I 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4452 

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 

JANUARY 13, 2010 

Ms. NORTON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and 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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Lifelong Improvements 

5 in Food and Exercise (LIFE) Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 


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1 (1) Currently, 64.5 percent of adults in the 

2 United States, age 20 years and older, are over3 weight and 30.5 percent of them are obese. 

4 (2) Data from two National Health and Nutri5 tion Examination Surveys show that among adults 

6 aged 20–74 years the prevalence of obesity increased 

7 from 15.0 percent in the 1976–1980 survey to 32.9 

8 percent in the 2003–2004 survey. 

9 (3) In 2003–04, of children and adolescents 2– 

10 19 years of age more than 12,500,000 (or 17.1 per11 cent) were overweight, and of adults more than 

12 66,000,000 (or 32.2 percent) were obese. Almost 5 

13 percent of adults were extremely obese. 

14 (4) The percentage of children who are over15 weight has more than doubled, and among adoles16 cents the rates have more than tripled, since 1980 

17 increasing from 5 percent to 17.1 percent. 

18 (5) More than 50 percent of adults in the 

19 United States do not get enough physical activity 

20 and national data have shown an increase in the cal21 orie consumption of adults. 

22 (6) The rising rates of obesity portend greater 

23 disease and health conditions including hypertension, 

24 high total cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, coronary 

25 heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, 


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1 osteoporosis, sleep apnea, and respiratory problems, 

2 and some cancers, such as endometrial, breast, and 

3 colon cancer. 

4 (7) Many underlying factors have been linked to 

5 the increase in obesity, such as increasing portion 

6 sizes, eating out more often, increased consumption 

7 of sugar-sweetened drinks, increasing television, 

8 computer, and electronic gaming time, changing 

9 labor markets, and fear of crime, which prevents 

10 outdoor exercise. 

11 (8) Chronic diseases account for 1.7 million, or 

12 70 percent, of all deaths in the United States each 

13 year. Although chronic diseases are among the most 

14 common and costly health problems, they are also 

15 among the most preventable. Adopting a healthy 

16 lifestyle such as eating nutritious foods and engag17 ing in physical activity, can prevent or control the 

18 devastating effects of these diseases. Although 

19 chronic diseases are among the most common and 

20 costly health problems, they are also among the 

21 most preventable. 

22 (9) According to the Surgeon General’s Call to 

23 Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and 

24 Obesity, the cost of obesity in the United States in 

25 2000 was more than $117 billion. 


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1 SEC. 3. REDUCTION IN PREVALENCE OF OBESITY; PRO2 GRAM FOR LIFELONG IMPROVEMENTS IN 

3 FOOD AND EXERCISE. 

4 Part B of title III of the Public Health Service Act 

5 (42 U.S.C. 243 et seq.) is amended by inserting after sec6 tion 317T the following section: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 317U. REDUCTION IN PREVALENCE OF OBESITY. 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting through 

9 the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Pre10 vention, shall carry out a national program to conduct and 

11 support activities regarding individuals who are over12 weight or obese in order to make progress toward the goal 

13 of significantly reducing the number of cases of obesity 

14 among individuals in the United States. 

15 ‘‘(b) CERTAIN ACTIVITIES.—In carrying out sub16 section (a), the Secretary shall (directly or through grants 

17 or contracts) carry out the following with respect to indi18 viduals who are overweight: 

19 ‘‘(1) Activities to train health professionals to 

20 recognize that patients are overweight and to rec21 ommend prevention activities regarding such condi22 tion, including educating patients on the relationship 

23 between such condition and cardiovascular disease, 

24 diabetes and other health conditions, and on proper 

25 nutrition and regular physical activities. 


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1 ‘‘(2) Activities to educate the public with re2 spect to the condition of being overweight, including 

3 the development of a strategy for a public awareness 

4 campaign. 

5 ‘‘(3) The development and demonstration of 

6 intervention strategies for use at worksites and in 

7 community settings such as hospitals and commu8 nity health centers. 

9 ‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For the 

10 purpose of carrying out this section, there are authorized 

11 to be appropriated $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, and 

12 such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 

13 2011 through 2014.’’. 

Æ 


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