DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR AND HEALTH, EDUCATION, HEARINGS BEFORE A COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS GEORGE H. MAHON, Texas, Chairman JAMIE L. WHITTEN, Mississippi EDWARD P. BOLAND, Massachusetts GEORGE E. SHIPLEY, Illinois ROBERT N. GIAIMO, Connecticut BOB CASEY, Texas DAVID PRYOR, Arkansas FRANK E. EVANS, Colorado DAVID R. OBEY, Wisconsin EDWARD R. ROYBAL, California WILLIAM D. HATHAWAY, Maine NICK GALIFIANAKIS, North Carolina LOUIS STOKES, Ohio J. EDWARD ROUSH, Indiana K. GUNN MCKAY, Utah FRANK T. BOW, Ohio KF27 A652 CHARLES R. JONAS, North Carolina' J. KENNETH ROBINSON, Virginia 1972 DEREK J. VANDER SCHAAF J. DAVID WILLSON LEROY R. KIRKPATRICK, First Assistant WILLIE C. LAW, Second Assistant NOTE. This Surveys and Investigations supervisory staff is supplemented by selected personnel borrowed on a reimbursable basis for varying lengths of time from various agencies to staff up specific studies and investigations. The current average annual fulltime personnel equivalent is approximately 42. GERARD J. CHOUINARD JANET LOU DAMERON BEATRICE T. DEW PAUL V. FARMER DANIEL V. GUN SHOWS ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT LAWRENCE C. MILLER (II) FRANCIS W. SADY MARY ALICE SAUER DALE M. SHULAW AUSTIN G. SMITH RANDOLPH THOMAS DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR AND HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1973 TESTIMONY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1972. LEAD-BASED PAINT POISONING WITNESS HON. WILLIAM F. RYAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK Mr. FLOOD. The committee will come to order. We now have the pleasure of hearing what we refer to as our public witnesses as distinguished from what we call "government" witnesses. Who would be better qualified to speak for the public than the distinguished gentleman from New York, Hon. William F. Ryan of the 20th District of the great State of New York. Mr. RYAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I greatly appreciate this opportunity to testify once again before this distinguished subcommittee on the necessity of mounting a fullscale Federal assault on the devastating disease of childhood lead poisoning. Sometimes it is called the silent epidemic; sometimes it is called ghetto malaria. But no matter what it goes by, the fact remains that childhood lead poisoning continues needlessly to plague the children of America. Each year thousands of young children between the ages of 1 and 6 are afflicted by this dread disease. The exact number of youngsters poisoned is unknown, for there are still far too few programs to screen children for lead poisoning. Even so, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare has estimated that each year some 400,000 children are subjected to lead-based paint poisoning. As a result, some 16,000 youngsters require treatment. An additional 3,200 suffer moderate to severe brain damage. And 800 are so severely afflicted that they require institutionalization for the remainder of their lives. And for another 200 children there is no future at all-not even the tragic existence of permanent institutionalization-for they will die as a result of this vicious crippler of young children. Two hundred children a year. (1) pt." In the words of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's Bureau of Community Environmental Management, what this adds up to is a "disease more prevalent than polio before the advent of the Salk vaccine." But the real tragedy is that childhood lead poisoning is a totally manmade and totally preventable disease. It is not some rare malady waiting for a miracle cure. We know how to identify it. We know how to treat it. We know how to eradicate its causes. It exists only because we let it exist. Three years ago I introduced legislation to begin a Federal program to come to grips with this crippler and killed of young children. Subsequently, Senator Kennedy introduced companion legislation in the Senate. Finally, after 2 years of intensive effort, our Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act was signed into law on January 13, 1971, as Public Law 91-695. Title I of this act authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to make grants to units of general local government to assist in developing and carrying out local programs to detect and treat incidents of lead-based paint poisoning. Title II authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to make grants to units of general local government to assist in developing and carrying out programs to identify those areas that present a high risk to the health of resident because of the presence of lead-based paint and then to develop and carry out programs to eliminate the hazards of lead poisoning. And title III directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to develop and carry out a demonstration and research program to determine the nature and extent of the problem of lead-based paint poisoning and to examine methods by which lead-based paint can most effectively be eliminated. In enacting this law, President Nixon committed this Nation to a massive assault to eradicate the blight of childhood lead poisoning. That commitment remains unfulfilled. Much of the reason that lead poisoning continues to be a national peril is that neither the Congress nor the administration has been willing to provide sufficient funding to meet the menace of lead-based paint poisoning. Despite the fact that the Lead-Based Paint Poisoninb Prevention Act authorized $30 million for fiscal years 1971 and 1972, the Nixon administration refused to request any money to fund this act for fiscal 1971 and only after great pressure from myself and other concerned individuals belatedly submitted an amended budget request for $2 million for fiscal year 1972. Although the Congresswith great credit due to this distinguished subcommittee-recognized the total insufficiency of this request, it provided only $7.5 million in appropriations for fiscal year 1972. That was still woefully inadequate to meet the need. As of yesterday, the Department of HEW's Bureau of Community Environmental Management had received applications for grants or notices of intent to fill applications for grants from some 66 communities. These requests totaled close to $30 million. However, the amounts requested in these applications have been pared down by the local communities from the true need to a level which would have a better chance of being funded, given the small amount of Federal funds available. For instance, I understand that Philadelphia, which originally submitted an application for some $30 million in grants has revised that to some $700,000 in order to facilitate its receiving Federal funding as soon as possible. Yet despite this desperate need for funds and the severity of this dread disease, the administration has requested only $9.5 million to combat lead-based paint poisoning for fiscal year 1973. The appropriation of only this meager amount will mean that hundreds of young children will be neeedlessly subjected to the terrors of lead poisoning. What is most striking is that, if we fail to spend the necessary funds to combat this menace, we will have to expend far more patching up the sins committed against our children by allowing them to fall victim to this disease. Each year, for example, 800 young children are so severely afflicted by this sickness that they require institutionalization and care for the remainder of their lives. It has been estimated that such care costs $250,000 per child for a lifetime of institutionalization. For each 800 such children, that is a cost of $200 million. And each year another 800 youngsters are added to the toll. What better proof that, even in cold economic terms, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. On the first day of this session of the 92d Congress (January 18) I introduced legislation to extend and expand the Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act. This legislation provides that for fiscal year 1973 and for each succeeding fiscal year, there is authorized to be appropriated $20 million for grants to units of general local government to assist in developing and carrying out local detection and treatment programs for victims of childhood lead poisoning; $25 million for grants to develop and carry out programs to identify high-risk areas, and then to develop and carry out lead-based paint elimination programs; and $5 million for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to carry out a demonstration and research program to determine the nature and extent of the problem and the methods by which lead-based paint can most effectively be removed. Any amounts authorized for 1 fiscal year but not appropriated may be appropriated for the succeeding fiscal year. I believe that the funding levels provided in this legislation are the basic minimum necessary to mount a meaningful program to combat childhood lead poisoning. And I am pleased to note that 65 Members of the House have joined me in sponsoring this bill. They are: William F. Ryan (New York) Phillip Burton (California) George Collins (Illinois) |