[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 152 (Tuesday, November 2, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H11208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        CENSORSHIP AND THREATS ISSUED BY CONGRESSIONAL STAFFERS

  (Ms. SLAUGHTER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Madam Speaker, I have some shocking news this morning. 
If my colleagues will recall, last Thursday, I think in a moment of 
spectacular madness, the majority of this House passed a bill that cut 
the funding for research to the National Institutes of Health until the 
last 2 days of the fiscal year next year.
  The troubling news I have this morning is that it has come to our 
attention that a brazen act by some staffers in Congress has taken 
place. Majority staffers in the other body have warned the National 
Institutes of Health researchers and the research advocates that if 
they complain about the delays proposed for the research, their own 
funding is going to be jeopardized.
  This is a scandal of major proportions; taking away the first 
amendment rights and the rights of people to try to address this body.
  Now, just yesterday it was announced by researchers at the University 
of Rochester, New York, in my district, that they have discovered that 
genetic material from the HIV virus can kill cancer tumors. They tell 
me that this and other NIH-funded research is what is going to be 
hampered in Rochester if their funding is delayed.
  The chairman of the Labor-HHS subcommittee yesterday asked the 
President to veto the bill because he is stunned too by its 
irresponsibility.

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