Expressing the Sense of the House of Representatives that a National Youth Sports Week Should be Established

EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES THAT A NATIONAL YOUTH SPORTS WEEK SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED -- (House of Representatives - June 19, 2006)

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

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of H. Res. 826. Youth sports are much more than just an afterschool activity or a great way for young people to spend their energy and free time. Youth sports can help enrich a child's life; and, Mr. Speaker, they serve a much more important role today when so many youth have become voyeurs of sports and not participants in sports. H. Res. 826 is sponsored by Representative MIKE MCINTYRE.

Youth sporting leagues and activities, when combined with healthy parenting and responsible coaching, help children to grow emotionally, socially, and physically. Teamwork, discipline, and the value of hard work that goes with them are important lessons for children to learn. In addition, there are clear physical and health benefits for children who participate in youth sports.

Mr. Speaker, obesity has become a major problem of young people in the United States. This week I am introducing a bill that would allow the FCC to regulate junk food advertising on TV which is so out of hand that physicians and other health care providers have focused in on this advertising in particular.

I am pleased that before Representative JON PORTER, former chair of the HHS subcommittee, left, I was a cosponsor of a bill that has been funded now for the last 5 years with him to establish a program that was extraordinarily successful, as it turns out and according to studies, in getting young people out and active. It was the VERB program. I regret very much that thus far this program has not been funded this year by the committee. I am hoping that it will be funded by Congress before we go home.

No health issue is more pervasive among young people than obesity and being overweight. We appear to be raising a generation that is losing interest in physical activity and, in addition, is consuming nutritionally deficient foods that will guarantee that they have health problems for the rest of their lives.

We have an epidemic of the type II diabetes for the first time in the history of this country. This is not the kind of diabetes people are born with. This is the kind of diabetes people get as a result of lifestyle, and the notion that youngsters now are the fastest growing group of those with type II diabetes should concern all of us and should get us to doing whatever we can to bring this matter to the attention of their parents and their communities. What Representative MIKE MCINTYRE's resolution does in this regard may seem small, but everything we can do we should now be doing.

Children who are not active and maintain poor diets develop health problems that we now know will be with them for their entire lives. The notion that high blood pressure, pediatricians tell us, now starts for many children when they are in elementary school, for example.

Youth sports helps counteract this behavior by encouraging physical activity and healthier diets.

Internationally, many organizations use youth sports to help remove barriers between culturally diverse communities. Basketball and soccer leagues have been successfully used in South America and Northern Ireland to foster reconciliation among troubled youth. Youth sports help train children to become productive citizens and future leaders.

Youth Sports Week, which will be celebrated during the second week of July, will raise awareness of the existence of sports leagues around the country and promote sportsmanship among players, parents, coaches, and officials. I very much urge Members to support this resolution.

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