Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Act of 2008

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of a number of bipartisan public health bills to come before this body. These bills are the products of the Energy and Commerce Committee, where my colleagues and I are working hard to improve the overall health and well being of all Americans.

I am especially pleased that we will finally pass H.R. 1014, the Heart Disease Education, Analysis Research, and Treatment for Women Act, introduced by my friend Congresswoman Lois Capps. Close to 40,000 people in Illinois die annually of heart disease and it is the leading cause of death in my state. More people in Illinois die of heart disease than from cancer, unintentional injuries, lung disease, pneumonia, the flu and diabetes combined. It is imperative that we start making connections between diseases and drugs, devices, and biologicals. We also need to continue to raise awareness about this disease and identify concrete ways to prevent women from becoming victims. The HEART Act starts us down that path.

I also want to highlight and express my support for H.R. 1532, the Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Act. We know that TB kills approximately 2 million people annually and is a common cause of death among the roughly 3 million people infected with the AIDS virus who die each year. Although the United States has been able to reduce the incidence of the disease, we still must take an active role in eradicating TB nationally and internationally through increased funding for research, public education and treatment programs.

Similarly, it is time that we passed H.R. 758, the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act. I have cosponsored this critical legislation since coming to Congress in 1999, and I am thrilled to finally see it considered on the floor. Although we've made great strides in the areas of breast cancer research, treatment and outcomes, there are still over 43,000 women who die each year from the disease.

Finally, after debating this critical issue for many years, we are on the verge of finally enacting comprehensive mental health parity legislation. I have not held a health care meeting in my district without the issue of access to mental health care being brought up by constituents who have faced discrimination or difficulty obtaining affordable care. This was a top priority of Paul Wellstone, and I want to pay tribute to him today. Paul Wellstone, Paul and Sheila, his wife, were friends of mine. They were both leaders in ending discrimination and in making sure that every person in our nation has access to affordable, comprehensive health care--including comprehensive mental health and substance abuse services. I'm proud that we are continuing Senator Wellstone's legacy by passing a bill that guarantees equal access to mental health and substance abuse treatment. I also want to thank Representatives Patrick Kennedy and Jim Ramstad for their persistence and passion in passing the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act.

It is hard to overstate the importance of increasing public health resources for research, public education and treatment. Our public health workforce is being stretched to its breaking point--and multiple natural disasters have only exacerbated the problem. I hope that we will continue our efforts to improve public health and meet this growing demand in the next Congress.

I urge all of my colleagues to strongly support these bills.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1532, the Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Act of 2008.

If you think that TB is a disease that occurs in impoverished nations you are wrong. In 2007, more than 13,000 individuals were diagnosed with TB in the U.S.

This year alone my district had several TB outbreaks and in May, 150 people were exposed to TB in an outbreak and 19 individuals were diagnosed with TB.

Each year approximately 9 million people develop active TB and 1.7 million die of the disease, making it the second deadliest in the world. Right now one third of the world's population is infected with TB and TB will claim 30 million lives over the next decade.

With time, the TB germ has changed. It is now airborne and drug resistant strains have been found in 46 countries, including the U.S.

In 2006, 91 cases of multi drug-resistant TB were reported in the United States and MDR-TB has been reported in 49 states. From 1993 to 2007, there were 88 cases of extensively drug resistant TB in the U.S., which is resistant to almost all drugs used to treat TB.

Unfortunately, we have allowed the treatment and diagnostic tools to treat TB go without updating for far too long. In fact, the most common test to diagnose TB is more than 100 years old.

The drugs commonly used to treat TB are more than 40 years old, the TB vaccine we currently have is more than 85 years old and only provides some protections against severe TB in children, but is unreliable in protecting against the most common form of adult TB.

The Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Act addresses the issue of domestic TB by improving and increasing efforts to prevent, detect, and treat individuals in our country with TB.

It would authorize grants within the CDC for research, development, and education. These grants include clinical trials to evaluate new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines; studies of at-risk populations; and projects to control TB along the U.S.-Mexico border.

