[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 96 (Thursday, July 1, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HEALTH OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 30, 1999

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, people from my district in San Francisco 
come to visit my office wanting to talk about their personal battle 
against disease. They include parents of children with juvenile 
diabetes, women fighting a breast cancer diagnosis, families of people 
with Parkinson's, and people struggling with HIV disease and AIDS.
  They come to talk about different problems, but speak with one 
resounding voice about how they want Congress to respond. Their message 
to me, and to all of us, is that funding for the National Institutes of 
Health must be doubled over five years.
  My colleagues, we must heed their message and continue to increase 
NIH funding to achieve this goal. As a member of the Appropriations 
Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education, I strongly supported last year's 
$2 billion, or 15%, increase in the research budget at the NIH, 
bringing total funding to $15.6 billion. And this year, I am an 
original cosponsor of H. Res. 89, legislation that expresses the sense 
of the House of Representatives that NIH funding should be increased by 
another $2 billion in fiscal year 2000.
  I support these increases because I believe we are on the verge of 
making great leaps ahead in our ability to treat and prevent a wide 
range of diseases. Dr. Harold Varmus, Director of NIH, has testified 
before the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee that, ``discoveries are 
occurring at an unprecedented pace in biology and medicine, presaging 
revolutionary changes in medical practice during the next decade.'' We 
have a responsibility to take advantage of this enormous opportunity to 
advance science, fight disease, and save and prolong life.
  There are many success stories to point to at NIH and many challenges 
that lie ahead, including eliminating health disparities, 
reinvigorating clinical research, finding cures and vaccines for 
hundreds of diseases including malaria, cancer and HIV, and mapping the 
human genome and making in accessible to scientists across the world.
  As Dr. Varmus testified this year, ``Throughout the world, the NIH is 
considered the leading force in mankind's continuing war against 
disease.'' Our wise investment in NIH is paying off. We must enter the 
new millennium investing in science that can unlock secrets of human 
disease and human health, and change our world for the better. I urge 
my colleagues to support a doubling in NIH funding over five years.

                          ____________________