Health Empowerment Zone Act of 2003 - Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to designate a community as a health empowerment zone if a participating community partnership: (1) requests such designation; and (2) demonstrates that the community is a community of color experiencing disproportionate disparities in health status and health care.
Directs the Secretary to make: (1) grants to community partnerships of private and public entities to establish health empowerment zone programs to assist individuals, businesses, schools, minority health associations, nonprofit organizations, community-based organizations, hospitals, health care clinics, and foundations in a health empowerment zone that are seeking to improve the health or environment of minority individuals and eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health status and health care; (2) at least one grant in a health empowerment zone in a U.S. territory or possession; and (3) establish a health empowerment zone coordinating committee for each zone.
Directs the Secretary, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to provide assistance for such programs.
[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3588 Introduced in House (IH)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3588
To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish
health empowerment zone programs in communities that disproportionately
experience disparities in health status and health care, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 21, 2003
Mrs. Christensen (for herself, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Cummings, Ms.
Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. Watt, Ms. Watson, Ms. Lee, Mr. Hastings of
Florida, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Ms. Majette, Ms. Kilpatrick, Mr.
Clyburn, Mr. Meek of Florida, Ms. Waters, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of
Texas, Mr. Wynn, Ms. Corrine Brown of Florida, Mr. Jefferson, Mr.
Payne, Ms. Carson of Indiana, and Mr. Scott of Virginia) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and
Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish
health empowerment zone programs in communities that disproportionately
experience disparities in health status and health care, and for other
purposes.
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 ``Health Empowerment Zone Act of
2003''.
SEC. 2. HEALTH EMPOWERMENT ZONES.
(a) Health Empowerment Zone Programs.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Health and Human
Services, acting through the Administrator of the Health
Resources and Services Administration and the Director of the
Office of Minority Health, and in cooperation with the Director
of the Office of Community Services and the Director of the
National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities--
(A) shall designate health empowerment zones in
accordance with paragraph (2); and
(B) shall make grants in accordance with paragraph
(3).
(2) Designation of health empowerment zones.--The Secretary
may designate a community as a health empowerment zone if--
(A) a community partnership seeking a grant under
this section requests that the community be designated
as a health empowerment zone; and
(B) the community partnership demonstrates, to the
Secretary's satisfaction, that the community is a
community of color that experiences disproportionate
disparities in health status and health care.
(3) Grants.--The Secretary shall make grants to community
partnerships of private and public entities to establish health
empowerment zone programs.
(4) Use of funds.--Grants under this section shall be used
for the establishment of a health empowerment zone program to
assist individuals, businesses, schools, minority health
associations, nonprofit organizations, community-based
organizations, hospitals, health care clinics, and foundations
in a health empowerment zone that are seeking--
(A) to effectively access Federal programs to
improve the health or environment of 1 or more minority
individuals in the community and eliminate racial and
ethnic disparities in health status and health care;
and
(B) to coordinate the efforts of governmental and
private entities regarding the elimination of racial
and ethnic disparities in health status and health
care.
(5) Establishment in territory or possession.--The
Secretary shall make at least 1 grant under this section to a
community partnership for a health empowerment zone program in
a health empowerment zone that is located in a territory or
possession of the United States.
(6) Application.--To seek the designation of a community as
a health empowerment zone and to obtain a grant under this
section, a community partnership shall submit to the Secretary
an application in such form and in such manner as the Secretary
may require. An application under this paragraph shall--
(A) demonstrate that the community to be served is
a community of color that experiences disproportionate
disparities in health status and health care;
(B) set forth a strategic plan for the proposed
health empowerment zone program, by--
(i) describing the coordinated health,
economic, human, community, and physical
development plan and related activities
proposed for the community involved;
(ii) describing the inclusion of the
community involved as a full partner in the
process of developing, implementing,
monitoring, and evaluating the strategic plan
and the extent to which local institutions and
organizations have contributed to the planning
process;
(iii) identifying the projected amount of
Federal, State, local, and private resources
that will be available in the area and the
private and public community partnerships to be
used (including any participation by or
cooperation with universities, colleges,
foundations, nonprofit organizations, medical
centers, hospitals, health clinics, school
districts, or other private and public
entities);
(iv) identifying the funding requested
under any Federal program in support of the
proposed health, economic, human, community,
and physical development, and related
activities;
(v) identifying baselines, methods, health
outcomes, and benchmarks for measuring the
success of carrying out the strategic plan;
(vi) demonstrating the ability to
effectively reach and service the targeted
underserved minority community populations in a
culturally appropriate and linguistically
responsive manner;
(vii) demonstrating a capacity and
infrastructure to provide long-term community
response that is culturally appropriate and
linguistically responsive to a community of
color that experiences disproportionate
disparities in health status and health care;
and
(viii) identifying the individuals who have
agreed to serve as members of a health
empowerment zone coordinating committee for the
community involved; and
(C) include such other information as the Secretary
may require.
(7) Preference.--In awarding grants under this subsection,
the Secretary shall give preference to proposals from
indigenous community entities that have an expertise in
providing culturally appropriate and linguistically responsive
services to communities of color that experience
disproportionate disparities in health status and health care.
(b) Federal Assistance for Health Empowerment Zone Grant
Programs.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services, the
Administrator of the Small Business Administration, the Secretary of
Agriculture, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Labor, and
the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall each--
(1) where appropriate, provide entity-specific technical
assistance and evidence-based strategies to communities of
color that experience disproportionate disparities in health
status and health care to further the purposes of a health
empowerment zone program described in subsection (a)(5);
(2) identify all programs administered by the Department of
Health and Human Services, the Small Business Administration,
the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Education, the
Department of Labor, and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, respectively, that may be used to further the
purposes of a health empowerment zone program described in
subsection (a)(5); and
(3) in administering any program identified under paragraph
(2), give priority to any individual or entity located in a
community served by a health empowerment zone program under
subsection (a) if such priority would further the purposes of
the health empowerment zone program described in subsection
(a)(5).
