Cliff Stearns: “tomorrow is Asthma Awareness Day. I rise to celebrate the October 2003 enacted Asthmatic Students Treatment and Health…”

“tomorrow is Asthma Awareness Day. I rise to celebrate the October 2003 enacted Asthmatic Students Treatment and Health Management Act, ASTHMA. It is now Public Law 108-377 and was H.R. 2023 in the House and the Senate bill was S. 2815. I introduced this with the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy), and Senator Enzi and Senator Kennedy carried the mantle there. Mr. Speaker, this law provides incentives for States to pass favorable laws that guarantee that students can carry and use prescribed medicine and anaphylaxis medications while in school. It is not a mandate, and incurs no new spending. The idea has been germinating since the early 1990s and has been building momentum since. On Asthma Awareness Day, May 7, 2003, there were only 20 asthma- friendly States in our United States. Even more limiting, of these 20, only nine extended that protection even further to anaphylaxis medication like epinephrine auto-injectors. Today, according to the Allergy and Asthma Network, Mothers of Asthmatics, we have a strong number of 41 States protecting for asthma, 26 for asthma plus anaphylaxis, and four have legislation pending for both conditions. Four that have asthma laws have legislation pending for anaphylaxis, and there is one State just getting started and has legislation that is pending for asthma anaphylaxis-carrying students. Mr. Speaker, this is a dramatic upswing for our children. I am especially proud to report what is going on in Florida.…”