[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 170 (Tuesday, November 29, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6530-S6531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NIH FUNDING

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I want to talk about something we all hear 
about and generally support--that the National Institutes of Health 
needs help. It was founded in 1887. Its work and investments in the 
work of others have led to countless discoveries, including in 
Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and so many other chronic illnesses.
  I visited this 300-acre campus in Bethesda, and it is jam-packed with 
buildings that are teeming with scientists and physicians. Yet that is 
just the tip of the iceberg because research is being conducted all 
over the country--indeed, all over the world--by the medical research 
grants that are given by NIH. This funded research has led to many 
discoveries and treatments that not only are allowing us to live 
healthier lives but also contribute to our knowledge and understanding 
of how diseases and the human body work. Take, for example, the BRAIN 
Initiative. NIH seeks to unravel the mysteries of the vastly complex 
human brain, which could allow us to understand an array of conditions 
affecting the brain.
  When I visited yesterday, I met with Dr. Francis Collins, the head of 
NIH, and a plethora of his brilliant scientists who are working on 
neurodegenerative diseases--diseases such as concussions, ALS, 
Parkinson's, and all the many complicated things that come from this 
complicated organ called the brain. Well, they are on the verge of some 
real breakthroughs, but that comes at a cost. Dr. Collins stressed the 
need for consistent, robust funding for NIH.
  In 2003, funding for NIH peaked and has since failed to keep up with 
inflation. In 2009 we came along with a stimulus bill that increased 
funding for NIH for only 2 years by approximately $4 or $5 billion a 
year over its base funding of $24 to $25 billion a year.
  I will never forget when Dr. Collins told us--after the effect of 
that second year of the stimulus bill--that he had to cease 700 medical 
research grants sent out to the medical schools and research 
institutions all across the country because he simply did not have the 
money they had planned for, and thus there is the call for consistent 
and robust funding. Dr. Collins mentioned that the agency's biggest 
concern was a loss of young researchers. As the next generation of 
researchers are increasingly facing being denied research grants, they 
are leaving the research field. I don't think that is what this Nation 
wants. We need to ensure that

[[Page S6531]]

NIH maintains a strong pipeline of researchers so that the critical 
work toward scientific discovery can continue.
  This is not a partisan issue. Health and disease research is a 
bipartisan issue, and so we need to come together to support this 
consistent and robust funding. Even now, NIH is engaged in developing a 
prevention tool against the disease that was the dominant conversation 
last summer--the Zika virus. They are going into their first trials on 
a vaccine. Zika has affected more than 1,000 people in my State of 
Florida alone and more than 30,000 people in Puerto Rico. We need a 
vaccine, but the process of FDA trials takes time.
  Now, just to prove that it is not confined to Puerto Rico and 
Florida, just yesterday the State of Texas reported the first case of 
locally transmitted Zika virus, which now makes it the second State to 
officially have local transmission after the State of Florida.
  The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. 
Frieden, said that Zika could become endemic within our U.S. border, 
making it more important now than ever to have the Zika vaccine. That 
is just one other little example of what has been going on at NIH.
  We are just about to consider a Cures bill, which has some more 
robust funding. The whole impetus for the Cures bill was NIH funding. A 
lot of other things had been attached. There is some controversy, but 
it would begin to authorize funding that would be stable over a 10-year 
period. If the United States is going to continue to be looked at as 
the leader of medical research around the world, we are going to have 
to provide for the funds for this great institution. We have already 
seen major breakthroughs in our lifetime, and this funding will help us 
to see some new incredible breakthroughs accomplished. You have heard 
of the Moonshot for cancer research. Look at the existing victories 
that have already been had in cancer research. We are now just on the 
cusp. What about diseases where we don't have a cure, such as ALS, or 
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?
  A big reason for my making this speech is for my friend Evan in 
Jacksonville. He is afflicted with this disease that affects the body's 
motor nerves. There is something that happens in the brain that does 
not send the signals all the way through the neurological system to the 
motor nerves. We first identified that in a famous baseball player, Lou 
Gehrig. There are 20,000 to 30,000 people in the country afflicted with 
this disease. We still don't know the reason for it nor have a cure, 
but yesterday I talked to three different physician scientists who have 
very promising leads for identifying a gene that has a direct 
connection to what happens in the brain when someone has ALS. They are 
trying to determine whether we could go in and clip out that gene so 
that our progeny would not have this concern.
  We have seen what has happened in Alzheimer's. Did you see the 60 
Minutes segment last Sunday in which there is this incredible space in 
Colombia, near Medellin, within a 100-mile diameter, where so many 
families get the onset of Alzheimer's during their forties, which is 
quite unusual. They have now identified a protein in the brain where, 
if you now know the gene that causes that protein, you could go ahead 
and alert people of the disease, and even though the effects of 
Alzheimer's has not come on, that person could start a therapy that 
would work against that protein in the brain. They are right on the 
cusp of these kinds of exciting discoveries that can help us to live 
healthier, longer lives.
  I implore my colleagues in the Senate not to short-sheet the NIH and 
the funding that it so desperately needs.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.

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