Nathan Deal

Mr. DEAL of Georgia

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material on the bill.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Concurrent Resolution 426, a resolution offered by the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Joe Barton of Texas, and the ranking member of the committee, Mr. John Dingell of Michigan. Today the House is honoring the 100th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration, an organization responsible for ensuring the gold standard of safety for the medical products Americans use and the foods we consume. For a century now, the dedicated public servants at FDA have worked professionally and tirelessly to promote public health by regulating drugs, biologics, medical devices and cosmetics in a science-based way. As a result of their continued efforts, the United States stands alone, rightfully laying claim to the safest and most effective medical product supply in the world. Additionally, the agency's vigilant work on food safety protects us against natural and man-made threats to the safety of the foods we eat. The long-standing tradition of professionalism and diligence of this importance agency, which regulates roughly 25 percent of our gross domestic product, continues today under the able leadership of the Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs, Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach. Under his leadership, the FDA enters its second century of service, with both a broad history and a bright future. As chairman of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, I look forward to continuing to work closely with Dr. von Eschenbach and his agency's outstanding staff on many important public health issues. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Dr. von Eschenbach and the more than 10,000 civil servants for their continued service to the American people who are safer and healthier because of their efforts. Again, I would like to commend Chairman Barton and Ranking Member Dingell for offering this worthy resolution and for their strong leadership on FDA-related issues. I encourage all of my colleagues to support this resolution. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I have no other additional speakers, and I will be prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, we are not here today to say that the Food and Drug Administration is infallible. They certainly have made mistakes, as I am sure every Member of this body has made mistakes. We are here, though, to say that over the past 100 years, there have been tens of thousands of FDA employees who have dedicated their lives to ensuring that our food and our medical products are safe. Time and again, Congress has entrusted fundamental safety responsibilities to the FDA. We do not have a perfect system, but because of the dedicated public servants at the FDA, the United States stands alone as having the safest and most effective medical products supply in the world. In 2002, we entrusted the FDA with new authorities to protect our food supply from terrorist threats. Every day, the employees at the FDA go to work to protect the best interests of the American people. Although we may have disagreements over particular issues, we are better off as a country by having the dedicated individuals at the FDA working for the American people. We should not politicize a resolution that seeks to recognize their hard work. Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this concurrent resolution. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5573) to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide additional authorizations of appropriations for the health centers program under section 330 of such Act.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5573, the Health Centers Renewal Act of 2006, which is legislation to reauthorize the Community Health Center program for another 5 years. As we learned from the hearings we held last month in the Subcommittee on Health, the Community Health Center program has been an unprecedented success, and community health centers are an integral part of this country's health care delivery system, providing quality health care services to people and communities that would otherwise not have access to such care. We are sticking with the old maxim of not fixing something that isn't broken, and this legislation represents simply a straight reauthorization of that program and seeks to build upon the success of the program by significantly increasing the levels of authorized funding. I am proud to sponsor this legislation, along with my friend, Mr. Green of Texas and Mr. Michael Bilirakis of Florida, and I would like to thank the 24 members of the Energy and Commerce Committee who have joined us as cosponsors of this bill. Again, I encourage all of my colleagues to support this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), who has been one of the cosponsors of this legislation and a leading supporter of community health centers.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood).

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy), a member of the committee who has been very supportive of community health centers and has some very good ideas for additional improvements.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I would reserve my time pending the right to close.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Bradley).

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to thank Mr. Davis for a very inspiring testimonial of the importance of community health centers, and to learn of his longtime dedication to them, and I thank him for that. I yield 2 minutes to my colleague, Mr. Shays.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time and would urge the adoption of this resolution.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5574) to amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize support for graduate medical education programs in children's hospitals, as amended.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5574, the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Support Reauthorization Act of 2006, which is legislation to reauthorize the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Payment Program for another 5 years. Without question, Children's Hospitals are an integral part of this country's health care delivery system. They improve health outcomes by providing a unique set of specialized health care services and treatment options for children. The Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Payment Program is designed to provide financial assistance to children's teaching hospitals which do not receive significant Federal support for their resident and intern training programs through Medicare because of their low Medicare patient volume. By reauthorizing this important but relatively young program, we are able to help ensure that the mission of these teaching hospitals is continued. I am also proud to say that this legislation makes improvement to the program by strongly encouraging the participating hospitals to report important new data measures to the Department of Health and Human Services. I am proud to sponsor this legislation with my friend from Ohio and the ranking member of the health subcommittee, Mr. Brown. And I would like to thank the 20 members of the Energy and Commerce Committee who joined us as original cosponsors of this bill. I would also like to commend Chairman Deborah Pryce of Ohio and Chairman Nancy Johnson of Connecticut for their strong and continued leadership on this important issue. Again, I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Pryce).

