PREVENT HPV Cancers Act of 2021

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of seven bills that originated in the Health Subcommittee of Energy & Commerce. I'm proud of my Subcommittee's bipartisan work on these critical bills which tackle hard problems, including substance use treatment, vaccine access, and the social inequities that result in poor health outcomes, especially for mothers and people of color.

Two of the bills we're considering help address the overdose crisis our nation currently faces. According to the CDC, overdose deaths spiked after the start of the pandemic. There were 93,000 overdose deaths in 2020, a 30 percent increase from the year prior, making 2020 the deadliest year for overdoses on record, with synthetic opioids the primary driver of the overall increase in overdose deaths across America.

H.R. 2355, the ``Opioid Prescription Verification Act of 2021,'' enables HHS and the CDC to help combat this urgent overdose epidemic by facilitating responsible, informed dispensing of controlled substances. I thank my colleagues Reps. Rodney Davis, Gus Bilirakis, and Ann Wagner for authoring this legislation.

H.R. 2364, the ``Synthetic Opioid Danger Awareness Act,'' directs the CDC to conduct a public awareness campaign on the dangers of synthetic opioids and available treatments. It also requires the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to make educational materials for first responders about synthetic opioid exposure prevention. I thank my colleagues Reps. Andy Kim and Chris Pappas for authoring this legislation.

The next three bills aim to ensure that every American, no matter their age. race, or income, are empowered to receive the ``dose of hope'' from vaccine protection. As we've seen during the pandemic, there are lifesaving benefits of safe, effective, and free vaccines.

H.R. 951, the ``Maternal Vaccination Act,'' helps to enhance maternal health care quality and outcomes. It authorizes $2 million annually for the next four years to increase awareness of the importance of combatting vaccine-preventable infection diseases during pregnancy. In the United States, pregnant women and infants are disproportionately susceptible to complications of infectious diseases such as influenza and whooping cough. Available vaccine data shows that vaccinations against these diseases confer protection to both mothers and newborns with no increased risk of adverse effects on pregnancy outcomes, and they are highly recommended by the CDC. I thank my colleague Rep. Terri Sewell for authoring this legislation.

H.R. 550, the ``Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2021,'' will create a national policy framework and provide resources to improve immunization information systems allowing for better management of routine vaccinations and enhancing our public health response to future pandemics. I thank my colleagues Reps. Ann Kuster and Larry Bucshon for their leadership authoring this legislation.

H.R. 1550, the ``PREVENT HPV Cancers Act of 2021,'' will create a national CDC public awareness campaign targeted to communities with the lowest HPV vaccination rates to increase vaccinations and prevent HPV cancers. I thank my colleague Rep. Kathy Castor for her leadership authoring this legislation.

The final two bills address social inequities that result in poor health outcomes and hurt the most vulnerable amongst us.

H.R. 4026, the ``Social Determinants of Health Data Analysis Act of 2021,'' calls for a GAO report on the HHS Secretary's actions to help inform Congress' next steps in addressing the factors that are at the heart of the health disparities across the country. I thank my colleagues Reps. Michael Burgess and Lisa Blunt Rochester for authoring this legislation.

H.R. 3894, the ``CARING for Social Determinants Act of 2021,'' directs the HHS to provide guidance to states on how to address social determinants of health through Medicaid and CHIP. I thank my colleagues Reps. Lisa Blunt Rochester and Gus Bilirakis for authoring this legislation.

I urge my colleagues to vote for these bills and I thank the members of the House Health Subcommittee and the bipartisan sponsors of each bill for their good work.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Pallone for yielding the time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bipartisan legislation with Representative Kim Schrier, the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act.

Mr. Speaker, if Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the NIH, called a press conference today and announced that we had found a cure for cancer, there would be cause for celebration.

Well, since 2006, there has been a safe and effective vaccine that prevents six types of cancer, including HPV-related cancers, including cervical cancer and throat cancer. It has been a remarkable development. The problem is that with these HPV-related cancers, there are no screening tests for many of these cancers, other than cervical cancer, for which there is a screening test. So you have to rely on prevention in order to avoid ever contracting these types of cancers.

The other problem is that during the pandemic, there has been a dramatic drop-off in childhood vaccinations. It is very troubling. All childhood vaccinations have fallen way off, but particularly with the cancer-preventing HPV vaccine.

According to data from CDC, HPV vaccinations fell by almost 64 percent for children ages 9 to 12, and they fell 71 percent for young people ages 13 to 17 compared to the previous two years. Last year alone, more than 1 million doses were missed.

Mr. Speaker, here is what is also troubling, the trends that are here: There is a distinct rise among men and HPV-related cancers. Four out of ten HPV-related cancers occur among men: a lot of throat cancer. There are now 14,000 men annually being diagnosed with HPV-related cancers. That is a five-fold increase over the past 20 years.

We can tackle this problem by helping educate families and parents all across America to avoid these catastrophic diagnoses and save lives in doing it.

