[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 41 (Wednesday, March 11, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1400-S1401]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      HEALTH CARE RESEARCH FUNDING

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, another critical part of this conversation 
is health care research.
  One of the most outstanding men serving the Federal Government in 
America is named Francis Collins. He is an amazing man who heads up the 
National Institutes of Health. He is a great physician and a great 
researcher.
  When the United States wanted someone to head up the Human Genome 
Project, they picked Francis Collins. He managed to bring that project 
to success by providing more information than anyone ever dreamed of, 
and now we are better in treating problems and diseases across America.
  I went to see him last year at the National Institutes of Health. We 
talked about medical research in America, and what he had to say was 
terrifying. There has been a 23-percent decline in medical research in 
the United States over the last 10 years. We have not even kept up with 
inflation in providing money for medical research, and that is not lost 
on people in the research field.
  We are now finding that our medical researchers are older and older. 
Younger researchers have given up. They don't think they are getting 
approvals for their research applications. As they leave the field, the 
new generation of researchers has diminished and our ability to find 
cures has also diminished.
  At the same time that the United States is backpedaling and falling 
away from its leadership in biomedical research, the rest of the world 
is charging forward. The European Union is making massive investments 
in medical research and in just a few years the Chinese will pass the 
United States for the first time in their investment in biomedical 
research. They understand that in addition to finding cures, biomedical 
research is really the opening for entrepreneurship, profitability, 
pharmaceutical companies, medical devices, and they want to make sure 
China is in the lead. Why isn't the United States in the lead?
  I will speak about two particular diseases that need to be 
researched.
  Mr. REID. Will my friend yield for a question?
  Mr. DURBIN. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have to leave the floor in a moment, and I 
would like to direct my question to my friend, the senior Senator from 
Illinois.
  I too met with Francis Collins. He is a genius. We are so fortunate 
that he is there. He told me something I can't get out of my mind--
sequestration. It took $1.5 billion away from the things that the 
Senator from Illinois has been talking about. The second year of 
sequestration will take away $2 billion.
  I read in the press that Republicans in the House--with their budget 
and the budget over here--are going to continue the sequestration.
  I ask my friend, what will that do to Francis Collins and the people 
he has working at that institution?
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I will respond to the Democratic leader 
and say that I have heard the same thing. There are some Republicans in 
the House who believe that sequestration--this across-the-board cut--is 
what we should do, and I could not disagree more.
  I chair the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. If we go forward 
with the sequestration, this will be devastating to America's national 
defense. If we get into this practice of cutting back in biomedical 
research, it will not only deny us the basic money we need to fund 
research grants--and we are now funding a lower percentage than we have 
in decades--it will also mean a discouraging message to researchers. 
They are going to think: What is the point in becoming an NIH 
researcher if the government and Congress will not provide the basic 
resources we need? The third element, which we cannot overlook, are all 
of the millions of people in the United States and around the world who 
are praying that we will be able to come up with breakthroughs when it 
comes to medical research.
  In the United States of America, a person is diagnosed with 
Alzheimer's disease once every 68 seconds. Last year we spent over $200 
billion on Medicare and Medicaid for the care of Alzheimer's patients.
  What Francis Collins has said to me is that if we can dedicate growth 
in research funds, we can--with the grace of God and maybe 
miraculously--find a cure or find a way to delay the onset of 
Alzheimer's, even for a few months. The savings to the Federal 
Government would be so much more than the actual cost of the medical 
research.
  This notion of cutting back on NIH research, which some in the House 
are pushing, is really an effort that will cost us more in the long 
run--not to mention the human suffering.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, if I could, through the Chair, ask my friend 
one final question. During my last trip to the National Institutes of 
Health, when I met with Dr. Collins and others, one of the issues they 
were so in tune with was that they were so close to having a universal 
vaccine for flu. In the past they would come up with the best solution 
they could for a flu vaccine every year. If we are fortunate, it is 50-
percent effective. They are very, very close to having a universal 
vaccine for flu.
  Tens of thousands of people in the United States die from the flu 
every year. Why didn't they proceed? Sequestration. They didn't have 
the money to continue the research.
  I thank my friend very much for bringing this subject up. It is 
something that is devastating not only to the scientific community, but 
it is devastating to the people out there who would benefit from the 
research who really don't know what could be in store for them.
  It is such a shame for our country that China--Japan has done a good 
job for many, many decades. They have the lowest death rate in the 
world. The European Union is trudging way ahead of the United States in 
something on which we have lead forever.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Nevada.
  It was not that long ago that America was consumed with Ebola and 
what it meant in terms of threats to life in Africa, the United States, 
and around the world, and it was right that we focused on stopping the 
scourge of the Ebola epidemic in Africa.
  But there was a concern, as well, expressed over and over again this 
last fall, about how many Americans would be a victim to this Ebola 
epidemic. It turns out at the end of the day that fewer than a handful 
were actually affected by it, but every year in the United States and 
around the world, hundreds, if not thousands, die from flu--influenza.

