[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 101 (Tuesday, June 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IN SUPPORT OF NIH FUNDING

  (Mr. BENTSEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, the Republicans want to balance the budget, 
provide tax cuts for the wealthy, and increase defense spending at the 
expense of vital programs that serve the health of every American.
  In their budget plan, they have proposed a $2.8 billion cut in 
funding for the National Institutes of Health, the world's leading 
biomedical research institution.
  Their plan would jeopardize our Nation's health and our economy.
  It would limit medical advances for life-threatening diseases such as 
heart disease and cystic fibrosis.
  It would reduce the number of new technologies and treatments which 
save billions in annual medical care costs.
  It would also threaten America's status as the premier health 
research center of the world and the 726,000 jobs this industry has 
created.
  A cut of this magnitude is not only wrong, it lacks public support. 
Over 91 percent of Americans want us to spend more, not less, on health 
research.
  M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, located in my district, is one of the 
best cancer research facilities in the world. The cancer center was 
among the first institutions to conduct trials of the new anticancer 
drug taxol, now being used to treat over a dozen types of cancer. NIH 
provided the resources to help M.D. Anderson develop this drug.
  I do not believe the American people want us to reduce experiments 
which could provide a breakthrough in the treatment or cure for breast 
cancer, Hodgkin's disease, or melanoma.
  If NIH's budget is reduced, M.D. Anderson and other institutions 
across the Nation would face even tighter budgets. These facilities 
would be forced to eliminate thousands of research-associated jobs.
  Let us not risk America's role in biomedical research. If we do, our 
Nation could face a serious health care crisis down the road.

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