Whereas sickle cell disease (referred to in this preamble as SCD ) is an inherited blood disorder that is a major health problem in the United States and worldwide; Whereas SCD results from an individual having two copies of a sickle cell gene, one inherited from each biological parent; Whereas SCD results in the production of abnormally shaped red blood cells; Whereas SCD causes episodes of considerable pain in the arms, legs, chest, and abdomen of an individual, which often result in lengthy hospital stays; Whereas SCD affects an estimated 100,000 individuals in the United States; Whereas approximately 2,000 babies are born with SCD each year in the United States, with the disease occurring in approximately 1 in 365 newborn African-American infants and 1 in 16,300 newborn Hispanic-American infants, and SCD can be found in individuals of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Asian, and Indian origin; Whereas more than 3,000,000 individuals in the United States have a single copy of the sickle cell gene, referred to as sickle cell trait, and 1 in 13 African Americans carries the trait; Whereas sickle cell trait is found in 100,000,000 people worldwide, and affects people of African, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Hispanic, and southern European Caucasian descent; Whereas there is a 1 in 4 chance that a child born to parents who both have the sickle cell trait will have the disease; Whereas the life expectancy of an individual with SCD in the United States is often severely limited to an average of 43 years for a woman and 41 years for a man; Whereas, according to a 2018 study, the total economic burden on the United States health care system associated with SCD was $2,980,000,000 annually, of which 57 percent was attributed to hospital inpatient costs; Whereas, according to a 2022 publication, the average lifetime cost for individuals most severely impacted by SCD ranges between $4,200,000 to $6,200,000 per patient