[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 89 (Thursday, June 20, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4728-S4729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SEQUESTRATION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, a century ago, a person born in the United 
States could reasonably expect to live to their late forties. I repeat, 
100 years ago, a person born in the United States could reasonably 
expect to live to their late forties. Today, most people born in the 
United States can live into their late seventies or early eighties. 
That is the way it is.

  Look how things have changed over these last 100 years. Imagine 
adding more than three decades to life expectancy just in this period 
of time. This gift is due to a number of reasons. But the most 
significant reason is we have had 125 years of research done by one of 
the great institutions of America: the National Institutes of Health.
  Due to their research, fewer people die of cancer, for example, each 
year than the year before. It is stunning, the advances we have made. 
If one looks at their personal life, the things that happen in their 
family, think what it would have been a few years ago, such as with a 
terrible automobile accident or a dread disease like cancer. Think of 
the work that has been done by these scientists to help us advance the 
cause of curing people.
  Over the last half century, deaths from heart disease and stroke have 
fallen by 60 percent. That is just in 50 years. Because of the work 
done, thanks to the Institutes of Health, scientists understand the 
heart about as well as any part of your body.
  Now these wonderful scientists are beginning to study the brain, 
which is much more complicated than the heart, but still the heart is 
very complicated. They are going to begin a study to find out 
everything they can about the brain. The most extensive research 
project in the world is dealing with the brain, which is going to be--
and it has already started--at the National Institutes of Health.
  Because of antiviral therapies developed by NIH-funded projects and 
researchers, now they have diagnosed HIV/AIDS to the extent that--I was 
out there on Monday, and I talked to them about that when I first came 
to the Senate, when someone was diagnosed with AIDS, it was a death 
sentence. Not anymore because of the work done there. They can count 
their life expectancy in multiple decades, when in the past it was 
months.
  It would be impossible to count the lives NIH innovation has already 
saved, and researchers are not close to realizing the limits of modern 
medicine.
  I was fortunate to have the opportunity, as I indicated, to visit the 
facility on Monday morning. These facilities in Bethesda, MD, are 
stunningly important to visit, to witness, the fascinating work they do 
there.
  I toured one of the clinics where the best medical researchers in the 
world are trying to solve the world's most elusive medical mysteries. 
There are 27 different institutes that make up the National Institutes 
of Health. They are studying diseases that have yet to be identified, 
let alone be cured. They have one institute where that is what they 
deal with. On diseases, they do not know what the cause is.
  I met a little girl there who is 7 years old--a beautiful child. They 
are trying to figure out why she has the problems she has. They have 
made some progress, but they do not know yet. Once they identify--and 
they have. They have found reasons why in that young lady and others 
certain things are missing. I am not a scientist and I cannot probably 
do justice to this, but there are certain things in the body--gene 
sequencing in the body--where something is missing or something is 
added, such as a protein that should not be there. Now they can 
identify this. It is tremendous that they can do that, but on a number 
of these diseases they are still--even though they have identified what 
causes it, they do not know for sure how to fix it. That is what they 
are doing there.
  In addition to the work being conducted by the nearly 6,000 
scientists who work there--these are labs located on their campus; it 
is a huge campus--they award not only the work they do there, but they 
award thousands of grants each year to more than 300,000 researchers 
across the country. Most of them are university based, but not all of 
them.
  These scientists are seeking the next breakthrough for treatments 
they can do with drugs and even cures. They are reaching out for the 
next advancement that will--to borrow Abraham Lincoln's words--add 
years to our lives as well as life to our years.
  But today the crucial lifesaving work at NIH is in jeopardy. The 
arbitrary, across-the-board cuts of the mean and arbitrary sequester 
have hit NIH very hard. The institutes have cut $1.55 billion from 
their budget this year alone.
  Think of the work that is not being done there because of that. The 
little girl who I met there--think of the work that is not going to be 
done with little girls and boys like her because, this year alone, $1.5 
billion is cut from their program.
  What that means, among other things, is that NIH will award 700 fewer 
grants this year than last, putting the next revolutionary treatment at 
risk, whatever it might be. And faced with diminished funding 
opportunities and an uncertain future, promising young scientists are 
abandoning the research field altogether.
  The Director of the National Institutes of Health is Dr. Francis 
Collins, the father of the gene sequencing that we now look to in the 
future to curing literally every disease. This wonderful man, who could 
make a fortune by moving out of his scientific endeavors, has decided 
that is his life's work. Not only does Dr. Collins feel that way, but 
everyone who works there. They are doing things to help us, our 
families, our friends, America, and literally the world.
  It is very sad to me that these wonderful people, who are dedicating 
their lives to not how much money they can make but how much better 
they can make people feel and what they can do to cure diseases, are 
looking for other places.
  The best friend of someone who works for me here in Washington is one 
of the leading experts, if not the leading expert, in the world on a 
disease called melanoma--cancer.
  He is not applying for grants anymore at NIH because you cannot do 
this work on a 1- to 2-year basis; it has to be long-term or you would 
do not the research. It is happening all over. Not only that, people 
who work there are leaving the institution.
  NIH researchers are currently studying cancer drugs that zero in on a 
tumor more, with fewer sickening side effects. I say that--sickening 
side effects.
  The Capitol physician, Dr. Brian Monahan, is a wonderful man. He was 
a professor, taught medicine. He is a Navy admiral. He is board 
certified in hematology, internal medicine, and oncology. As some know, 
my wife has been through a pretty brutal bout with breast cancer. He 
told me, when Landra was really sick lots of time--really, really 
sick--he said just a few years ago that they had to admit women to the 
hospital because they could not stop vomiting because of the medicine 
they were taking. We have made progress. That does not happen often 
anymore. As sick as my wife was, she was not as sick as she would have 
been a few years ago.
  At this wonderful facility, they are developing a vaccine to fight 
every strain of influenza without a yearly shot, saving money and 
lives. A man at the institute there, on a blackboard--really a 
greenboard--with a piece of chalk, drew a picture which showed me and 
my staff what happens when influenza strikes and the reason we need now 
a yearly shot for the flu. But we are very close to having one shot to 
take care of flu all the time.
  This flu is not anything to not worry about. In 1918, 100 million 
people died because of flu around the world--100 million. We have a 
couple types of flu right now that are potentially very damaging. These 
scientists are very close to having a vaccine that will take care of 
the flu with one shot for always.
  They are conducting clinical trials to help identify and treat those 
at risk of developing early-onset Alzheimer's, leading to more 
successful treatment of this costly and debilitating disease. Many 
years ago I was at an event in

