Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Chair, I am proud to be a sponsor of H.R. 1309 for a multiplicity of reasons, and I thank Mr. Courtney for introducing this legislation.

Madam Chair, I am proud to tell you also that within my congressional district in Houston, Texas, we have the largest medical center in the world.

Madam Chair, annually, the Houston Medical Center encounters 10 million patients. The Houston Medical Center also, Madam Chair, has 106,000 employees. The Houston Medical Center is 17 times larger than the average city in the United States of America.

We understand the scope of this problem, and there is a problem. But, sometimes, problems are not best explained with statistical information. Sometimes, the words of people can make the difference in understanding a problem.

I have within my hand a letter from the National Nurses United organization. Hear now their words:

Violence on the job has become endemic for RNs and other workers in healthcare and social assistance settings. Nurses report being punched, kicked, bitten, beaten, and threatened with violence as they provide care to others. Far too many have experienced stabbing and shootings.

Madam Chair, the evidence is overwhelming. We do have a problem. To understand the scope of the problem, you have to have some intelligence accorded some repository so that it can be properly assessed. The Secretary of Labor will be the repository. We will get the information to the Secretary.

But this is not enough, to merely have the Secretary of Labor have the sense of what the scope is. The buck stops with Congress. Congress needs to know the scope of the problem. If changes are necessary and not being made, the buck stops with us. We will have to encounter this, and we will have to take up our duty, responsibility, and obligation to provide the proper legislation.

With this understanding, we have filed amendment No. 6. This amendment understands that the Secretary will receive the information, and then this amendment would require the Secretary to annually report to Congress so that Congress will have the transparency that the Secretary has so that Congress may take appropriate action when necessary. Understanding the scope of the problem helps you understand the scope of a necessary solution, if there is one.

Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. I claim the time in opposition, Madam Chair.

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Chair, may I inquire what time is remaining.

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Chair, the gentlewoman from North Carolina and I are very dear friends, and I have great respect for her. In fact, I have a deep, abiding affinity for her humanity.

But, today, I am reminded of the words of Ruth Smeltzer. Ruth Smeltzer reminds us that:

Some measure their lives by days and years, Others by heartthrobs, passions, and tears; But the surest measure under the Sun, Is what in your lifetime for others you have done.

Madam Chair, this day provides us an opportunity to do something for others who are in harm's way, who are caregivers, and who are doing what they can to provide the kind of healthcare services that we need. They do it at great risk. We are the people who can minimize that risk. It is our responsibility to do for others what we would have others do for us. If I were a healthcare worker, I would want Congress to take this kind of appropriate action to protect me.

I also would remind my colleagues that if we do nothing, at some point, we will find people reluctant to go into this area of endeavor. Who wants to go to work with the fear of being harmed?

I love my dear lady from North Carolina, but we respectfully disagree. The buck stops here.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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