School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act

Floor Speech

Mr. ROE of Tennessee. I thank Dr. Burgess, and, Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge my colleagues to support the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act.

This bill will encourage States and schools to take small but meaningful steps to protect schoolchildren from anaphylaxis, a severe and potentially fatal allergic reaction that can be triggered by a food allergy, or even an insect sting. According to Food Allergy Research and Education, one in 13 children has a food allergy--roughly two in every classroom.

The bipartisan bill I introduced with Congressman Hoyer--and I want to thank Congressman Hoyer profusely today. His staff and my staff worked diligently on this bill to bring it to the floor. This bill provides a preference for asthma-related grants to States that adopt laws to permit properly trained school personnel to administer epinephrine to a student reasonably believed to have an anaphylactic reaction. To obtain preference, schools would have to maintain a supply of epinephrine and ensure trained personnel are present to administer.

This legislation has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office at no cost to the taxpayer. Our bill simply builds on an existing preference system signed into law in 2004 that helped make student self-administration of epinephrine a reality in 49 States.

Anaphylaxis, however, is not always predictable. An individual--adult or child--could have a severe allergic reaction even with no prior history of a food allergy, and I've seen this many times in my practice.

Because anaphylaxis can cause deaths in just minutes, it is essential that epinephrine, the best treatment for anaphylaxis, be readily available for treatment. In most States, however, schools are not required to keep epinephrine stocked in case of emergencies. The result is needless tragedies, like that of Amarria Johnson.

Amarria was a 7-year-old girl--the same age of my granddaughter--who lived in Chesterfield County, Virginia. On January 2, 2012, she died from cardiac arrest and anaphylaxis as a result of eating a peanut. I had an opportunity to meet Amarria's mother, Laura Pendleton, at a briefing that Mr. Hoyer and I hosted on our bill. Her story is absolutely heartbreaking.

As a father and a grandfather, I can't begin to imagine what she had to go through. In response to her death, the Virginia Legislature passed what has become known as ``Amarria's law,'' which required public schools in the State to keep epinephrine on hand. But while 28 States have laws allowing schools to stock epinephrine, the States requiring the same remain in the minority.

A set of two epinephrine autoinjectors costs about $150 and are good for a year. With new competition in the marketplace to produce what are commonly known as EpiPens, I'm confident the price will come down even further. The training required to use an EpiPen is minimal. School personnel could be trained by an EMT or a school nurse in a brief session. The autoinjectors themselves are safe and very easy to use. The needle is covered by a protective sheath and only comes out when the EpiPen is pressed against the leg.

To make sure that teachers and other adults working at the school don't have to worry about a lawsuit for doing the right thing, our bill requires, as a condition of receiving preference for asthma-related grants, that the State attorney general reviews existing civil liability protection laws and certifies that they provide adequate protection to the trained school personnel.

I thank the minority whip, Mr. Hoyer, who worked tirelessly on this, for being an outstanding partner in this process. His story with his granddaughter is a compelling one. This has become a bipartisan process every step of the way.

I would also like to thank Chairman Upton and Mr. Waxman and his staff for helping advance this proposal. My hope is that this bill gives the States a little encouragement to ensure that what happened to Amarria doesn't ever happen to another child.

I thank Mr. Butterfield, and I thank Dr. Burgess for allowing me to be here this evening, and I encourage my colleagues to support this bill.

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