I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2527
To amend the Public Health Service Act to improve children’s vision and
eye health through grants to States, territories, and Tribal organizations,
and the provision of technical assistance to support those efforts.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH31, 2025
Mr. V
EASEY(for himself and Mr. BILIRAKIS) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to improve chil-
dren’s vision and eye health through grants to States,
territories, and Tribal organizations, and the provision
of technical assistance to support those efforts.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Early Detection of Vi-4
sion Impairments for Children Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. STATEWIDE EARLY VISION DETECTION AND INTER-1
VENTION PROGRAMS AND SYSTEMS RELATED 2
TO CHILDREN’S VISION AND EYE HEALTH. 3
Part Q of title III of the Public Health Service Act 4
(42 U.S.C. 280h et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 5
the following: 6
‘‘SEC. 399Z–3. STATEWIDE EARLY VISION DETECTION AND 7
INTERVENTION PROGRAMS AND SYSTEMS 8
RELATED TO CHILDREN’S VISION AND EYE 9
HEALTH. 10
‘‘(a) G
RANTS ORCOOPERATIVEAGREEMENTS.— 11
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting 12
through the Administrator of the Health Resources 13
and Services Administration, shall make awards of 14
grants or cooperative agreements to eligible entities 15
to develop and implement statewide early detection 16
and intervention programs and systems related to 17
children’s vision and eye health. 18
‘‘(2) E
LIGIBILITY.—To be eligible to receive a 19
grant or cooperative agreement under paragraph (1), 20
an entity shall— 21
‘‘(A) be a State, territory, Indian Tribe or 22
Tribal organization, or Urban Indian organiza-23
tion, including a State or community depart-24
ment of children and families, health, or public 25
health, or a State educational agency; and 26
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‘‘(B) submit to the Secretary an applica-1
tion at such time, in such manner, and con-2
taining such information as the Secretary may 3
require. 4
‘‘(3) U
SE OF AWARDS .—Amounts provided 5
under a grant or cooperative agreement under para-6
graph (1) shall be used for three or more of the fol-7
lowing activities: 8
‘‘(A) Implementing early detection prac-9
tices (such as vision screening) and intervention 10
initiatives for the purpose of identifying vision 11
concerns in children as they engage in the med-12
ical, home, public educational, or early learning 13
setting, promoting referrals to eye care, and 14
promoting the use of evidence-based and age- 15
appropriate standards guided by nationally rec-16
ognized and uniform guidelines. 17
‘‘(B) Developing an integrated approach to 18
State-level data collection and management to 19
advance State-based performance improvement 20
systems and uniform children’s vision and eye 21
health guidelines across relevant and appro-22
priate State-level jurisdictions. 23
‘‘(C) Identifying strategies to improve eye 24
health outcomes, expand access to care, and re-25
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duce health disparities for the detection, diag-1
nosis, and treatment of ocular disease and eye 2
conditions in children who experience barriers 3
to eye care from rural and underserved popu-4
lations. 5
‘‘(D) Raising awareness by providing the 6
public, including families, guardians (perma-7
nent, legal, or temporary), family or community 8
caregivers, and early learning settings with chil-9
dren’s vision and eye health information that is 10
accurate, accessible, culturally and linguistically 11
competent, comprehensive, up-to-date, and evi-12
dence-based or evidence-informed. 13
‘‘(E) Establishing a coordinated public 14
health system for vision care and eye health, in-15
cluding early detection, referral to eye care, di-16
agnosis and intervention, and follow-up for chil-17
dren. 18
‘‘(F) Providing referrals to wrap-around 19
vision services, as necessary, for a future of 20
independent living. 21
‘‘(4) C
OLLABORATION WITH NECESSARY COM -22
MUNITY AND STATE PARTNERS .—In carrying out ac-23
tivities under this subsection, the recipient of a 24
grant or cooperative agreement shall consult with 25
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necessary community and State partners, including 1
State agencies responsible for the administration of 2
title V of Social Security Act (the Maternal and 3
Child Health Block Grant Program), title XIX of 4
such Act (the Medicaid Early Periodic Screening, 5
Diagnosis, and Treatment Program), title XXI of 6
such Act (the State Children’s Health Insurance 7
Program), and parts B and C of the Individuals 8
with Disabilities Education Act, the Indian Health 9
Service, and consumer groups for the purposes of 10
program and policy development, collaboration, and 11
improvement. 12
‘‘(5) E
VALUATION AND REPORT .— 13
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—An entity that re-14
ceives a grant or cooperative agreement under 15
this subsection shall annually submit to the 16
Secretary a report that describes the activities 17
carried out under the grant or agreement, in-18
cluding a description of the period of perform-19
ance covered under the report, the scope of ac-20
tivities carried out during such period, the out-21
comes of such activities, and a demonstration of 22
whether funding recipients have met project 23
goals for the designated time period outlined in 24
the initial application under paragraph (2). 25
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‘‘(B) AVAILABILITY OF REPORTS .—The 1
Secretary shall make available to the general 2
public the annual reports under subparagraph 3
(A). 4
‘‘(b) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE.— 5
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide 6
eligible entities under subsection (a) with technical 7
support in the development, implementation, and en-8
hancement of activities described in such subsection. 9
‘‘(2) G
RANTS.—The Secretary, acting through 10
the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and 11
Prevention, shall award grants or cooperative agree-12
ments to provide technical assistance to eligible enti-13
ties to— 14
‘‘(A) develop, maintain, and improve data 15
collection systems related to children’s vision 16
screening, evaluation, diagnosis, and interven-17
tion services; 18
‘‘(B) disseminate information for stake-19
holders, including States and local governments, 20
Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, Urban In-21
dian organizations, public health departments, 22
and nonprofit organizations, to launch effective 23
strategies and interventions in preventing and 24
treating childhood vision disorders; 25
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‘‘(C) conduct applied research related to 1
early vision screening and intervention pro-2
grams and outcomes; 3
‘‘(D) ensure quality monitoring of vision 4
screening, evaluation, and intervention pro-5
grams and systems; and 6
‘‘(E) assist eligible entities in coordinating 7
on best practices and maintaining national 8
goals related to vision and eye health. 9
‘‘(3) E
VALUATION.— 10
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 4 years 11
after the date of enactment of this section, the 12
recipient of a grant or cooperative agreement 13
under this subsection shall evaluate the activi-14
ties conducted with funds received under this 15
section and submit a report to the Secretary on 16
the outcomes, costs, and program effectiveness 17
of such activities. 18
‘‘(B) C
ONTENTS.—A report under sub-19
paragraph (A) shall be in such form and con-20
tain such information as the Secretary deter-21
mines appropriate. 22
‘‘(C) S
UBMISSION.—Upon determination 23
by the Secretary that a report under subpara-24
graph (A) meets the requirements of this para-25
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graph, the recipient shall submit the report to 1
Congress. 2
‘‘(4) E
LIGIBILITY.—To be eligible to receive a 3
grant or cooperative agreement under this sub-4
section, an entity shall be a public or nonprofit pri-5
vate organization or institution, with expertise, or 6
demonstrated proficiency, in developing systems- 7
based approaches to children’s vision and eye health 8
for the purpose of providing technical assistance in 9
relation to one or more of the activities described in 10
subsection (a). 11
‘‘(c) C
OORDINATION AND CONSULTATION.—The Sec-12
retary shall coordinate and consult with the Health Re-13
sources and Services Administration, the Centers for Dis-14
ease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare & 15
Medicaid Services, the Administration for Communities 16
and Families, the Indian Health Service, and the Depart-17
ment of Education on recommendations for policy develop-18
ment at the Federal, State, and Tribal levels with the pri-19
vate sector, including consumer, medical, and other health 20
and education child serving not-for-profit organizations 21
with respect to early detection and intervention programs 22
and systems. 23
‘‘(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 24
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‘‘(1) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘Indian Tribe’ 1
has the meaning given to the term ‘Indian tribe’ in 2
section 102 of the Federally Recognized Indian 3
Tribe List Act of 1994. 4
‘‘(2) S
TATE EDUCATIONAL AGENCY .—The term 5
‘State educational agency’ has the meaning given 6
such term in section 8101 of the Elementary and 7
Secondary Education Act of 1965. 8
‘‘(3) T
RIBAL ORGANIZATION.—The term ‘Tribal 9
organization’ has the meaning given such term in 10
section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-11
cation Assistance Act. 12
‘‘(4) U
RBAN INDIAN ORGANIZATION .—The term 13
‘Urban Indian organization’ has the meaning given 14
such term in section 4 of the Indian Health Care 15
Improvement Act. 16
‘‘(e) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 17
are authorized to be appropriated— 18
‘‘(1) to carry out this section, other than sub-19
section (a)(5), $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 20
2026 through 2030; and 21
‘‘(2) to carry out subsection (a)(5), $5,000,000 22
for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030.’’. 23
Æ
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