[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 1, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      MEDICAL AND CANCER RESEARCH

  (Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS. Madam Speaker, earlier this week I had the opportunity 
to participate in a roundtable discussion in western New York on 
innovations in health care. Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary 
Bill Corr was in attendance, as were many innovation leaders from my 
community. My community of Buffalo and western New York has been a real 
leader in embracing health care innovations to promote the efficient 
and cost-effective delivery of quality health care services.
  Buffalo was the Nation's largest recipient of the Federal 
Government's Beacon Grant for comprehensive integration of electronic 
medical records. Buffalo's Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the Nation's 
first comprehensive cancer center, was recently designated to conduct 
clinical trials for promising new therapies using vaccines to bolster 
the body's immune system to fight cancer. The successful result of this 
clinical trial could fundamentally change the science of cancer 
research and treatment.
  Innovation in health care must be sustained by the Federal 
Government. Today, the National Institutes of Health rejects nine of 10 
applications for promising research due to lack of funding. Ten years 
ago, 25 percent of the National Cancer Institute's research grants were 
funded; today, it's 8 percent. The only failure in cancer research is 
when you quit or you're forced to quit because of lack of funding.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support fully cancer funding.

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