By: U.S. Congressman Phil Gingrey, M.D.

As an OB/GYN physician, I welcomed the development of a vaccine against the human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV. When the Food and Drug Administration approved the Gardisil vaccine in June, it opened the door for millions of young women to be protected against a sexually transmitted disease associated with cervical cancer.

But the Georgia legislature would be wrong to implement a mandatory vaccination program for our sixth-grade girls.  A recently introduced bill, S.B. 155, would do just that, adding Georgia to the growing list of states considering mandatory HPV vaccination programs.

As a father, physician and Member of Congress, I firmly believe parents, not politicians, should be making healthcare decisions for our children.  

In Georgia, public school students must be vaccinated against a variety of diseases, from measles and mumps to polio and rubella.  These diseases pose communicable health threats; vaccination is mandatory to protect our children from the sneezes and coughs of infected schoolmates. 

But HPV is not a communicable disease; it is a sexually-transmitted disease, one that is passed not through casual contact, but through sexual behavior.  In short, our students aren’t at risk of catching HPV by sharing a juice box at lunch or playing tag during recess. 

Because of this critical distinction, it is both inappropriate and unprecedented to mandate vaccination for HPV.  The Georgia legislature would do a grave disservice to parents across our state by allowing the government to unnecessarily take a healthcare decision away from our families.

To combat this growing trend, I have introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would prohibit federal funds from being used to implement mandatory state vaccination programs.  I believe this is the best way we can encourage states to leave these important healthcare decisions to parents and doctors, not legislators and bureaucrats. Under my legislation, states with voluntary programs could still use federal Medicaid, education and healthcare dollars to ensure girls who want the vaccination can afford it.  This delivers control back to the family, where it belongs.

Georgia’s S.B. 155 could easily be molded into an effective and beneficial piece of legislation if it made vaccination voluntary, not mandatory.  But as it stands, Georgia’s mothers and fathers should vocally oppose this bill.  In fact, parental pressure is one reason Gardisil’s manufacturer, Merck, has stopped lobbying states to pass mandatory vaccination legislation.

There any many reasons parents might oppose vaccinating their children, from religious objections to age appropriateness to concerns over side-effects and adverse reactions. Whatever the reason, it is a discussion for the doctor’s office, not the statehouse.

As a physician, I know there is great potential in the new HPV vaccine.  I hope many parents, when appropriate, will vaccinate their daughters against this truly devastating disease, and I believe it is a noble cause for state and federal governments to help families afford vaccination.  But HPV is not a communicable health threat, and parents and physicians should be the sole deciders of when and whether a young girl gets vaccinated.

The state of Georgia would set a dangerous precedent by passing S.B. 155 as it stands today.   When we assume that elected officials better know the healthcare needs of our children than do their own parents, we risk turning over the care of our loved ones to the whims of our government.  

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Funding our Troops to

Win the War

By: U.S. Congressman Phil Gingrey, M.D.

Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives spent four days debating a two paragraph, non-binding resolution critical of the President’s New Way Forward in Iraq.  I opposed this resolution because it offered no plan, no strategy and no hope for victory.

While the Democrat majority may find it politically convenient to oppose the President’s plan, they have failed to offer a well-reasoned alternative.  For months, members of the Democrat team have threatened to cut funding, cap troop levels, or compel a forced withdrawal.  While you won’t find these proposals in the House resolution, a real debate on Iraq is coming, and the Democrat leadership has already shown its hand. 

Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha is currently developing ways to limit funding for our brave men and women in uniform by tangling the President’s $93 billion spending request for Iraq and Afghanistan in a myriad of complicated conditions.  Mr. Murtha has boasted he can stop the troop surge and force redeployment by creating so many funding restrictions that our President and military commanders will be unable to pursue their path to victory.

This is a dangerous strategy, based on the audacious premise that Congress better knows how to run a war than do our nation’s top military commanders.

In fact, if the Democrat majority is successful in cutting funds to our troops, it will mark the first time in U.S. history that Congress denies our soldiers funding in the middle of a combat operation.

The Democrats’ Iraq strategy is both cowardly and irresponsible.  It is cowardly because rather than debate troop funding in the open, they choose to play budgetary tricks behind closed doors.  It is irresponsible because the President’s plan – including the strategic and temporary troop increase – is already working.  Local Iraqi leaders are cracking down on death squads, insurgents and terrorists of all religious sects.  Iraq has temporarily closed its borders with Iran and Syria, and recent news reports say Muqtada al-Sadr and top al Qaeda leaders have fled the country.

