Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - April 24, 2008)

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By Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mrs. Murray):

S. 2911. A bill to improve vaccination rates among children; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, today, I join with my colleague Senator Murray in introducing legislation that will help bolster childhood immunization in those parts of our country where immunization rates are much too low. Since the beginning of the 20th century, vaccines have completely eradicated the once frequent killer smallpox and almost eradicated polio. Vaccines save lives, avert communicable diseases and reduce health care spending for preventable diseases. We must continue in our efforts to achieve childhood immunization rates of 90 percent by 2010 and with passage of this bill, we can do just that.

Vaccines are one of the most effective tools for prevention of disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for every $1 spent on vaccines, America saves $18.60 in both medical costs and societal costs. But more important than the cost saving is the weight and value we must place on ensuring that children are fully vaccinated. We must not lose one more child to a vaccine preventable disease. Childhood vaccines prevent over 10 million cases of infectious illness and nearly 34,000 childhood deaths in America every year. Clearly, vaccines are a tried and true way to not only reduce health care costs, but also to keep our children healthy.

The legislation Senator Murray and I are introducing today authorizes funding for effective interventions recommended by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services and helps to achieve childhood immunization rates of 90 percent by 2010. First, the legislation authorizes additional funding for a demonstration program allowing Women, Infant and Children clinics, also known as ``WIC'' to play a greater role in childhood immunizations. This is achieved by recommending vaccines to WIC recipients, coordinating care or immunization services, or employing an immunization coordinator. More than 45 percent of U.S. infants receive benefits through WIC clinics. A 2002 study by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases recommended coordinating government benefits to keep children up-to-date with their immunizations and noted that WIC programs have successfully accomplished this in numerous communities. Our legislation would enhance such efforts and would even go a step further to require that any grantee using these funds have access to the State Immunization Information System to better coordinate immunization screenings and services.

Second, this legislation authorizes additional funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct public, age appropriate immunization awareness campaigns and immunization education and outreach activities. Research shows that outreach, coupled with the coordination of immunization and WIC clinics, can increase childhood immunization rates by of approximately 12 percent.

Lastly, this legislation establishes a sense of the Senate concerning the importance of electronic record coordination by both the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, and that these leaders should work together to improve the integration of immunization information systems with electronic medical records, health information systems, and health information exchanges.

Vaccine preventable diseases will continue to be a threat to our Nation's most vulnerable population if we do not ensure proper vaccination among infants. Through this legislation, we can work to achieve the Healthy People 2010 objective of vaccinating 90 percent of all children by age two. To take a quote from a former First Lady of the United States and a cofounder of the organization Every Child by Two ``No child in America should have to get sick from a vaccine preventable disease. It's time for us to redouble efforts to protect the 20 percent of preschoolers who are routinely not being immunized on time.'' The Infant Immunization Improvement Act will be a vital first step to increasing vaccination rates and will serve as an important safeguard against the spread of communicable diseases. I would like to thank the Partnership for Prevention for their input on this legislation and the 156 members of the 317 Coalition for endorsing the Infant Immunization Improvement Act. I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation--because leaving a single child unprotected is one too many.

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