(c) Health Empowerment Zone Coordinating Committee.--
(1) Establishment.--For each health empowerment zone
program established with a grant under subsection (a), the
Secretary, acting through the Director of the Office of
Minority Health and the Administrator of the Health Resources
and Services Administration, shall establish a health
empowerment zone coordinating committee.
(2) Duties.--Each coordinating committee established, in
coordination with the Director of the Office of Minority Health
and the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services
Administration, shall provide technical assistance and
evidence-based strategies to the grant recipient involved,
including providing guidance on research, strategies, health
outcomes, program goals, management, implementation,
monitoring, assessment, and evaluation processes.
(3) Membership.--
(A) Appointment.--The Director of the Office of
Minority Health and the Administrator of the Health
Resources and Services Administration, in consultation
with the respective grant recipient, shall appoint the
members of each coordinating committee.
(B) Composition.--The Director of the Office of
Minority Health and the Administrator of the Health
Resources and Services Administration shall ensure that
each coordinating committee--
(i) has not more than 20 members;
(ii) includes individuals from communities
of color that experience disproportionate
disparities in health status and health care;
(iii) includes community leaders and
leaders of community-based organizations;
(iv) includes representatives of academia
and lay and professional organizations and
associations including those having expertise
in medicine, technical, social and behavioral
science, health policy, advocacy, cultural and
linguistic competency, research management, and
organization; and
(v) represents a reasonable cross-section
of knowledge, views, and application of
expertise on societal, ethical, behavioral,
educational, policy, legal, cultural,
linguistic, and workforce issues related to
eliminating disparities in health and health
care.
(C) Qualifications.--The Director of the Office of
Minority Health and the Administrator of the Health
Resources and Services Administration shall ensure that
the members of each coordinating committee meet the
following:
(i) No member is employed by the Federal
Government.
(ii) Each member has appropriate
experience, including experience in the areas
of community development, cultural and
linguistic competency, reducing and eliminating
racial and ethnic disparities in health and
health care, or minority health.
(iii) A majority of the members reside in
the health empowerment zone involved.
(D) Selection.--In selecting individuals to serve
on a coordinating committee, the Director of the Office
of Minority Health and the Administrator of the Health
Resources and Services Administration shall give due
consideration to the recommendations of the Congress,
industry leaders, the scientific community (including
the Institute of Medicine), academia, community based
nonprofit organizations, minority health and related
organizations, the education community, State and local
governments, and other appropriate organizations.
(E) Chairperson.--The Director of the Office of
Minority Health and the Administrator of the Health
Resources and Services Administration, in consultation
with the members of the coordinating committee
involved, shall designate a chairperson of the
coordinating committee, who shall serve for a term of 3
years and who may be reappointed at the expiration of
each such term.
(F) Terms.--Each member of a coordinating committee
shall be appointed for a term of 1 to 3 years in
overlapping staggered terms, as determined by the
Director of the Office of Minority Health and the
Administrator of the Health Resources and Services
Administration at the time of appointment, and may be
reappointed at the expiration of each such term.
(G) Vacancies.--A vacancy on a coordinating
committee shall be filled in the same manner in which
the original appointment was made.
(H) Compensation.--The members of a coordinating
committee shall serve without pay.
(I) Travel expenses.--Each member of a coordinating
committee shall receive travel expenses, including per
diem in lieu of subsistence, in accordance with
applicable provisions under subchapter I of chapter 57
of title 5, United States Code.
(4) Staff; experts and consultants.--
(A) Staff.--The chairperson of a coordinating
committee may appoint and fix the pay of additional
personnel as the chairperson considers appropriate.
(B) Experts and consultants.--The chairperson of a
coordinating committee may procure temporary and
intermittent services under section 3109(b) of title 5,
United States Code.
(5) Meetings.--A coordinating committee shall meet 3 to 5
times each year, at the call of the coordinating committee's
chairperson and in consultation with the Director of the Office
of Minority Health and the Administrator of the Health
Resources and Services Administration.
(6) Report.--Each coordinating committee shall transmit to
the Congress an annual report that, with respect to the health
empowerment zone program involved, includes the following:
(A) A review of the program's effectiveness in
achieving stated goals and outcomes, and overcoming
challenges.
(B) A review of the program's management and
coordination of the entities involved.
(C) A review of the activities in the program's
portfolio and components.
(D) An identification of policy issues raised by
the program.
(E) An assessment of program's results including
that of capacity, infrastructure, number of underserved
minority communities reached and retained in the effort
in a defined time frame.
(F) Recommendations for new program goals, research
areas, enhanced approaches, community partnerships,
coordination and management mechanisms, and projects to
be established to achieve the program's stated goals,
to improve outcomes, assessments, monitoring, and
evaluation.
(G) A review of the degree of minority entities
participation in the program, and an identification of
a strategy to increase such participation.
(H) Any other reviews or recommendations determined
to be appropriate by the coordinating committee.
(d) Report.--The Director of the Office of Minority Health and the
Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration shall
submit a joint annual report to the appropriate committees of the
Congress on the results of the implementation of programs under this
section.
(e) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Coordinating committee.--The term ``coordinating
committee'' means a health empowerment zone coordinating
committee established under this section.
(2) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Health and Human Services.
(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this section $100,000,000 for fiscal year
2004, and such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 2005
through 2010.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR E22403-2404)
Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
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