[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 59 (Wednesday, April 2, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S2138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on another matter, there are few more 
devastating words to hear than: ``You have cancer.''
  The unfortunate truth is that millions around the world are faced 
with that reality every year. The statistics are devastating. Cancer 
kills 10 million people each year and is a leading cause of death 
globally.
  The good news? Medical research has led to breakthrough advancements 
that are helping in the fight against cancer, with new treatments and 
cures being developed each year.
  If some of the most painful words someone can hear are: ``You have 
cancer,'' then some of the most hopeful words are: ``You have promising 
treatment options.''
  Thanks to research from the National Institutes of Health and other 
global medical research organizations, the scientific community is 
making ground-breaking advances in cancer treatment.
  For example, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
have used NIH funding to develop a new system to predict a person's 
likelihood of developing lung cancer up to 6 years in advance, using a 
low-dose CT scan.
  Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of 
Medicine used NIH funding to develop a test that identifies 95 percent 
of early pancreatic cancers, one of the deadliest cancers because it is 
rarely caught early.
  Medical research worldwide has also led to the development of 
personalized cancer vaccines, discoveries about the genetic causes of 
cancer, and the creation of drugs to cut breast cancer risk and treat 
cervical cancer.
  This lifesaving research is creating hope for millions across the 
world at a time when the estimated number of new cancer cases and 
deaths is only predicted to rise.
  But the Trump administration is directly threatening the very 
research that provides the foundation for new discoveries, treatments, 
and cures.
  Since the President took office and ceded power to his unelected 
billionaire buddy Elon Musk, they have attempted sweeping cuts and 
illegal caps on medical research funding.
  Already, because of these efforts, NIH has been forced to hold back 
more than $1 billion in Federal grant funding for researchers. Imagine 
that. The President cutting funding to help find cures for cancer.
  As if that weren't bad enough, Elon Musk and RFK, Jr., Secretary of 
the Department of Health and Human Services, have taken their chainsaws 
to the medical research workforce, cutting more than 1,000 jobs from 
NIH and threatening thousands more.
  Just yesterday, NIH employees reported to work, not knowing if they 
still had jobs or not. How does dismantling our Nation's premier 
medical research agency make our Nation better? Or healthier?
  When you freeze NIH's work, limit its resources, fire its experts, or 
cut its budget, you are hamstringing the world's leading medical 
research agency from doing what it does best: saving lives.
  We are at a very dangerous precipice. If this attack on medical 
research is allowed to continue, we will lose an entire generation of 
researchers, medical breakthroughs will be delayed, and the words ``you 
have cancer'' will be heard by far more people who will have far less 
hope in a treatment or cure.

                          ____________________