Ariel Cohen | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call
Matthew Mangine and Rep. Andy Barr are tied together by unimaginable loss and one singular, horrible date: June 16, 2020.
That’s the day Mangine, a dad from northern Kentucky, lost his 16-year-old son, who collapsed at a soccer practice and later died from a cardiac event. It’s also the day Barr’s wife, Carol, collapsed on a Zoom call and later died, also from a cardiac event. She was 39.
Last month, Mangine went to Barr’s Washington, D.C., office and asked him to back legislation that would increase access to automated external defibrillators in schools. He argued a defibrillator could have saved his boy’s life. When he mentioned the day of his son’s death, Barr looked stunned.
“That’s the exact day we lost Carol,” the Kentucky Republican said.
This is the third Congress in a row that lawmakers have introduced legislation to promote access to emergency defibrillators in schools across the nation through grant programs.
But this year, lawmakers like Barr, who have seen their lives upended because of sudden cardiac arrests, may make the difference in that bill’s success.
“This is an issue that transcends party affiliation,” House lead sponsor Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., said. “We’re getting the feedback that before the end of the year it should be passed.
“But we can’t stress enough the urgency — especially as our kids are moving into the summer playing sports.”
Federal efforts
The bicameral, bipartisan bill, introduced this session by Cherfilus-McCormick in the House and Cory Booker, D-N.J., in the Senate would create a federal standard for cardiac arrest response in schools by increasing student access to AEDs and developing emergency response plans.
When the legislation was introduced in the 116th and 117th Congresses, it didn’t even make it out of committee.
But this Congress, the initial House version had more than 110 co-sponsors, including Barr, before it was incorporated into a larger…
Read the full article here
