Studies have indicated there is a strong correlation between the shortages of nurses and morbidity and mortality rates in our hospitals.
Nurses serve their patients in the most important capacities. We know that they serve as our first lines of communication when something goes wrong or when we are concerned about health.
In reality drilling is the slowest, dirtiest, and most expensive way to solve our energy crisis.
I have been working for years to promote a responsible energy policy that works to increase energy efficiency and invest in alternative and renewable energy sources.
What we need to do is really improve energy efficiency standards, develop in full scale renewable and alternative energy and use the one resource we have in abundance, our creativity.
And as a nurse, I know very well the importance, for example, of electronic medical records.
As we may know, osteoporosis affects around 10 million Americans, most of whom are over 55, and it is the cause of an estimated 1.5 million fractures annually.
Unless Hamas recognizes Israel's right to exist and renounces terror, the Palestinian Authority should receive no direct U.S. assistance.
Let there be no mistake, Hamas is a ruthless terrorist organization.
In America today, the percentage of children and adolescents who are defined as overweight is more than double what it was in the early 1970s.
I simply cannot see how denying chemotherapy treatment for Palestinian children increases Israel's security or advances U.S. national interests.
I want to thank the efforts of the American Public Health Association and its 200-plus partners who have organized events around the Nation that serve to raise everyone's awareness of the need to improve public health.
In addition, for almost a year now I have been urging the President, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate suspicious gas price spikes.
I will continue to work in Washington to oppose any efforts to expand drilling off our Coasts and to challenge my colleagues to adopt responsible energy policies.
The refusal to acknowledge the scientific value of embryonic stem cell research is one more tragic misstep.
That makes climate change a bigger public health problem than AIDS, than malaria, than pandemic flu.
Pregnant women are more likely to die from homicide by domestic violence than any other cause of death.
Each year thousands of embryos, no bigger than the head of a pin, are created in the process of in vitro fertilization, with the support of Congress, by the way.
Drilling in the refuge will not solve America's energy problem. The Energy Department's own figures show that drilling would not change gas prices by more than a penny a gallon, and this would be 20 years from now.
With 3 percent of the worlds resources and 25 percent of the worlds demand, it is pretty obvious this country cannot drill its way to energy security.
It is time for a New Direction for our nation's energy policies.
My experience as a school nurse taught me that we need to make a concerted effort, all of us, to increase physical fitness activity among our children and to encourage all Americans to adopt a healthier diet that includes fruits and vegetables, but there is more.
Mr. Speaker, less than 10 percent of our Nation's children walk or ride their bicycles to school, and too many schools continue to invite fast-food vendors into their cafeterias.
National Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month is celebrated each May, and becomes a chance for our Nation to become more familiar with the effects of this disease, and about the preventable steps that we can take to deal with it.
Research clearly shows us that the earlier women think about maintaining their bone mass and take the steps to do so, the better their health will be in the long run.
