Healthy Places Act of 2006
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Healthy Places Act of 2006 - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish an interagency working group to discuss environmental health concerns, particularly concerns disproportionately affecting disadvantaged populations.
Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to establish a program at the National Center of Environmental Health at CDC focused on advancing the field of health impact assessment.
Requires the Director to develop guidance for the assessment of potential health effects of land use, housing, and transportation policy and plans.
Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director, to: (1) establish a program to provide funding and technical assistance to state or local governments affected or potentially affected by an activity or proposed activity to prepare health impact assessments; and (2) establish and maintain a health impact assessment database.
Requires the Director to establish a grant program to award grants to state or local communities for environmental health improvement activities. Requires grantees to: (1) establish a planning and prioritizing council; and (2) conduct environmental health assessment.
Requires the Secretary to provide grants to public or private nonprofit institutions to conduct and coordinate research on the built environment and its influence on individual and population-based health.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on April 4, 2006. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on April 4, 2006: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 109th Congress (2005-06), 482 of the 10,701 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 4.5 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Barack Obama (D-IL) introduced it on April 4, 2006, and 6 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 6 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 4, 2006, 7464 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 7464 days ago, on April 4, 2006.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 109th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2007 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers