On September 17, the House unanimously approved, by voice vote, a bill (H.R. 1784) that would provide statutory authority for the federal women’s health offices at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Sponsored by Reps. Connie Morella (R-MD) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the bill was considered under suspension of the rules, an expedited floor procedure that limits debate, prohibits amendments, and requires a two-thirds majority for passage.
Currently, only two offices are established by statute—the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research on Women’s Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Associate Administrator for Women’s Services. While not established by statute, the Public Health Service (PHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have created offices on women’s health. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) have designated women’s health coordinators within their agencies.
H.R. 1784 would authorize offices at the PHS, CDC, Food and Drug Administration, and HRSA through FY2007. While the original bill also would have authorized an office at AHRQ, under the substitute amendment adopted by the committee, AHRQ would be authorized to designate a women’s health coordinator within the Office of Priority Populations.
The Senate included a similar bill (S. 946) in a larger women’s health package (S. 2328) that was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on September 5 (see The Source, 9/6/02).
Noting the importance of the bill, Rep. Morella said, “Despite great strides on women’s health research, we still have to be vigilant and we still must address issues that are not receiving the public attention and the research priority that they deserve.” She added, “Providing statutory authorization for federal women’s health offices, as we do today, is a critical step in ensuring that women’s health research continues to receive the attention that it requires in this 21st century.”
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) agreed, “This legislation that we are debating on the floor of the House will go a long way in helping the health of women of all ages, including those in puberty and young women of child-bearing age, now that we find that women can have children a longer period of time; and minority women in particular, who we find have the highest percentage of infections of HIV/AIDS in the United States of America.”
