Exploring Congress: How it Works

H.R. 3986: High School Football Safety Study Act

To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in consultation with the Secretary of Education and the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition, to conduct a study on the causes of deaths related to high school football and formulate recommendations to prevent such deaths.

This bill was assigned to a congressional committee on November 5, 2015, which will consider it before possibly sending it on to the House or Senate as a whole. 

Parts of the bill are below:

The Congress finds as follows:

(1)

As of October 27, 2015, seven high school football players—Cam’ron Matthews, Roddrick Williams, Kenney Bui, Evan Murray, Ben Hamm, Tyrell Cameron, and Andre Smith—have passed away during calendar year 2015 from causes directly or indirectly related to football, including head or neck trauma, heat stroke, and dehydration.

(2)

According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, 1,207 high school football players have passed away since 1931 from causes directly or indirectly related to football.

(3)

Over the past several years, the negative health effects of repeated head trauma have become clearer.

(4)

Protecting the Nation’s children is one of the most important responsibilities of parents and Members of Congress.

Another part of this bill:

(1)

a comprehensive review of research conducted on deaths in high school football;

(2)

an evaluation of causes of deaths related to high school football; and

(3)

recommendations on actions that can be taken by schools, coaches, trainers, and governmental entities to prevent high school deaths from occurring in the future, including—

(A)

measures to prevent life-threatening injury from occurring;

(B)

medical treatment protocols to treat these injuries when they occur; and

(C)

ways in which technology and data analytics can be used to prevent serious injury and death.

This bill has a 2% chance of being enacted. 

Sponsor:

Cedric Richmond

Representative for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district

Democrat

Richmond sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (20%) Commerce (17%) Education (17%)Crime and Law Enforcement (13%) Emergency Management (10%) Taxation (10%)Armed Forces and National Security (7%) Finance and Financial Sector (7%)

From Jan 2011 to Jan 2016, Richmond missed 281 of 3,536 roll call votes, which is 7.9%. This is much worse than the median of 2.2% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. His report card shows his high ranking in Louisiana.


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