VRC Home
Office of the Director
Background
Profile of Dale and Betty Bumpers
Senator
Dale Bumpers is best known for his long and distinguished career
in public service in the U.S. Senate and his home state of Arkansas.
Prior to becoming a U.S. Senator, Senator Bumpers was elected
Governor in 1970 and served two terms. During his first term as
Governor, his wife Betty first sparked his interest in the cause
of childhood vaccination.
Bumpers was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974.
Throughout his 24-year career in Congress, he was the acknowledged
leader on immunization issues. As a member of the Senate Appropriations
Committee, he worked hard to increase funding for efforts to improve
and purchase vaccines for childhood diseases like measles, mumps,
whooping cough and polio, and to develop new vaccines against
diseases like bacterial meningitis.
During the 1980s, his crusade on behalf of cost-effective
immunization programs often resulted in Congress approving amounts
above the Administration's requests. During the measles epidemic
of 1989-1991, he rallied his colleagues by calling the 27,000
cases of measles in 1990 "both shameful and totally avoidable,"
and noting that there had been more deaths from measles in one
year than there were combat deaths in the Persian Gulf. He was
among the first immunization advocates to recognize the importance
of requiring proof of immunization at school entry; reaching children
through other programs such as cash assistance and the Women,
Infants and Children feeding program; and focusing on children
under two.
Throughout his Senate career, Senator Bumpers was
also a champion of the National Institutes of Health, and an advocate
of funds to fight HIV/AIDS. His support for appropriations for
NIH helped answer fundamental questions about HIV/AIDS, and also
supported research and development activities on vaccines generally.
Betty Bumpers has also dedicated her life to issues affecting
childrens health. When she became the First Lady of Arkansas,
the state had one of the lowest immunization rates in the nation.
Mrs. Bumpers spearheaded a system for childhood vaccinations that
became a national model, and the state achieved one of the highest
immunization rates in the country.
After her husbands election to the Senate,
Betty Bumpers continued to work on immunization issues with the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the wives of other
state governors, including Rosalynn Carter of Georgia. Upon Jimmy
Carters election as president, Mrs. Bumpers contacted the
new administration, explained the deficits in the countrys
immunization program, and urged that something be done to improve
the situation. Her advocacy, and that of Rosalynn Carter, led
to the federal government's first comprehensive childhood immunization
initiative, which was launched in 1977 and was based on the successful
state program adopted in Arkansas when Bumpers was governor. The
efforts of Mrs. Bumpers and Mrs. Carter also led to laws, now
in every state, requiring certain vaccinations before entry into
school. As a result of these laws, more than 95 percent of American
children are immunized by the time they go to school, and once-common
diseases are now rare.
In 1991, Mrs. Bumpers and Rosalynn Carter started
a campaign called "Every Child by Two." For the past
eight years, the organization has worked to ensure that all children
in America are immunized on schedule from birth to age 2, and
that immunization delivery is institutionalized nationwide. In
recent years, Betty Bumpers also has worked on the global campaign
to eradicate polio.
|