[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 66 (Thursday, April 24, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S3405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mrs. Murray):
  S. 2911. A bill to improve vaccination rates among children; to the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, today, I join with my colleague Senator 
Murray in introducing legislation that will help bolster childhood 
immunization in those parts of our country where immunization rates are 
much too low. Since the beginning of the 20th century, vaccines have 
completely eradicated the once frequent killer smallpox and almost 
eradicated polio. Vaccines save lives, avert communicable diseases and 
reduce health care spending for preventable diseases. We must continue 
in our efforts to achieve childhood immunization rates of 90 percent by 
2010 and with passage of this bill, we can do just that.
  Vaccines are one of the most effective tools for prevention of 
disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 
for every $1 spent on vaccines, America saves $18.60 in both medical 
costs and societal costs. But more important than the cost saving is 
the weight and value we must place on ensuring that children are fully 
vaccinated. We must not lose one more child to a vaccine preventable 
disease. Childhood vaccines prevent over 10 million cases of infectious 
illness and nearly 34,000 childhood deaths in America every year. 
Clearly, vaccines are a tried and true way to not only reduce health 
care costs, but also to keep our children healthy.
  The legislation Senator Murray and I are introducing today authorizes 
funding for effective interventions recommended by the Task Force on 
Community Preventive Services and helps to achieve childhood 
immunization rates of 90 percent by 2010. First, the legislation 
authorizes additional funding for a demonstration program allowing 
Women, Infant and Children clinics, also known as ``WIC'' to play a 
greater role in childhood immunizations. This is achieved by 
recommending vaccines to WIC recipients, coordinating care or 
immunization services, or employing an immunization coordinator. More 
than 45 percent of U.S. infants receive benefits through WIC clinics. A 
2002 study by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases 
recommended coordinating government benefits to keep children up-to-
date with their immunizations and noted that WIC programs have 
successfully accomplished this in numerous communities. Our legislation 
would enhance such efforts and would even go a step further to require 
that any grantee using these funds have access to the State 
Immunization Information System to better coordinate immunization 
screenings and services.
  Second, this legislation authorizes additional funding for the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct public, age 
appropriate immunization awareness campaigns and immunization education 
and outreach activities. Research shows that outreach, coupled with the 
coordination of immunization and WIC clinics, can increase childhood 
immunization rates by of approximately 12 percent.
  Lastly, this legislation establishes a sense of the Senate concerning 
the importance of electronic record coordination by both the Secretary 
of Health and Human Services and the Director of the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, and that these leaders should work 
together to improve the integration of immunization information systems 
with electronic medical records, health information systems, and health 
information exchanges.
  Vaccine preventable diseases will continue to be a threat to our 
Nation's most vulnerable population if we do not ensure proper 
vaccination among infants. Through this legislation, we can work to 
achieve the Healthy People 2010 objective of vaccinating 90 percent of 
all children by age two. To take a quote from a former First Lady of 
the United States and a cofounder of the organization Every Child by 
Two ``No child in America should have to get sick from a vaccine 
preventable disease. It's time for us to redouble efforts to protect 
the 20 percent of preschoolers who are routinely not being immunized on 
time.'' The Infant Immunization Improvement Act will be a vital first 
step to increasing vaccination rates and will serve as an important 
safeguard against the spread of communicable diseases. I would like to 
thank the Partnership for Prevention for their input on this 
legislation and the 156 members of the 317 Coalition for endorsing the 
Infant Immunization Improvement Act. I urge my colleagues to cosponsor 
this legislation--because leaving a single child unprotected is one too 
many.
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