Expressing the sense of the Congress that there should be established an annual National Visiting Nurse Association Week.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to join the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) and the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Miller) today on this resolution establishing a national Visiting Nurse Associations Week.

As we were growing up, doctors visited homes and nurses visited homes. Today it is seldom that a doctor visits a home unless it is a personal friend; but the visiting nurses just keep right on trucking.

Serving communities around the country for over 120 years, congressional recognizing and gratitude for these nonprofit health agencies is long overdue. The nearly 500 VNAs across the country collectively provide home and community-based services to over 4 million Americans each year. Founded in the 1890s, VNAs have continuously served as charitable providers in their local communities, creating a safety net for the poorest and most chronically ill and functionally disabled individuals. VNAs serve the majority of Medicaid home health beneficiaries and represent nearly one-half of all nonprofit home health agencies in the United States. On average, Medicare and Medicaid represent approximately 82 percent of VNAs' revenue, and this percentage is even greater in rural areas such as my rural congressional district.

Mr. Speaker, this fact is significant because rural America has always been shortchanged in the Medicare payment system. My rural providers are asked to provide the same level of care with less Federal dollars, even though wage rates have largely equalized between rural and urban areas due to the current workforce shortage. The Medicare home health reimbursement was slashed by 15 percent last October, and the 10 percent rural add-on is set to expire this April. Home health providers, including VNAs, are being crippled by these cuts and I will continue to fight as co-chairman of the Home Health Working Group to resist them. In the meantime, I am pleased to introduce this resolution with my colleague from Massachusetts to demonstrate our continued support for these under-recognized heroes.

In a country struggling with staggering health care costs, the Visiting Nurse Association continually and successfully works to achieve its mission of cost-effective and compassionate home and community-based health care to individuals, regardless of the individuals' condition or ability to pay for those services. They are a leading provider of mass immunizations in the Medicare program and constitute over 50 percent of all Medicaid home health admissions. The association relies heavily upon volunteer nurses and reinvests any budget surplus into charity care, adult day care centers, wellness clinics, Meals-on-Wheels, and immunization programs.

This resolution will establish an annual National Visiting Nurse Associations Week in order to increase public awareness of the charity- based organization. They unquestionably deserve recognizing for their noble services; and by establishing this resolution, Congress would support the continuation of their mission.

I want to particularly mention, too, Ruth Ann Nerlich, who has been a part of VNA in Venango County as long as I have been aware. When I served in the State legislature, she was the go-to person State-wide. She was the person that best understood and best sold the message of home health care delivered by the VNA. And also Betsy Roberts of Elk County, who for decades has been a leader in providing home health care.

I want to conclude my comments with when the Balanced Budget Act was passed, there were problems in this country, mainly with for-profit home health care agencies which were really taking advantage of the system. Unfortunately, Congress, at that time, squeezed the system equally, and the Visiting Nurse Associations, scattered around much of this country, were not fat and wasteful. They raised millions of dollars to give free care to those who could not pay. They were made up of boards of local people, in health care and out of health care, who cared about and helped deliver the services that they provided.

So when the Balanced Budget Act cut them and squeezed them about 30 percent, it squeezed some of them out of business. Some of the VNAs in my district today, the only reason they stayed in business, they borrowed money to continue providing those services. They have debt to service today.

Mr. Speaker, it is vital that this 15 percent cut is taken away, and it is vital that the 10 percent add-on that was proven was needed for home health care is continued on past April.

With that, I am proud to recognize these individuals and the invaluable contributions of our VNAs by cosponsoring this legislation, and urge the support of my colleagues.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 54) expressing the sense of the Congress that there should be established an annual National Visiting Nurse Association Week.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the concurrent resolution under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, House Concurrent Resolution 54, introduced by my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), expresses the sense of the Congress that there should be established an annual National Visiting Nurse Association Week.

Mr. Speaker, visiting nurses provide an invaluable medical service to countless people across our great country. For more than 120 years, these admirable citizens have helped to promote health and to prevent disease by providing skilled nursing care in the homes of millions of sick Americans each and every year. These caring nurses treat illnesses of all varieties, from the initial symptoms of the common cold and flu to the gravest stages of heart disease, of AIDS, and of cancer.

I would like to just give an example of one such person. Her name is Marcia Nowc, and she lives in my district, the Tenth Congressional District of Michigan; and she truly epitomizes the hard work and selflessness demonstrated by visiting nurses across our great country.

Her profession is nursing, and while she makes her living doing this, she also volunteers for an organization called Neighbors Caring for Neighbors Outreach Clinic. This clinic provides medical services, laboratory tests and x-rays to some of our most vulnerable families and individuals, often free of charge, thanks to the volunteer efforts of visiting nurses, like Mrs. Nowc. Nurse Nowc's volunteer activities are supported by 16 churches in Macomb County, Michigan; and oftentimes visiting nurses, just in their everyday work, truly demonstrate how faith-based initiatives can provide an essential support system within our communities.

Many of these visiting nurses literally work miracles every day because they give so generously of their time and of their spirit and because they recognize the dignity of every citizen and the possibilities of every life. Many times visiting nurses provide care to those that might be considered on the outer fringe. Perhaps they are underinsured; they may be the working poor or may even be homeless.

