House committee passes resolution naming a national hydrocephalus awareness month
Just Monday, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution selecting September as National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month. As Gabriel’s Life recently reported, an encouraging number of individual states across U.S. have been naming June as their Dandy-Walker Syndrome and Hydrocephalus Awareness Month, but the House committee’s action starts the first national effort to highlight hydrocephalus singularly as a condition worthy of the country’s attention.
The resolution, H.Res 373, recognizes the more than one million persons affected by hydrocephalus within the United States alone. Hoping to stimulate interest and knowledge of the issue, H.Res 373 aim specifically at “public awareness, professional education, and scientific research regarding hydrocephalus” in order to “increase through partnerships between the Federal Government, health care professionals, and patient advocacy groups.” The entire text of the resolution can be found here (the Library of Congress also tracks current action on the bill, so check it out to follow when it is passed).
Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and New Jersey Congressman Leonard Lance sponsored the legislation passed by the committee on July 13. Congresswoman Bachmann’s Web site predicts the full House could possibly consider the resolution as early as next week, officially cementing an entire month to a condition affecting nearly one in 500 births in the United States.
On YouTube.com, the sponsoring representatives also included a link to a video of a meeting with the resolution’s co-sponsors, husband and wife Michael and Kim Illions (you can watch it here). The Illions created the Pediatric Hydrocephalus Foundation, inspired by their own child’s struggle with child hydro. The video will be sent to each member of the House in order to increase votes for the resolution.
To visit Congresswoman Bacchmann’s Web site, click here, and then visit here for Congressman Lance
August 4th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
[…] two weeks after Gabriel’s Life first reported the news, the United States House of Representatives definitely passed a resolution declaring September as […]