Senator, my first question is,
what if any obstacles are there to
getting this bill signed by the President?
All the bill is my bill,
the maternal health Quality Improvement
Act is in the omnibus package,
so we fully expect this
to cross the finish line.
And what conversations that you
had with Wagner, my noriti mothers
that let you want to introduce
this bill with Senator Rubio?
Believe it or not, I
have been focused on this
issue of maternal health care.
For decades I during my college years,
I served on a a task force that was
focused on reducing infant mortality in
Georgia and 16 other southern states.
From there, I continued to be focused on
the issue around maternal health care.
Listen, we we have maternal rates of death in
our state and in our country for that matter.
That are unconscionable,
particularly in the richest nation,
on the planet.
And the biases or the disparity
between black women and white women?
It's just stunning black women three to
four times more likely to die in child
labor or as a result of of being in labor.
And we we should not tolerate this.
So I was glad to join
with my Senate colleague,
Senator Marco Rubio.
This is certainly a bipartisan issue.
He agrees with me on this issue and.
This is just the beginning of my fight
to make sure that when women are.
Trying to bring a child in this world,
they don't have to do so with
one foot in the grave as it were.
Right, and as you said, this is an
issue that he worked on for years.
It's a issue that we've reported
on for years, so why do you think
it's taking so long to address an
issue of this large of a scale?
Especially when we see those decorates rise
in one of the most developed countries?
I can tell you that the
disparities are outrageous.
We see it in states like Georgia.
Georgia is dead last when it comes to.
Women and their access to health care.
The likelihood that they will die
in labor as a result of Labor.
We're dead last and we should
not tolerate that now.
I have approached this issue comprehensively,
you know, I've been fighting to
expand Medicaid in our state.
We've got 640,000 Georgians
who are in the coverage gap,
so I I do think this has to be seen as
part of the overall effort to improve
access to health care generally.
But there also needs to be a
specific focus on this issue.
Maternal mortality that black women,
even when they have the same income.
And insurance are dying at such a
high and disproportionate rate.
That we have this kind of rate of
death for all women in the state
of Georgia is something that is
heartbreaking for me and I'm pleased
to work with Senator Rubio on this.
And I would hope that others would join us.
I think this is something that
we all ought to agree.
We should not tolerate.
We may disagree on a whole range of
other issues with respect to health care.
Reproductive choice,
but this is something we ought to all be.
We ought to all be able to work on and,
and I look forward to
working with my colleagues.
And how do you spend the funding
and grant programs working?
Would it go equally to all states?
Would it depend on the size or would
it depend on the need of each state?
Well, for one thing, we
need to make sure that we've got
accurate data on what's going on,
and so this will help with that.
It will center evidence based approaches
to making sure we decrease the amount
of maternal mortality in our country,
and we'll focus on this in a way
that we haven't. Thus so far.
OK, and so I may have switched
to another topic. For Georgia,
the one year anniversary of the
Newnan tornado that's approaching,
I know you visited recently.
What did you see when you toured the city?
Well, I was on the ground
in Newnan shortly after the
hurricane a year ago and.
A few days ago I went back just
to spend time on the ground,
see what was happening.
Progress has been made,
but not nearly enough,
and so I intend to continue to push FEMA.
And the other entities of our government
to make sure that we get the people of
Noonan the relief that they deserve.
Public assistance has been provided,
but there are other declarations
with respect to individual
assistance that were denied.
I've expressed my disagreement and
disappointment with that decision,
but I'll continue to advocate in every
single way that I can to make sure that
people can be made whole in their lives.
To be placed back on track.
It can't happen soon enough.
And this came from a couple of people
I've talked to recently in Newnan.
Then they were wondering if it's even
possible at this stage to get some
of that federal funding to help them.
I was on the ground and I
remember especially one woman
that I spent some time with.
I think she's either the 3rd or
4th generation of her family in
the same house on Savannah Ave.
And as I sat with her and heard her
story and her house was just being
repaired and she was hoping to move
in in the next couple of weeks.
I'll be thinking about her and I
think we have to be innovative.
We have to be creative in trying to
find relief and I'll be pulling on
all the levers available to me to
make sure that we can get relief.
I also think that there's a role
here for the private sector and
for some of the nonprofits.
That are on the ground or in surrounding
areas and to the degree that I can convene,
willing hands wherever they come from,
to help the people of Newnan
know that I'm ready and engaged
and focused on doing that.
OK, thank you so much for your time.
I appreciate it. Thank you.