The Alliance for Aging Research’s Claude Pepper Award for Advancing Healthy Aging is presented each year to a Democratic member of Congress who is leading the way for policies encouraging medical research, innovation, and care to benefit Americans as they grow older. This year’s honoree is Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ).
The Alliance for Aging Research’s annual Heroes in Health celebration took place virtually on Tuesday, September 15, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the first year that the event was held online. This year’s theme was Heroes in Health: An Event to Celebrate Community, Strength and Healthy Aging. The celebration honored individuals for their contributions to advance the experience of aging and recognized those whose outstanding efforts have helped older Americans and those with underlying conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learn more about The Alliance’s Heroes in Health event here: https://www.agingresearch.org/event/2020dinner/
On January 3, 2019, Frank Pallone, Jr. was sworn in for his 16th full term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Pallone represents New Jersey’s Sixth Congressional District, which covers most of Middlesex County, as well as the Bayshore and oceanfront areas of Monmouth County.
Throughout his tenure in Congress, Pallone’s legislative accomplishments have been geared to the protection and restoration of environmental resources and making health care more affordable and accessible.
In 2019, Pallone was sworn in as the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over issues pertaining to energy, environment, health care, commerce, and telecommunications.
As Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee during the 114th and 115th Congress’, Pallone led Democrats in passing key health care and environmental bills that were signed into law by President Obama. In March 2015, Congress passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which improved the quality of health care for America’s seniors while also lowering costs, ensured that over eight million children and pregnant women continue to have access to health care coverage through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and provided $8 billion to fund Community Health Centers.
In May 2016, Pallone led Democratic efforts to pass the first comprehensive update to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) since its original passage in 1976. The TSCA update was a long-overdue step forward in protecting families and communities from toxic chemicals. The law will remove dangerous chemicals like lead, mercury and asbestos out of consumer products and the environment.
Pallone also led Democratic negotiations in the House on the 21st Century Cures Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in December 2016. The Cures law provides billions of dollars in funding for Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, research to increase our understanding and treatment of brain disorders, and grants for states and communities hard-hit by the opioid abuse crisis. It also includes important reforms to our broken mental health system.
Pallone is focused on fighting the opioid epidemic in New Jersey and throughout the country. He led democratic efforts to pass the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2016, which improves the tools available to prescribers to prevent opioid abuse. CARA also expands access to lifesaving opioid overdose reversal drugs and Pallone helped secure an additional $1 billion to combat the opioid epidemic as part of the 21st Century Cures Act, which also passed in the 114th Congress. 21st Century Cures allocates billions towards cutting edge medical research and development of new treatments.
From 2006 to 2014, Pallone served as the top Democrat on the Committee’s Subcommittee on Health. As Chairman during the 111th Congress, Pallone played a key role in authoring and passing the Affordable Care Act. The landmark law extends health care coverage to millions of Americans, while driving down health care costs and reigning in abusive tactics used by insurance companies to deny medical treatment.
Pallone was also one of the main authors of food safety reform, which emphasizes prevention and safety measures that help ensure food is safe before it reaches the kitchen tables of millions of families. In the 112th Congress, Pallone introduced the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Reform Act of 2012 to ensure that Americans have access to safe and effective drugs and medical devices.
Read Chairman Pallone’s full biography here: https://bit.ly/2HmBYP1
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