108th Congress

Advancing FASD Research, Prevention, and Services Act

S. 2741

Background

It is estimated that 13 percent of women continue to drink alcohol throughout their pregnancies, contributing to the birth of 40,000 infants with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) annually. Prenatal alcohol exposure is also the leading and most easily preventable cause of mental retardation. The lifetime cost of treating a child with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is estimated to be $860,000, totaling about $5.4 billion annually. These costs include the greater need for special education, rehabilitation, and even incarceration.

S. 2741, the Advancing FASD Research, Prevention, and Services Act, expanded on previous FAS legislation entitled the "Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effect Prevention and Services Act," introduced by Senator Thomas A. Daschle (D-SD) in 1998. The current bill would have increased the focus on efforts to identify individuals with FASD through advances in brain-imaging techniques, development of pharmaceutical treatments, and isolation of genetic markers for the disorder. The bill would have required the dissemination of information about best practices to facilities that treat children and adults with FASD, including community health centers, juvenile justice centers, and special education programs. It would have also authorized grants to State, tribal, and local organizations to develop better methods of treatment and curriculums to educate young people about the dangers of drinking during pregnancy.

Provisions of the Legislation/Impact on NIH

Section 399H(a)(1) would have required the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to establish a research agenda for FASD and award grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements to public or private nonprofit entities to fund all or part of the research resulting from this agenda.

Section 399H(a)(2) would have directed the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to:

• Conduct national and international research in coordination with other Federal agencies that included the identification of mechanisms that produce the cognitive and behavioral problems associated with fetal alcohol exposure
• Develop a neurocognitive phenotype for FAS and alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder
• Identify biological markers that could be used to indicate fetal alcohol exposure
• Identify fetal and maternal risk factors that increase susceptibility to FASD
• Investigate behavioral interventions and pharmacotherapies for alcohol-dependent women in order to develop new approaches for sustaining recovery
• Develop scientifically based therapeutic interventions for individuals with FASD
• Develop screening instruments to identify women who drink alcohol during pregnancy
• Develop standards for measuring, reporting, and analyzing alcohol consumption patterns in pregnant women

Section 399H(a)(3) would have required the National Institute of Mental Health to:

• Conduct a study on the behavioral disorders that may be associated with prenatal alcohol exposure
• Submit to Congress a report on the appropriateness of characterizing FASD and secondary behavioral disorders as mental health disorders
• Conduct additional research on the epidemiology of behavior disorders associated with FASD in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The bill contained several other directives that did not directly affect NIH, including a requirement that the National Task Force on FASD identify and report on the 10 most important actions that should be taken to reduce prenatal alcohol exposure and its adverse outcomes, promote current epidemiological information and innovative prevention models, and review short-term and long-term recommendations for achieving the Healthy People 2010 objectives for the Nation related to FASD. It would have also required a recommendation on whether FAS and other prenatal alcohol disorders should be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Status and Outlook

S. 2741 was introduced by Senator Daschle on July 22, 2004, and was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. On July 22, S. 2741 was reported favorably out of the Committee without amendment. The bill had no cosponsors. No further action occurred on this legislation during the 108th Congress.