[[Page S4729]]

Las Vegas. Next to me was a physician. I was a new Senator. He said: 
You and Congress need to do something about Alzheimer's; otherwise, you 
are going to bankrupt America. With people living longer, there is more 
Alzheimer's coming all the time. We have made progress. We still have a 
long way to go.
  These innovations have the possibility not only to save lives but to 
save us all billions of dollars each year on medical care. The NIH is 
an intellectual and economic leader the world over. Everybody looks at 
the NIH as the premier research facility for disease.
  But the senseless meat ax, unfair cuts we call sequester, puts all 
that NIH does at risk. As we, this wonderful, great country of ours, 
are slashing investments in medical research--slashing--our competitors 
are redoubling their efforts: China, 25 percent increase in medical 
research; we are cutting billions. In just 2 years, with the sequester 
deal, we will cut almost $4 billion. China is increasing theirs by 25 
percent; India by 20 percent; South Korea, Germany, Brazil, 10 percent. 
We are whacking ours, cutting these wonderful scientists. These 
countries, all they are trying to do is duplicate our success, 
replicate our success. While they are doing that, we are abandoning 
investments that brought us to where we are.
  But medical innovation does not happen overnight. It takes years of 
research, years of trial and years of error, quite frankly, years of 
the process of elimination. One of the institute Directors--we talked 
about spinal cord injuries. They are making progress with something 
they thought a few years ago worked really well, but further tests said 
it works only a little bit, not the way they thought it would.
  Even when scientists know the cause of a disease--as I have 
indicated, they have figured out some of this with gene sequencing--it 
takes an average of 13 years to develop a drug to treat that. These 
shortsighted cuts in the research funding will cost us valuable cures 
tomorrow. While these costs may not be felt this month, this year, or 
even this decade, their long-term consequences will be grave.
  Now, we say it may not be felt this month. To the scientists working 
there, they are going to feel it very quickly because some of them are 
leaving. Imagine if we had neglected our commitment to finding 
effective treatments for cancer, heart disease, or stroke a few decades 
ago. Imagine if we had abandoned investments in treatment for HIV/AIDS 
in the 1980s and 1990s. Think of the burden that would have been not 
only on the people who were sick and dying but the burden it would have 
been on our economy because of the huge cost, the lost time at work, 
and all the medical stuff. We do not have to worry about that anymore. 
Imagine lives cut short.
  We can all agree that reducing our deficit is a valuable goal. We 
have done a good job--$2.5 trillion. But we should reduce the deficit 
by making smart investments, not by the making shortsighted cuts that 
cause pain and suffering and death. There is simply no price tag you 
can put on that.

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