[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H10320-H10321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              ERADICATION OF DISEASE, A NEW NATIONAL GOAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Gekas] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, today I have introduced legislation that 
would create a Presidential-congressional type of commission for the 
investigation of ways and means on the part of the American people, 
through their elected officials and through their institutions, to 
commit themselves to a new national goal.
  Mr. Speaker, during the 20th century the main goal of the United 
States was necessarily to throw back the aggressive totalitarian 
governments that tried to dominate the 20th century and also to defeat 
communism as a world power or global entity.
  In those attempts, the United States was successful, and today we 
find ourselves, after the Berlin Wall, as the only superpower left and 
with no really visible goal in front of us.
  The bill that I introduced allows our fellow Members, who would serve 
on a commission, along with others to be appointed by the President and 
the Senate, to fashion a new national goal, which is to eradicate 
disease from the face of the Earth.
  Now, this may sound lofty and unattainable, and it probably is not 
within our means to totally eradicate every vestige of disease known to 
mankind. But if we have that as a national goal, knowing that the 
United States already leads in biomedical research, in the production 
of methodologies of health care, of pharmaceuticals, of new ways of 
producing medical devices, the whole host of things that benefits the 
human condition, if we make that our

[[Page H10321]]

goal for the next century, then not only will humankind be better off 
throughout the world, but the economy of the United States, the 
enterprise of the United States, the leadership of the United States 
will continue in wondrous ways for the benefit of our people, because 
when we talk about an attempt, a bold attempt, to eradicate disease 
from the face of the Earth, are we not talking about trade between 
countries on matters that would lead to new products in health care, 
new medicines, new ways of treating disease? Would we not have our 
hospitals and our medical colleges and our universities honed in on the 
great goal that we are going to be articulating?
  This is so important to me personally and, I believe, to our country, 
to focus our energies, our innate initiatives that have served us so 
well over the years, into this goal of humanitarian capacity in such a 
way that it benefits every strata of our society; not just the health 
care community, but everyone in the community who, in one way or 
another, will have to come into contact with the health care system and 
with those things that benefit humanity.
  I have had discussions about this with individuals at the National 
Institutes of Health, with people in the medical universities, with 
newsmen and media people who have more than a passing interest in this 
kind of issue, and have found a warm reception in every one of those 
projections.

                              {time}  1930

  So I would invite my colleagues to join with me in this bill. We 
would create this commission, we all would have input as to the ways 
and means that they would adopt for achieving this national goal, and 
then when our time is completed in the Congress of the United States, 
we will have laid the groundwork for a 21st century replete with 
American accomplishment.

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