Dr. Benjy Frances Brooks Children's Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2018

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5385) to amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the program of payments to children's hospitals that operate graduate medical education programs, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members

may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material in the Record on the bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, today we are considering H.R. 5385, the Dr. Benjy Frances Brooks Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Support Reauthorization Act of 2018. This bill, which was submitted by Representative Gene Green and myself, reauthorizes the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education programs at $325 million per year for the fiscal years 2019 through 2023. This is an increase of $10 million above the enacted fiscal year 2018 level. This bill recently moved through regular order in the Energy and Commerce Committee and its Subcommittee on Health.

Congress created the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education program in 1999 as part of the Healthcare Research and Quality Act, which authorized funding to directly support medical residency training at children's hospitals for 2 years.

Prior to the establishment of Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education, children's hospitals received minimal graduate medical education funding because Medicare is the primary funding source of graduate medical education programs, and children's hospitals have few Medicare patients.

Since the establishment of this program, Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education funding has provided critical support to our pediatric workforce, which still is struggling to keep up with the demands for their services. The Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education program is especially crucial in training pediatric subspecialists.

Children's hospitals have a unique patient population with medical conditions from which pediatric medical residents can learn and develop critical skills. The experience gained from such a residency helps to prepare and train physicians for the complex reality of pediatric medicine that they will face in the future of their medical careers.

I can say as an OB/GYN who did his residency at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, residency programs play a vital role in shaping our Nation's physician workforce. Our pediatric workforce is no exception.

According to the Children's Hospital Association, almost half of children's hospitals reported vacancies for child and adolescent psychiatry, in addition to developmental pediatrics. The Children's Hospital Association also reports that pediatric specialists in emergency medicine, physical medicine, rehabilitation, endocrinology, rheumatology, hospitalists, pain management/palliative care, and adolescent medicine are frequently reported as experiencing vacancies longer than 12 months.

The workforce shortage is something that I am concerned about, and that is why passing this legislation is an integral part of maintaining and sustaining our workforce.

In 2016, Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education funding helped to support over 7,000 residents at 58 hospitals across the country.

Mr. Green and I agreed to name this bill after Dr. Benjy Frances Brooks, who was born and raised in my district in north Texas, in Lewisville, Texas. Dr. Brooks went on to become the first female pediatric surgeon in the State and to establish pediatric surgery as a separate division at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. It is an honor to move this bill in Dr. Brooks' name.

Our children deserve the best care available to them, and ensuring that we have an adequately prepared workforce is the first step in providing quality healthcare to children. Passing H.R. 5385 is vital to the maintenance and growth of this workforce and to the health of our Nation's children.

I urge support of this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), chairman of the full committee.

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

I only want to point out that 2018 is the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Dr. Benjy Brooks, so it seemed an appropriate time to recognize her contributions to the fields of pediatric surgery and medicine in general.

Again, she was born in the town in which I practiced medicine for a number of years. I first encountered her at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston when I was a medical student back there in the 1970s. Surely, hers is a legacy of which all Texans can be proud.

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 today in support of H.R. 5385, the Dr. Benjy Frances Brooks Children's Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2018.

I am proud to introduce this legislation that will reauthorize the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education program with our subcommittee chairman, Congressman Michael Burgess. The CHGME program was created by Congress in 1999 to provide payments to children's hospitals to support medical residency training programs.

The Children's Hospital GME program is necessary due to how hospitals typically receive support for GME through Medicare, and these payments are based on hospitals' Medicare patient volume. Because the Medicare program is used primarily by people who are over the age of 65 and children's hospitals treat, primarily, people below the age of 18, children's hospitals have low Medicare patient volume and receive few Medicare GME payments.

Children's Hospital GME funds go toward training our Nation's pediatric workforce, including pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists, as well as other physician types in nonpediatrics, focused specialists that may rotate through children's hospitals for a period of time during their residency.

Since its creation, the Children's Hospital GME program has made it possible for thousands of pediatricians to receive training, including at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, home of one of the largest academic pediatric departments in the United States, which has a number of clinics in our Houston area district.

Physicians receiving training in one of the 58 freestanding children's hospitals in 29 States go on to serve in the rural and other underserved areas, helping to alleviate the pediatric workforce shortage impacting communities throughout America.

The CHGME program is needed now more than ever to help train the pediatric workforce that will be required to meet the needs of our children and our grandchildren. Our legislation will reauthorize the CHGME program for 5 years at $325 million, and a $25 million increase over current levels. The current authorization will expire at the end of September, so it is imperative that we reauthorize this important program.

Our bipartisan legislation has 57 cosponsors, nearly equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. In addition, this legislation has strong support from outside stakeholders, the American Hospital Association, and the Children's Hospital Association.

I thank Dr. Burgess and all our colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee for their hard work and support for this important legislation, and I ask for all Members to join us in support of the Dr. Benjy Frances Brooks Children's Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2018.

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

Mr. Speaker, we have no further speakers,

and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5385, the GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2018.

H.R. 5385 amends the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the program of payments to children's hospitals that operate graduate medical education programs.

Americans across our nation need care, and the Children's Hospital GME (CHGME) program has been utilized by hospitals across our country to train doctors who can provide that necessary aid.

I represent the 18th District of Texas which is home to the Methodist Hospital System, one of the largest medical institutions in the world.

H.R. 5385 will allow Houston to continue to recruit and train many talented doctors.

CHGME was created in 1999 because Congress recognized that a dedicated source of support for training in children's hospitals was necessary to strengthen the pediatric workforce.

Since then, CHGME funding has enabled children's hospitals to dramatically increase training overall, and in particular grow the supply of pediatric specialists--the area of greatest shortage in children's health care.

If CHGME is allowed to expire, we will lose the progress we have made in this field.

According to data from a 2017 Children's Hospital Association survey, pediatric specialty shortages continue to affect children's ability to receive timely, appropriate care.

The funds generated from this legislation. will help train the medical professionals we desperately need.

In a time when there are growing health disparities within our nation, it is important to address the needs of underserved urban areas.

The more medical professionals we train, the greater the likelihood that these underserved communities will have access to proper medical care.

CHGME funds the training of pediatric providers at eligible children's hospitals.

The 58 children's hospitals that receive CHGME funding train approximately half of the nation's pediatricians, more than 7,000 annually.

We should provide the funds necessary to train students in a profession that will benefit society.

We must train the very professionals who will one day save the life of a child.

I support this legislation because it will increase the quality of medical training in the United States.

I believe that H.R. 5385 improves upon a system that sets the bar for medical care internationally.

By passing H.R. 5385, CHGME can continue to succeed in bolstering research potential at these institutions as well as helping to cure a problem that supersedes political boundaries: children's illness.

I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for H.R. 5385.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues Mr. Gene Green and, certainly, Dr. Burgess for their great leadership on this issue.

I rise is support of H.R. 5385, the Dr. Benjy Frances Brooks Children's HOSPITAL GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2018, and I want to thank them for their good work on this.

As you have heard, this reauthorizes payments to children's hospitals that operate graduate medical education programs, and it does so for the next 5 years, giving these programs great certainty going forward. This legislation will continue to enable the Nation's freestanding children's hospitals to provide education to graduates of medical schools, enhance pediatric research capabilities, and care for these vulnerable and underserved children.

Representative Green and Chairman Burgess partnered to lead this bipartisan bill in our committee, and they brought about unanimous votes in both the Health Subcommittee and in our full committee. I appreciate their work on this and thank them and their staffs for the great work they all have done as we work together to reauthorize these very, very important programs.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support us in this legislation from the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 5385, which was received from the House.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.