June 5, 2007

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Senator John Ensign (R-NV) will introduce legislation tomorrow to provide children with safe, healthy, and academically-focused afterschool programs.  The Improving 21^st Century Community Learning Centers Act of 2007 would enhance afterschool program quality and sustainability, address the obesity epidemic by including physical fitness and wellness programs in the list of possible programming activities, and encourage volunteerism.  Senator Dodd is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) and the Chairman of its Subcommittee on Children and Families.

May 25, 2007

On Monday, the New Haven Register published the following op-ed by Senator Chris Dodd on child abuse prevention.

Two-month-old Amanda was in grave danger from the day she was born. Her mother, a Connecticut resident, had a long history of physically abusing her children; she had already lost custody of nine of them. But Amanda was a newborn, and protective services couldn’t save her. On January 23, 2006, her 2 a.m. hunger cries enraged her father; and Amanda’s mother only looked on as he viciously took her life.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), along with Senator Gordon H. Smith (R-OR), today introduced legislation that calls for the development of a national strategy and an increase in resources to reduce global child, newborn and maternal mortality.  The introduction of the U.S. Commitment to Global Child Survival Act of 2007 comes shortly after the release of Save the Children’s annual State of the World’s Mothers report, which revealed the alarming fact that each year over 10 million children die worldwide before reaching the age of five.  The bill has widespread, bi-partisan, and bi-cameral support, and has been endorsed by Save the Children, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and the ONE Campaign, among other organizations.  A companion bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on May 10 by Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Congressman Chris Shays (R-CT).

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) today sent a letter to Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, requesting an increase in funding for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program. The CSBG serves communities across the country by assisting low-income individuals and families to become self sufficient, through the work of approximately 1,100 Community Action Agencies (CAA) that leverage resources for services like Head Start, child care and after school programs, health care, and literacy and job training initiatives. CAAs also support programs which promote financial literacy, housing and homeownership assistance, and meal programs. Funding for the CSBG has decreased in recent years from its 2002 level of $650 million.  Senators Dodd and Grassley, along with a bipartisan coalition of 41 other Senators who signed the letter, have requested increased funding for Fiscal Year 2008 to restore funding and allow these important local initiatives to meet current costs. 

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Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) today led his Senate colleagues in the defeat of an amendment that would have eliminated an important component of his legislation, the Better/Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA), which is included in the Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act (S. 1082) being considered by the Senate this week.  Dodd’s bill reauthorizes the BPCA, which he originally authored in 1997 and reauthorized in 2002.  The amendment, defeated by a vote of 41 to 53, would have eliminated a provision in the BPCA that adjusts the patent extension awarded to pharmaceutical companies with U.S. drug sales over $1 billion from 6 to 3 months.  Defeat of this amendment will ensure savings of $50 million over 10 years under Dodd's bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office.