Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions
Floor Speech
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - March 31, 2009)
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By Mrs. BOXER (for herself and Mrs. Feinstein):
S. 748. A bill to redesignate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2777 Logan Avenue in San Diego, California, as the ``Cesar E. Chavez Post Office''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today I join Representative SUSAN DAVIS in commemorating Cesar E. Chavez's 82nd birthday by introducing legislation to name a post office in San Diego, CA, after this extraordinary civil rights activist and union leader.
Today we join millions of people across this Nation in honoring Cesar Chavez's legacy as an educator, environmentalist, and a civil rights leader who was committed to providing fair wages, better working conditions, decent housing, and quality education for all. As an activist, Chavez worked to give a voice to the voiceless, and inspire millions of Americans to stand up and say, ``Si, Se Puede!''
As a migrant farm worker in his youth, Cesar E. Chavez learned about the struggles of farm workers including poor wages, poor medical coverage, and poor working conditions. When he returned from serving his country in the Navy during World War II, Chavez began to work to improve this situation, first by organizing for the Community Service Organization coordinating voter-registration drives and battling racial and economic discrimination.
In 1962 Cesar Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association, later to become the United Farm Workers, the largest farm workers union in the country. Using nonviolent tactics, such as boycotts, pickets, and strikes, Chavez raised awareness about the plight of farm workers. Cesar Chavez's unflagging determination made great strides in championing the rights of farm workers, but the struggle for farm workers continues. This year, thousands of workers across California are preparing to march, and continue the fight for their rights.
Cesar Chavez's life and legacy should serve not only as an example but an inspiration to us all as we work to address the growing inequality in our nation, as well as the challenges faced by America's working families, including poverty, health care, and education.
Fifteen years ago, President Clinton awarded Cesar Chavez the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in recognition of his great contributions to our Nation. Today we remember his work not only for the U.S., but also for the communities and people of the State of California.
San Diego is a city with a rich cultural heritage, and a history of community organizing and activism that shares its roots with Cesar Chavez's lifelong struggle for justice and equality. Cesar Chavez accomplished a great deal to improve living and working conditions for all people, and I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill to recognize his work and his memory.
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By Mrs. BOXER (for herself and Ms. Collins):
S. 750. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to attract and retain trained health care professionals and direct care workers dedicated to providing quality care to the growing population of older Americans; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, the need for health care reform is undeniable and we must undertake comprehensive efforts to provide quality care for our Nation's diverse populations, particularly older Americans. Our aging population is expected to almost double in number, from 37 million people today to about 72 million by 2030. If we fail to prepare, our Nation will face a crisis in providing care to these older Americans. We must start now if we are going to adequately train the health care workforce to meet the needs of an aging America.
Health care providers with the necessary training to give older Americans the best care are in critically short supply. In its landmark report, Retooling for an Aging America, the Institute of Medicine concluded that action must be taken immediately to address the severe workforce shortages in the care of older adults.
According to the Institute of Medicine, only about 7,100 U.S. physicians are certified geriatricians today; 36,000 are needed by 2030. Just 4 percent of social workers and only 3 percent of advance practice nurses specialize in geriatrics. Recruitment and retention of direct care workers is also a looming crisis due to low wages and few benefits, lack of career advancement, and inadequate training.
Preparing our workforce for the job of caring for older Americans is an essential part of ensuring the future health of our nation. Right now, there is a critical shortage of health care providers with the necessary training and skills to provide our seniors with the best possible care. This is a tremendously important issue for American families who are concerned about quality of care and quality of life for their older relatives and friends.
It is clear that there is a need for federal action to address these issues, and that is why Senator Collins and I are introducing the Caring for an Aging America Act. This legislation would help attract and retain trained health care professionals and direct care workers dedicated to providing quality care to the growing population of older Americans by providing them with meaningful loan forgiveness and career advancement opportunities.
Specifically, for health professionals who complete specialty training in geriatrics or gerontology--including physicians, physician assistants, advance practice nurses, social workers, pharmacists and psychologists--the legislation would link educational loan repayment to a service commitment to the aging population, modeled after the successful National Health Services Corps. The bill would also expand loan repayment for registered nurses who complete specialty training in geriatric care and who choose to work in long-term care settings, and expand career advancement opportunities for direct care workers by offering specialty training in long-term care services. Lastly, the legislation would establish a health and long-term care workforce advisory panel for an aging America.
