Supporting the goals and ideals of National Women's Health Week, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 331) supporting the goals and ideals of National Women's Health Week, and for other purposes.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Concurrent Resolution 331. National Women's Health Week is celebrated annually during the week following Mother's Day. The purpose of this week is twofold.

First, we can use it to raise awareness about the health risks all women face, especially the risks that are unique to women. We use it to learn that, for example, heart disease is the number one killer of women, and half a million women die every year in childbirth.

But the second purpose is so we can take proactive measures to improve women's health. We can use this opportunity to remind our sisters, our mothers, our daughters and our friends to get annual checkups and screenings that are recommended for them at their age. And we can use this opportunity to adopt healthier lifestyles that are essential to preventing chronic disease.

As co-chair of the Women's Caucus, I am very proud of several bills that have been introduced and/or passed out during this Congress to address women's health issues.

Last year, we reauthorized the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program to provide low-income women with access to these essential screenings.

We also passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. And nearly every woman in the House is cosponsor of the Heart for Women Act, H.R. 1014, as well as H. Res. 1022 regarding maternal health.

But we are also fortunate to have a few good men, actually more than a few good men working with us, such as the ranking member on this bill, and Maurice Hinchey who has taken the lead by introducing this resolution for a few years now, along with Mary Bono Mack.

I urge my colleagues to support the resolution in the House today, and also to have a conversation with the women in their lives about what steps they can take to improve their health.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I'm very pleased to yield 3 minutes at this time to the gentleman from New York, Maurice Hinchey.

I want to thank again the authors of this resolution, Mr. Hinchey, who is here, and Mary Bono Mack, who is also the other coauthor; and to thank the speakers on behalf of this resolution. And again, to remind us all the importance of Women's Health Week, setting aside the time to call attention to the importance of women taking care of their own health and providing the resources so they can do this, because it's women's health at stake, but also, often since the woman is the primary instigator within the family, and often the community as well, of the health of every member, that this serves a purpose that is very important to the health of our Nation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, as the initiator of this resolution, I would first like to take a moment to thank Chairman Dingell for supporting the resolution and for bringing, being instrumental, rather, in bringing it to the floor today.

I would also like to thank Speaker Pelosi and Mr. Hoyer for their determination in bringing this measure to the floor during National Women's Health Week, despite the very crowded legislative schedule.

I would also like to thank Chairman Pallone and all of the fine members of the Health Subcommittee and their resolve in getting this through the committee and to the floor.

Finally, I'd like to thank my good friends, Congresswoman Lois Capps and Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack for taking the lead with me on this resolution for the third time in a row.

This resolution has the bipartisan sponsorship of 114 Members of this House. Also, the National Council of Women's Organizations fully endorsed this bill on behalf of their 230 member organizations who represent 11 million women across our country.

National Women's Health Week begins annually on Mother's Day. This

year marks the 9th Annual National Women's Health Week.

National Women's Health Week is a week celebrated across America. During this week, families, communities, businesses, government, health organizations and other groups work together to help educate women about steps that they could take to improve their physical and mental health, and to prevent various disease.

This week is also used as an opportunity to educate our population about important health issues that women face.

This resolution recognizes the importance of several things, including preventing diseases that commonly affect women; federally funded programs that provide research and collect data on common diseases in women, and it also calls on women to observe National Women's Checkup Day by receiving preventive screenings.

It is vitally important that women have knowledge about the health risks that confront them, and that they know they can greatly reduce those risks through preventive measures such as a healthy lifestyle and regular medical screening.

Healthy habits should begin at a young age. It is imperative that we take the time to educate young girls on the benefits of exercise and eating right. If these habits start at a young age, it is more likely that they will continue through their life.

It is important and essential we do everything we can to prevent disease. In this spirit, I encourage women to use this week to focus on the necessary checkups and preventive screenings from their health care providers so that they can live long, healthy and productive lives.

I urge full support and passage of this very important measure on behalf of the women of our country.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Tim Murphy) for the leadership that he brings to our Health Subcommittee.

I also want to thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps) for her attentiveness to women's health issues. She is an effective advocate.

And to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) for his leadership on the issue, and for honoring us, all women, with the resolution and bringing the resolution forward to the body as a whole.

Mr. Speaker, as has been discussed, this is House Concurrent Resolution 331, and I do join my colleagues in encouraging all of us, not only to support the resolution, but to be effective spokespeople for what the resolution means; that we move forward, actively, to encourage women to gather the information that they need, because indeed, one of the purposes is to encourage women to seek information, to become health conscious and as the gentleman from New York said, to develop those healthy habits.

And it is not only adult women that we are speaking to, but it is to young girls also as they look at diet, as they look at exercise, as they gather information about how to best take care of themselves. And we do encourage them to seek that information, to get regular checkups, to become knowledgeable of the preventive screenings that will help them to stay healthy and to enjoy a better quality of life.

One thing that we also do is encourage women to have that relationship with their primary care physician, somebody that they can go to to gather the information about how to become knowledgeable on taking care of their bodies.

We've talked a little bit about some of the diseases that affect women, fibromyalgia, depression and, of course, postpartum depression, which concerns us all with the young women and those in the child- bearing years.

Heart disease also and some of the screenings that are important for that. And as the gentleman from Pennsylvania said, there is the website where individuals can access this information.

But we do stand together to promote prevention and awareness for disease management so that the women of this Nation are certainly taking better care of themselves, and are knowledgeable on the diseases that could impair their quality of life and their productivity.

Again, I join my colleagues and thank them for the leadership on Resolution 331. And I appreciate the opportunity to stand and speak on the importance of this, and again, encourage all Members, not only to support it, but to actually be certain that we disseminate this information to our constituents.

Mr. Speaker, I also thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps) for her thoughts and input on this bill, which I'm pleased to be a cosponsor today.

Appropriately, National Women's Health Week began this Monday, May 12, the day after Mother's Day, and this past Monday was National Women's Checkup Day. To this end, we encourage all women to discuss with their doctor the importance of regular checkups, self exams.

We also should note that the government has a Web site on this; it's www.womenshealth.gov/whw. There they recommend several tests that women should get on a regular basis.

Also like to mention, as we're focusing on women's health, as my colleague, my friend from California stated, this is also of interest and importance to men. Whether you're fathers or spouses or relatives, it's important to also be supportive of women's health and be supportive of exams they may need to have.

As we focus on this, I want to mention a few other conditions that impact women and the importance of Federal research funding. Fibromyalgia, for example, is a chronic pain illness characterized by widespread musculoskeletal aches, pains and stiffness, soft tissue tenderness, general fatigue and sleep disturbances.

Depression is another very important condition to highlight. Women, during and after pregnancy, for example, are at much greater risk to develop depression, and folks who have a chronic illness are at risk to develop depression.

Oftentimes, we neglect these important symptoms and aspects of health care when meeting with a physician. It is very important to review any concerns that anyone has, that women have when they have their annual exams, such as sleep problems, changes in appetite, mood changes, persistent sadness and other things. These are treatable conditions and not ones to shun in bringing up and discussing openly and honestly with their physician.

We have other things to comment on this, but at this point I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), a leader and advocate on women's health issues.

Seeing as we have no more speakers, we're willing to close at this point and again draw attention and thank Mr. Hinchey for his support on this resolution. I ask all Members to be supportive of it.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.