Fwd: RE: Legislation Alert: H.R. 3177

[Mary McLellan]

Dear All,
Would like to know what you thing about this bill in terms of:

Is this initiative going to increase the Registered Dietitian's role in providing
Nutrition Counseling or will it train non-RD's to do the instructing?

Will this make RD's more or less popular in the public eye(ie;food police)?

CDC is already such a massive agency, yet it does have power to inforce change in
government programs, especially the schools.

Mary S. McLellan MS,RD
Research Associate

jikeda at socrates.berkeley.edu wrote:


> >Now we can each make up our own minds about this bill...Joanne

>

> >Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise (LIFE) Act (Introduced in the

> >House)

> >

> >HR 3177

> >Sponsor: Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes (introduced 10/28/1999)

> >Latest Major Action: 11/5/1999 Referred to House subcommittee

> >

> >Title: To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for a national

> >program to conduct and support activities toward the goal of significantly

> >reducing the number of cases of overweight and obesity among individuals

> >in the  United States.

> >__________________________________________________________________

> >

> >

> >                                              106th CONGRESS

> >

> >                                                  1st Session

> >

> >                                                  H. R. 3177

> >

> >                                 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

> >

> >                                              October 28, 1999

> >

> >Mr. NORTON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

> >Committee on Commerce

> >                                           A BILL

> >To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for a national program

> >to conduct and support activities toward the goal of significantly

> >reducing the number of cases of overweight and obesity among individuals

> >in the United States.

> >

> >Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United

> >States of America in Congress assembled,

> >

> >SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

> >

> >        This Act may be cited as the `Lifelong Improvements in Food and

> > Exercise (LIFE) Act'.

> >

> >SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

> >

> >        The Congress finds as follows:

> >

> >               (1) Obesity has increased by more than 50 percent among

> > adults and 100 percent among children and adolescents in just the past 15

> > years.

> >

> >               (2) Fifty percent of women over 20 are overweight.

> >

> >               (3) Obesity is associated with many of the leading causes

> > of death and disability, including heart disease, diabetes, certain forms

> > of arthritis and cancer.

> >

> >               (4) The rising rates of obesity portend greater disease,

> > disability and early death, and concomitant rises in health care costs

> > and lost wages and productivity.

> >

> >               (5) Overweight among women is significantly outstripping

> > overweight among men, and the problem is getting worse decade by decade.

> >

> >               (6) Almost 25 percent of young people, ages 6-17, are

> > overweight and the percentage who are seriously overweight has doubled in

> > the last 30 years.

> >

> >               (7) One third of young people ages 12-21 do not regularly

> > engage in physical exercise.

> >

> >               (8) Part of the reason for youth inactivity is the

> > reduction in daily participation in high school physical education

> > classes from 42 percent in 1991 to 27 percent in 1997.

> >

> >               (9) The lack of activity combined with poor eating habits

> > among children carries over to adulthood; 25 percent of adults are

> > totally inactive and 60 percent of whom engage in too little physical activity.

> >

> >               (10) Chronic diseases account for 70 percent of deaths in

> > this country and 60 percent of medical care expenditures.

> >

> >SEC. 3. REDUCTION IN PREVALENCE OF OBESITY; PROGRAM FOR LIFELONG

> >IMPROVEMENTS IN FOOD AND EXERCISE.

> >

> >        Part B of title III of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.

> > 243 et seq.) is amended by inserting after

> >        section 317G the following section:

> >

> >`REDUCTION IN PREVALENCE OF OBESITY

> >

> >        `SEC. 317H. (a) IN GENERAL- The Secretary, acting through the

> > Director of the Centers for Disease

> >        Control and Prevention, shall carry out a national program to

> > conduct and support activities regarding individuals who are overweight

> > or obese in order to make progress toward the goal of significantly

> > reducing the number of cases of obesity among individuals in the United States.

> >

> >        `(b) CERTAIN ACTIVITIES- In carrying out subsection (a), the

> > Secretary shall (directly or through grants or contracts) carry out the

> > following with respect to individuals who are overweight:

> >

> >               `(1) Activities to train health professionals to recognize

> > that patients are overweight and to recommend prevention activities

> > regarding such condition, including educating patients on the

> > relationship between such condition and cardiovascular disease, diabetes

> > and other health conditions, and on proper nutrition and regular physical

> > activities.

> >

> >               `(2) Activities to educate the public with respect to the

> > condition of being overweight, including the development of a strategy

> > for a public awareness campaign.

> >

> >               `(3) The development and demonstration of intervention

> > strategies for use at worksites and in community settings such as

> > hospitals and community health centers.

