New legislation designed to designate dentists as emergency responders has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives after an earlier version of the bill was tabled last year by a Congress facing a host of more pressing priorities.
The Dental Emergency Responder Act (HR 570), introduced by Reps. Michael Burgess (R-TX) and Edolphus Towns (D-NY), is intended to bolster U.S. capacity to respond to natural disasters or terrorist attacks by taking advantage of dentists' extensive education, training, and professionalism, according to the ADA.
"This legislation would incorporate dentistry by name into federal and state disaster response frameworks, improving the nation's first-response infrastructure by deploying dentists during a natural or man-made disaster," explained ADA President Raymond Gist, DDS, in a press release.
The bill is viewed as noncontroversial because it calls for no new federal money and would pose no new restrictions on monies now being spent. It would simply allow states, at their option, to incorporate dentists and dental facilities into their planning, according to the ADA.
HR 570 was approved for a markup by the House Subcommittee on Health, which will consider it on February 11. Bundled with four other bills, it will be reviewed and subject to possible changes. If approved, the markup will go to full committee next and will likely be part of a package of other noncontroversial bills heard on the floor.
The previous legislation, HR 903 -- also known as the Dental Emergency Responder Act -- was introduced by Reps. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Candice Miller (R-MI) in 2009.
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