It is little wonder, then, that President Bush’s plan has the support of our top military commanders and troops.  Even the bipartisan Iraq Study Group said it could support a temporary troop increase to stabilize Baghdad. 

We all know that mistakes have been made in Iraq, and the vast majority of Americans, myself included, are not happy with where we are today.  But secretive plans to cut funding won’t help us fight terrorists.  While the President’s plan isn’t perfect, its mix of military, political and economic strategies offer perhaps our last best chance to silence the insurgency, allow the Iraqi political apparatus to thrive, deliver greater stability to the Middle East and increase security for the United States. 

Earlier this month, Phil introduced H.R. 938, the Nuclear Family Priority Act.  This legislation closes the “chain migration” loophole whereby the extended families of legal immigrants are obtaining visas to come to America.  So-called “chain migration,” which gives visa priority to the cousins, adult children and distant relatives of legal immigrants, creates a back-log of visa applicants and lets genealogy  – not job skills, education or English proficiency – determine who immigrates to our country.

“Chain migration goes against the American tradition of fairness,” said Phil.  “I don’t understand why we are giving someone’s second-cousin visa priority over someone with good job skills and an education.  As a father, I absolutely understand the importance of uniting nuclear families so spouses and young children can stay together. But chain migration isn’t a nuclear family program – it’s an intergenerational relocation program.  America was founded on the idea that anyone can succeed through skill and hard work.  Our immigration system shouldn’t be sending the message that family lineage is more important that work ethic and education.”

Phil is pleased to announce the Georgia Congressional Delegation’s Spring Academy Day.  This is an opportunity for students in the 11^th District to meet with representatives from our U.S. military service academies and learn more about the opportunities at these institutions.  Students in the 8th through 12th grades are encouraged to attend.

The Spring Academy Day will be held on March 24, 2007 from 10:00am to 11:30am at the Naval Air Station in Marietta, Georgia.

Representatives from the Navy, Army, Air Force, Merchant Marines, and Coast Guard will be available to answer questions.

All students must be registered to attend; the deadline for registration is March 15, 2007.  To register or receive more information about the Spring Academy Day, please contact Linda Liles with Congressman Gingrey’s office at (706) 290-1776.

In February, the U.S. House of Representatives debated a non-binding resolution critical of President Bush’s temporary and strategic troop increase in Baghdad.  Phil was one of the leading voices against this resolution.

“My message to Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat majority is simple,” said Phil.  “Don’t play politics with the security of the United States of America.  Don’t play politics with possibly our last best chance to secure freedom for the Iraqi people and greater stability in the Middle East.  The President’s Iraq plan has the support of our military commanders and soldiers. We should be listening to these experts focused on winning the war, not to a Democrat leadership focused on wining elections.”

Phil continued, “This resolution was a missed opportunity to fully engage in a meaningful debate on Iraq policy.  The Democrat leadership refused to allow a vote on funding for the war, which would have given Members an opportunity to show support for our troops with actions, not empty words.  We can’t ask our military leaders to win in Iraq without the funding, troops and support necessary to do so.”

“Make no mistake, failure in Iraq would have critical consequences for the security of our nation,” Phil concluded. “This resolution sent a message to our troops that Congress does not support their mission. It was not a salute to G.I. Joe, but a capitulation to Jihadist Joe.”

In February, Phil introduced the Parental Right to Decide Protection Act, legislation that prohibits federal funds from being used to implement mandatory state human-papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programs. Since the FDA’s approval of an HPV vaccine in June, at least 22 state legislatures, including Georgia, have introduced bills to make the vaccination mandatory for sixth-grade girls attending school. 

“As an OB-GYN physician, I understand the importance of protecting Americans from sexually transmitted diseases, and I applaud the development of an HPV vaccine,” said Phil.  “But for states to mandate vaccination for young women is both unprecedented and unacceptable.  States should require vaccinations for communicable diseases, like measles and the mumps. But you can’t catch HPV if an infected schoolmate coughs on you or shares your juice box at lunch. Whether or not girls get vaccinated against HPV is a decision for parents and physicians, not state governments.”

The Parental Right to Decide Protection Act would prohibit all federal funds from supporting mandatory HPV vaccination programs. The legislation does NOT prohibit federal funds from supporting optional vaccination programs, and any state with an optional program could use Medicaid and education dollars to provide vaccinations to students.

Gingrey applauds full funding of F-22, C-130J in President’s Defense Budget Request