[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 100 (Thursday, May 28, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H2353-H2354]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1600
                     THE NEED FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH

  (Mr. SHERMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHERMAN. Madam Speaker, our work now is to negotiate a new relief 
bill. So far we have spent trillions of dollars bandaging our economic 
wounds, yet less than one-half of 1 percent has gone to beat the 
disease through research on therapeutics and prophylaxes.
  All hands should be on deck. Every reasonable idea should be tested. 
But our professional medical researchers are today sitting at home 
because their non-COVID research has been suspended and our COVID 
research funding has been modest.
  The HEROES Act provides $5.5 billion to do this medical research. 
That is the most important one-quarter of 1 percent of that bill, and 
we need to fight to expand it in negotiations.
  Medical research is the best investment we can make for America. It 
is also the only way we are likely to provide major help for the 
billions of people who live in poor countries, and it is the best 
investment that we can make in America's standing in the world.

[[Page H2354]]

  Thomas Edison looked at 3,000 different filaments to invent one 
practical light bulb. It took him 2 years. We need to test 3,000 
different combinations of compounds, and we don't have 2 years.

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