Senate HELP Committee Sends 4 Bipartisan Public Health Bills to Senate Floor

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 26, 2017 – The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee today voted overwhelmingly to send four bipartisan public health bills to the Senate floor. 

Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said: “Today our committee continues its tradition of working together to get results for American families by approving four bipartisan bills. These health bills will help states screen and link to follow-up care for infants with hearing loss, identify ways to improve federal programs to prevent diabetes and other diseases, ensure first responders can administer life-saving treatments, and improve public health preparedness to combat the Zika virus. I urge the Senate to swiftly take up these bills.”

The bills now ready for consideration include:  

·       Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) – Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act (S. 652): If you’re a parent with a newborn, infant, or young child, this bill will support state-based efforts to screen them for hearing loss and ensure proper follow-up care, including diagnosis and early intervention.

·       Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine)  – National Clinical Care Commission Act (S.920): This bill will create a commission of leading experts to study complex metabolic or autoimmune diseases, like diabetes. The commission will recommend improvements to federal programs that work to help prevent diseases like diabetes or educate patients on their condition.  

·         Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Michael Bennet (D- Colo.) – Protecting Patient Access to Emergency Medications Act of 2017 (S.916) : If someone is the victim of a life-threatening emergency, like a burn victim or a child experiencing a seizure, this bill ensures that he or she will continue to have access to time-sensitive and life-saving treatments under the supervision of a physician. 

·         Sens. Angus King (I- Maine), Richard Burr (R-N.C.),  Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) – Strengthening Mosquito Abatement for Safety and Health (SMASH) Act (S.849): This bill will improve public health preparedness capabilities to help combat the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases that threaten public health by reauthorizing and strengthening key programs that support state and local mosquito surveillance and control efforts and response activities to protect against infectious diseases, such as the Zika virus.

# # #