Defeat Infant and Maternal Mortality Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6533 To authorize the Secretary of Defense to share with State and local health authorities the practices of, and lessons learned by, the military health system for the prevention of infant and maternal mortality. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 17, 2020 Ms. ESCOBAR (for herself and Mrs. HARTZLER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subse- quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To authorize the Secretary of Defense to share with State and local health authorities the practices of, and lessons learned by, the military health system for the prevention of infant and maternal mortality. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Defeat Infant and Ma- 4 ternal Mortality Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 22, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6533.IH H6533 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 6533 IH (1) According to a report by the Department of 1 Defense published in July 2019 titled ‘‘Maternal and 2 Infant Mortality Rates in the Military Health Sys- 3 tem,’’ between January 2009 and June 2018, the 4 military health system achieved a pregnancy-related 5 mortality ratio of 7.40 deaths per 100,000 live 6 births across both direct care and purchased card 7 systems. Over the same period, the National 8 Perinatal Information Center ratio was a statis- 9 tically significantly higher ratio of 11.3 deaths per 10 100,000 live births. 11 (2) The same report by the Department of De- 12 fense found that the military health system’s infant 13 mortality rate of 2.51 deaths per 1,000 live births 14 was statistically significantly lower than the Na- 15 tional Perinatal Information Center rate of 4.76 16 deaths per 1,000 live births. 17 (3) In the United States, the maternal mor- 18 tality rate remains unfortunately high. Some States 19 experience rates as high as 24.3 deaths per 100,000 20 live births. 21 (4) A report by the Centers for Disease Control 22 published in May 2019 on pregnancy-related deaths 23 found that nearly 60 percent of such deaths are pre- 24 ventable with improved medical care. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 22, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6533.IH H6533 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 6533 IH (5) Components of the Department of Defense 1 have previously entered into memoranda of under- 2 standing with State and local civilian health entities 3 to better understand and improve public health 4 trends, such as unexpected child deaths. 5 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con- 6 gress that civilian health entities could benefit from en- 7 hanced information sharing with the military health sys- 8 tem regarding best practices for safeguarding mothers and 9 infants during delivery. 10 SEC. 3. INFORMATION SHARING BY SECRETARY OF DE- 11 FENSE REGARDING PREVENTION OF INFANT 12 AND MATERNAL MORTALITY. 13 (a) AUTHORIZE INFORMATION SHARING.—The Sec- 14 retary of Defense may enter into memoranda of under- 15 standing with State and local health authorities to share 16 the practices of, and lessons learned by, the military health 17 system for the prevention of infant and maternal mor- 18 tality. 19 (b) DEFINITION OF STATE.—In this section, the term 20 ‘‘State’’ means each State of the United States, the Dis- 21 trict of Columbia, each commonwealth, territory or posses- 22 sion of the United States, and each federally recognized 23 Indian Tribe. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 22, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6533.IH H6533 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS