[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 115 (Thursday, July 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5050-S5051]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2805. Ms. BUTLER (for herself and Mrs. Britt) submitted an 
amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 4638, to 
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2025 for military activities 
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for 
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military 
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which 
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle H of title X, insert the following:

     SEC. 10__. IMPROVE INITIATIVE.

       Part B of title IV of the Public Health Service Act (42 
     U.S.C. 284 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:

     ``SEC. 409K. IMPROVE INITIATIVE.

       ``(a) In General.--The Director of the National Institutes 
     of Health, in consultation with the Director the Eunice 
     Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human 
     Development, shall establish a program to be known as the 
     Implementing a

[[Page S5051]]

     Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone 
     Initiative (referred to in this section as the `Initiative').
       ``(b) Duties.--The Initiative shall--
       ``(1) advance research to--
       ``(A) reduce preventable causes of maternal mortality and 
     severe maternal morbidity;
       ``(B) reduce racial, ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic 
     disparities in maternal health outcomes; and
       ``(C) improve health for pregnant and postpartum women 
     before, during, and after pregnancy;
       ``(2) use an integrated approach to understand the 
     biological, behavioral, sociocultural, and structural factors 
     that affect maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity 
     by building an evidence base for improved outcomes in 
     specific regions of the United States; and
       ``(3) target health disparities associated with maternal 
     mortality and severe maternal morbidity by--
       ``(A) implementing and evaluating community-based 
     interventions for disproportionately affected women; and
       ``(B) identifying risk factors and the underlying 
     biological mechanisms associated with leading causes of 
     maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity in the 
     United States.
       ``(c) Implementation.--The Director of the Institute may 
     award grants or enter into contracts, cooperative agreements, 
     or other transactions to carry out subsection (a), including 
     with researchers from racial and ethnic minority groups (as 
     defined in section 1707(g)(1)).
       ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized 
     to be appropriated to carry out this section $53,400,000 for 
     each of fiscal years 2025 through 2031.''.
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