Automatic Defibrillation in Adam's Memory Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 389) to authorize the use of certain grant funds to establish an information clearinghouse that provides information to increase public access to defibrillation in schools.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 389.

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

Mr. Speaker, what I have before me is an emergency external defibrillator, and that is the purpose of the bill we have on the floor as we speak. It is an incredible device that saves lives, and that is what this legislation is a means to address.

As one of the original co-sponsors of this bill and as a proud member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, I would like to commend all of those who have worked to bring this legislation to the floor.

This is a training model of an AED, an acronym that stands for Automatic External Defibrillator. While the training device cannot save a life, AEDs can and have in every corner of the States. While many know about our Chicago airports which have lead the Nation establishing public access to defibrillation programs, I would like to tell you the story about Sean Morely. Sean is a 13-year-old boy from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, whose life was saved because of an AED. While playing baseball Sean was hit in the chest by a fastball. He went into sudden cardiac arrest, a condition where the victim's heart most commonly flutters in the chest, but does not provide the body with oxygenated blood. Within 10 minutes, there is nearly zero chance of saving a cardiac arrest victim's life. But Sean was lucky. A passing police officer from another district used the defibrillator in the trunk of his car to restore a normal heart beat for the young athlete.

It is important to realize that defibrillation is the only way to restart a sudden cardiac arrest victim's heart. Without that defibrillator, this story would have had a much different ending.

Stories like these have driven State governments to pass bills requiring AEDs in numerous locations. The Adam Act will help our local communities by setting up a national clearinghouse to provide schools with how-to and technical advice to set up public access defibrillation programs. It will ensure that schools have access to the appropriate training, successful fund-raising techniques, and other logistics involved. This is particularly helpful to smaller school districts that do not have the local resources such as a major hospital that often exist in more urban areas.

The clearinghouse will also collect data on a large scale, an effort to allow for research with issues related to cardiac death in children and adolescents.

Over 200,000 Americans die each year of sudden cardiac arrest including children. The American Heart Association estimates that about 50,000 of these victims' lives could be saved each year with a strong chain of survival. The chain of survival includes an immediate call to 911, early CPR and defibrillation, and the arrival of early advanced life support.

Please do not think that your community does not need this type of assistance. Consider that the average emergency response time is about 12 minutes. That is 2 minutes after a cardiac arrest victim is beyond help. The small cost in supplying this technology to our schools will be returned in full and by the length of service of years to the community for each young life saved.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate all my friends and colleagues who have worked on this legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), chairman of the full committee.

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

I, too, want to mention the support from my colleague who just spoke, the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps), who has really become a champion on a lot of health care-related items, and so when we get her on our team that is a good teammate to have, and I do appreciate that.

There is a health care crisis in America. There is a health care crisis in rural America. I think the point that 10 minutes, the response time being 12 minutes for the response time from most paramedics, 10 minutes is too short of a time. They cannot get there. That poses this need for this bill. That chain of survival, the E-911. We had the E-911 Caucus that helped us locate individuals, CPR, defibrillation and other life support measures.

This is an important bill and I appreciate the committee and my friends on the Democratic side for helping move this expeditiously to the floor. I ask my colleagues to support this bill.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, let me congratulate the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) for this extraordinary bill. This is indeed a life saver. There are many things we do in this House that affect people's pocketbooks or the way in which we do business in this country or the way in which we live in our communities. This one saves lives. And when we have these important bills we ought to really be grateful to the authors who bring them forward and who gave so much time and attention to it, as the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) has done.

This bill, H.R. 389, the Automatic Defibrillation in Adam's Memory Act, is a simple clarification of a grant program authorized already by the Public Health Security and Bio-terrorism Response Act for States, Indian tribes and localities to develop and implement public access defibrillation programs. Because many schools also serve as community meeting places, several communities are considering placing the AEDs in their schools. In order to assist the schools interested in installing these AEDs, this bill clarifies that the public access defibrillation program grant dollars already authorized may also be used to establish information clearinghouses to assist in these efforts.

Automatic external defibrillators, AEDs, are widely used by emergency personnel and health professionals to assist individuals suffering from sudden cardiac arrest. The use of AEDs has proven effective to save lives when following the chain-of-survival plan developed by the American Heart Association, which includes an immediate call to 911, early CPR and defibrillation, and early advanced life support.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in this country. AEDs have proven helpful in reducing the number of cardiac arrest fatalities and expanding the use of these medical devices will undeniably help save more lives.

Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) and my friend, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. John), for all the work our committee did in a bipartisan fashion to bring this bill forward.

The gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. John) may not remember this, but when Dudley LeBlanc was a senator in the State senate in Louisiana, I watched as he suffered a massive cardiac arrest in the house chamber. And I watched as a defibrillation team came in and saved his life in front of all the other members, a dramatic, if you will, example of how this technology can really save lives.

Again, I thank both the gentlemen, but also to all the members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce for the great work they have done in bringing this bill forward. I urge my colleagues in the House to adopt it expeditiously.

Mr. President, as I mentioned earlier, we have had a productive week. We have moved forward and we have debated and we have amended the prescription drug Medicare bill. We have discussed such issues as asset testing, generic drugs, and appropriate premiums. Yesterday we discussed drug reimportation and the issue surrounding pharmacies and mail order prescriptions. We have made good progress over the last 5 days on this legislation. I want to express my sincere appreciation to my colleagues for their attention and for their very diligent participation. If we look back over the last several days, we see some other things we have been able to accomplish at the same time we have been on this bill.

Indeed, the Senate has had H.R. 389, which will help increase public access to defibrillation in schools. We passed a series of bills reported by Chairman Domenici and the Energy Committee relating to historic sites and trails to watershed studies and to recreation areas. We passed S. 1276, which strengthens the AmeriCorps program and allows our national volunteer program to be more efficient.

This week we were able to adopt a conference report to accompany S. 342, the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act. This bill will assist in the dissemination of information of child abuse programs and the availability of psychological services for child victims.

The Senate also agreed to conference with the House on the child tax credit legislation, allowing that bill to move forward and differences between this body and the House to be worked out.

Lastly--this reminds me that on tomorrow, summer begins officially-- with the approach of summer, I would be remiss if I did not mention that the Senate passed S. 1015, the Mosquito Abatement for Safety and Health Act. This legislation authorizes grants for mosquito control programs to prevent mosquito-borne diseases.

This morning--again, I have great delight because it was on behalf and at the instigation of and with the leadership of my colleague from the great State of Tennessee, Senator Alexander, who brought forth the bill--the American History and Civics Education Act passed unanimously on a rollcall vote.

Next week we will resume the prescription drug/Medicare bill, and hopefully we will pass that--not hopefully, I am confident we will pass that bill prior to the beginning of the July 4 recess.

I thank all of my colleagues.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) for this piece of legislation, and I also want to thank my distinguished colleague from California (Mrs. Capps) for being the prime sponsor of this very important piece of legislation, House Resolution 389, the Adam Act or the Auto Defibrillation in Adam's Memory Act. This is an important piece of legislation that will authorize the appropriation of resources to establish a much-needed clearinghouse providing information to increase public awareness to successful life-saving tools and programs.

Mr. Speaker, as we all know, heart disease is the single leading cause of death in America. This year alone over 1 million people will suffer from cardiac attacks, or coronary attacks. Over half of these people will die, and half of those will die before they reach the hospitals. Additionally, 60 percent of the heart-related deaths are due to cardiac arrest, and half of those occur in the patient before they can reach the hospital.

It is vitally important to ensure that victims of heart disease and cardiac arrest are able to receive immediate medical attention, first responders right at the site. The Adam Act will help enable Americans to recognize and respond to incidences of heart disease and cardiac arrest by providing schools with the guidance and resources necessary to set up public access defibrillation programs. H.R. 389 will work to ensure that schools have access to the appropriate training, fund- raising techniques and other logistical requirements for successful life-saving programs. This is a very important and good bill, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important bill, a life-saving piece of legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps), a prime sponsor of this life- saving piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, we have no further speakers, and I yield back my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to rise in support of H.R. 389, the Automatic Defibrillation in Adam's Memory Act.

As co-chair of the Congressional Heart and Stroke Coalition and Caucus, I was proud to join with the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) in introducing this bill last year and again this year. And I want to thank my colleague from Illinois for his leadership on this issue. For the last few years, Congress has passed several bills to expand the use of automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs.

We have provided protections for good Samaritans, encouraged State and local governments to place AEDs in their buildings, and provided funds for their communities to purchase these devices.

The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) and I have recently been urging the Architect of the Capitol to acquire AEDs and place them around the grounds.

We hope we will see movement on this very soon, and now, with this legislation before us, we are starting to get them into schools. Some have suggested that AEDs will become as prevalent as fire extinguishers. We can only hope so. Rescue professionals know firsthand their cost effectiveness.

This bill would create a national clearinghouse of information about AEDs and public defibrillation so that schools can begin placing them throughout their facilities. We do not usually think of children at school as being a high risk group for heart attack, but it has been known to happen, and schools, let us keep in mind, often serve as community meeting places where the public can gather at various events. Think of the times when schools are used as disaster centers. Add to this the parents, teachers and staff at the schools, and it only makes sense to be assured that they have the life saving devices such as AEDs available.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.