Workforce Health Improvement Program Act of 2011

Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Workforce Health Improvement Program Act of 2011, otherwise known as the WHIP Act. I am very pleased to be joined again by my good friend and colleague, Senator Tom Harkin, who shares my commitment to helping keep America fit.

Public health experts unanimously agree that people who maintain active and healthy lifestyles dramatically reduce their risk of contracting chronic diseases. And as the government works to reign in the high cost of health care, it is worth talking about what we all can do to help ourselves. As you know, prevention is key, and exercise is a primary component in the prevention of many adverse health conditions that can arise over one's lifetime. A physically fit population helps to decrease health-care costs, reduce governmental spending, reduce illnesses, and improve worker productivity.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, the economic cost alone to businesses in the form of health insurance and absenteeism is more that $15 billion. Additionally, the CDC estimates that more than one-third of all U.S. adults fail to meet minimum recommendations for aerobic physical activity. With physical inactivity being a key contributing factor to overweight and obesity, and adversely affecting workforce productivity, we quite simply need to do more to help employers encourage exercise.

Given the tremendous benefits exercise provides, I believe Congress has a duty to create as many incentives as possible to get Americans off the couch, up, and moving.

With this in mind, I am reintroducing the WHIP Act.

Current law already permits businesses to deduct the cost of on-site workout facilities, which are provided for the benefit of employees on a pre-tax basis. But if a business wants or needs to outsource these health benefits, they and/or their employees are required to bear the full cost. In other words, employees who receive off-site fitness center subsidies are required to pay income tax on the benefits, and their employers bear the associated administrative costs of complying with the IRS rules.

The WHIP Act would correct this inequity in the tax code to the benefit of many smaller businesses and their employees. Specifically, it would provide an employer's right to deduct up to $900 of the cost of providing health club benefits off-site for their employees. In addition, the employer's contribution to the cost of the health club fees would not be taxable income for employees--creating an incentive for more employers to contribute to the health and welfare of their employees.

The WHIP Act is an important step in reversing the largely preventable

health crisis that our country is facing, through the promotion of physical activity and disease prevention. It is a critical component of America's health care policy: prevention. It will improve our nation's quality of life by promoting physical activity and preventing disease.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Workforce Health Improvement Program Act of 2011, otherwise known as the WHIP Act. I am very pleased to be joined again by my good friend and colleague, Senator Tom Harkin, who shares my commitment to helping keep America fit.

Public health experts unanimously agree that people who maintain active and healthy lifestyles dramatically reduce their risk of contracting chronic diseases. And as the government works to reign in the high cost of health care, it is worth talking about what we all can do to help ourselves. As you know, prevention is key, and exercise is a primary component in the prevention of many adverse health conditions that can arise over one's lifetime. A physically fit population helps to decrease health-care costs, reduce governmental spending, reduce illnesses, and improve worker productivity.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, the economic cost alone to businesses in the form of health insurance and absenteeism is more that $15 billion. Additionally, the CDC estimates that more than one-third of all U.S. adults fail to meet minimum recommendations for aerobic physical activity. With physical inactivity being a key contributing factor to overweight and obesity, and adversely affecting workforce productivity, we quite simply need to do more to help employers encourage exercise.

Given the tremendous benefits exercise provides, I believe Congress has a duty to create as many incentives as possible to get Americans off the couch, up, and moving.

With this in mind, I am reintroducing the WHIP Act.

Current law already permits businesses to deduct the cost of on-site workout facilities, which are provided for the benefit of employees on a pre-tax basis. But if a business wants or needs to outsource these health benefits, they and/or their employees are required to bear the full cost. In other words, employees who receive off-site fitness center subsidies are required to pay income tax on the benefits, and their employers bear the associated administrative costs of complying with the IRS rules.

The WHIP Act would correct this inequity in the tax code to the benefit of many smaller businesses and their employees. Specifically, it would provide an employer's right to deduct up to $900 of the cost of providing health club benefits off-site for their employees. In addition, the employer's contribution to the cost of the health club fees would not be taxable income for employees--creating an incentive for more employers to contribute to the health and welfare of their employees.

The WHIP Act is an important step in reversing the largely preventable

health crisis that our country is facing, through the promotion of physical activity and disease prevention. It is a critical component of America's health care policy: prevention. It will improve our nation's quality of life by promoting physical activity and preventing disease.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak about a Colorado common-sense approach to solving a national problem facing schools because of the current No Child Left Behind, NCLB law. Today, I am introducing the Growth to Excellence Act, along with my friend and colleague Senator Bennet.

In my travels across the great state of Colorado, educators from Pueblo to Grand Junction have shared with me the difficulties and cumbersome burdens placed on them by NCLB. Although well-intentioned, NCLB has continued to suffer from under-funding and poor implementation, which have in turn hurt our nation's students.

A major component of the current law is the measurement of Annual Yearly Progress, or AYP for short, for a group of students. Current law requires States to compare one year's class of students to the next year's class, and it fails to measure the progress of individual students over time.

This is problematic for schools because it doesn't adequately represent true educational progress, focusing instead on anonymous students' test scores. Likewise, the information is meaningless to parents and students because it does not properly measure individual students' growth over time. Unfortunately, under current law, schools are punished when such groups of students do not meet the required level of AYP, even if individual students actually displayed substantial growth over that time. Our bill would fix that.

Using the nationally recognized Colorado Growth Model as its inspiration, the Growth to Excellence Act would amend current law to allow all states to move toward an accountability system that measures student growth rates together with their attainment of college and career readiness. Growth models, which track students from year to year, provide schools, parents, teachers, and students alike with the information they need to see where individual student improvements have been made and where there is still room for continued learning.

This legislation, I believe, will provide a proven system of tracking actual student growth aimed at preparing our students for college and for their careers, without unnecessarily punishing schools in a one- size-fits-all approach. This will ultimately improve accountability standards for teachers, principals and school systems nationwide as it will provide us with the data we need to ensure America's students are prepared to win the global economic race in the 21st Century.

As Congress continues its important work on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, I urge my colleagues to join both Senator Bennet and me in supporting the Growth to Excellence Act.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.