[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 114 (Friday, August 2, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          SEQUESTRATION'S EFFECT ON PANCREATIC CANCER RESEARCH

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                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 2, 2013

  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, earlier this year President Obama signed 
into law The Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act. This law takes an 
important step to accelerate research on pancreatic cancer and other 
cancers with the highest mortality rates and for which there has been 
little progress on diagnosis or treatment. In recent decades, steady 
progress has been made in improving the survival rate for many forms of 
cancer, but today only 6% of individuals diagnosed with pancreatic 
cancer will survive more than five years. This staggering statistic, 
which has not improved in 40 years, only begins to tell the story of 
the enormous toll this disease has taken on these patients and their 
families.
   Under the new law, the National Cancer Institute at the NIH will 
develop a scientific framework to attack pancreatic, lung and other 
deadly cancers. The NCI has started this process by convening a working 
group of experts in the field of pancreatic cancer research and 
releasing an initial report with recommendations about high-priority 
research areas. When fully implemented, this law holds promise to lay 
the foundation for the development of better diagnostics and treatments 
that pancreatic cancer patients desperately need.
   Now, sequestration is putting this progress in doubt. In one fell 
swoop, the sequester chopped $1.55 billion from the NIH budget. Even 
before these cuts took effect in the middle of this fiscal year, the 
threat of the sequester caused NIH to delay or trim down the size of 
research grants. Now that it is in effect, the sequester has impacted 
every area of medical research and every Institute and Center within 
NIH. NIH-funded researchers in labs across the country will receive 700 
fewer research grants this year than last year. And the bite of the 
Budget Control Act's cuts to NIH could deepen next year if Congress 
does not correct it.
   The Director of NIH, Dr. Francis Collins, has said that ``if the 
Budget Control Act--imposed caps on discretionary programs continue, 
and NIH funding is reduced proportionally over the next 10 years, 
funding will decline by about $19 billion. The consequences will be 
harmful to scientific progress and to American leadership in science.''
   The erosion of NIH's budget represents bad policy and missed 
opportunities. Advancements in science and health care take time and 
sustained funding. Breakthroughs occur only after years of incremental 
gains. The sequester is disrupting and delaying the efforts of our 
nation's leading researchers and scientists who are toiling to 
understand complex and unsolved medical problems. The squeeze of the 
sequester is also jeopardizing the future biomedical research workforce 
by making it more difficult to recruit and train the next generation of 
scientists and bio-engineers.
   The science and research community is sounding the alarm. Congress 
needs to provide strong, stable funding for NIH in order for our global 
leadership in science and biomedical research to continue and for our 
researchers' discoveries to benefit patients as soon as possible. Let's 
not allow ideological budget battles to jeopardize our country's 
investments in the health of our citizens any longer. I urge my 
colleagues to listen to the experts, work together, and take action to 
replace the arbitrary cuts of sequestration with a balanced plan that 
reflects public priorities and common sense.

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