August 17, 2001—The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee unanimously approved the Community Access to Emergency Devices Act (S.1275), which would amend the Public Health Service Act to provide grants for public access defibrillation programs. The total of the grants would be $55 million per year for FY2002 through FY2007.
The legislation would also establish a public access defibrillation demonstration program for political subdivisions and Indian tribes interested in developing such programs.
The committee found that communities with established public access defibrillation programs have achieved average survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest as high as 50 percent. According to the American Heart Association, wide use of defibrillators could save as many as 50,000 lives nationally each year.
To read the full text of the legislation, click here.
