The Scarlett's Sunshine on Sudden Unexpected Death Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to encourage my colleagues to join me on a bipartisan basis as cosponsors of the Scarlett's Sunshine on Sudden Unexpected Death Act. This bill is intended to help us to better understand why infants die between birth and age 4 so that we can take preventive action that is effective.

Mr. Speaker, I have had the unfortunate experience of walking into the home of parents who are grieving, and that grief doesn't just begin when their infant dies but goes on for a lifetime, wondering: Was it my fault? Could I have done something? Am I a bad parent?

They never get the answers.

Do you realize, Mr. Speaker, that currently we have absolutely no national guidelines for death scene investigations to follow when responding to an infant death? This means that different States and different municipalities all over the country collect inconsistent and, often, incomplete data on these unexplained sudden deaths.

If we can't even collect good and consistent data, how can we expect to reverse this trend or even to prevent it?

I am ashamed to say, Mr. Speaker, that the infant mortality rate in the United States is 5.8 deaths per 1,000 live births. This is really unacceptable. When you disaggregate these numbers for Native American babies and Black and White babies, we find that Black babies die at a rate three times the national average.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that really means that over 23,000 infants have died of sudden infant death syndrome. In 2015, about 3,700 infants died suddenly and unexpectedly.

Think about that: 23,000 deaths and parents who spend a lifetime in grief wondering why.

This is a public health crisis when you consider that, in developed countries, we are number 19 for preventing these kinds of deaths.

My bill not only provides resources to invest in the CDC and the Health Resources and Services Administration to train first responders to improve death scene investigations, to do child death reviews, and to promote safe sleep practices, but it also provides educational opportunities for parents as well.

Mr. Speaker, these deaths are preventable, and we need to do everything in our power to give parents the knowledge and tools they need to achieve healthy outcomes and educate them on safe methods for handling their children.

I encourage my colleagues to imagine how many babies' lives we can save by simply investing in the right programs to prevent their deaths. Please join me in cosponsoring this bill and supporting its swift enactment into law.

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