[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13626]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  HEALTH EQUITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New Mexico (Ms. Michelle Lujan Grisham) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, last 
September, I was honored to welcome the Tri-Caucus Health Disparities 
Summit to my home State of New Mexico. The Center for Health Policy at 
the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque brought experts from all 
over the country together to talk about what they are seeing as 
providers, researchers, and patients; and we heard that communities of 
color continue to face substantial cultural, social, and economic 
barriers to obtaining quality health care and achieving equitable 
health outcomes.
  Several of my colleagues in fact joined me at that summit, and we all 
pledged not to just acknowledge these disparities, but to act to 
provide the tools and resources necessary to achieve health equity. 
That is what the Health Equity and Accountability Act does.
  It is a comprehensive bill, developed with significant stakeholder 
input, that would build on the gains of the Affordable Care Act and put 
in place the policies and the infrastructure needed to eliminate health 
disparities.
  The bill sets national standards for culturally and linguistically 
appropriate care and includes programs to address diseases that 
disproportionately impact minority communities. It also provides grants 
and scholarships to build diversity in the health care workforce and 
extends funding to strengthen the health IT infrastructure in minority 
communities.
  These provisions are just part of a larger strategic approach because 
problems like this really are more systemic. We can't just add some 
funding here or make a policy change there and walk away. This takes 
thoughtful, comprehensive policy to make a substantial long-lasting 
difference on issues like this.
  I would like to commend my colleague, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-
Allard from California, for her leadership on this bill. It is not easy 
to put together a bill of this size in consultation with dozens of 
Members' offices and more than 300 stakeholder groups, but she managed 
to do just that, and I thank her for putting together one of the best 
versions of this bill I think Congress has had before it.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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