Frank Pallone

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Wild), the lead sponsor of the bill.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Krishnamoorthi).

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Stevens).

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I urge support for this bill, which is bipartisan, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4555.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, oral health is an important component of general health and well-being, but it is a big problem for many Americans. Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease in both children and adults in the United States. More than one in four adults have untreated cavities, and nearly half of American adults show signs of gum disease. Regular preventative dental care can catch these oral health problems early when they are easiest to treat. Unfortunately, less than half of Americans use the oral healthcare system. One of the best ways to promote oral healthcare is to increase oral health literacy. H.R. 4555, the Oral Health Literacy and Awareness Act, will accomplish this by expanding oral health literacy programs. H.R. 4555 will authorize a public education campaign to increase oral health literacy and awareness across all relevant programs of the Health Resources and Services Administration. This bill will also help us learn about the effectiveness of targeted oral health literacy campaigns, and it will inform future efforts to improve oral health literacy for all Americans. I want to thank Representatives Cardenas and Bilirakis, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, for their bipartisan work on this legislation. I urge my colleagues to support this important bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardenas), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee who is the lead sponsor of the bill.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I urge bipartisan support for this bill. As Mr. Cardenas said, there is nothing, really, more important than oral health. We know there are so many times when poor dental care has led to much more severe problems of all sorts, so this is really an important bill. Madam Speaker, I urge its support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bipartisan legislation that will continue to guarantee access to healthcare providers as we confront the COVID-19 pandemic. Nothing could be more important to our seniors than making sure that they have access to doctors during this time. I heard what my colleague on the Republican side said, but I just want to assure everyone that what we are really talking about here is making sure that our seniors can access a doctor, that there are doctors available to help them during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Congress has provided relief to Medicare providers by waiving a 2 percent cut in payments that was created as part of sequestration. This legislation will continue waiving those cuts. It also protects Medicare and other Federal programs by preventing any cuts from occurring as a result of paygo rules. The legislation provides additional relief to healthcare providers by increasing payments under Medicare's physician fee schedule next year and preventing cuts to Medicare payments for lab and oncology services. We have to understand that providers have to keep their doors open. Labs have to be open. During these difficult times, when providers are being stretched to the limit, and labs, oncology services, and everything is being stretched to the limit, if Congress does not take action now and pass this bill, then some healthcare providers will face significant reductions in payments, and that has an impact on our seniors and their ability to get services. This legislation is important for the seniors, and it is important for our constituents. It has bipartisan and bicameral support, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it tonight.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1550.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1550) to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for a public awareness campaign with respect to human papillomavirus, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1550, the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act. This bill will help prevent cancer in thousands of individuals by stepping up our outreach and education to ensure that we are reaching people eligible for human papillomavirus, or HPV vaccines. HPV causes nearly 36,000 cases of cancer in men and women each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that nearly 33,000 of these cases can be prevented through vaccination. The HPV vaccine has been shown to be highly effective in most forms of HPV, and in turn, preventing cancer caused by the virus. For example, women who have been vaccinated against HPV have been shown to be 90 percent less likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer. Mr. Speaker, despite the high efficacy of the vaccines and increased vaccination rates, the rates are still below CDC targets and far lower for HPV than for other recommended vaccines. And while cervical cancer rates have gone down, other types of HPV-associated cancers, including head and neck cancers, have been on the rise. We must do more to improve our outreach to teens and young adults, and this bill does that by creating a national campaign to educate health providers and the public on HPV, HPV-associated cancers, and the importance of HPV vaccines in preventing these cancers. Mr. Speaker, this bipartisan legislation passed unanimously out of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. It deserves our support here on the floor, so please join me in preventing cancer and supporting this bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Castor), the sponsor of the legislation.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 550.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 550, the Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act. This bill would authorize $400 million for grants to expand, enhance, and improve immunization information systems administered by health departments and used by healthcare providers. Immunization information systems, also known as IIS, or immunization registries, are confidential, population-based, computerized databases that record immunization doses administered by providers to patients. They are critical in our fight against COVID-19 and other public health threats like measles and influenza. Local public health officials use IIS to collect, analyze, store, and view aggregated vaccination information, which is kept confidential and separate from identifiable patient information. This information helps them understand overall vaccination levels so they can better guide public health decisions for their communities. IIS also helps patients and healthcare providers by allowing them to view a secure consolidated immunization history, helping them determine appropriate and necessary vaccinations, and reminding patients about vaccination schedules. IIS have been critical in the COVID-19 pandemic. They have helped us understand where vaccines are getting to patients, and where we need to do more to reach people and provide access. They provided near real- time information sharing, allowing State officials and leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to understand vaccination rates and where people are choosing to receive their vaccines. Like all forms of infrastructure, IIS require maintenance and upgrades. As I mentioned, IIS have been an important tool in the fight against COVID-19, but the pandemic has also tested the ability of IIS to keep up with the pace of our massive vaccination efforts. According to the American Immunization Registry Association, one State went from an average of 17,000 doses recorded in its IIS each day to over 500,000 this past spring. This dramatic increase required the State health department to nearly quadruple the number of digital servers used to host the data. These are not one-time costs. Going forward, these new servers and the new data collected during the pandemic will need to be maintained and secured. State and local leaders have also told us that inconsistent and antiquated technology, incomplete provider participation, and faltering interoperability are areas where we must improve to ensure that we have useful and quality data. It is important that the systems used by physicians are able to communicate with the State and local public health departments, and that these systems can also communicate with other States and the CDC. H.R. 550, the bill before us today, addresses these challenges by providing grants for technological upgrades, provider outreach and enrollment, policy development, and a skilled workforce to build and maintain these systems. The legislation also requires the Department of Health and Human Services to create an implementation strategy and set clear data standards that must be followed by all grantees. And this should help ensure that States are coordinated going forward. H.R. 550 will ensure all IIS are brought up to modern standards, help control disease outbreaks, and put our public health infrastructure on a solid foundation for years to come. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representatives Kuster and Bucshon for their bipartisan work on this bill. I urge all Members to support this important bipartisan legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 550) to amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to immunization system data modernization and expansion, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4045) to direct the Federal Communications Commission to establish a task force to be known as the ``6G Task Force'', and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4045.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3743.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2364) to amend title III of the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to provide for a public education campaign to raise public awareness of synthetic opioids, as amended.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 951) to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to carry out a national campaign to increase awareness of the importance of maternal vaccinations for the health of pregnant and postpartum individuals and their children, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 951.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, today, we are continuing our work to combat the maternal mortality and morbidity crisis facing our country. The legislation before us will help ensure that pregnant women and their healthcare providers are aware of the benefits and availability of safe and effective vaccines. Tragically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 700 women die each year in the United States as a result of pregnancy or delivery complications. While there is no one cause of pregnancy-related death or health complications, we know that some illnesses like flu, pertussis, and COVID-19 can cause serious harm to pregnant women, including early labor and delivery and other complications. Vaccines prevent these illnesses and can save the lives of pregnant and postpartum women and their children. However, despite strong evidence of vaccines' safety and efficacy, vaccine uptake among pregnant women is far below targeted goals. We can and should do more to increase the vaccination rate of pregnant women. H.R. 951, the Maternal Vaccination Act, will ensure that our vaccination outreach and awareness campaigns and public health grant programs include outreach to obstetric healthcare providers, as well as pregnant and postpartum women. The legislation will also ensure that we are reaching women from racial and ethnic groups and their children. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support this commonsense public health effort, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.