House is considering on suspension today in conjunction with 
National Public Health Week. This week gives us an opportunity to 
reflect on the importance of quality public health programs in all of 
our lives--from effective childhood vaccination programs, to early 
screening programs for diseases, to ensuring that all Americans have 
access to quality, affordable health care. These seven bills were all 
approved unanimously by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and 
I expect they will get a similar level of support today from the full 
House.
  H.R. 1198, The Early Hearing Detection & Intervention (EDHI) Act, was 
introduced by Rep. Lois Capps. Congresswoman Capps is a registered 
nurse (R.N.) who served for 20 years as a nurse and health advocate for 
the Santa Barbara School District. I want to commend her for continuing 
to advocate for the health of young Americans by authoring this 
legislation. H.R. 1198 will reauthorize this critical Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program, intended to identify and 
help infants with hearing loss, through FY 2013. It also expands 
screening and intervention services to include young children.
  Children who are hard of hearing find it much more difficult than 
children who have normal hearing to learn vocabulary, grammar, word 
order, idiomatic expressions, and other aspects of verbal 
communication. It is estimated that approximately 391,000 school-aged 
children in the U.S. have unilateral hearing loss, and early detection 
of hearing problems is critical to developing and implementing 
effective treatment for these children. When EHDI was first authorized 
in 1999, only 3 percent of all babies were being screened for hearing 
loss at birth; today, 93 percent of babies are screened within one 
month of birth.
  H.R. 2464, The Wakefield Act (Emergency Medical Services for 
Children) reauthorizes through FY 2011 and makes improvements in the 
Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) program, which is 
designed to improve emergency medical services for children needing 
trauma or critical care. There are over 30 million child and teen 
visits annually to our nation's emergency rooms. And yet many emergency 
services are still designed for adults. Since the EMSC program was 
created 20 years ago, major improvements in emergency care for children 
have been realized. Injury-related deaths have dropped by 40 percent 
over that period of time.
  H.R. 1237, The Cytology Proficiency Improvement Act, is designed to 
improve the analysis of tests for cervical cancer by ensuring that 
health care professionals who read tests for cervical cancer are 
skilled in today's medical technology. It modernizes the cervical 
cancer testing program by requiring continuing medical education for 
pathologists to assess their diagnostic skills and ensure they keep up 
with the latest practices. The program is modeled after a similar 
quality standards program for reading mammograms. The American Cancer 
Society predicted 11,150 women in the U.S. would be diagnosed with 
cervical cancer last year and 3,670 women would die from the disease. 
The way to cut down on the number of deaths is to ensure that all 
cervical cancer tests are read correctly.
  S. 845, The Keeping Seniors Safe from Falls Act, was passed by the 
Senate by unanimous consent in August 2007. Nationally, 42 percent of 
all nursing home admissions take place as a direct result of geriatric 
falls. Fractures of the hip are relatively common in seniors and often 
lead to devastating consequences. Disability frequently results from 
persistent pain and limited physical mobility. Hip fractures are 
associated with substantial morbidity and mortality; approximately 15-
20% of patients die within one year of fracture. Most hip fractures 
occur in elderly individuals as a result of minimal trauma, such as a 
fall from standing height.
  S. 845 launches a comprehensive preventative care program to reduce 
the number and

[[Page E547]]

severity of falls by the elderly. It directs the Department of Health 
and Human Services (HHS) to implement directives to reduce falls, 
including improving the identification of seniors who have a high risk 
of falling; supporting education campaigns focused on reducing and 
preventing falls and educating health professionals about fall risk, 
assessment and prevention; and conducting research to reduce falls.

  H.R. 2063, The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act, helps 
schools deal with food allergies among student populations. Nearly 
three million American children have food allergies. The danger of a 
life-threatening reaction from exposure to an allergen can be found 
beyond obvious places like the lunchroom. This danger also lurks in 
places where kids--and adults--wouldn't normally expect it, including 
field trips, school celebrations or special projects like arts and 
crafts.
  Last year, the Congress appropriated $491,000 for the CDC to develop 
guidelines for schools regarding food allergies and anaphylaxis (a 
severe allergic reaction involving multiple organs). This bill requires 
HHS, in consultation with the Department of Education, to develop a 
policy for schools on appropriate management and emergency plans for 
children with food allergies and anaphylaxis. The policy would be 
provided to schools within one year after enactment, and schools could 
voluntarily implement the policy. The bill also authorizes HHS to award 
grants to local school districts to help them in implementing the 
policy.
  S. 1858, The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act was passed by the 
Senate by unanimous consent on Dec. 13, 2007. This bill educates 
parents and health care providers about newborn health screening, 
improves follow-up care for infants with an illness detected through 
newborn screening, and helps states expand and improve their newborn 
screening programs. Incredible advances in medical technology have 
equipped us to better screen and treat infants for congenital, genetic 
and metabolic disorders that, if left untreated, could lead to severe 
disability and death. S. 1858 authorizes funding to help states expand 
and improve their programs. It also helps to ensure the quality of 
laboratories involved in newborn screening, so that tests are as 
accurate as possible and infants receive appropriate care.
  The House Amendment to S. 793, The Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Act, 
was sponsored by Rep. Bill Pascrell. The House amendment was reported 
out by the Energy and Commerce Committee on March 13 and is similar to 
S. 793, which was passed by the Senate by unanimous consent on December 
11, 2007. The thousands of brain injury survivors who are returning 
home from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are joining the 5.3 million 
similarly afflicted Americans here at home. TBI is now the leading 
cause of death and disability among young Americans. The legislation 
would require the CDC to monitor brain injury incidence and create a 
reporting system to track the condition. It also directs CDC to study 
treatment techniques and NIH to conduct basic research to improve 
treatment. The House version renews through FY 1012 the Traumatic Brain 
Injury Act, which authorizes the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to 
provide state grants for patients with traumatic brain injury to enter 
treatment and rehabilitation programs.
  These bills make critical contributions to our nation's public health 
infrastructure, and I commend the House for considering them. I would 
like to add, however, that the single most important public health 
initiative the Congress could take would be to pass national health 
insurance legislation such as that proposed in my bill, H.R. 676, which 
was recently endorsed by the American Public Health Association. With a 
system of truly universal health care, there would no longer be any 
need to implement the stopgap, patchwork measures that we are so 
frequently obligated to consider.