[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 140 (Tuesday, September 20, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H6258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PULMONARY FIBROSIS AWARENESS WEEK

  (Mr. PAULSEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PAULSEN. Madam Speaker, 48,000 Americans a year walk out of their 
doctor's office with the news that they have pulmonary fibrosis, 
joining the nearly 200,000 Americans already afflicted with this little 
understood killer. There is no known cure for this lethal lung disease, 
which takes the life of an American on average every 13 seconds, more 
than 40,000 individuals annually, roughly the same number as those 
afflicted with breast cancer.
  This week is National Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Week, and I ask my 
colleagues to join me in cosponsoring the Pulmonary Fibrosis Research 
Enhancement Act. This bipartisan legislation will create a national 
registry, encourage Federal research at the National Institutes of 
Health, and also create a national action plan so that we can better 
understand this deadly disease and one day discover an effective 
treatment.
  Madam Speaker, this effort is really critical to giving hope to the 
hundreds of thousands of people who live with this debilitating 
disease.

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