Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) today congratulated members of the National Afterschool Association (NAA) for their twenty years of dedication to creating safe and engaging afterschool environments for America’s children.  Next week, the NAA will convene its twentieth national conference to discuss and develop solutions to address the needs of school-age children during their hours out of school.  The organization’s first conference twenty years ago marked the first formal meeting of afterschool professionals.  Dodd, a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Children and Families, has been a longtime advocate for afterschool programs. 

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) today applauded Senate passage of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) bill.  The bill contains two provisions authored by Senator Dodd; one that would implement a federal safety standard for equestrian helmets sold in the United States and another that would prohibit the manufacture or sale of swimming pool drain covers that do not meet anti-entrapment safety standards and pose a threat of accidental drowning.   

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior Democrat on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) and chairman of its Subcommittee on Children and Families, lauded last night’s House passage of the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Parity Act.  If enacted into law, this legislation would help ensure that all Americans who have insurance coverage for physical ailments cannot be discriminated against for needing comparable insurance coverage for a mental illness.  The Senate approved mental health parity legislation last year, which Senator Dodd cosponsored.    

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Children and Families, today held a hearing to examine how the rising cost of home heating is impacting the health and welfare of American families.  Dodd also discussed how the critically important Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) could be expanded to provide help to more families.   

Download the podcast here:

Remarks as prepared: I’d like to thank you all for coming to this important hearing on the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. For 27 winters, since 1981, LIHEAP has helped millions of people pay their heating bills and keep their families warm.

To the Editor:

Re “Catching Up on Family Values” (editorial, Feb. 26):

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Jack Reed (D-RI) yesterday continued their years-long fight to ensure that Americans are adequately informed of the level of protection contained in sunscreen products against harmful UVA and UVB rays. In the latest of a series of correspondence between the Senators and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, Dodd and Reed sent a letter urging the FDA to finalize a rule it has proposed that will strengthen labeling and testing standards for sunscreen products.  Currently, the FDA requires that sunscreen protect against UVB rays, known for causing sunburn and increasing the incidence of skin cancer, but does not require protection against UVA rays, which are a major cause of skin cancer and premature aging.

Download the podcast here:

After marking the 15^th anniversary of the enactment of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on February 5^th, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Children and Families, discussed how to build upon the success of FMLA in the coming years at a press conference today.  Senator Dodd is the author of FMLA, which has allowed more than 60 million workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave if they are ill or if they need to care for a sick family member or new child.  Among the topics to be discussed at the event will be “The Family Leave Insurance Act,” a bill to provide up to 8 weeks of paid leave under FMLA that was introduced by Senator Dodd and Senator Stevens (R-AK) last year, and the new FMLA regulations recently proposed by the Department of Labor. 

After marking the 15^th anniversary of the enactment of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on February 5^th, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Children and Families, today convened a subcommittee hearing to examine how to build upon the success of the FMLA in the coming years.  Senator Dodd is the author of the FMLA, which has allowed more than 60 million workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave if they are ill or if they need to care for a sick family member or new child.  Among the topics discussed at the hearing were “The Family Leave Insurance Act,” a bill to provide up to 8 weeks of paid leave under the FMLA that was introduced by Senator Dodd and Senator Stevens (R-AK) last year, and the FMLA regulations recently proposed by the Department of Labor.        

A bill that would dramatically reduce child and maternal mortality rates in the developing world was unanimously passed out of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations today. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), author of the Global Child Survival Act of 2007, said that while the committee tackles seemingly large and insurmountable problems throughtout the world, child and maternal mortality is a problem that can be solved in a relatively straightforward and inexpensive manner.