[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 5987]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           DIABETES RESEARCH

 Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, as a member of the Senate Diabetes 
Caucus, I am concerned with the need for further research for a cure 
for diabetes. Recently, I had several meetings with constituents from 
Portland, Eugene, and Lake Oswego, Oregon concerning diabetes research 
funding. All of these constituents are young children or young adults 
living with this disease. One young woman told me that she has already 
lost three friends to this disease.
  For fiscal year 2000, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 
received a $13.3 million increase over last year's funding for 
diabetes. This increase brings the total amount for diabetes research 
to $462.3 million. For those who have to live every day with diabetes 
and for those who are the parents of a child living with disease, and 
who have to worry every day about the long-term toll diabetes disease 
takes on their child, this is not enough.
  Diabetes can destroy nerves, harm eyesight, and cause a host of other 
deleterious effects on the body. While I am pleased that there was an 
increase in the funding of NIH for diabetes research last year, I 
believe we can and should do more to assure that we find a cure.
  While funding has increased from $134 million in fiscal year 1980, 
this only represents approximately 2 percent growth per year when 
adjusted for inflation. Considering the widespread and devastating 
effects of this disease, we should continue to support the funding 
increases for NIH research of diabetes.
  I know that many of my colleagues feel strongly about this issue as 
well. I hope we can work in a bipartisan manner to assure an increase 
in research funding to find a cure.

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