Brown Announces Passage of Bill to Reauthorize Funding to Train Doctors Specializing in Children's Health

Press Release

Today, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on the "Role of Manufacturing Hubs in a 21st Century Innovation Economy." During the hearing, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) urged for passage of the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2013, bipartisan legislation which would establish a Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NMI) to position the United States as, once again, the global leader in advanced manufacturing. The bill, introduced with U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), would ensure that the U.S. can out-innovate the rest of the world while creating thousands of high-paying, high-tech manufacturing jobs. Following the hearing, Brown offered the following statement:

"We know that manufacturing has strong ripple effects on the rest of our economy and helped to grow America's middle class," Brown said. "That is why it's necessary that we maintain the United States' role as a global leader in emerging technologies. The Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2013 would do this by ensuring American workers, universities, and large and small manufacturers can out-compete and out-innovate the rest of the world. This would lead to better jobs, better wages, and a better future for the United States and its middle class."

Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced Senate passage of legislation to reauthorize funding for the Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program. CHGME, which ensures continued medical training for professionals treating children, has provided funding to seven Ohio children's hospitals in the past. While serving in the U.S. House of Representatives as the Ranking Democrat on a key health subcommittee, Brown authored the Children's Hospitals Education and Research Act of 1998, which first proposed the CHGME program.

"Children's hospitals from Cincinnati to Columbus to Cleveland--and across our country--depend on CHGME funding to ensure that their doctors have the right training to treat sick children," Brown said. "Ohio families and their children count on receiving the highest quality care at our state's top-notch children's hospitals--and that means receiving care from physicians specially trained to treat children."

In April 2013, Brown led 26 Senators in a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee seeking continued funding in fiscal year 2014, and in February 2013, he wrote the President to urge full funding of the program in light of the President's budget request which would have reduced funding by 66 percent. CHGME was funded at $269.4 million in fiscal year 2013; the new Senate reauthorization seeks funding at $300 million per year.

Created by Congress in 1999, the CHGME program allows children's hospitals to sustain, improve, and expand teaching and training programs. As a result, these hospitals are working to reverse a decline in pediatric residencies that began in the 1990s. A survey conducted in 2011 by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions found that significant doctor shortages in many pediatric specialties is delaying the ability of children to gain access to timely care. These shortages contribute to vacancies in children's hospitals that often last 12 months or more.

Ohio is home to seven institutions that have depended upon on CHGME funds. A list of these facilities and funds they have received in prior years from the CHGME program can be found below.

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