[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 40 (Monday, March 7, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H1322]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            IMPROVING HEALTH OUTCOMES FOR BLACK COMMUNITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Torres) is recognized 
for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Ohio 
(Ms. Brown) for allowing me the opportunity to speak.
  Madam Speaker, no human need is more important than health. Yet, no 
need is more neglected by America than Black health.
  There are two areas on which I am going to offer brief comments. The 
first is maternal mortality. Among industrialized nations, the United 
States has among the highest rates of maternal mortality.
  The crisis of maternal health represents American exceptionalism in 
the worst sense of the word. America is exceptionally cruel to Black 
mothers, who, far too often, face fatal barriers to accessing maternal 
care before, during, and after pregnancy. Although representing only 13 
percent of the population, Black women account for nearly 40 percent of 
maternal deaths.
  There are racial disparities not only in maternal but also infant 
mortality. The Black community has a maternal mortality rate and an 
infant mortality rate that are more than double the mortality rates in 
the White community.
  No healthcare program is more critical to maternal health than 
Medicaid, which pays 40 percent of births nationwide. Attempts by 
Republican Governors to prevent Medicaid expansion has a 
disproportionately destructive impact on Black maternal health.
  What is most tragic is that most maternal deaths in America are 
preventable and can be prevented with public investments like the Build 
Back Better Act. The Build Back Better Act is so urgently needed 
because it would bring a long-overdue expansion of Medicaid to every 
corner of Black America.
  The second topic is cancer. In 2022, more than 73,000 Black Americans 
are expected to die from cancer. When it comes to most cancers, Black 
Americans have the highest death rate as well as the shortest rate of 
survival.
  In the long run, we must develop a cure for cancer in keeping with 
President Biden's unity agenda. But in the short run, we must double 
down on early detection. We must invest in the development and 
distribution of multi-cancer early detection tests.
  Black Americans have a far lower likelihood of receiving early 
detection cancer screening than White Americans. Early detection can 
mean the difference between life and death. It can mean early 
treatment, which can prevent cancer from metastasizing beyond the point 
of no return.
  Early cancer screenings and diagnoses are tragically less common in 
the Black community than elsewhere in America. Even in cases where the 
White community has a higher cancer incidence, the Black community will 
nonetheless have higher cancer mortality because of racial disparities 
in early cancer detection and diagnosis.
  Expanding access to multi-cancer early detection tests would bring us 
closer to closing the racial gap in early detection and in early 
diagnosis, and in doing so, it would save lives.


                             General Leave

  Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and include any extraneous material on the subject of this special 
order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.

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