Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act of 2008

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentlelady for yielding, and I rise in very strong support of this legislation, and I thank the gentlelady from New York for her leadership on this issue. I thank Mr. Deal for his leadership, as well, on this very, very important issue.

Madam Speaker, today this House is considering seven very important but largely noncontroversial public health bills. This week, of course, is National Public Health Week, a time to reflect on the importance of the quality of public health programs and a time to reiterate our commitment to addressing the critical problems that afflict America's health care system, such as exploding costs and the rising number of uninsured.

Today, however, I want to address one of the seven health bills that we are considering. The one under consideration right now is H.R. 2063, the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act, introduced by my good friend, Nita Lowey, of New York, the chairwoman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, with whom I had the great privilege of serving for many years. She is a longtime member of the Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee. On that committee, she has focused on health care for Americans, but health care particularly for children, as she has focused on education for our children.

In short, Madam Speaker, this legislation will provide schools across the country with uniform guidance on how to create appropriate management and emergency plans for children with food allergies. It will direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a voluntary policy for schools to implement measures to prevent exposure to food allergens and to ensure a prompt response if a child suffers a potentially fatal anaphylactic reaction.

Madam Speaker, deadly food allergies are not some arcane, rare occurrence. Frankly, even if they were, they would require our attention. But the reality is that as many as 2 million school-age children suffer from food allergies. One of those children is my granddaughter, Alexa.

No cure currently exists. Avoiding any and all products with allergy-causing ingredients is the only way to prevent potentially life-threatening reactions, reactions including severe anaphylaxis, which often occur at school and which can kill within minutes, unless epinephrine is administered.

Alexa, Madam Speaker, is 5 years of age. When she is at my house, as she was this past weekend, when she is in a restaurant, she is acutely aware, extraordinarily aware, for a 5-year-old, of what she can and cannot eat. And her mother, my daughter, asked the restaurant, what do you cook your french fries in? What do you use on your foods? It is an extraordinarily anxious time when my granddaughter eats. Just last week, for example, members of my family, including Alexa, visited my office, and we had sandwiches put out for a number of the family members. We had to make sure that all peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were removed from our conference room before Alexa entered to protect her.

To tell you how extraordinarily sensitive she is, she was in Disney World in Florida. She was walking with her mother and father down the pathway there from one exhibit to the other, and all of a sudden she started to wheeze heavily. Anne, who had seen this happen before, could not understand it because she didn't have anything to eat. They retraced their steps, and about 100 feet before this started, 100 feet, they saw some popcorn being popped in peanut oil. And it was simply the wind wafting that peanut odor. And whatever it was in the air she then breathed in, and that immediately started to give her a problem.

The importance of managing life-threatening food allergies in the school setting has been recognized by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of School Nurses and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. One of the extraordinary nurses of America is our colleague, Lois Capps. And I want to thank Congresswoman Capps for her leadership on this issue, as well. As a health professional, she knows firsthand of the consequences of allowing this to go unchecked and unprepared for.

Unfortunately, no consistent, standardized guidelines currently exist to help schools safely manage students with potentially deadly food allergies. As a matter of fact, my daughter, and parents similarly situated, meet with their child's teacher, Alexa is in kindergarten, and teaches them how to use the EpiPen, and it is ever present. My daughter goes nowhere without her EpiPen for use on Alexa should she have an attack.

That is why it is critical that we pass H.R. 2063 to ensure the safety of not only Alexa, but the millions of other school-age children afflicted with food allergies across the country.

I recently went to an event in New York. And after the event, I went to dinner, and there were eight of us at the table. Three of us were grandfathers. Eight people, in New York, not anything dealing with this issue, all three grandfathers were telling one another about the fact that they have grandchildren with food allergies. That is why it is critical that we pass this bill to ensure the safety not only of Alexa, but as I said, of the millions of other school-age children.

Madam Speaker, I urge all Members on both sides of the aisle to support this important, life-saving legislation.

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