In addition, I was pleased to work with the Alzheimer's Association and the American Geriatrics Society to ensure that this legislation will also help provide a workforce to meet the needs of older Americans with dementia, Alzheimer's and other cognitive disorders.
Ensuring we have a well-trained health care workforce with the skills to care for our aging population is a critical investment in America's future. This legislation offers a modest but important step toward creating the future health care workforce that our Nation so urgently needs.
I look forward to working with Senator Collins and our colleagues to ensure that we meet our obligations to the seniors of our Nation to improve their care.
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By Mrs. BOXER:
S. 755. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Director of the National Cancer Institute to make grants for the discovery and validation of biomarkers for use in risk stratification for, and the early detection and screening of, ovarian cancer; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, as we engage in the debate on health care reform, it is critical that we address the need to invest in health research and innovation to spur the development of new treatments and cures for diseases. Today, I am proud to introduce two bills, S. 755 and S. 756, that would direct Federal investment in new programs that would develop tools to detect ovarian and prostate cancers.
We know that early and reliable detection of these cancers can save lives. These bills make sure we have the tools we need to catch these cancers early, when they can be treated thereby significantly increasing survival rates.
First, the Ovarian Cancer Biomarker Research Act provides funding for research directed toward the development of reliable screening techniques for ovarian cancer--a critical investment in the future of any woman who will face ovarian cancer.
Though only one in 72 women will face ovarian cancer in their lifetime, this disease ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women and causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. In the last year alone, the National Cancer Institute, NCI, estimated there were 15,520 deaths from ovarian cancer in the U.S.
For many years, ovarian cancer has been called the ``silent killer'' because too often women are diagnosed with this disease too late to be saved. But when ovan cancer is diagnosed early, more than 93 percent of women survive longer than 5 years. Because there is currently no effective screening test available, 4 out of 5 ovarian cancer cases in the U.S. are diagnosed in the later stages, when a woman's chance of surviving more than 5 years drops to 46 percent.
The Ovarian Cancer Biomarker Research Act would authorize NCI to make grants for public or nonprofit entities to establish research centers focused on ovarian cancer biomarkers. Biomarkers are biochemical features within the body that can be used to measure the progress of a disease and predict the effects of treatment. This legislation also authorizes funding for a national clinical trial that will enroll at-risk women in a study to determine the clinical utility of using these validated ovarian cancer biomarkers.
The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, and the American College of Surgeons have all joined together in support of this research developing tools to detect ovarian cancer early, because they know it is critical to improving the rate of survival for women struck by this disease.
The second bill, the Prostate Imaging, Research and Men's Education Act, addresses the urgent need for the development of new technologies to detect and diagnose prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in the U.S., and the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in men--striking 1 in every 6 men. In 2008, it was estimated that more than 186,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, and more than 28,000 men died from the disease.
The Prostate Research, Imaging, and Men's Education Act, or PRIME Act, would mirror the investment the Federal Government made in advanced imaging technologies, which led to life-saving breakthroughs in detection, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. This bill directs the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to expand prostate cancer research, and provides the resources to develop innovative advanced imaging technologies for prostate cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment.
In addition, the PRIME Act would create a national campaign to increase awareness about the need for prostate cancer screening, and works with the Offices of Minority Health at HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ensure that this information reaches the men most at risk from this disease.
The PRIME Act will also promote research that improves prostate cancer screening blood tests. According to a National Cancer Institute study, current blood tests result in false-negative reassurances and numerous false-positive alarms. Some 15 percent of men with normal blood test levels actually have prostate cancer. Even when levels are abnormal, some 88 percent of men end up not having prostate cancer but undergo unnecessary biopsies. Furthermore, the prostate is one of the last organs in a human body where biopsies are performed blindly, which can miss cancer even when multiple samples are taken.
Government initiatives in research and education can be the key to diagnosing prostate or ovarian cancers earlier and more accurately. These two bills would strengthen our efforts to fight these diseases.
These bills are of vital importance to thousands of men and women across our great Nation, and the families and friends who are concerned for their continued health. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate to get these bills passed as soon as possible.
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