[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 217 (Thursday, December 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9263-S9264]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. THUNE (for himself, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Braun, Mr. Cramer, 
        Mr. Crapo, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Hoeven, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Inhofe, 
        Mr. Lankford, Ms. Lummis, Mr. Moran, Mr. Risch, Mr. Rounds, Mr. 
        Rubio, Mr. Scott of South Carolina, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Wicker, 
        and Mr. Cruz):
  S. 3412. A bill to prohibit the use of Federal funds to enforce the 
rule submitted by the Department of Health and Human Services relating 
to COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements for Head Start programs; to 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of 
the bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 3412

       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 ``Preventing Mandates on 
     Toddlers Act''.

     SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON FUNDING THE HHS RULE ON HEAD START 
                   COVID VACCINE AND MASK REQUIREMENTS.

       Notwithstanding any other law, no funds appropriated or 
     otherwise made available to the Department of Health and 
     Human Services shall be obligated or expended to--
       (1) implement or enforce the rule submitted by the 
     Department of Health and Human Services relating to ``Vaccine 
     and Mask Requirements To Mitigate the Spread of COVID-19 in 
     Head Start Programs'' (86 Fed. Reg. 68052 (November 30, 
     2021)); or
       (2) promulgate, implement, or enforce any rule, regulation, 
     or other agency statement, that is substantially similar to 
     the rule described in paragraph (1).
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. KAINE (for himself, Mrs. Feinstein, and Mr. Padilla):
  S. 3422. A bill to establish a grant program to support schools of 
medicine and schools of osteopathic medicine in underserved areas; to 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, communities of color and those living in 
rural and underserved areas face significant barriers to healthcare, 
including physician shortages that have only been exacerbated during 
the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, in many communities of color and 
rural areas, there are few pathways to enter the medical profession. 
While medical school enrollment is up by 30 percent, the number of 
students from rural areas entering medical school declined by 28 
percent between 2002 and 2017, with only 4.3 percent of all incoming 
medical students coming from rural areas in 2017. Similarly, Black, 
Hispanic/Latino, and Native American students face several barriers to 
matriculate and graduate from medical school, and there is significant 
underrepresentation of these students at all U.S. medical schools with 
the exception of historically Black medical schools. These medical 
schools represent 2.6 percent of all medical schools but 15 percent of 
Black medical students, indicating the important role that these 
institutions play in increasing the diversity of the physician 
workforce. Health outcomes for patients of color improve when they 
receive care from doctors of their own racial or ethnic background, and 
the shortage of providers of color exacerbates the barriers to care 
that these communities experience. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened long 
standing health inequities, and it is critical that we expand the 
diversity of our physician workforce to tackle these rampant 
disparities and the systemic biases within our health care system.
  This is why I am introducing the Expanding Medical Education Act, 
which aims to tackle the lack of representation of rural students, 
underserved students, and students of color in the physician pipeline 
by encouraging the recruitment, enrollment, and retention of students 
from disadvantaged backgrounds. The bill would provide grants through 
the Health Resources and Services Administration, HRSA, to colleges and 
universities to establish or expand allopathic or osteopathic medical 
schools in underserved areas or at minority-serving institutions, 
including historically Black colleges and universities, HBCUs. These 
grants can be used for planning and construction of a medical school in 
an areas in which no other school is based; hiring diverse faculty and 
staff; recruitment, enrollment, and retention of students; and other 
purposes to ensure increased representation of rural students, 
underserved students, and students of color in our physician workforce.
  Our rural communities and communities of color face significant 
challenges accessing healthcare. It is time our physician workforce 
reflected these communities. We need to diversify our physician 
pipeline and change the disparity in representation, and this bill will 
help get us there. I am proud to reintroduce this important legislation 
to help us get one step closer to ensuring communities across Virginia 
and the Nation have access to the medical professionals they need. I 
hope the Senate passes this legislation quickly.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mr. Lujan):
  S. 3427. A bill to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services to establish a Neuroscience Center of Excellence; to the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President I rise today with my colleague, Senator 
Ben Ray Lujan, to introduce the Neuroscience Center of Excellence Act 
of 2021, legislation that would establish a Neuroscience Center of 
Excellence at the Food and Drug Administration, FDA. This program would 
be modeled after FDA's Oncology Center or Excellence, which was 
authorized through the 2lst Century Cures Act. Building off that 
successful and bipartisan model, I hope we can make critical advances 
for those living with neurological diseases.
  In July, FDA's Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and 
Research testified that neuroscience is an area of medicine where there 
is tremendous unmet need, and neurodegenerative diseases are 
particularly challenging from both a research and a drug development 
perspective. I have seen this firsthand as founder and cochairman of 
the Senate Alzheimer's Disease Caucus. I have vigorously advocated for 
record funding increases to support additional NIH research over the 
past 25 years. Over the past year, many have noted the success of 
Operation Warp Speed and wondered why we can't achieve the same rapid 
progress in other health conditions.
  The Neuroscience Center of Excellence would encompass more than 20 
neurological diseases, including conditions that are very rare. For 
example, Huntington's disease is an inherited

[[Page S9264]]

disease characterized by the progressive loss of brain and muscle 
function. It has sometimes been described as having ALS, Parkinson's, 
and Alzheimer's simultaneously. It is an autosomal dominant condition, 
so families with a history of Huntington's disease can see it appear in 
every generation. In Maine, Nancy Patterson has seen Huntington's 
disease in four generations of family. In addition, I lost a friend and 
coworker in former Senator Bill Cohen's office to this devastating 
disease. Sadly, there is no cure.
  Through our bill, this new Neuroscience Center of Excellence would 
establish several programs aimed at supporting innovation. The first is 
to identify some of the current and emerging regulatory science and 
public policy challenges associated with developing medical products 
for neuroscience diseases and disorders through a series of public 
meetings and guidances. The Center of Excellence would also establish a 
program to facilitate both the collection and the systematic use of 
patient experience data in the development of medical products for 
neuroscience diseases and disorders.
  Another component of the Center's work would be around using digital 
technologies, an area of much promise. In 2018, the National Academies 
of Medicine Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders hosted a 
workshop on using mobile technology to advance research and treatment 
of central nervous system disorders. As Dr. William Marks, head of 
clinical neurology at Verily Life Sciences, observed, the current state 
of assessing brain disorders is ``exquisitely crude'' and there is a 
large unmet need for better measures of disease burden that are 
objective, quantitative, more frequently measured, and in the context 
of normal life.
  Finally, the center would help promote inclusion of traditionally 
underrepresented populations in the research and development of medical 
products for neuroscience diseases and disorders through public 
meetings and industry guidance. Senator Lujan and I have worked 
together on this issue before as part of our Equity in Neuroscience and 
Alzheimer's Clinical Trials Act of 2021. Whether the barrier to 
participation is a distrust of the medical community or logistics 
concerns like time and travel, we need to overcome those hurdles in 
order to ensure the best possible science.
  Researchers from the University of South Florida looked at the nine 
most prevalent and costly diagnosed neurological disorders and found 
the annual cost totaled nearly $800 billion. We desperately need to 
change this trajectory and renew our focus on these critical unmet 
needs. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

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