A resolution expressing support for viewing women's health as a critical issue for the economy and workforce of the United States and for advancing the health and well-being of all people.

Bill: 117-sres-637
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Duckworth, Tammy [D-IL]
Introduced: 2022-05-17
Policy area: Health
Latest action: action_date: 2022-05-17
text: Referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (text: CR S2548)

Summaries:
action_date: 2022-05-17
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p>This resolution recognizes that women's health is a critical issue for the U.S. economy and workforce and supports increased health research focused on women.</p>

tv_txt: III 117th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 637 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 17, 2022 Ms. Duckworth (for herself, Mr. Markey , Mr. Brown , Mr. Van Hollen , Mr. King , Ms. Klobuchar , Ms. Warren , Mr. Durbin , Ms. Stabenow , Mr. Luján , and Ms. Rosen ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions RESOLUTION Expressing support for viewing women’s health as a critical issue for the economy and workforce of the United States and for advancing the health and well-being of all people.

Whereas women constitute 50.8 percent of United States citizens and nearly ½ of the workforce in the United States; Whereas women control 60 percent of personal wealth and are responsible for 85 percent of consumer spending and 80 percent of health care decisions; Whereas, across races, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, disability statuses, and age groups— (1) women experience many diseases and disorders differently than men; (2) the incidence, prevalence, symptomology, and severity of disease may differ between men and women; (3) women vary in the risks of certain diseases and the benefits of medical therapies; and (4) for many years, women were underrepresented in biomedical and clinical research; Whereas longer life spans of women require the need for research on the health of older women; Whereas women and men have fundamental biological differences at the cellular level; Whereas 2/3 of patients with Alzheimer’s disease are women; Whereas heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, and women are 50 percent more likely to die the year following a heart attack than men; Whereas 80 percent of patients with autoimmune diseases are women; Whereas women have more stroke events and are less likely to recover from such events than men; Whereas there are significant sex and age differences between men and women with respect to drug administration and dosage; Whereas older women are more prone to having multiple medical problems and, as a result, may be taking incorrectly prescribed medications due to lack of information on gender and age differences; Whereas, on January 25, 2016, the National Institutes of Health implemented a policy requiring federally funded investigators to consider sex as a biological variable in preclinical research; Whereas such policy has improved inclusivity in women’s health research, but disparities still remain; Whereas the 2021 report entitled The Case to Fund Women's Health Research: An Economic and Societal Impact Analysis , published by Women’s Health Access Matters (commonly known as the WHAM Report ), states that in 2019, of the funding provided by the National Institutes of Health, 12 percent of the funding for Alzheimer’s research, 4.5 percent of the funding for coronary artery disease research, and 7 percent of the funding for rheumatoid arthritis research focused on women; Whereas this research gap has had economic consequences, including— (1) pushing women out of the workforce to care for their own health or to act as caregivers; and (2) contributing to increased costs of health care because of delays in care; Whereas the improvement of women’s health relies on sex- and gender-based biomedical and clinical research; Whereas the promise of personalized medicine cannot be realized without sex- and gender-based parity in research; Whereas the WHAM Report states that small investments in women’s health research will bring larger returns to the economy and add productive years to the workforce of the United States; and Whereas the WHAM Report shows that doubling current funding focused on women across Alzheimer’s disease, coronary artery disease, and rheumatoid arthritis is a $300,000,000 investment that would return over $13,000,000,000 to the economy of the United States: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1) expresses support for viewing women’s health as a critical issue for the economy and workforce of the United States and for advancing the health and well-being of all people; and (2) supports efforts— (A) to increase health research focused on women, particularly for diseases that differentially and disproportionately affect women; (B) to double the current share of women’s research focused on Alzheimer’s disease (12 percent), coronary artery disease (4.5 percent), and rheumatoid arthritis (7 percent), which the 2021 report entitled The Case to Fund Women's Health Research: An Economic and Societal Impact Analysis , published by Women’s Health Access Matters shows is a $300,000,000 investment that will yield $13,000,000,000 in economic returns; (C) to increase awareness of the value of sex- and gender-based biomedical research, including the benefits to the economy and workforce of the United States of accelerating health research focused on women; and (D) to encourage individuals, including researchers, doctors, and patients, to advocate for sex- and gender-inclusive research across races, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, disabilities, and age groups.