[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 47 (Monday, November 27, 2000)]
[Page 2925]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research 
and Education Act of 2000

November 22, 2000

    Today I am pleased to sign the ``Health Care Fairness Act'' into 
law. This legislation provides long overdue attention to the dramatic 
disparities in the incidence of disease and health care outcomes in 
minorities as compared to the overall population. It is unacceptable 
that African-American men have a higher overall cancer incidence and 
infant mortality rates than any other racial or ethnic group; Hispanic 
and Native Americans suffer much greater rates of diabetes; and Asian-
American and Pacific Islanders are afflicted with extraordinarily high 
levels of cancer of the liver.
    The legislation being enacted today authorizes over $150 million to 
create a new national center for research on minority health and health 
disparities at NIH, increases funding for research on race and health 
disparities at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and 
creates a new program to attract health disparity researchers into this 
critically important field. We must build on today's achievement by 
assuring adequate funding for these and other initiatives that will help 
close the health status gap in this Nation. It will make a major 
contribution toward eliminating these disparities by 2010--a nationwide 
goal we established over 2 years ago and one which must be pursued with 
the same rigor with which we have worked towards eliminating barriers to 
basic civil rights.

Note: At the time of publication, the ``Health Care Fairness Act, '' S. 
1880, approved November 22, had not been received by the Office of the 
Federal Register in time for assignment of a public law number.