José E. Serrano: “Just as my colleague was speaking, I was reminded of the fact that just this week the New York State Health Department…”

“Just as my colleague was speaking, I was reminded of the fact that just this week the New York State Health Department came into my congressional district or a certain part to do a special study on why that part of New York City has a higher rate of asthma attacks than anywhere else in the city. And, as the gentlewoman said, this is in many cases a silent situation because people take it as something: ``Well, I have heard about it. It does not affect me. It is not a broken leg,'' as she said. ``It is not something I can see every day. I do not see it in the subway.'' We see somebody short of breath or something in the subway in New York, and we assume it is whatever, they were running down the stairs to catch the train because they were going to miss it. So this itself starts me thinking how much of an implication this has on this whole study that will be conducted now in my district. It would just seem to me that the last call that we can make here is to say we have been hearing a lot of statements about family values, I repeat once again. This is a family values issue, but it is an issue of how much we value families. And if we value families, then we must value the health care provided for the children.”