Susan Collins: “I commend my colleagues, the chair and ranking member of the Public Health Subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor…”

“I commend my colleagues, the chair and ranking member of the Public Health Subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, for all of their efforts in bringing the Children's Health Act of 2000 to the Senate floor. This omnibus bill is the result of months of bipartisan collaboration and discussion between Members of both the House and the Senate in an effort to address important children's health issues in this Congress. As the co-chair of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, I am particularly pleased that the Pediatric Diabetes Research and Prevention Act, which I introduced earlier this year with Senators Breaux, Abraham, Craig, and Bunning, has been included in this bill. Our legislation--which was also cosponsored by Senators Grassley, Bingaman, Chafee, Roth, Hollings, and Schumer--will help us to reduce the tremendous toll that diabetes takes on our nation's children and young people, and I want to thank my colleagues for including it in the omnibus bill. As noted in the recent cover story in Newsweek, diabetes is a devastating, lifelong condition that affects people of every age, race, and nationality. Sixteen million Americans suffer from diabetes and about 800,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. It is one of our nation's most costly diseases in both human and economic terms. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, blindness in adults, and amputations not related to injury.”