Expansion of Newborn Screening

One of the bills I filed last sesison was named "Joshua's Law" after a young man in Texarkana that has been diagnosed with CF. Joshua's Law was signed into law on April 11, 2005 as Act 1931 and expanded newborn screening in Arkansas to include cystic fibrosis and other disorders. Since that time, I've become active in our local CF foundation, and thanks to people like Dexter Whatley and Laura Lewis, our efforts to eventually conquer this condition will be realized with early detection and research.

The nation's leader in this area is Wisconsin, and they are able to test for numerous conditions both prior to and after birth. I had Joshua's Law drafted to pattern Wisconsin's statute for newborn screening of CF, and I'm seeking funding this session to finally make this effort a reality.

Rosi Smith has already taken the lead and is gathering a group of all interested parties, Arkansas Childrens' Hospital, UAMS, DHHS, etc., and we're meeting this week to begin talking about how we can secure funding that will allow us to implement the most efficient way of detecting CF in newborn children in Arkansas.

At the very least, this truly statewide project is worthy of General Improvement consideration and would pass muster of the recent Supreme Court opinion striking down many GIF projects as local legislation, but I'm hopeful that we can implement funding out of general or special revenue to secure a revenue stream dedicated to keeping this project alive.