Bill Introduced in House to Expand Asthma Care Nationwide

Elijah E. Cummings Family Asthma Act Would Improve the National Public Health Response to Asthma

Allergy & Asthma Network supports a new bill introduced into the House that will expand asthma care nationwide. We urge you to support this important bill as well.

Bipartisan legislatorsintroduced the Elijah E. Cummings Family Asthma Act(H.R. 7055)in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 11. The bill would strengthen the nation’s public health response to asthma. It would also provide relief to the 25+ million Americans living with the disease.

The Family Asthma Act would:

• expand the CDC’s National Asthma Control Program to all 50 states;
• direct the CDC to work with state and local health departments to provide information on asthma;
• require states to develop plans around public health responses to asthma, especially for underserved, at-risk communities;
• mandate the collection and coordination of data on asthma.

The bill was introduced by U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Fred Upton (R-MI), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (R-DE).

Elijah E. Cummings represented Baltimore as a member of Congress for 23 years before he passed away in 2019. Cummings was a longtime advocate for people living with asthma.

“More than 24 million Americans – including 6 million children – live with asthma and 10 people die every day from the disease,” says Tonya Winders, President and CEO of Allergy & Asthma Network. “It is imperative that we do all we can to improve asthma care and provide resources. It’s particularly important for people living in underserved communities. Thanks to the many advances in healthcare through the years, asthma is a treatable and manageable disease.

“We urge support for the Elijah E. Cummings Family Asthma Act to expand asthma education and awareness nationwide through the CDC’s National Asthma Control Program. It takes all of us working together to ensure no more lives are lost to asthma.

“And we can’t think of a more fitting tribute to the late Congressman Cummings than to see this important legislation become law.”

过敏和哮喘网络连接美国肺脏ssociation, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, and other patient advocacy groups in urging support of the Family Asthma Act.