Asthmatic Schoolchildrens Treatment and Health Management Act of 2004

ASTHMATIC SCHOOLCHILDREN'S TREATMENT AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - October 05, 2004)

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Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, millions of Americans, including my wife, suffer from asthma. In a classroom of 30 children, on the average, three are likely to have asthma. The disease killed more than 200 American children in the year 2000. Some States, however, prohibit children from carrying emergency asthma medicine to school. Some of these prohibitions occur despite the fact that parents have authorized the medication's use. This creates an unnecessary delay in administering these medications, when it only takes seconds for an asthma attack sometimes to turn deadly.

The ASTHMA Act, H.R. 2023, encourages States to modernize their laws. I commend my friend the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) for his leadership on this legislation and my friend, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns), for introducing the proposal.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has done terrific work in examining and recommending strategies for combating asthma in school- based situations and has laid out six strategies for addressing asthma in schools. This bill also commends those efforts.

Allowing children to self-administer their asthma medication will save lives and will make our schools healthier and safer. I am pleased to support this important legislation.

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Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy), my friend.

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Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.