Speech #940068784

4925. the Health Revenue Sharing and Health Services Act of 1975. This legislation provides the authority to extend and modify the programs for comprehensive public health services for fiscal years 1976 and 1977. Speaking not only as one who is vitally concerned with our national health needs. but also as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Agricultural Labor. which has a very special interest in the needs of one group which will benefit significantly from this bill. the migrant and seasonal farmworkers. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. This legislation. a 2year. $1.4 billion extension and modification of several major health programs. increases the national focus on the need to provide comprehensive services in health centers for migrant and seasonal farmworkers serving high impact programs by revising the legislative authority. It also substantially increases the authorization for programs to improve the healthfulness of the environment of migrant and seasonal farmworkers. During my tenure as chairman of the Subcommittee on Agricultural Labor. I have witnessed firsthand the tragedy and suffering which results from the inadequate health care available to one of the hardest working and most underpaid segments of our labor force. Anyone who is familiar with the plight of migrant and seasonal farmworkers is constantly aware of the drastic need for improved health services for these people. but this problem periodically becomes so severe that it receives national attention. Perhaps the most recent and dramatic example of this occurred just 2 years ago when a labor camp in Florida spawned a typhoid epidemic. Our subcommittee held extensive hearings in Florida and conducted investigations which enabled us to learn firsthand of the appalling living conditions families of migrant and seasonal farmworkers were forced to accept. I wish it were possible for each Member of this body to see what I saw there and to feel the revulsion and the shame I felt that one of the richest nations in the world would permit its citizens to live in such squalor while performing a function as basic and as necessary as planting and harvesting its crops. This national focus on the typhoid epidemic resulted in greater emphasis on migrant camp sanitation through the migrant health program and in a program to train migrant project personnel to identify sanitation and environmental problems and to enable State agencies to assure high standards of sanitation. But more must be done. I am pleased that this legislation reflects that need by modifying the migrant health program to make it more responsive to the profound health needs of the migrants and by authorizing more than twice the inadequate sum of $19 million requested by the administration for fiscal year 1976. It requires that migrant health centers provide primary health services and supporting supplemental services. including preventive health services and adequate transportation to assure appropriate use of the centers. In connection with my experience with the typhoid epidemic. I am pleased to report that this legislation requires migrant health centers to provide a broad spectrum of environmental health services relating to the detection and alleviation of unhealthful conditions associated with water supplies. sewage treatment. solid waste disposal. rodent and parasitic infestation. and sanitation in the fields and housing. Further. this bill contains a mandate to the health centers to conduct infectious and parasitic disease screening and control and to attempt to prevent accidents including accidental pesticide exposure. The report language stresses that education of the workers in these areas is an important requirement of the centers. This legislation recognizes the need for advice and studies at the Federal level by establishing a National Advisory Council on Migrant Health and by directing the Secretary of Health. Education. and Welfare to arrange for a comprehensive study of the quality of migrant housing available. the impact of housing deficiencies on workers health. and the various governmental standards regulating such housing. Again. Mr. Chairman. I urge my colleagues to support this bill which is so important for millions of Americans and especially vital for the hardworking migrant and seasonal farmworkers.