Date: 2007-10-09
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of H.R. 1721. the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. I want to particularly thank Chairman BOBBY RUSH. the chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce. Trade and Consumer Protection. and Chairman JOHN DINGELL of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. for their incredible leadership and support on thi legislation. Additionally. I would like to thank Ranking Member BARTON. Congressman WOLF and Congressman RAMSTAD for their steadfast support of this legislation. as well as Ranking Member STEARNS. my fellow Floridian. I also want to thank Safe KIds Worldwide for always being such a wonderful resource as this legislation became a reality. On June 15. 2002. the beautiful Graeme Baker. whose picture is in front of me. attended a pool party with her entire family. her mother. Nancy. and her four sisters. Everyone was having a great time swimming. when all of a sudden one of Nancys daughters came running to tell her that Graeme was in the spa. Nancy ran to the edge of the spa. and all she saw was dark and bubbling water.. Her daughter. frantically crying and pointing into the tub. insisted that Graeme was there. Nancy jumped into the spa and saw Graeme with her eyes pinched closed. her hair and limbs moving. with the current of water from all the jets on the side. Graeme was entrapped by the powerful suction of the drain spa and could not free herself. Nancy pulled and pulled with all her strength to help her daughter. It eventually took the strength of two adults to free Graeme from the spa. Sadly. it was too late. Graeme passed away in the hospital that afternoon. Following Graemes death. Nancy and her fatherinlaw. former Secretary of State James Baker. became and still are tireless advocates for childrens pool and spa safety.. When I met Nancy. I was immediately taken by her tragic story of the loss of her daughter. As a fellow mother of twins. I was most affected by Nancys incredible desire to ensure that what happened to Graeme did not happen to any other child. She has channeled all of her energy into raising the issue of pool and spa safety to a national audience. Her passion is an inspiration to me. and I am proud to sponsor this legislation in her daughters name. The Baker family tragedy is a painful example of the need for national pool and spa safety legislation. We must implement national standards to replace the haphazard safety measures that allowed Graeme. and hundreds of children like her. to be lost in such nightmare scenarios. I am a mother of three young children. and I have talked about them on the floor many times relating .to various pieces of legislation. And as any mother of young children will tell you. supervision does lapse. Supervision. when children are around water. is imperative. But as a mom of twins. as a mom of a 4yearold. I can tell you that there are times when even the best parent. even the most vigilant parent lets a child slip out from under their view and they accidentally fall in the water. That has happened countless times. Let me just tell you what most pareAts view in a survey was of supervising their children around water. While 94 percent of people report that they always actively supervise their children while swimming. closer examination indicates that parents often participate in a variety of distracting behaviors. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics. one in five parents believes that a lifeguard is the main person responsible for supervising children in the water. Lifeguards are a key safety measure. but they supervise an average of 25 swimmers per lifeguard. They also report that 55 percent of parents thought there were circumstances in which it was okay for a child to swim without a buddy. Within this category. 31 percent said it was okay to leave a child unsupervised if he or she swam with a buddy. 29 percent thought it was okay if the child was an excellent swimmer. 23 percent thought it was okay if the child had several years of swimming lessons. I could stand here all day. and I would still not be able to adequately emphasize that parents must adequately supervise their children whenever they are in or near water. I 3 1630 But we all know that supervision lapses. That is what this bill is designed to do. It is designed to encourage States to adopt swimming pool safety laws to ensure that suction drain entrapment. which occurs when a child passes over a swimming pool drain that has suction so strong that it holds them to the drain under water and either entangles their hair or even disembowels the child. that we can prevent this. Drowning is the second leading cause of preventable death in children 1 to 14 years old in this entire country. And even coldweather States have hundreds of drownings every single year. We can stop this. We can encourage States through funding and through education programs to adopt swimming pool and spa safety laws. I urge the United States House of Representatives to adopt this legislation so that we can make sure that we end or dramatically reduce. at the very least. the likelihood of young children drowning needlessly in a swimming pool or spa.