|
Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, gave the following opening statement this morning at a subcommittee markup of H.R. 1008, The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, and seven other public health bills, including his own bill, H.R. 3701, The Keeping Seniors Safe From Falls Act of 2007.
"Good morning. We are here today to mark up eight very important public health bills: H.R. 1108, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act; HR 2063, the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Act; H.R. 1418, the Reauthorization of the Traumatic Brain Injury Act; H.R. 1198, the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act; H.R. 3825, the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act; HR 2464, the Wakefield Act; H.R. 1237, the Cytology Proficiency Improvement Act; and H.R. 3701, the Keeping Seniors Safe from Falls Act. I want to thank my colleagues and chief sponsors of these bills for all of their hard work.
"Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. It kills over 400,000 Americans every year, more than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, illegal drugs, and fires combined.
"Tobacco use is not only dangerous, but also places a tremendous cost burden our health care system. The costs to private and public payers are over $96 billion annually. If you can imagine it, 14% of total Medicaid expenditures go toward treatments for smoking-related diseases. Just last week we held a hearing on the President’s budget request in which he proposes to drastically cut the Medicaid program. If we are in need of cost saving mechanisms for Medicaid, this one, to me, is clear cut: instead of eliminating vital health care services for those who need them, we could achieve billions of dollars in savings by simply keeping people from taking up this dangerous addiction, especially our children
"According to the Centers for Disease Control, every day, 1,140 of our children become new daily smokers. And one-third of those kids will end up dying prematurely from tobacco-related illnesses. As a father of three children, I am especially alarmed by these figures and how our nation’s youth are continually targeted by tobacco companies to get them hooked on their products. This must stop.
"Over ten years ago, the FDA began to implement a comprehensive rule to prevent and reduce tobacco use, particularly among children. But they had to abandon that initiative after being told by the U.S. Supreme Court that they lacked the authority to regulate tobacco products or cigarette company marketing practices. The responsibility therefore falls on us here today to grant the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products, thereby keeping more of our children safe, and saving our health care system billions of dollars.
"Mr. Waxman has worked tirelessly on this issue and has proposed H.R. 1108, a bipartisan bill that seeks to address a critical public health problem; a bill that provides the FDA with the authority to appropriately regulate tobacco products and restrict tobacco product marketing. I am proud to be a co-sponsor of this bill, along with many of my colleagues on the Subcommittee.
"Today, we all have the opportunity to become a part of history. We have the chance to move this legislation forward. By doing so, for the first time, we will provide for the regulation of one of the most harmful products on the open market. I, for one, am proud to be here today to help move this historic piece of legislation forward. I am confident that after far too many years, in this Congress, tobacco regulation legislation will finally see the light of day.
"We are also marking up seven other important public health bills. Let me briefly speak about each of them.
"For the two million plus school-aged children who suffer from food allergies, H.R. 2063, the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act, is vital to keeping children safe by providing schools across the country with guidelines on how to create a safe environment for children with such allergies.
"H.R. 1418, the Reauthorization of the Traumatic Brain Injury Act, will reauthorize grants to states to build or enhance programs that aid children and adults, particularly our soldiers returning from Iraq, with traumatic brain injuries.
"H.R. 1198, the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act, and H.R. 3825, the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act, are two crucially important pieces of legislation to improve screening, early detection, and treatment in our next generation. I thank both Rep. Capps and Rep. Roybal-Allard for their work on these two bills.
"H.R 2464, the Wakefield Act, will enable improvements in emergency medical services for children, and I thank Rep. Matheson for his leadership on this issue.
"H.R. 1237, the Cytology Proficiency Improvement Act, will ensure that all screenings and evaluations of gynecologic cytology preparations are done according to the highest quality standards, and thank you Mr. Gordon and Mr. Deal for your work on this front.
"And finally, H.R. 3701, the Keeping Seniors Safe from Falls Act, is a bill I introduced with my good friend Rep. Ralph Hall, which will strengthen programs designed to prevent falls among older adults.
"I am pleased that we have the opportunity to move all of these bills out of this Subcommittee and hopefully shortly thereafter, sign them into law. I now recognize Mr. Deal for his opening statement."
|
|
