Washington -- U.S. Representative Barbara Cubin (R-WY) announced her 2008 legislative agenda today, focusing in on an array of critical local and national issues during her last year as Wyoming's lone congressional representative.

“During my final year in Congress, I plan to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing our nation including healthcare, energy development, immigration and public land management,” Cubin said. “There is still much work to be done in Washington and I plan to leave Wyoming’s footprint permanently etched in the halls of Congress.”

Cubin will work to usher through Congress a variety of legislation she has championed during her thirteen year tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives. Among Cubin’s top legislative priorities are a bill to ensure that rural access to phone service remains affordable; legislation to provide death benefits to aerial firefighters killed in the line of duty; a bill to encourage modern energy infrastructure development throughout Wyoming and the west; and legislation to make certain that illegal immigrants could not receive tax-payer funded social security benefits.

As a Member of the House Subcommittee on Health, Cubin also plans to focus on several critical healthcare initiatives. Cubin has penned the following legislation to promote new technologies in the medical field and improve our nation’s healthcare system.

Cubin will seek passage of H.R. 1496, the Beating Infections Through Research and Development Act (BIRD), legislation she authored to combat the rampant spread of drug-resistant diseases surfacing across the country. The Congresswoman wrote the BIRD Act two years ago anticipating the need to develop new drugs to fight newly emerging resistant diseases.

Cubin recognized that it was no longer profitable for pharmaceutical companies, large and small, to invest in the research and development of new antibiotics to fight these diseases. Lifestyle drugs, or any drug taken frequently over extended periods of time, are simply a safer and more profitable investment than antibiotics, which are prescribed more sparingly and only for days at a time in most cases. Cubin introduced the BIRD Act to encourage this development with tax credits for product research and development, tax credits for manufacturing, patent extensions and expedited approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Today infectious diseases are plaguing the country and Cubin plans to push the BIRD Act through Congress this year.

Other healthcare priorities for Cubin this congress include:

• H.R. 4879, the Virtual Screening for Cancer Act (VSCA). This legislation would increase Medicare enrollees’ access to virtual colonoscopies, a non-invasive and innovative colorectal cancer screening test. Cubin’s bill would include virtual colonoscopies as a screening exam covered under the Medicare program, providing a more comfortable screening alternative for individuals who might otherwise shy away from traditional colonoscopy exams.

• H.R. 405, the Family-Based Meth Treatment Access Act of 2007. Cubin’s bill would provide funding for comprehensive family-based treatment for methamphetamine addicts and their children. The bill would help create treatment programs and expand already existing ones in rural areas, such as Wyoming, hit hard by the meth epidemic.

• H.R. 1588, the Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2007. This important legislation will more than double the number of Medicare-eligible mental health care providers in Wyoming by recognizing, under Medicare, the 623 licensed counselors and 77 marriage and family therapists currently practicing in the state.

In addition, Cubin will secure the payment of Abandoned Mine Land funds owed to Wyoming. The Congresswoman has led a four year battle to repay Wyoming the 1.6 billion dollars it is owed from the federal government from taxes levied against coal produced in the state.

Cubin will continue to work with individuals and organizations from across the Cowboy state to ensure that the needs and best interests of the people of Wyoming are represented in Washington. Congress is expected to address education, tax reform and agriculture in the second session of the 110th Congress. Cubin will remain an outspoken advocate for Wyoming’s unique perspective on these and other critical national issues.