Mr. WU. I thank the gentlelady, and I rise in support of the underlying legislation.
I want to commend President Obama, his administration, Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Obey and Chairman Gordon for their leadership and commitment to ensure that this bill provides strong funding for science, technology, and long-term economic growth in order to get our economy back on track. We need to rebuild from the ground up. We need to invest in research that will create the jobs of the 21st century, including those jobs in health information technology.
Health IT has the potential to reduce medical errors, decrease inefficient, unnecessary, duplicative treatments that cost our health care system $300 billion annually. Health IT should lower our health care costs while improving the quality and safety of care. Health IT is economic stimulus.
However, one study states that more than 40,000 health care IT workers will be needed in health care facilities, and jobs already exist in this field. We just need qualified workers. Without the staff needed, our investments in health IT will do little to meet the potential of this field. That is why I am happy to see the provisions of the 10,000 Trained by 2010 Act, a bill that I introduced, are included as part of this legislation. My legislation helps train individuals [Page: H576] in health IT, and provides the seed corn to create the jobs of our new economy in a field that will help curb the cost of health care for years to come. I urge my colleagues to support the provision and the legislation.
