Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I join my colleague from Maine on the floor this afternoon to talk about what we can do to save the lives of newborn children and their mothers in some of the poorest communities around our globe.

I wish to start by thanking Senator Collins for her impressive leadership and for the energy she has brought to this work. I share her belief that our bipartisan bill, which is called the Reach Every Mother and Child Act or just the REACH Act, will go a long way toward eliminating preventable maternal and child deaths and will do so in an impressively targeted and cost-effective way.

The preventable death of newborns, their mothers, and children under 5 is a genuine tragedy that remains a widespread reality in far too many places around our world today. As Senator Collins said, 17,000 children a day lose their lives to preventable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria--illnesses we know how to not just treat but prevent--and worldwide, 3 million children will lose their lives to malnutrition this year. Nearly 3 million newborns die every year, 1 million of whom don't live to their second day, and 300,000 women don't get to experience the joy of raising their child as either pregnancy or birth takes their lives. I doubt it would come to any surprise to those in this Chamber today that it is the families who are living in the poorest communities in the developing world who are most at risk.

So what brings Senator Collins and me to the floor today is the fact that there are things we can do to prevent these deaths from ever happening and to do so in a cost-effective and transparent way. Since I first entered office, I have been confronted with challenges both at home and around the world that demand our action but where real solutions remain out of the reach of this Senate or our government. This is not one of those issues.

Some doubt that we can make a lasting and meaningful impact on the poorest of the poor in the developing world, but the fact is, we have made real progress. It was time spent in east Africa 30 years ago that first really changed my life and engaged me passionately in these issues. What is striking is how much progress we have actually made. Over the past 25 years, we have cut in half the number of children and mothers who have died, the number of children under 5, and mothers who die in illnesses associated with childbirth. Mortality rates are now declining faster than ever. And while we do face real and seemingly intractable challenges across the international landscape, our progress on this issue remains a telling sign of what is possible when we pull together and apply thoughtful interventions.

Just last year the administration took an important next step, laying out a new strategy with ambitious goals--saving the lives of 15 million children and 600,000 women by the end of this decade. Think about the scope and reach of the change that would mean for families and for communities in some of the poorest places on this planet. These goals are based in the lessons we have learned about what really works. Providing neonatal care to expectant mothers works. Vaccinating young children works. Providing access to clean water so that children don't die from diarrhea works. Providing HIV-positive mothers with antiretroviral drugs works.

I am hopeful about our ability to find cost-effective solutions because many of these remedies are simple things which are already at work here in our own country and which we as Americans take for granted. In the United States, what would be a fairly routine complication of childbirth would, in many communities in the developing world, be a life-or-death situation.

For example, let me talk for a moment about something called a resuscitation bag--a simple piece of plastic that costs just a few dollars. Most American parents have either seen one used or ready to be used in the delivery room. We know that in an American hospital--and it should be in the hospital of any developed country--when a nurse needs a resuscitation bag for a newborn who is struggling to breathe, it is right there and waiting. But in the poorest communities, where newborns are losing their lives at astounding rates, a significant factor is the simple absence of these bags to save the lives of newborns. When a nurse--if there is even a nurse--reaches for one, there is none to be found. Yet these simple devices that cost just a few dollars could save literally hundreds or thousands of lives.

So what our bipartisan REACH Act does is recognize that many of the steps we can take are very much within our grasp, and our bill would take these solutions a step further by reforming them and scaling them up so they have a larger, longer term impact.

Our bill would increase coordination to better implement U.S. strategies with the goal of ending preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths within 20 years. It would build new partnerships with the private sector, improve coordination across agencies, and insist on real targets and transparent and measurable progress. It would also, as Senator Collins referenced, allow U.S. Government dollars to be leveraged. And I love it when we leverage our resources with the private sector, with multilateral donors, and with our partner countries in the developing world. Critically, it would focus on the most effective interventions in the poorest and most vulnerable communities and put in place targets that can be effectively tracked.

These communities in the poorest parts of our planet face many challenges, but when it comes to saving the lives of young mothers and children, we know exactly what it will take to make a meaningful difference. Today, together, we are offering a strong path forward.

I close by urging my colleagues to follow the real leadership of Senator Collins and to join both of us in ensuring that American ingenuity and leadership can continue to save lives and to offer communities around our world a brighter future.

Thank you.

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