U.S. Senator Ken Salazar Member: Finance, Agriculture, Energy, Ethics and Aging Committees 2300 15^th Street, Suite 450 Denver, CO 80202 | 702 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
For Immediate Release April 24, 2007		CONTACT: Cody Wertz – Comm. Director 303-455-5999
Sen. Salazar Applauds Success of Nurse-Family Partnership, Continues Bipartisan Fight to Expand Program Under SCHIP WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States Senator Ken Salazar today spoke before a Congressional briefing on the Nurse Family Partnership program (NFP). The briefing, sponsored by the House of Representatives Nursing Caucus and First Focus, the children’s policy arm of America’s Promise, founded by retired Army Gen. and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, featured David Olds, the founder of NFP, as well as representatives of NFP from around the Nation. “The Nurse Family Partnership program not only helps ensure babies are healthy when they are born, but that they are born into more stable families and grow up ready to learn and achieve,” said Senator Salazar. “The evidence of the Nurse Family Partnership program’s success is overwhelming, which is why Senator Specter and I are pressing to expand it to every state.” Earlier this year, Senator Salazar, along with Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced the bipartisan Healthy Children and Families Act, which would expand access to the highly-successful Nurse-Family Partnership program through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, providing at-home nurse visits for up to 570,000 first-time mothers each year in the Medicaid and SCHIP programs. Currently, NFP operates 150 programs in 22 states, including Colorado, and has served more than 69,000 women and children nationwide, including 2,000 families in Colorado. Independent studies by the Rand Corporation and the Brookings Institution have both found that investment in NFP yields substantial taxpayer savings. Senator Salazar and his staff also recently held 11 meetings across Colorado with health care professionals on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to gather and develop ways to improve the program to provide more children with health care coverage. A report from the meetings with a list of possible legislative recommendations will be released in the coming weeks. # # #