> >

> >        `(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS- For the purpose of carrying

> > out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated $15,000,000 for

> > fiscal year 2000, and such sums as may be necessary for each of the

> > fiscal years 2001 through 2004.'.

> >

> >

> >FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

> >

> >                                                 January 6, 2000

> >

> >         NORTON PROMOTES BILL TO COMBAT OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY WITH DR. C.

> >                                              EVERETT KOOP

> >

> >           Washington, D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)

> > today was a featured speaker at a press conference sponsored by Shape-Up

> > America, led by Dr. C. Everett Koop, to emphasize ways to reduce what

> > Norton said is, "a full blown health crisis and truly a national epidemic

> > of overweight and obesity in this country." She spoke about her bill,

> > H.R. 3177, the Lifelong Improvements in Food and

> >  Exercise Act (LIFE), that would require the Centers for Disease Control

> > to launch a comprehensive nationwide program to combat overweight and

> > obesity, working closely with states and localities to test

> >practical interventions, coordinate communications campaigns, and educate

> >health professionals. Norton said the national effort is at least 15 years

> >overdue because obesity has increased by more than 50% among adults and

> >100% among children and adolescents. Her complete statement follows.

> >

> >                                                    * * *

> >

> >           I am pleased to join Dr. C. Everett Koop and Dr. Barbara Moore

> > of Shape-Up America, as well asDr. Pamela Peeke and to congratulate them

> > for their pathbreaking leadership. They are well ahead of the Congress,

> > state and local officials, schools and colleges, the health care

> > profession itself and most of the others who should be assisting in the

> > leadership on the major health issue of overweight and obesity. Iwelcome

> > the work and the leadership of the entire public/private/governmental

> > Partnership for Healthy

> >  Weight Management, and I believe that they are in the vanguard of an

> > issue whose time has not only come but should have come years ago for the

> > nation. As it is now, we have a full blown health crisis and a  truly

> > national epidemic of overweight and obesity in this country.

> >

> >           As a Member of Congress, I am focused on what to do about this

> > health crisis and how public policy measures can help. Overweight,

> > obesity, and sedentary lifestyles are creating a major constellation of

> > health problems and risks beginning at far earlier ages than ever before.

> > The greatest public threat is that preventable disease will overwhelm a

> > health care system already at huge risk from the sheer numbers of baby

> > boomers who will soon saturate it. The country has not found the will to

> > expand health care to the uninsured and underinsured. Now, we run the

> > risk of overwhelming the health care system with entirely

> >preventable diseases, such as heart disease, the nation's number one

> >killer, if large changes in lifestyles do not take hold.

> >

> >           In a country where health indicators are supposed to improve,

> > the national regression on weight, nutrition, and physical activity sends

> > a high-voltage wake-up call. The forces that have encouraged weight gain

> > and discouraged physical activity are neither sinister nor

> > conspiratorial. Increasingly delicious and highly advertised retail and

> > restaurant food, fat-saturated fast food, computers, computer games, and

> > cable TV all have combined to encourage a lifestyle greatly at odds with

> > good health. This seemingly benign mixture in fact is ultimately lethal,

> > but its elements are now firmly rooted in American life. Only a major

> > national effort can help Americans sort out the competing pressures.

> >

> >           I have therefore introduced H.R. 3177, the Lifelong

> > Improvements in Food and Exercise Act--or LIFE. The underlying theme of

> > the bill is that unhealthy lifestyles have gained such a foothold in

> > every part of the country that only a major national intervention can

> > affect existing runaway patterns in time.The predicate for the bill is

> > perhaps best summarized in one set of the most alarming statistics: In just the

> >past 15 years, obesity has increased more than 50% among adults and an

> >astonishingly 100% among children and adolescents. Just as my bill was

> >introduced, the Journal of the American Medical Association

> >  devoted an entire issue to obesity and overweight. A Centers for Disease

> > Control (CDC) study in the issue confirms the epidemic in every state,

> > age group, race, both sexes, and without regard to smoking status.

> > Perhaps the most disheartening and counterintuitive findings were that

> > the greatest increase in obesity was

> >  found not among the least educated but among those with some college

> > education (10.6%- 17.8%) and not among the middle aged but among 18-29

> > year-olds (7.1%-12.1%). Women are doing worse than men,

> >  with more than 3 million women more than 100 pounds above their

> > recommended body weight.

> >

> >   My bill would start the country off with an achievable approach and

> > appropriation, and it was well received by Chairman John Porter when I

> > went to testify personally before the Labor- HHS Subcommittee. LIFE was

> > introduced only a few weeks before the 1999 session ended, but an inquiry

> > I received just this week indicates that my bill is likely to be taken up

> > by my own leadership and to get signers from across the aisle as well.