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy), member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to one of the real leaders in this area, the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson).

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the author of this resolution, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Pryce).

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 323) supporting efforts to increase childhood cancer awareness, treatment, and research, as amended.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to add extraneous material to the resolution.

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in support of House Resolution 323, a resolution authored by my colleague, Representative Pryce of Ohio. This resolution expresses support for efforts to increase childhood cancer awareness, treatment, and research. Just uttering the word ``cancer'' conjures up a fearful imagery. All of us can name a friend, a neighbor, coworker, or family member whose life has been touched by this terrible disease. Many here today have gone through or are going through the ordeal of cancer. Thankfully, more and more people are continuing to lead full and productive lives both during and after cancer. And while it is a tragedy whenever cancer takes someone's life, the tragedy is only intensified when cancer cuts short the life of a child. As a parent and as a grandparent, I can only imagine hearing these dreadful news stories that my child or my grandchild may have been diagnosed with incurable cancer. That would be a terrible story to hear. The impact on families going through such shock and sadness is truly profound. Parents would do anything to cure their son or daughter. All of us long for the day when a cure is found and cancer is eradicated from the face of the earth. With advances in science and medicine, we are getting closer every day. But while research for many forms of cancer is vibrant and moving steadily forward, childhood cancer research lags behind in many ways. Promising avenues for research remain unexplored. There are several reasons why this is true. First, because childhood cancer is rare, it doesn't receive the same attention as more common adult cancers. Second, as a further consequence of this rarity, there is less known about the causes of childhood cancer. This hinders efforts to create effective treatment and prevention strategies. Finally, because children's young bodies are still developing, they present special problems for administering the powerful cancer therapies that are often used on adults. The purpose of the resolution before us today is to draw public attention to these issues and to call for increased public and private efforts to address the problem of childhood cancer. One issue that deserves our attention is the lack of professionals specializing in childhood cancer. We need to encourage more health professionals and students to enter this important field. Work with children who have cancer is a very difficult job and the burnout rate is high. It takes a very special combination of compassion and toughness for a caregiver to remain at a child's side as cancer takes its toll on his or her body. We need caring people of many backgrounds, including physicians, nurse practitioners, data managers, research assistants and other health care professionals to take childhood cancer research and treatment forward. These professionals can ensure that as many children as possible are able to reap the benefits of research through clinical trials and other opportunities. While the job of working with childhood cancer patients is tough, the payoff is high. Every ray of a child's smile and every extra day a family spends with their loved one can make all the difference. Another issue we should consider very carefully is the availability of cutting edge cancer treatments. Experts say the future of cancer research lies in targeted treatments that are specially engineered to treat an individual person's cancer. These are the so-called designer cancer treatments. Designer treatments can attack a cancerous tumor while saving healthy cells in the body. This approach offers the hope of a cure with fewer side effects. With the availability of such treatments, there is less need for children to endure difficult chemotherapy and other harsh treatments that may cause severe and lifelong side effects such as blindness and hearing loss. While designer cancer treatments hold great promise, they require high-tech equipment and a host of specialty trained professionals to make them a reality. Each drug is specially tailored for an individual patient, making the drugs labor intensive and prohibitively expensive to produce. While we should continue to explore both public and private options to provide these drugs to as many children and adults as possible, we should resist the temptation to impose price controls that would discourage these cutting-edge technologies from coming to fruition. Price controls of all kinds are ineffective in lowering the price of a product and cause more harm than good. Rather than getting the drugs to more people, they will cause fewer drugs to be manufactured and everyone's access will be diminished. Through research, public awareness, education and wise public policy, we can make strides in the fight against childhood cancer. With this resolution, we are calling attention to the problem of childhood cancer and supporting efforts to improve its diagnosis and treatment. Again, I commend Ms. Pryce for her leadership on this issue, and I encourage my colleagues to support this important resolution. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.