Josh Miller HEARTS Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4926) to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to establish a grant program for automated external defibrillators in schools, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I request 5 legislative days during which Members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on H.R. 4926 into the Record.

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

I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4926, the Josh Miller HEARTS Act. This is a bill that will save countless lives at a relatively low cost to taxpayers.

According to the American Heart Association, more than 200,000 Americans die of sudden cardiac arrest each year. Even more disturbing is the fact that 50,000 of these deaths could have been prevented with the use of an automated external defibrillator, or AED.

AEDs are portable devices used to restart the heart after sudden cardiac arrest. Studies have shown that these devices, which are required in Federal buildings and on airplanes, can be safely used by anyone, including children. Defibrillators talk the user through the lifesaving process and do not deliver a shock unless the heartbeat analyzed through the machine is in need of it.

Prompt response to a person experiencing cardiac arrest is imperative, and waiting for an EMS to arrive can be fatal. Utilizing CPR techniques and administering an AED can more than double the victim's chance of survival. A defibrillator shock is the most effective treatment for sudden cardiac arrest. Heart experts at Johns Hopkins University believe that over 500 lives can be saved annually with the widespread placement of AEDs.

The legislation put forward today will go a long way towards saving lives in our Nation's schools. This bill establishes a grant program to place lifesaving defibrillators in every elementary and secondary school that chooses to participate in the program. Additionally, the law would require recipients of these grants to train school staff in AED and CPR practices, coordinate with local paramedics, and integrate AEDs into existing medical emergency response plan. These provisions will save the lives of students, teachers, parents, staff and community members in U.S. schools.

On any given day, as much as 20 percent of a community's population passes through its schools, and it is our duty to ensure that these are safe places for kids to learn and community members to interact. Since schools are natural meeting places for the public, this bill can save the lives of countless children, teachers, parents and others.

Similar legislation has already passed and is making an important difference in States such as Ohio and New York. As a response to the tragic death of 15 year-old Josh Miller, Ohioans instituted a program to place AEDs in schools. Since the inception of the program in 2005, 13 lives have been saved by defibrillators. Similarly, the New York program, in honor of 14 year-old Louis Acompora, has saved 38 lives since 2002.

I want to thank families like the Millers and the Acomporas, whose hard work has brought national attention to this issue. They have worked through their grief, and fueled by the tragic loss of a child, have toiled tirelessly to keep other parents from experiencing similar losses. With passage of this bill, Congress has the opportunity to join with these families and prevent future tragedies.

Encouraging results and the many lives saved already demonstrate why we must pass this legislation. By putting in place preventive measures like these offered in this bill, we can save more lives.

Once again, I express my support for H.R. 4926, and I urge my colleagues to pass this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the sponsor of this bill and my good friend and a member of the wonderful majority maker's class of 2006, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Sutton) and yield as much time as she may consume.

We reserve the balance of our time.

I thank the gentleman from New York, and I thank Congresswoman Sutton for her wonderful work on this piece of legislation.

I want to also echo my thanks to Dr. Terry Gordon who happens to be a childhood friend of mine and a native of Louisville, Kentucky. He deserves a great deal of credit for beginning the movement that has resulted hopefully in the passage of this bill today.

I urge my colleagues to support this marvelous piece of legislation.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4926, the Josh Miller Helping Everyone Access Responsive Treatment in Schools Act of 2008. Also, fortunately, we refer to it as the Josh Miller HEARTS Act.

This legislation would authorize the United States Secretary of Education to make grants to public and private elementary and secondary public schools to purchase automated external defibrillators, also known as AEDs, for school grounds and to train employees and volunteers on how to use these devices, which have saved thousands of lives all over the country.

An AED is a portable, computerized medical device that can check a person's heart rhythm to determine whether he or she is in cardiac arrest and having a heart attack. It can recognize a rhythm that requires an electronic shock and advise a rescuer when a shock is needed.

The AED uses voice prompts, lights, and text messages to tell the rescuer the precise steps he or she needs to take to operate the device.

Just as hundreds of students have found out, it is an extremely accurate and easy device to use. As such, the device is widely credited for saving hundreds of lives a year.

I firmly believe that expanding the availability of AEDs in schools will save the lives of thousands of students and teachers, and so I want to thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Sutton) for taking a leadership role on this vital issue and for introducing this important bill.

This effort is a deeply personal one to me, as I have been involved in the effort to install AEDs in public and private elementary and secondary schools since before I came to Congress.

