Support Our Schools With Quality Teaching Act of 2007

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1467) to authorize the National Science Foundation to award grants to institutions of higher education to develop and offer education and training programs.

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 H.R. 1467, the bill now under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I and other Members of the Science and Technology Committee have been working on the issue of health care IT for several years. The genesis of this legislation, H.R. 1467, was a roundtable I held in Oregon in August 2005. This roundtable was followed by an Environment, Standards and Technology Subcommittee field hearing on health care information technology in February of 2006. Representative Reichert of Washington chaired the hearing, and our current ranking member, Mr. Hall, also had staff in attendance.

One of the common issues raised at both of these events was the lack of trained people who are experts in both health care and in information technology. Despite the Federal focus on developing a national electronic health care record system, there is no systematic plan for the training of current and prospective professionals in both health care and IT. Without this specialized training, the technology can sit on health care provider's desks as a box, cold and unused rather than as an integrated system of health care doing what it should do.

The need for individuals to manage health care IT is expected to grow 49 percent between 2000 and 2010, and nearly 75 percent of health care organizations indicate there are not enough qualified applicants for these positions.

I would like to point out that the Science and Technology Committee has a history of developing specific and specialized training and research programs for IT professionals.

During the 107th Congress, the committee became concerned that the lack of specialized computerized training for IT students and professionals was a contributing factor in the lack of decent computer security practices and software. As a result, the committee developed and moved H.R. 3394, the CyberSecurity Research and Development Act which subsequently became Public Law 107-305.

The bill under consideration today, H.R. 1467, consists of four components. It authorizes the National Science Foundation, NSF, to award research grants for innovative approaches enhancing health care informatics. I want to make clear that this provision builds upon existing NSF activities.

It authorizes NSF to support multidisciplinary health and medical informatics research centers to perform research and to train qualified health care informatics personnel and professionals.

Next, it authorizes NSF to establish a grant program to improve undergraduate, master's and certificate programs in health care informatics. The goal is to increase the number of students and the quality of training in their field. This program allows both 4-year and 2-year institutions to participate as well as allowing for the development of continuing education curricula.

Finally, it authorizes NSF's Advanced Technology Education Program which focuses solely on 2-year colleges to support improved education and technical training for health care informatics.

H.R. 1467 is a bipartisan product of the Science and Technology Committee. Ranking Member Hall and I introduced this bill in the last Congress. In this Congress, we introduced this legislation, along with Chairman Gordon and Ranking Member Gingrey of the Technology and Innovation Subcommittee.

I have spoken to Dr. Gingrey about health care IT, and he knows from his firsthand experience the challenges involved in integrating IT into health care settings.

We all recognize the benefits that an integrated health IT network could provide in terms of improved patient care, safety, privacy and potentially cost savings. However, investment in physical infrastructure and technology alone is not enough. We need research and training programs for health care and IT professionals in order to use and design the system well.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for working with me, and his staff for working with our staff over a period of 3 years on this legislation.

I inquire of the gentleman whether he has any additional speakers.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the staff on both sides of the aisle on the Science Committee for working hard through two Congresses to bring this legislation to the floor, and I encourage all of my colleagues to vote for adoption of this legislation.

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

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

I rise today in support of H.R. 1467, the 10,000 Trained by 2010 Act, and the primary goal it seeks to achieve. If implemented correctly and efficiently, health information technology, which we call IT, can revolutionize our health care system.

However, we have to have an educated workforce properly trained in health IT in order for it to be successful. This is what H.R. 1467 is all about. NSF is already doing incredible work in the IT area, but this measure focuses specifically on health IT by providing grants on new innovative approaches for health care hardware and software solutions.

Creating health medical informatics research centers and making improvements to undergraduate and master's degree programs for health care informatics, it also expands the Advanced Technology Education Program to include health IT.

The activities supported by H.R. 1467 are important if we are to have a sufficiently trained health IT workforce, and I encourage my colleagues to adopt this bill.

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

We have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1467, the 10,000 Trained by 2010 Act.

The bill requires the National Science Foundation to award competitive grants for research to improve health care information systems.

As our health care information moves from paper to computer-based storage methods, it becomes increasingly important to develop systematic methods for organizing and sharing biomedical information.

Digital medical records must be transferable, and above all, patient confidentiality must be ensured.

H.R. 1467 would fund scientific and engineering activities to improve education in the health care information fields. The funding would be used to develop innovative approaches in health care information; and help students earn advanced degrees in these fields.

Mr. Speaker, this bill would promote technologies that will save us taxpayer dollars over the long term. I urge my colleagues to support