Vision Care for Kids Act of 2007

Floor Speech

VISION CARE FOR KIDS ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - October 15, 2007)

Ms. BALDWIN. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 507) to establish a grant program to provide vision care to children, and for other purposes, as amended.

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Ms. BALDWIN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 507, the Vision Care for Kids Act of 2007.

A small but significant portion of children have visual impairments. It is estimated that vision impairment affects approximately 1.2 out of every 1,000 8-year-olds. When detected early, many childhood vision abnormalities are treatable, but the potential for correction and normal visual development diminishes with age. Vision problems can occur at any point during a lifetime, but tend to be particularly damaging to school-age children.

Impaired vision can result in adverse physical, emotional, and social consequences. For instance, a child may miss learning opportunities by failing to explore his or her environment. Additionally, if a child is visually impaired, he or she may be unable to imitate social behavior or understand nonverbal cues.

Early recognition of eye disease results in more effective treatment and that can be sight saving and sometimes even life saving. Yet, many children under the age of five do not receive any vision screening at all.

The Vision Care for Kids Act of 2007 would authorize a grant program to provide comprehensive eye exams for uninsured children with vision disorders, with priority for children under the age of 9. Funds would be used for treatment and services to correct vision disorders identified through eye exams and to increase public awareness of visual impairment in children. H.R. 507 would require States receiving funds to contribute a 25 percent match of funds for each Federal dollar obtained through the program.

The bill before us today makes great strides in providing access to an array of vision-related services, including vision screening services that can help uninsured children in low- to moderate-income families.

I want to thank my colleagues for their commitment and strong support of this legislation, and particularly commend my dear friend and colleague, Representative Gene Green, for his unwavering dedication to this issue.

I urge my colleagues to support this vital and important legislation.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. BALDWIN. Madam Speaker, in closing, visual impairments can have lifelong consequences for children. As we have heard, this bill will help identify these impairments early so that our kids can live up to their full potential. This bill and the others that preceded it are prime examples of bipartisan cooperation.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill and those that have preceded it. And I also thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Fossella) for his assistance in expeditiously, yet comprehensively, managing the nine vital important and bipartisan health bills that were before us this afternoon.

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