Emergency Medical Services for Children Reauthorization Act of 2024

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6960, the Emergency Medical Services for Children Reauthorization Act sponsored by Representatives Castor and Carter.

The Emergency Medical Services for Children program works in communities across the country to improve the quality of pediatric medical care. We know that children have unique needs in emergency situations and that treating children requires specialized skills, training, and equipment.

The Emergency Medical Services for Children Reauthorization Act will reauthorize this important program. This bill will allow the program to continue supporting improvements such as adding child-appropriate equipment in ambulances and emergency departments, providing training to paramedics and first responders, and improving the systems that allow for efficient and effective pediatric emergency medical care. The program also funds research to set the standards for pediatric emergency care and to assess the current capabilities of healthcare systems.

Now, this program has been a success. It has helped to reduce pediatric injury-related death rates by more than 40 percent since it began four decades ago.

This bill will ensure that the program can continue building on this work for another 5 years, so I hope my colleagues will join me in this effort to strengthen and expand emergency medical services for children in each State.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R.

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Mr. PALLONE. Castor), the Democratic sponsor of the bill and ranking member of our O&I Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, we need to reauthorize this program. It is successful in reducing pediatric injury-related deaths, so it should be reauthorized for another 5 years.

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