IB 
Union Calendar No. 182 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1344 
[Report No. 114–241] 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize a program for early 
detection, diagnosis, and treatment regarding deaf and hard-of-hearing 
newborns, infants, and young children. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 10, 2015 
Mr. GUTHRIE (for himself and Mrs. CAPPS) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
SEPTEMBER 8, 2015 
Additional sponsors: Mr. PIERLUISI, Mr. MCKINLEY, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. 
CUMMINGS, Mr. ROE of Tennessee, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. LOEBSACK, Mr. 
RIGELL, Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. STIV-
ERS, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. RUSH, Ms. SCHA-
KOWSKY, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. BURGESS, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Mr. OLSON, 
Mr. PASCRELL, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mrs. ELLMERS of North Carolina, 
Mr. BEN RAY LUJA´N of New Mexico, Mr. SMITH of Nebraska, Mr. 
SMITH of Washington, Mr. RANGEL, and Ms. SINEMA 
SEPTEMBER 8, 2015 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 10, 2015] 
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A BILL 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize a 
program for early detection, diagnosis, and treatment 
regarding deaf and hard-of-hearing newborns, infants, 
and young children. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may cited as the ‘‘Early Hearing Detection 
and Intervention Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) Deaf and hard-of-hearing newborns, infants, 
toddlers, and young children require access to special-
ized early intervention providers and programs in 
order to help them meet their linguistic and cognitive 
potential. 
(2) 
Families 
of 
deaf 
and 
hard-of-hearing 
newborns, infants, toddlers, and young children ben-
efit from comprehensive early intervention programs 
that assist them in supporting their child’s develop-
ment in all domains. 
(3) Best practices principles for early interven-
tion for deaf and hard-of-hearing newborns, infants, 
toddlers, and young children have been identified in 
a range of areas including listening and spoken lan-
guage and visual and signed language acquisition, 
family-to-family support, support from individuals 
who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, progress monitoring, 
and others. 
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(4) Effective hearing screening and early inter-
vention programs must be in place to identify hearing 
levels in deaf and hard-of-hearing newborns, infants, 
toddlers, and young children so that they may access 
appropriate early intervention programs in a timely 
manner. 
SEC. 3. REAUTHORIZATION OF PROGRAM FOR EARLY DE-
TECTION, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT RE-
GARDING 
DEAF 
AND 
HARD-OF-HEARING 
NEWBORNS, 
INFANTS, 
AND 
YOUNG 
CHIL-
DREN. 
Section 399M of the Public Health Service Act (42 
U.S.C. 280g–1) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘SEC. 399M. EARLY DETECTION, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREAT-
MENT REGARDING DEAF AND HARD-OF-HEAR-
ING NEWBORNS, INFANTS, AND YOUNG CHIL-
DREN. 
‘‘(a) HEALTH RESOURCES AND SERVICES ADMINIS-
TRATION.—The Secretary, acting through the Adminis-
trator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, 
shall make awards of grants or cooperative agreements to 
develop statewide newborn, infant, and young childhood 
hearing screening, diagnosis, evaluation, and intervention 
programs and systems, and to assist in the recruitment, re-
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tention, education, and training of qualified personnel and 
health care providers for the following purposes: 
‘‘(1) To develop and monitor the efficacy of state-
wide programs and systems for hearing screening of 
newborns, infants, and young children, prompt eval-
uation and diagnosis of children referred from screen-
ing 
programs, 
and 
appropriate 
educational, 
audiological, and medical interventions for children 
confirmed to be deaf or hard-of-hearing, consistent 
with the following: 
‘‘(A) Early intervention includes referral to 
and delivery of information and services by or-
ganizations such as schools and agencies (includ-
ing community, consumer, and parent-based 
agencies), pediatric medical homes, and other 
programs mandated by part C of the Individuals 
with Disabilities Education Act, which offer pro-
grams specifically designed to meet the unique 
language and communication needs of deaf and 
hard-of-hearing newborns, infants, and young 
children. 
‘‘(B) Information provided to parents must 
be accurate, comprehensive, and, where appro-
priate, evidence-based, allowing families to make 
important decisions for their child in a timely 
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way, including decisions relating to all possible 
assistive hearing technologies (such as hearing 
aids, cochlear implants, and osseointegrated de-
vices) and communication options (such as vis-
ual and sign language, listening and spoken lan-
guage, or both). 
‘‘(C) Programs and systems under this 
paragraph shall offer mechanisms that foster 
family-to-family and deaf and hard-of-hearing 
consumer-to-family supports. 
‘‘(2) To develop efficient models (both edu-
cational and medical) to ensure that newborns, in-
fants, and young children who are identified through 
hearing screening receive followup by qualified early 
intervention providers, qualified health care pro-
viders, or pediatric medical homes (including by en-
couraging State agencies to adopt such models). 
‘‘(3) To provide for a technical resource center in 
conjunction with the Maternal and Child Health Bu-
reau of the Health Resources and Services Adminis-
tration— 
‘‘(A) to provide technical support and edu-
cation for States; and 
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