Introduction of the Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act

Floor Speech

Ms. MATSUI. Madam Speaker, I am proud to introduce the "Public Health Peparedness Workforce Development Act of 2008.'' This much-needed legislation will help provide the critical workers that our public health community so desperately needs.

These skilled public health professionals include the nurses, epidemiologists, lab technicians, and others who keep our communities healthy and safe. They deliver our vaccines, ensure that our drinking water is safe, test for infectious diseases, and serve a s our front-line defense against biological and chemical attacks. The responsibilities of our public health workers reach into our daily lives.

Unfortunately, our country has under-invested in this critical area for decades, and our public health workforce is near the breaking point.

We are simply not producing or retaining enough public health workers to meet the increasing demand for their essential services. Nearly a quarter of the public health workforce is set to retire by 2012.

As a result, the Association of Schools of Public Health estimates that our country's public health schools would have to train three time the current number of graduates over the next 12 years just to maintain current levels of preparedness.

We cannot continue to underestimate or undervalue the importance of a strong public health system. As we focus on preventing outbreaks and attacks through preparedness and vigilance, we will rely ever more heavily on our public health workers.

However, public health positio ns are often not economically competitive with those offered by the private sector. We must create the proper incentives offered for our Nation's brightest public health graduates to serve in the public sector, and the Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act is a strong step toward doing so.

It offers scholarships, loan repayment programs, and mid-career training grants to recent public health graduates and to current public health employees looking to supplement their education. It a lso creates an electronic clearinghouse to make it easier for workers to find available public health positions to the Federal Government.

Additionally, this bill will improve the training of public health workers and introduce many more of them to the field by spurring the creation of academic health departments. These departments, formed by the union of State and local health agencies with schools of public health, will serve as training grounds analogous to medical schools and teaching hospitals.

A strong and robust public health workforce is not a luxury, Madam Speaker. It is a necessity. The Public Health Preparedness Wor kforce Development all my colleagues to support it.

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