H.R. 1532 will reauthorize the Advisory Council on the Elimination of TB so the council may coordinate federal TB control and develop a new national plan to eliminate TB in the U.S.

H.R. 1532 also provides for new tools in the fight against domestic TB by providing for CDC research and development for new drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines.

The bill also directs the NIH to expand basic and clinical TB research and develop a TB vaccine.

The Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Act provides the means necessary to wage war against TB in the U.S. and hopefully in the future the eradication of TB in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation. There is a great need, at home and abroad, for increased resources against the fight of Tuberculosis. Worldwide, nearly 2 million people died from TB in 2006. Adding to the problem, the TB germ is changing and new, drug-resistant strains have been found in 28 countries on 6 continents, including the U.S. The Stop Tuberculosis Now Act of 2007 requires the President to make TB prevention, treatment and elimination a priority. This act authorizes the President to increase aid to the World Health Organization through USAID specifically for TB strategies against these drug-resistant strains and to support affected countries, also increasing appropriations for CDCP and TB programs.

This legislation addresses the need abroad, but we also still need more interest here in the states. That is why I introduced The Comprehensive TB Elimination Act (H.R. 1532) earlier this year to confront that exact problem. In 2005, more than 14,000 people had TB in the U.S., including over 1500 cases in Texas. There also is an estimated 10 to 15 million people in the U.S. with latent TB, approximately 10 percent of which will go on to develop active TB. In the face of this problem, the standard method for diagnosis is more than 100 years and isn't adequately effective in testing children or those also infected with HIV/AIDS. The newest class of anti-TB drugs is 40 years old. The current drug- resistant strains that we know of are nearly untreatable with the drugs available today.

These facts highlight the obvious need for TB research and development of active attempts not only to control the problem, but decrease the threat and hopefully eradicate it completely. The Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Act (H.R. 1532) will do that at home and The Stop Tuberculosis Now Act of 2007 (H.R. 1567) will do that abroad. I urge my colleagues' to join me in supporting this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1532) to amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to making progress toward the goal of eliminating tuberculosis, and for other purposes, as amended.

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

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

I rise in support of H.R. 1532, the Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Act--a bill to amend and reauthorize the preventative health services regarding tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis causes more deaths than any other infectious disease caused by a single microorganism with approximately 1.6 million people worldwide succumbing to the disease each year. While the U.S. has done well in combating the disease in the past, the global burden continues to be high, and the emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis has added a new level of difficulty to the problem.

The bill before us recognizes these issues by creating a Federal tuberculosis task force, by modifying the structure and duties of the Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis and by encouraging the director of the National Institutes of Health to expand, intensify and coordinate research and development activities with respect to tuberculosis.

All of these efforts will steer us closer to the final goal of the elimination of tuberculosis.

I want to acknowledge my colleague on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Congressman Gene Green of Texas, for his leadership on this issue. This bill was negotiated in a bipartisan and bicameral fashion. I am proud to support it. I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time. I would urge support of this tuberculosis act and yield back the balance of my time.

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

I rise in support of H.R. 1532, the Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Act of 2008.

I certainly want to join in commending Congressman Gene Green, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, and Congresswoman Heather Wilson for their work on this bill.

This bill revises the national strategy to combat tuberculosis at the Centers for Disease Control. The Centers for Disease Control provides leadership and assistance to domestic and international efforts to prevent, control and eliminate tuberculosis.

Despite the lower incidence rate of tuberculosis in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the average annual percentage decline in the tuberculosis rate slowed from just over 7 percent per year in the 1993 to 2000 range to under 4 percent from 2000 to 2007.

The high global burden of this disease, coupled with continued problems of drug-resistant strains and lack of better tools for tuberculosis control, threatens our ability to eliminate tuberculosis in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control's national TB program provides grants to States and other entities for prevention and control services, researches the prevention and control of tuberculosis, funds demonstration projects, sponsors public information and education programs and supports education training and clinical skills improvement activities to address tuberculosis.

This bill will help in the noble goal of continuing to try to eradicate this disease. I do urge Members to support this legislation.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.