  Again, just to get to the point the Senator from Nevada makes, we are 
penny wise and pound foolish by denying the money for research for a 
universal flu vaccine that will save lives around the world. A minimal 
investment in the United States can make a dramatic improvement in the 
morbidity and mortality of those who are affected by flu.
  So I thank the Senator from Nebraska for joining in this conversation 
this morning and talking about the biomedical research deficit which we 
are facing in the United States.
  I wish to mention one or two other specific examples in this field. 
The kind of research we are talking about at NIH holds great promise 
when it comes to treating disorders such as multiple sclerosis. MS is 
an unpredictable and disabling disease that affects the central nervous 
system. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and 
paralysis, and there is no known cure.
  Today more than 2.3 million people have been diagnosed with MS 
worldwide, including 20,000 in my home State of Illinois.
  Typically, MS is diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, but between 
8,000 and 10,000 children and adolescents live with it in America, 
people such as Meghan Malone. In 2004, at the age of 14, Meghan was 
diagnosed with MS. Her first symptoms began when she was in the eighth 
grade. She lost vision in her right eye for a few days. One year later 
her feet went numb while she was out trick or treating with friends. By 
the next morning she couldn't feel her thighs, and a few days later she 
was completely numb from the waist down.
  Her parents quickly brought her to the hospital where she was 
diagnosed with MS. She panicked, thinking she was too young for this 
disease and afraid of what it meant for her future, but she is doing 
what she can to stay healthy. She spends a lot of time exercising every 
day. She tries to think positively.

[[Page S1401]]

  Since her diagnosis, Meghan has gathered her friends and family to 
participate in Walk MS every May. There is one in my hometown of 
Springfield, IL. They have raised over $50,000--Meghan has--to help 
fight the disease. Meghan said:

       I walk to give hope to others who are newly diagnosed with 
     MS. It wasn't easy to hear those words and I think by walking 
     I can help others find ways to be positive about their 
     diagnosis.

  The National Multiple Sclerosis Society has been sponsoring Walk MS 
since 1988 and they have raised $870 million to support research. The 
National Multiple Sclerosis Society and people such as Meghan are doing 
their part, but if the Federal Government is going to do something it 
has to do its part. We have to make an investment at the National 
Institutes of Health to complement the efforts by private citizens and 
generous people across America to fund research in these diseases.
  Let me give an example. Jonah Chan and his team at the University of 
California in San Francisco can teach us a lesson. Dr. Chan's team 
invented a new technology that led to the discovery of a drug normally 
used for allergies that has the potential to repair the nervous system 
in people with MS, but this important discovery needs further Federal 
investment in biomedical research to move these early findings to 
promising treatments. Here is what I have done. I have introduced the 
American Cures Act. It will increase funding at the Nation's top four 
biomedical research agencies, a 5-percent annual budget increase over 
and above inflation--the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for 
Disease Control, the Department of Defense, and the Veterans' 
Administration medical research programs. The American Cures Act will 
make funding for critical biomedical research projects less political 
and more predictable.
  Dr. Collins at NIH told me: If you gave us regular funding increases 
of 5 percent real growth a year for 10 years, I will prove to you that 
investment will come back tenfold in helping the improvement of health 
in the United States and reducing the cost of health care. I believe 
him. I have confidence in him. So why would we not do it? We should be 
making this commitment.
  Cystic fibrosis is another example of federally funded basic research 
that improves people's lives. The other day Patrick Magner, a sophomore 
at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, IL, wrote to me about his two young 
brothers. John is 12 years old, a fully functioning sixth grader, and 
Matthew is 9 years old and plays sports in school. On the outside, one 
would never know they are dealing with cystic fibrosis.
  John and Matt both take about 30 pills a day to help with their basic 
digestive functions. This doesn't include several other prescriptions, 
over-the-counter drugs, and daily therapy. They consider themselves 
lucky because 50 years ago people with cystic fibrosis didn't live long 
enough to even attend school. Today, with more advanced treatment, life 
expectancy for people with cystic fibrosis has increased over 800 
percent. Research generated by NIH funding continues to give John and 
Matt hope for their future.
  Their older brother Patrick wrote:

       Without this funding, my two younger brothers might not be 
     alive today. This funding is crucial to not only curing 
     cystic fibrosis, but other diseases as well.

  That is the promise of the American Cures Act. It allows America's 
smartest medical researchers to continue to find treatments to stop 
progression and one day, God willing, find a cure for diseases such as 
MS, cystic fibrosis, and many more.
  Last week I joined Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania on his 
resolution to support Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week. I would also 
like to acknowledge the work of Senators Wyden, Hatch, Brown, Markey, 
and others on behalf of fighting this terrible disease. Together, along 
with the American Cures Act, these efforts are improving people's 
lives.
  In order to lead to breakthrough cures for these diseases, we need as 
a nation--as a government--to take the lead. This research shouldn't be 
a low-budget priority; I think it should be one of the highest.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle to make Federal funding for biomedical research the true national 
priority which it is.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). The Senator from Washington.

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