COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

C. W. BILL YOUNG, Florida, Chairman

JAMES W. DYER, Clerk and Staff Director

DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES, EDUCATION, AND RE-
LATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS
2005

FOR

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2004.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

WITNESS

TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Mr. CUNNINGHAM [assuming chair]. I am going to go ahead and open the hearing. Mr. Regula is pulling into the parking lot as we speak. He is caught in traffic.

With that, does the Ranking Member have any statements to make?

With that, Mr. Secretary, you are clear to taxi.

OPENING STATEMENT

Secretary THOMPSON. Mr. Chairman, Congressman Cunningham, Congressman Hoyer and Congressman Obey, it is always a pleasure to appear in front of this committee. It is one of the more bipartisan committees in Congress and I thank all of you for that. Thank you very much for your past assistance, support and friendship. I always appreciate the opportunity to come in front of you. In my first three years at the Department, we have made, I believe, tremendous progress in improving the health, the safety and the independence of the American people. We continue to advance in providing health care to seniors and to lower income Americans, and providing the well being of children and strengthening families and protecting the homeland. We have reenergized the fight against AIDS at home and abroad. We have increased access to quality health care, especially for minorities, the uninsured and the underinsured. We are helping smokers free themselves of their debilitating habit through a national quit line which we funded internally this year, got set up and running and which I announced this month. With your help three months ago, President Bush signed the most comprehensive improvements to Medicare since it was created nearly four decades ago.

To expand on our achievements, the President proposes $580,000,000,000 for HHS for fiscal year 2005, an increase of $32,000,000,000 or 6 percent over fiscal year 2004. Our discretionary budget authority is $67,000,000,000, an increase of

$819,000,000 or 1.2 percent over fiscal year 2004 and an increase of 26 percent since 2001, thanks to the members on both sides of the aisle on this committee. The subcommittee is responsible for $63,000,000,000, an increase of $659,000,000 or 1.1 percent over fiscal year 2004.

In order to strengthen our bioterrorism preparedness and public health system, we have requested $4,100,000,000 up from $300,000,000 in 2001. I would like to invite the whole committee to come over and see our communications war room where we track all diseases and storms worldwide. It is something very visionary. A lot of you have been over to see it and Chairman Regula. I extend the invitation to all of you. Last year I tried to get you over for lunch but we never could get the dates to work out and hopefully we will this year. I would love to have you come over and see the operation of the department and see what we are doing.

This investment in bioterrorism will improve on the preparedness for bioterrorism attack or for any public health emergency. We have already seen our investments pay off in CDC's leadership in fighting the SARS outbreak last year. This was really an untold story of how impressive the public health workers in America were able to do their job fighting SARS last year. Our investments have also helped in the coordinated public health response to the West Nile Virus, the Monkey Pox and now to the Avian Flu. It even helped to deal with the particular hard flu season this past year. As you all know, I am a very big proponent of information technology. That is why we provided a computer language which we call SNOMED to providers at no charge, which will be going out at the end of this month. We are leading the way in developing standards for electronic medical records. Last month, I announced a new FDA rule to prevent medication errors by requiring bar codes on medicine and blood products.

Community health centers are a key element for increasing access to and availability of health care for helping the uninsured. We are proposing to provide $1,800,000,000 for health centers to provide health care services to 15,000,000 Americans up by 4,500,000 people.

Last September my department announced 12 steps to a healthier US-grants totalling more than $13,000,000 to support community initiatives to promote better health and prevent disease. These 23 communities include one tribal organization, 15 small cities and rural communities and 7 large cities. These communities are doing some very exciting work in chronic disease prevention and health promotion. For example, in Washington State, health professionals are targeting Latino adults who have diabetes, asthma or obesity or have high risks of getting those conditions. In Michigan, through the Intertribal Council of Michigan public health officials are creating a resurgence of interest in passing on traditional wisdom and cultural practices, including consumption of highly nutritious traditional foods.

We are delighted by these activities and the department will expand the program this year with your help with an additional $44,000,000 and has requested $125,000,000 for these programs in 2005.

We look forward to working with this committee, the medical community and all Americans as we build upon our past accomplishments, implement the new Medicare law and carry out the initiatives we are proposing to build a healthier, safer and stronger America.

Thank you so very much for your past courtesies and thank you once again for having me back today.

[The justification follows:]

STATEMENT

BEFORE THE

U.S. HOUSE

LABOR/HHS/ED APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTE

TOMMY G. THOMPSON

SECRETARY

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

MARCH 4, 2004