When I was in the New York State Senate, I heard about a young man who Mr. Yarmuth mentioned earlier by the name of Louis Acompora from Northport, Long Island. Louis was playing lacrosse at Northport High School. Like many high school students across the country, he played sports every day. He did exactly what he was trained to do, he blocked a shot on goal with his chest. Unfortunately, it was the wrong time, and after receiving the blunt impact to the chest, Louis went into cardiac arrest and died from that particular blow, a syndrome that affects healthy young athletes as a result of low energy, non- penetrating blows to the chest.

If an AED had been available on the field at the time, perhaps Louis's mother and father would not have watched him die on the field.

In response to this tragic event, I worked with my colleague, then State Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, to introduce legislation that required all public schools in New York State to have at least one AED on the school grounds. Fortunately, the State legislature adopted this law, and as a result, I am proud to say that 38 lives in New York schools have been saved since its passage back in 2002.

As I said on the floor last week in support of the first annual CPR and AED Awareness Week, communities with comprehensive AED programs have achieved survival rates of over 40 percent where the normal survival rate is roughly 5 percent.

With this in mind, I believe schools are the logical place to put defibrillators since as many as 20 percent of the community population passes through its school's doors on a daily basis.

This bill would require that local educational agencies that receive a grant under the program to provide at least 25 percent match from non-Federal sources. It ensures that local paramedics and other emergency services personnel are notified regarding where the actual AED is located on the school grounds in case they ever have to respond to a situation on the school campus.

H.R. 4926 is an important piece of legislation that will help save lives all across the country. I compliment Ms. Sutton again on her leadership role on this issue, and I strongly urge my colleagues to support the bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, in closing let me say that this bill is a bill that makes a difference between life and death. It is one that all of our colleagues should be supporting, and I recommend its support.

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

I thank the gentleman from Kentucky.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the proud sponsor of H.R. 4926, the Josh Miller Helping Everyone Access Responsive Treatment in Schools Act, or the Josh Miller HEARTS Act.

This legislation establishes a grant program to ensure that every elementary and secondary school across the country can obtain automated external defibrillators, or AEDs.

I introduced the Josh Miller HEARTS Act last December in memory of a young man from my hometown of Barberton, Ohio.

Josh was the sort of kid who could light up a room, someone who you knew would go on to achieve great things. He was a sophomore at Barberton High School with a 4.0 grade point average, a linebacker who dreamed of playing football some day for Ohio State. But one day, without warning, those dreams were cut short.

During the final game of the 2000 football season, Josh collapsed after leaving the field. By the time his heart was shocked with the defibrillator, it was too late to save him. Josh suffered a sudden cardiac arrest, which according to the American Heart Association, claims the lives of about 330,000 Americans every year. The vast majority of these individuals, like Josh, will never have displayed any signs of heart trouble beforehand.

Yet there is an easy-to-use, relatively inexpensive piece of medical equipment that can more than double

the odds of survival for someone experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest.

An automated external defibrillator, or AED, is the single most effective treatment for starting the heart after a sudden cardiac arrest. And because the chances of survival decrease up to 10 percent for every minute that passes, every second is critical.

Schools, as you've heard, are central gathering places in our communities that make them the ideal locations for AEDs. Placed in our schools, AEDs can save not only students but also staff and parents and many other visitors who come through our schools every day.

The Josh Miller HEARTS Act establishes a grant program to ensure that AEDs will be available to every elementary and secondary school, public and private across the country.

AED/CPR training is also an important part of raising awareness in using AEDs correctly. H.R. 4926 makes funds for training available to schools that already have AEDs, as well as to schools that will receive AEDs through this program.

Finally, this legislation also requires coordination with local emergency medical services and integration into the school's emergency response plan, to ensure their effective use within each community.

I would like to take a moment to thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon for making this legislation a priority and for moving it forward. And I want to thank Representative Kuhl and representatives on both sides of the aisle for their support of this very important initiative. I thank Representative Yarmuth for his leadership, and I also would like to recognize Dr. Terry Gordon, a cardiologist who was instrumental in pushing a similar effort successfully in my home State of Ohio and who has put his whole heart into making this life-saving device available across this Nation his vocation.

Finally, I would like to close by thanking the Miller family, especially Josh's parents, Ken and Jerri Miller, for their courage and for transforming their life into this life-saving mission. Losing a young life like Josh's can make us feel helpless, but through these tragedies, many families like the Millers and the Acomporas have found the strength to act. They have found the courage to speak out so that their other children can have the chance that their children never did, and so that other families will not have to feel their pain.

Although H.R. 4926 bears Josh Miller's name, it is truly in memory of all those who might have been saved, and in celebration of those who because of this program will have the opportunity to live their lives to their fullest potential. Let's give these children that chance.