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.    

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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.

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.

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.

This morning, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and John Larson (D-CT-1) toured the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) in Hartford and led a roundtable discussion on the impact of the federal budget on children's health, and in particular their concerns about the President's proposal to eliminate the Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Payment Program. Sen. Dodd and Rep. Larson were joined by CCMC President and Chief Executive Officer Martin J. Gavin, staff of CCMC, including physicians and pediatric residents, and CCMC patients and families.

“In his last budget as President, Bush has turned his back on programs that would ensure the safety and health of our nation’s children. From universal newborn screening to massive cuts in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to mental health and substance abuse treatment and prevention programs, President Bush is proposing that we pay for his tax cuts on the backs of America’s most vulnerable citizens. His health care proposal includes several recycled proposals that will do nothing to help the 47 million uninsured Americans and the millions more that are underinsured.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a leading advocate for the safety and efficacy of medicines used by children, today applauded the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Public Health Advisory that over-the-counter cold and cough medications should not be used in children under the age of two. However, he renewed his call for the FDA to act on the recommendations of its advisory committees concerning the safety and efficacy of these medications for older children between the ages of two and six.

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) applauded unanimous Senate passage of their legislation that will educate parents and health care providers about newborn health screening, improve follow-up care for infants with an illness detected through newborn screening, and help states expand and improve their newborn screening programs.

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) today introduced legislation which will help prevent thousands of new pediatric HIV infections, improve the treatment of children living with HIV/AIDS throughout the world, and improve outcomes for HIV-affected women and families.  The “Global Pediatric HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment Act of 2007” provides a comprehensive, five-year strategy to prevent new HIV infections in children and to ensure that the treatment of children infected with HIV keeps pace with their infection rate.