Political Quotes

“I thank Chairman Pallone for all the work he has done. I know he has a big API community in his district, so we appreciate his attention to these issues. I am very proud to rise in support of my bipartisan bill, the South Asian Heart Health Awareness and Research Act, and I thank my colleague from the other side of the aisle, Representative Joe Wilson, as well as several other Republicans who have cosponsored this bill and for leading on this issue with me. Every 38 seconds, a person in the United States dies from cardiovascular disease. It is the leading cause of death, regardless of gender, for most racial and ethnic groups in America. But within those groups, South Asian Americans have the highest death rate from heart disease nationwide. Now, one of the things I love about Congress is that when we have representation of various diverse communities, we are able to bring up issues that our constituents raise to us or that we feel very viscerally. I first introduced this bill in 2017 after the mother of Ven Neralla, my then-legislative director and who is still a staff member here in Congress, tragically died suddenly of heart disease. As we started researching the issue what we learned is that South Asian Americans are four times more likely to develop heart disease than the general population. As the first South Asian-American woman in the House of Representatives, I am aware of the barriers that our communities experience to address this epidemic.…”