[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 72 (Wednesday, April 30, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H1737-H1738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NIH CUTS AFFECTING CANCER PATIENTS

  (Mr. Casten of Illinois was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago, I got a call from a 
constituent whose 46-year-old son had just

[[Page H1738]]

been diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer back in December, and the 
whole family is now wondering whether he is going to live long enough 
to see his kids graduate from high school.
  It is sad. We sort of shared the pain of fathers who lost kids, 
worried about losing kids. There is no need to tell anybody here that 
cancer sucks.
  That wasn't why he called. He called because his son's doctors told 
him that as you go through the course of this treatment, typically, 
chemo stops working after about 6 months. You see some tumor reduction, 
and then it stops working. At that point, you really need to start 
looking for alternatives.
  Typically, those alternatives mean you start getting into 
experimental trials. Those are no longer available because Trump and 
Elon Musk's cuts to NIH are forcing the local hospitals, the local 
universities, and the drug companies that would have done these 
clinical trials, to shut them down.

                              {time}  1100

  As he put it to me: As a father, I have to balance hope with reality, 
but it seems like all I have right now is reality.
  Then he said to me: Do the Republicans you work with know that they 
can get cancer, too? Are any of them going to stand up? Don't they get 
these calls from their constituents? Why don't they care?
  I see them all looking away. How would you have me answer that 
question?
  I tried. I did my best to explain the psychology of folks I work with 
who fear Trump more than they fear cancer. Mostly I just got sad 
because this is a guy who said I want hope; all I have is reality. What 
I want for hope is medicine, and all I could give him was political 
science to give him some reality.
  These stories are in all of our districts. All of our constituents 
want hope. It is the least we can give them, and we are failing.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my Republican colleagues to just please grow a 
spine. Stand up. Give us some reason to hope. Give me a better answer 
to the next constituent who calls my office, or indeed yours, with 
those same questions.

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