The PREVENT HPV Cancers Act builds on work the CDC is already doing to raise awareness about gynecological cancers through Johanna's Law and includes HPV and HPV-related cancers in the national public awareness campaign to educate providers, parents, and the general public about the lifesaving HPV vaccine. This is especially important in rural areas where there has also been a very dramatic drop-off.

I thank my friends back home at the Moffitt Cancer Center, Florida's only NCI-designated cancer center, Dr. Anna Giuliano, who is an expert in the field, for educating me, and for bringing together advocates across the country.

I thank Chairman Pallone, Chair Eshoo, Ranking Member McMorris Rodgers, and Chairman Guthrie very much for their help, and Dr. Burgess as well for his support. Thank you for making this a bipartisan effort.

I also thank Stephen Holland with the majority staff and Kristen Shatynski with the minority staff.

Mr. Speaker, to the parents and families, it is vitally important to know that you can prevent your children from ever contracting cancer through the HPV vaccine. It is safe and effective, and more parents need to understand the import of doing this.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption, a ``yes'' vote on H.R. 1550, the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1550) to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for a public awareness campaign with respect to human papillomavirus, 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 include extraneous material on H.R. 1550.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1550, the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act. This bill will help prevent cancer in thousands of individuals by stepping up our outreach and education to ensure that we are reaching people eligible for human papillomavirus, or HPV vaccines.

HPV causes nearly 36,000 cases of cancer in men and women each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that nearly 33,000 of these cases can be prevented through vaccination.

The HPV vaccine has been shown to be highly effective in most forms of HPV, and in turn, preventing cancer caused by the virus. For example, women who have been vaccinated against HPV have been shown to be 90 percent less likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Mr. Speaker, despite the high efficacy of the vaccines and increased vaccination rates, the rates are still below CDC targets and far lower for HPV than for other recommended vaccines. And while cervical cancer rates have gone down, other types of HPV-associated cancers, including head and neck cancers, have been on the rise.

We must do more to improve our outreach to teens and young adults, and this bill does that by creating a national campaign to educate health providers and the public on HPV, HPV-associated cancers, and the importance of HPV vaccines in preventing these cancers.

Mr. Speaker, this bipartisan legislation passed unanimously out of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. It deserves our support here on the floor, so please join me in preventing cancer and supporting this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Castor), the sponsor of the legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would urge support for this bipartisan and very important bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in full support of H.R. 1550, the ``PREVENT HPV Cancers Act of 2021.''

I would like to thank my colleagues Congresswoman Kathy Castor and Congresswoman Kim Schrier for introducing this important legislation.

The ``Promoting Resources to Expand Vaccination, Education and New Treatments for HPV Cancers Act'' or the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act has the ultimate goal of preventing HPV-related cancers.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a very common virus that causes six types of cancers, leading to nearly 36,000 cases of cancer in the United States every year, according to the CDC.

Nearly 42 million people are currently infected with HPV in the United States.

The HPV vaccine provides safe, effective, and lasting protection against the HPV infections that most commonly cause cancer.

This vaccine is so effective that the World Health Organization established a goal of total eradication of cervical cancer--and this legislation can be part of our nation's commitment to reaching that goal.

This vaccine can help prevent these cancers, and it is the goal of the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act to increase vaccination rates.

HPV-related cancers disproportionately affect individuals who are living on a lower income, have lower education levels, and are from a racial or ethnic minority group.

Increased public awareness and immunization initiatives would help improve vaccination rates in these underserved communities.

More comprehensive research on the HPV vaccine, as authorized in the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act, would also help better identify these disparities and ways to address them.

There is rampant societal mistrust and vaccine hesitancy, and while immunizations are one of the greatest public health tools we have, they work best when there is widespread use.

This legislation will spread awareness so that more people will be vaccinated against HPV, and fund research to help stop the largely preventable deaths caused by HPV linked cancers.

When we have the tools to prevent cancer, we should without a doubt utilize them.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in full support of H.R. 1550, the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act of 2021.

Mr. Speaker, it was 16 years ago that we first authorized Johanna's Law, it was a long time ago. I was a fairly junior Member and Congresswoman DeLauro had worked on it for a number of years before that. It is something that today will easily be reauthorized--and America has been and will be better for--and seems easy. But it is never easy to begin the process of helping people understand what they don't know.

Misinformation or a failure to have information continues to cause young women to die of cancer needlessly: whether it is ovarian cancer, gynecological cancer of any sort, whether it is related to HPV, or some other fashion. The fact is, Johanna's Law, H.R. 1550, which it is merged with, in fact, is something that America needs to understand today and in the future.

When we originally passed Johanna's Law, we had 257 cosponsors and could have had more. More than 100 Republicans and Democrats signed on before we brought it to the floor. On that day, we said, if we can only get $10 million to get the awareness. We passed the bill and then we went looking for the money.

Over time the money has increased. The fact is, Americans today, especially young women, are not as informed as they need to be. Reauthorizing both of these bills in one goes a step further to educating people about preventable death, preventable cancer.

The fact is, I am thrilled that Congress, in such a tumultuous time, from time to time, comes together across the aisle and does something so important.

These bills do not cost much, but the lives they save are precious and priceless. Mr. Speaker, I urge its support.