Jim Matheson: “I thank my colleague, Mr. Pallone, for yielding me the time. H.R. 4290, the Wakefield Act, will reauthorize the…”

“I thank my colleague, Mr. Pallone, for yielding me the time. H.R. 4290, the Wakefield Act, will reauthorize the Emergency Medical Services for Children program. For the past 30 years, the Emergency Medical Services for Children program has been the only Federal program focused solely on improving emergency medical care for children and adolescents. In that time, emergency care has gone from treating critically injured children simply as ``little adults,'' to providing more appropriate and specialized care as children. The program is focused on ensuring that proper emergency medical care is given to sick or injured children no matter where they live, attend school, or travel. All States and the territories receive grant funding to educate and train medical professionals in trauma care for children. This funding and training has dramatically increased the quality of care at our Nation's emergency rooms and the quality that first providers provide, and in doing so, it has saved lives. Allied to this, the program supports the coordination, collaboration, and data analysis of pediatric researchers across the country for the continued advancement of emergency pediatric care, a critical component of the program. The Emergency Medical Services for Children program has long held bipartisan support in Congress throughout its 30-year history and is certainly worthy of being reauthorized because this is a Federal program that truly works, and it has data to back that up.…”