[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 177 (Friday, November 18, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7882-H7883]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 THE CRITICAL ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN SUPPORTING BIOMEDICAL 
                                RESEARCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, last year, when I was chair of the Joint 
Economic Committee, we held a hearing on the pivotal role of government 
investment in basic research. We found that basic research spurs 
exactly the kind of innovations that business leaders, academics and 
policymakers have all identified as critical for our Nation's economic 
growth.
  But we also found that the private sector tends to underfund basic 
research because it is undertaken with no specific commercial 
applications in mind. Businesses, understandably, concentrate their 
research and development spending on the development of products and 
processes that may have direct commercial value.
  A report produced by the Joint Economic Committee showed that the 
Federal Government funds almost 60 percent of basic research in the 
U.S. and highlighted one study that estimated that actual R&D 
expenditures in the United States may be less than half of what the 
optimal levels would be.
  We are now engaged in an important national debate about how much and 
where to cut Federal spending. And I wish to make the case for how 
reckless and shortsighted it would be to cut into the budget lines that 
fund the kind of vital, basic research that led to discovery, 
innovation, and economic growth, because doing so would be, as that bit 
of old folk wisdom goes, like cutting off our nose to spite our face.
  Take the budget for the National Institutes of Health, for example. 
The NIH strongly supports the kind of basic scientific research that 
may not be directly useful in creating practical products yet, but it's 
precisely this kind of research that can lead to the future development 
of new and undreamed of biotech and pharmaceutical advances. It is work 
that can lead to the kind of advances that will allow the establishment 
of new products, grow new businesses, and produce private sector jobs.
  Studies have shown that the money we spend supporting such scientific 
research is one of the best investments our country can make. For 
instance, out in Los Angeles, UCLA generates almost $15 in economic 
activity for every taxpayer dollar that it invests, resulting in a 
$9.33 billion, with a B, impact on the Los Angeles region.
  In Houston, Texas, the estimated economic impact of Baylor is more 
than $358 million, generating more than 3,000 jobs.
  In my own district in New York, Dr. Samie Jaffrey, a pharmacologist 
and faculty member at Weill Cornell Medical College, has just recently 
developed a promising new technology for studying RNA in cells and has 
just started a biotech company, all with NIH support.
  Time and time again, basic research has been a game changer and an 
economic incubator. Take the biotechnology company Genentech as an 
example. It was founded on discoveries that were made within our 
universities, and those discoveries were made with financial support of 
grants from the National Institutes of Health. And those Federal funds 
proved to be a very good investment.
  Genentech has created over 11,000 jobs, and the company created 
products that have had major effects on the health and economic well-
being of our Nation. Genentech developed drugs that treat certain 
leukemias and arthritis and breast cancer.
  NIH-funded research has also had a major impact on the lives of those 
suffering from multiple sclerosis. MS is a painful, painful disease 
that often strikes young women with children. Thanks to NIH research, 
drugs have been developed that are now in the marketplace that mean MS 
patients now live longer and have higher quality lives.
  Since 1970, over 150 new FDA-approved drugs and vaccines or new 
indications for existing drugs have been discovered in university 
laboratories, most funded by NIH. And millions of Americans are hoping 
that somewhere, just over the horizon, there will be new discoveries 
and new breakthroughs leading to more effective treatments

[[Page H7883]]

for cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, AIDS, autism, bacteria, ADHA, 
schizophrenia, depression and much more.

                              {time}  1520

  But treating these and other diseases will depend on discoveries yet 
to be made. Discoveries of basic science. Discoveries that can only be 
made with Federal funding and the work of agencies like the NIH. I 
suspect that to some this might just sound like pie in the sky.
  But just think back into our not too distant past. Think back to the 
polio of the 1950s, to the children who were crippled and to the 
patients in iron lungs. Think about 30 years ago, when almost all the 
children who were diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma were not 
expected to live more than 5 years. Think back to the time when AIDS 
was the equivalent of a death sentence. Polio is now eradicated. The 5-
year survival rate for NHL is over 84 percent, and AIDS is treatable, 
survivable.
  This is all because of basic research, much of which was funded by 
the NIH. Because of the basic research we have funded and made 
possible. Because of our past investments in our Nation's future. The 
Founding Fathers had the wisdom and the foresight to write into the 
Constitution a role for the Federal Government in promoting the 
progress of science and useful arts. If we are to remain competitive in 
the global economy, if we hope to remain a leader in biotechnology, if 
we hope to continue to advance the world's understanding and treatment 
of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease, we must continue to 
invest in the basic research and in the dedicated young scientists who 
make it all possible.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________