Visiting nurse associations are nonprofit home health agencies located throughout the United States that aim to enhance the quality of life of all through comprehensive home and community health services. Often, these organizations provide in-home services that are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to Americans in need. It is truly worthwhile for this House to honor the compassion and the sense of obligation exhibited by visiting nurses for well over a century.

It is not an exaggeration to say that America's visiting nurses are some of our Nation's greatest treasures and greatest traditions. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support the adoption of House Concurrent Resolution 54.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Peterson).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Peterson) for all of the gentleman's excellent work on this legislation.

This is the kind of thing that kind of mystifies the American public sometimes, they do not understand that 80 percent of everything that we do, we agree. Most of the time they only focus on the 20 percent where we disagree. For the vast majority of issues, there is a consensus in terms of what our country should be doing and where we agree. Today I am proud, with these other great Members, to offer this resolution to establish an annual National Visiting Nurse Association Week in honor of the army of health care heroes, who every day comfort, care for and assist our loved ones.

I appreciate the support and the dedication of the Visiting Nurse Associations. Every Member of Congress does, as does every American. Visiting Nurse Associations of today are founded on the principle that the sick, the disabled and the elderly benefit most from health care when it is offered in their own homes.

They are nonprofit home health agencies that provide cost-effective and compassionate home and community-based health care to individuals, regardless of their condition or ability to pay for services.

Through these exceptional organizations, 90,000 clinicians dedicate their lives to bringing health care into the homes of over 4 million Americans every year.

In the face of rising costs and drastic changes in our health care system, visiting nurse associations have continued to deliver high quality health services for over 120 years.

When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow read of the work of Florence Nightingale, he penned a poem, Santa Filomena, that spoke of the keep appreciation owed by all of us to those dedicated to service in the ultimate caring profession, the visiting nurse. He wrote of her as he could have written of every other visiting nurse. ``Whene'er a noble deed is wrought, whe'ever is spoken a noble thought, our hearts, in glad surprise, to higher levels rise.

``The tidal wave of deeper souls into our inmost being rolls, and lifts us unawares out of all meaner cares.''

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to say my own thank you to our Visiting Nurse Associations. Through their work and their philosophy of nursing, they teach us every day about human kindness, the strength of human character, and the true definition of what it means to care. I thank them for their sharp minds, their watchful eyes, their nerves of steel; and, of course, their hearts of gold.

In recognition of their hard work and dedication that visiting nurses bring to the nursing profession, and the comfort and quality care that they provide to patients, I ask Congress to please support this resolution to set aside one week each year to recognize and honor visiting nurses across the country. Democratic, Republican, liberal, conservative, each of us owes them an enduring debt.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), the sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the National Visiting Nurse Association of America, VNAA, is the official association for not-for-

profit, community-based home health organizations known as Visiting Nurse Associations. VNAs care for patients of all ages, from infants to the elderly, and offer comprehensive services that begin with maternal- child health programs and end with hospice care. VNAs provide a broad range of essential home health care and support services to patients in the security and comfort of their homes. These services include skilled nursing, rehabilitation, physical and occupational therapies, speech- language pathology, home medical equipment, and behavioral and mental health counseling, to name just a few.

Many VNAs provide homemaker services that help patients remain independent in their home while reducing the burden on family members. These services can include cooking, housekeeping, shopping, transportation, personal care, and a variety of other essential nonmedical services.

These services are critical at a time when the latest projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, published in the November 2001 Monthly Labor Review, estimated that more than 1 million new and replacement nurses will be needed by the year 2010. The U.S. Department of Labor projects a 21 percent increase in the need for nurses nationwide from 1998 to 2008, compared with a 14 percent increase for all other occupations.

Furthermore, according to a July 2001 report released by the General Accounting Office titled Nursing Workforce: Emerging Nurse Shortages Due to Multiple Factors (GAO-01-944), ``a serious shortages of nurses is expected in the future as democratic pressures influence both supply and demand. The future demand for nurses is expected to increase dramatically as the baby boomers reach their sixties, seventies and beyond.''

As baby boomers age, the role of visiting nurses is more important, as patients spend less time in the hospital and demand the same quality of services at home. VNAs contribute to the well-being of the Nation, and I urge my colleagues to support this resolution as we pay special tribute to those who come into our homes, into our places of being, and bring not only their technical and professional services, but also bring the individuality of their care.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Con. Res. 54, a bill expressing the sense of the Congress that we should establish an annual National Visiting Nurse Association Week.

As you know, Mr. Speaker, the visiting nurse associations are nonprofit home health agencies that, for over 120 years, have been united in their mission to provide cost-effective and compassionate home and community-based health care to individuals, regardless of the individuals' condition or ability to pay for services. There are more than 500 visiting nurse associations, which employ more than 90,000 clinicians, provide health care to more than 4,000,000 people each year--with 95,000 visits in Florida alone--and provide a critical safety net in communities by developing a network of community support services that enable individuals to live independently at home.

In my home state, the Visiting Nurse Association of Florida serves 13 counties with a complete array of home health services. With headquarters in Stuart since 1976, VNA last year provided more than $346,000 in charitable care to the most vulnerable in our communities.

The establishment of an annual National Visiting Nurse Association Week would increase public awareness of the charity-based missions of visiting nurse associations and of their ability to meet the needs of chronically ill and disabled individuals who prefer to live at home rather than in nursing homes, and would spotlight preventive health clinics, adult day care programs, and other customized wellness programs that meet local community needs. I encourage all of my colleagues to join me today in support of this important resolution.