Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. REED. Mr. President, today I am pleased to introduce the Strengthening the Vaccines for Children Program Act of 2021 with Senator Shelley Moore Capito. This bill seeks to protect children and their communities from preventable illness during the pandemic and for the long term by making vaccines more accessible. Similar bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Kim Schrier, John Joyce, G.K. Butterfield, and David McKinley.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, routine childhood vaccination rates are down, as parents have sought to avoid visits to the doctor and other medical care for their children for fear of catching or spreading COVID-19. These lower immunizations rates raise the very real possibility of a secondary outbreak of an infectious disease such as measles, mumps, or whooping cough. The Vaccines for Children (VFC) program provides federally purchased vaccines to approximately half of all children in the United States, including children who are enrolled in Medicaid or who are uninsured or underinsured, and plays a critical role in ensuring high rates of childhood vaccination. As children return to school in person this fall, the VFC program will be critical to helping children catch up on their routine immunizations to prevent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. However, much more must be done to update and improve the VFC program to better reflect the challenges of administering vaccines today.

Our bipartisan legislation would modernize the VFC program, addressing barriers to participation among families and their pediatricians. As such, this bill would extend eligibility to children enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program, streamlining and filling a gap in program administration. The bill would also ensure that Medicaid can pay appropriately for the administration and counseling of modern, multicomponent vaccines, helping to address vaccine hesitancy. Lastly, the bill includes new reporting requirements to identify disparities and pockets of low vaccination rates.

This legislation has already passed unanimously in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, demonstrating broad, bipartisan support for improving the VFC program and addressing lagging childhood vaccination rates. I look forward to working with Sen. Capito, as well as Representatives Schrier, Joyce, Butterfield, and McKinley towards passage of this legislation in both chambers in the near future. ______

By Mr. PADILLA (for himself and Mrs. Feinstein):

S. 2693. A bill to amend the Reclamation Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 1992 to authorize additional projects related to the Salton Sea, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

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