[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 152 (Friday, November 30, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1855-E1856]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              IMPORTANCE OF FEDERAL INVESTMENT IN RESEARCH

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 30, 2012

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, the importance of federal investment in 
research cannot be overemphasized. Our investment in research, 
including through the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Science Foundation, 
saves lives, improves health, and increases our understanding of the 
world that we live in. Grants to research institutions, including 
Northwestern University, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Loyola 
University in the Chicago metropolitan area, not only help to make 
medical progress but train our next generation of scientists.
  Biomedical research funded by the National Institutes of Health has 
made a real difference in the health and lives of millions of 
Americans. The outcomes of those research efforts speak volumes. Anti-
viral therapies for HIV have been developed that make it possible for 
HIV-infected individuals to live into their 70s and beyond as compared 
to a life expectancy of just months when the disease first appeared in 
the 1980s. New treatments and procedures have been developed for Age-
Related Macular Degeneration that will allow hundreds of thousands of 
Americans to continue to have useful vision over the next five years. 
Researchers have identified a treatment that could reduce premature 
birth by 45 percent among at-risk women.
  Public health research sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention helps us prevent and contain disease outbreaks. As we 
transition from a health care system focused on the treatment of 
disease to a system based on disease prevention, we will increasingly 
rely on public health research to identify new prevention techniques 
and interventions that help keep people healthy. For example, the CDC 
has established a research grant program to help develop and test new 
ways to combat healthcare-associated infections--infections that harm 
patients and increase health care costs. Through this initiative, the 
CDC awarded a grant to the Chicago Antimicrobial Resistance and 
Infection Prevention Epicenter, a collaboration between the Cook County 
Health and Hospitals System and Rush University Medical Center, to 
research strategies for antimicrobial resistance and infection 
prevention.
  The funding of basic research in fields such as chemistry, 
engineering, physics, and computers by the National Science Foundation

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has led to discoveries and technological advances that have been truly 
revolutionary. NSF-funded researchers have decoded the genetics of 
viruses and created an entirely new state of matter. NSF-funded 
research is also enhancing our understanding of the link between brain 
health and overall human health.
  These examples merely scratch the surface of federally-funded 
research discoveries and only hint at the promise of our continued 
investment in research. We can imagine the possibilities--a cure for 
HIV/AIDS, the elimination of health disparities, or the end of 
Alzheimer's disease. If we don't stop the sequester cuts, which include 
budget cuts of $2.5 billion to NIH, $586 million to NSF, and $490 
million to CDC, or any other cuts, these discoveries could be severely 
delayed or even worse never become reality. We can't allow that. We 
must avert these cuts and replace them with a balanced approach that 
continues our investment in research.

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