> > Its price tag of $15 million is far more modest than required but much

> > more than ever before committed in so focused a way to weight management

> > and is calculated at

> >  an amount that can actually get through the House and the Senate. The

> > LIFE bill is designed as a national initiative to tackle the 300,000

> > instances of preventable diseases that, according to the CDC, result each

> >  year from unhealthy diets and physical inactivity. LIFE requires four

> > basics of the CDC: to design and launch a comprehensive nationwide

> > program of physical activity and obesity prevention programs working

> > closely to help states and localities; to test practical intervention

> > strategies in work sites and communities; to coordinate communications

> > campaigns; and to educate health professionals. A CDC LIFE program would

> > include all Americans, but would place special emphasis on populations

> > that have been

> >   least responsive to lifestyle dangers, including children, young

> > people, and women. Importantly, the CDC would study and measure the

> > results so that only the most effective and credible programs are spread

> >  nationally.

> >

> >  A $15 million national effort hardly registers in the federal budget,

> > especially when compared to thebillions in health care costs and the

> > millions in lives that would be saved. Overweight and inactivity are

> > creating their own health crisis. The rapid development of lifestyle

> > health risks up and down the age scale can be reversed. The program

> > announced here today and many others, combined with a concerted national

> > statutory partnership across the major sectors as well as enactment of

> > the LIFE bill are what is

> >  required.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >                         FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

> >

> >                                                October 28, 1999

> >

> >         NORTON INTRODUCES BILL TO MOBILIZE NATION AGAINST OVERWEIGHT

> > ANDOBESITY

> >

> >           Washington, D.C.-- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)

> > today introduced the Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise Act

> > (LIFE), a national initiative to attack growing problems of overweight

> > and obesity now found in Americans of every age, race, and

> > majordemographic group. LIFE would provide $15 million in funding to the

> > Centers for DiseaseControl (CDC) for a major effort to reverse

> > increasingly sedentary lifestyles and diets high in fat and sugar. The

> > bill was filed a day after the Journal of the American Medical

> > Association,devoting its entire issue to obesity, reported that "obesity

> > increased in every state, in both sexes,and across all age groups, races,

> > education level, and smoking statuses."

> >

> >  Congresswoman Norton wrote this bill because of startling statistics

> > that she believes will

> >  overwhelm the healthcare system unless the risks are impressed among the

> > public. Obesity has increased by more than 50% among adults and 100%

> > among children over the past 15 years.

> >These problems are worse in women-- 50% of women over the age of 25 are

> >overweight, and 3 million women are over 100 pounds overweight. Young

> >people are no better off-- one-quarter of young people are overweight. The

> >consequences of overweight and obesity show up in higher rates of heart

> >disease, stroke, and other avoidable health problems.

> >

> >           LIFE directs the CDC to pursue obesity and sedentary lifestyles

> > in three ways: train health professionals to recognize the signs of

> > obesity early and educate people concerning healthful alternatives, such

> > as proper nutrition and regular exercise; conduct public education

> > campaigns to teach the public about how to recognize and address

> > overweight and obesity; and develop intervention strategies to be used in

> > everyday life in worksites and community settings. The Congresswoman said

> > that the LIFE bill is the minimum necessary to avoid a new health care

> > crisis. Already, chronic diseases, many of which are caused or

> > exacerbated by overweight or obesity, account for 70% of deaths and 60%

> > of all health care expenditures.

> >

> >  Norton said that a focused national health initiative is necessary

> > because "unhealthy

> >lifestyles have become a normal part of everyday life." Participation in

> >high school physical

> >  education classes has plummeted from 42% in 1991 to 27% in 1997,

> > accounting at least for part of the reason that one-third of young people

> > 12-21 do not regularly engage in physical activities. The figures for

> > adults are worse, with a decisive majority, or 60%, engaging in too

> > little exercise

> >  to have any health benefits, and 25% not exercising at all.

> >

> >Changes in nutrition are equally critical, according to Norton, citing

> >"fast food as one likely

> >  culprit." She said that 80% of young people consume too much fat, a

> > factor in the doubling in the percentage of overweight youth 6-17 over

> > the past 30 years.

> >

> >  Congresswoman Norton said that her legislation was important to

> > "mobilize the country now before entirely preventable health conditions

> > that begin in children overwhelm the nation's health care system."

>

> Joanne P. Ikeda,MA,RD

> Co Director

> Center on Weight and Health

>

> Cooperative Extension Nutrition Education Specialist

> Department of Nutritional Sciences

> University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3104

>

> Phone (510)642-2790

> FAX (510)642-0535

> E-Mail: jikeda at socrates.berkeley.edu

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