Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise (LIFE) Act (Introduced in the House)
HR 3177 IH
106th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3177
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for a national program to conduct and support activities toward the goal of significantly reducing the number of cases of overweight and obesity among individuals in the United States.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 28, 1999
Mr. NORTON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for a national program to conduct and support activities toward the goal of significantly reducing the number of cases of overweight and obesity among individuals in the United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise (LIFE) Act'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds as follows:
(1) Obesity has increased by more than 50 percent among adults and 100 percent among children and adolescents in just the past 15 years.
(2) Fifty percent of women over 20 are overweight.
(3) Obesity is associated with many of the leading causes of death and disability, including heart disease, diabetes, certain forms of arthritis and cancer.
(4) The rising rates of obesity portend greater disease, disability and early death, and concomitant rises in health care costs and lost wages and productivity.
(5) Overweight among women is significantly outstripping overweight among men, and the problem is getting worse decade by decade.
(6) Almost 25 percent of young people, ages 6-17, are overweight and the percentage who are seriously overweight has doubled in the last 30 years.
(7) One third of young people ages 12-21 do not regularly engage in physical exercise.
(8) Part of the reason for youth inactivity is the reduction in daily participation in high school physical education classes from 42 percent in 1991 to 27 percent in 1997.
(9) The lack of activity combined with poor eating habits among children carries over to adulthood; 25 percent of adults are totally inactive and 60 percent of whom engage in too little physical activity.
(10) Chronic diseases account for 70 percent of deaths in this country and 60 percent of medical care expenditures.
SEC. 3. REDUCTION IN PREVALENCE OF OBESITY; PROGRAM FOR LIFELONG IMPROVEMENTS IN FOOD AND EXERCISE.
Part B of title III of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 243 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 317G the following section:
`REDUCTION IN PREVALENCE OF OBESITY
`SEC. 317H. (a) IN GENERAL- The Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shall carry out a national program to conduct and support activities regarding individuals who are overweight or obese in order to make progress toward the goal of significantly reducing the number of cases of obesity among individuals in the United States.
`(b) CERTAIN ACTIVITIES- In carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary shall (directly or through grants or contracts) carry out the following with respect to individuals who are overweight:
`(1) Activities to train health professionals to recognize that patients are overweight and to recommend prevention activities regarding such condition, including educating patients on the relationship between such condition and cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other health conditions, and on proper nutrition and regular physical activities.
`(2) Activities to educate the public with respect to the condition of being overweight, including the development of a strategy for a public awareness campaign.
`(3) The development and demonstration of intervention strategies for use at worksites and in community settings such as hospitals and community health centers.
`(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS- For the purpose of carrying out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2000, and such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 2001 through 2004.'.