Breastfeeding Promotion Act, continued

The full text of the bill can be read at http://maloney.house.gov/documents/women/breastfeeding/061009
Breastfeeding Promotion Act.pdf

The Breastfeeding Promotion Act (H.R. 2819, S. 1244) includes five provisions:

Amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to
1. Protect breastfeeding women from being fired or discriminated against in the workplace.

2. Provides tax incentives for businesses that establish private lactation areas in the workplace, or provide breastfeeding equipment or consultation services to their employees.

3. Provides for a performance standard to ensure breast pumps are safe and effective.

4. Allows breastfeeding equipment and consultation services to be tax deductible for families (amends Internal Revenue Code definition of "medical care").

5. Protects the privacy of breastfeeding mothers by ensuring they have break time and a private place to pump (applies to employers with 50 or more employees, see text of legislation for details).

H.R. 2819 has been referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, the Committees on Energy and Commerce, and the Education and Labor Committee and has 23 co-sponsors.
S 1244 was referred to the Senate Finance Committee and has 6 co-sponsors. Progress of both bills can be tracked at http://thomas.loc.gov/.

It is very important that both bills acquire many more co-sponsors. A House bill needs at least 200 co-sponsors to draw attention to it. Communicating with your congressional representatives is easy and takes only a little time. You can do this electronically by going to the US Breastfeeding Committee's advocacy site at http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5162/t/6359/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1697.
Feel free to modify the sample letter, including personal experiences and the need for such a law. The letter will be automatically sent to your 2 senators and representative.
Passage of this bill will have a direct effect on breastfeeding mothers, breastfeeding rates, and infant health. This is an upstream intervention that breastfeeding advocates can influence through large numbers of letters being written to legislators asking for co-sponsorship. If any of your legislators are on the committees to which the bills have been referred make sure your letter includes a section asking that the committee report out favorably on the bill.