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Washington Watch | Issues Update | Health & Safety | Workplace Rights

Washington Watch

American Journal of Nursing - August, 2000 - Volume 100, Issue 8

Congressional Action Sought
Representatives push key issues as they wrap up the 106th Congress

By Stephanie Reed

After Labor Day, Congress will begin the last weeks of its session, making final decisions on spending for federal programs and possibly addressing policy issues that it’s been debating for the past year and a half. Because of the election at the end of this Congressional session, legislation that has garnered significant consensus or public support has a great chance of being passed—members of the House and Senate want something to show for their efforts as they head out on the campaign trail.

Needlestick Legislation

Significant progress is being made in advancing legislation to provide federal needlestick protections for nurses and other health care workers. Several ANA and state nurses association leaders have testified at hearings in the past year and a half, apprising members of Congress of the prevalence and repercussions of needlestick injuries and calling for the passage of legislative protections for all health care workers.

In June, Karen Daley, MPH, RN, testified before a House subcommittee on behalf of the ANA. “Institutions and health care professionals often speak of the importance of prevention,” she said. “Hospitals and other facilities that employ nurses and health care workers have an obligation to apply the same standard of prevention to caregivers as they do to patients.”

Daley, the president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, contracted HIV and hepatitis C from a needlestick and is a tireless advocate of needlestick protections. “We must do everything possible to protect health care workers from unnecessary and preventable exposure to injury and disease.”

Appropriations

Congressional leaders had hoped to avoid last-minute debates on appropriations bills by scheduling them for consideration early in the year; their goal was to reach agreement on the most contentious concerns, including an appropriations measure regarding the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education departments. This bill provides for funding of the Nurse Education Act, the National Institute for Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health, and workplace programs managed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Although both the House and the Senate passed the bill in June, there were serious drawbacks. Especially significant for nursing was an amendment to the bill that would stop the Department of Labor from implementing the OSHA ergonomics standard in the workplace. President Clinton has promised to veto the bill if it contains this amendment.

Patients’ Bill of Rights

In the past, Congress’s attention to the appropriations process caused other legislation to be pushed aside. Congressional leaders then took cover by claiming they ran out of time. This year, though, with the slight Republican majority in the House in danger of being lost in the election, House leaders are particularly sensitive to the fact that voters will hold representatives responsible for what hasn’t been done. This pressure on House members and vulnerable Republican senators is the best hope for securing passage of strong, enforceable patients’ rights legislation.

As part of a coalition, the ANA has put pressure on Congress by reminding the public that only one more vote is needed in the Senate to enact the bipartisan Consensus Managed Care Improvement Act passed by the House in October 1999.

Other Health care issues

Several other health care issues that were on the front burner when Congress convened in January 1999 are still unresolved and will probably be resurrected by a new President and Congress. These issues include outpatient prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries, the cost of prescription drugs to the general population, the increasing number of uninsured Americans, the inequities and inadequacies of Medicare provider reimbursement resulting from the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and the need for federal protections of privacy and confidentiality of health care records.

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