[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 24, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H758]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    DIABETES RESEARCH WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Nethercutt) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NETHERCUTT. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the results of a year-long 
effort to chart a path to cure diabetes will be released. The summary 
of the Diabetes Research Working Group report will be unveiled by the 
chairman of the group, Dr. Ronald Kahn, at a press conference at the 
National Press Club at noon. It is my expectation that the results of 
the group's work will dramatically change the direction of diabetes 
research in this country and may be a model for many other diseases 
that all Americans face throughout the United States.
  With regard to history of this effort, the establishment of the group 
came about through legislation I sponsored in the last session of 
Congress. Through the help of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter), 
the authorization for the group was incorporated into the Labor, Health 
Appropriations Bill.
  The Diabetes Research Working Group is a scientific panel composed of 
12 experts in the field of diabetes and four very knowledgeable 
representatives of the lay community. The chairman was appointed by 
National Institutes of Health, and the Institutes have played a 
critical role in supporting his efforts.
  The group members have spent the last year engrossed in examining the 
current state of diabetes research and charting a 5-year path for 
future research, a path that will have the best chance of leading us to 
a cure and improving the lives of 16 million Americans who have 
diabetes.
  To the average person, charting a path may not seem like a dramatic 
step forward. It is, however, a departure from how the National 
Institutes of Health has traditionally funded research. Normally 
scientific researchers focus on the immediate research proposals they 
are presented with for review. This report by the Diabetes Research 
Working Group is an effort to take a step back and reassess that 
procedure. It is an effort to ask the questions where are we today, 
where do we want to be in 5 years, and what do we need to do to get 
there to cure this disease. The Diabetes Research Working Group has 
done this.
  The report contains specific scientific recommendations in areas 
ranging from genetics, cell signaling, and clinical trials to 
macrovascular and oral complications. Each recommendation is tied to a 
funding level. Added together, the scientific recommendations require 
$827 million for fiscal year 2000, an increase of $384 million over the 
present year.
  I quote from the summary of the report, ``The Diabetes Research 
Working Group believes that such a budget increase is necessary for 
implementation of the programs presented in the Research Plan, 
consistent with the rising impact of diabetes on the United States in 
both human and economic terms, and that the proposed budget is more in 
line with the levels of research funding for other major disease areas. 
Most importantly, the Diabetes Research Working Group believes that 
such an investment has the potential to reduce dramatically the 
personal, societal, and economic burden of diabetes for the American 
people in the 21st Century.''
  Dr. Harold Varmus, who is the director of the National Institutes of 
Health, has said that NIH funding will go where the science shows there 
is opportunity. The Working Group Report is proof that, not only is 
there opportunity in the areas of diabetes research, but there is a 
plan.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the Members to support the recommendations of the 
Diabetes Research Working Group, and the roughly 205 members of the 
Diabetes Caucus are invited to participate in this effort to unveil 
this report tomorrow.

                          ____________________