[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12251-12253]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



   THE DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND RELATED 
                AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS, 2001--Continued

  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, this morning I was invited to the White 
House for a truly historic announcement. Through the collaboration of 
government and private sector efforts, scientists have completed the 
first rough map of the human gene. I believe history will prove this 
the most significant scientific development of our generation. Its 
implications for improving the health and well-being of people are 
truly astounding.
  Today's announcement was especially fulfilling for me. In 1989, when 
I served as chair of the subcommittee responsible for this bill, I 
began the funding for the Human Genome Center at NIH, and the race to 
map the genome began in earnest. At that time, many criticized the 
move, saying it was a waste of time and money and couldn't be done in 
our lifetimes.
  I listened very carefully to Dr. James Watson, the Nobel Prize winner 
who first discovered the double helix of our DNA, and he was the first 
director of the genome center. He talked to us at great length about 
the possibilities of not only mapping the human genome but sequencing 
the entire human genomic code. At that time a lot of us were captivated 
by this concept, that we could actually have the blueprint of life that 
hitherto has been known to no human being, but only to the Almighty.
  By breaking down this human genetic code, sequencing every one of the 
3 billion pairs that every human has, it would, as Dr. Watson said, 
provide more than a blueprint, but it would provide the source of 
research that could very rapidly bring to a close our search for an end 
to some of the more debilitating diseases that have afflicted mankind 
for thousands of years. Knowing the genetic code, researchers will now 
be able to more precisely determine the genetic markers that people 
have that predispose them to one disease or another.
  It was Dr. James Watson who really got the policymakers here in the 
Congress excited about and interested in this human genome project. I 
happened at that time to be the chair of the subcommittee. As Dr. 
Watson explained to us what this would do, I had probably just enough 
engineering background and mathematics background to get a feel for 
what this could possibly mean. As a result, we began to fund the human 
genome project and center.
  Today's announcement also demonstrates the importance of our drive to 
double funding for medical research. Senator Specter and I are 
committed to this effort. The bill provides the third installment of a 
$2.7 billion increase, the largest ever of a 5-year plan, to double 
funding for NIH. The completion of mapping the human genome will yield 
tremendous advances in the search for medical breakthroughs in heart 
disease, cancer, Alzheimer's. We are on the way to learning more than 
we ever thought possible to cure human diseases. The reward will be 
reflected in the faces of MS, multiple sclerosis, patients who may live 
longer and better lives because research isolated the gene that causes 
their dread disease. We will see it in the faces of Parkinson's 
patients who will experience an improved quality of life from a drug 
targeted to their individual genome type. And we will see it in the 
faces of cancer patients whose lives may one day be saved by gene 
therapy.
  Yet as we celebrate this great milestone, we must be looking to the 
challenges ahead. I, of course, look forward to the day when genetic 
discrimination will be illegal, both at the workplace and in insurance. 
Genomic technologies have the potential to lead to better diagnosis and 
treatment and ultimately to the prevention and cure of many diseases 
and disabilities. But without antidiscrimination protections, Americans 
will forego early diagnosis and treatment for fear of discrimination in 
health insurance and employment.
  So we cannot let discrimination or the fear of discrimination 
threaten our ability to conduct the very research we need to 
understand, treat, and prevent genetic diseases. That is why Senator 
Daschle, Senator Kennedy, Senator Dodd, and I have introduced the 
Genetic Nondiscrimination in Health Insurance and Employment Act. Our 
legislation would provide greatly needed protections against genetic 
discrimination in both employment and insurance and prohibit 
inappropriate disclosure of that information. I urge all my colleagues 
to join in passing anti-genetic-discrimination legislation to allow the 
research of the human genome project to reach its full potential.
  In conclusion, I offer my heartiest congratulations and appreciation 
to every individual who worked on this project. There is no higher 
calling than this work, saving human lives. These

[[Page 12252]]

outstanding scientists and researchers made this historic day possible. 
Not only did they meet their timetable, they beat it, and that is what 
I call real success.
  In that vein I want to pay special tribute to Dr. James Watson whose 
pioneering efforts made today's breakthrough possible and who, at one 
critical point in this human genome project several years ago, made the 
decision with the new types of supercomputers we had to ratchet up the 
number of base pairs that they would be investigating and sequencing, 
to a much higher level than was ever done before. Because of that, we 
were able to complete the sequencing of the human gene now rather than 
10 or 15 years from now.
  I also commend Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the human genome 
project at NIH. His brilliant and charismatic leadership of the project 
has been the engine driving this effort.
  I might say Dr. Collins headed not only the effort here in the United 
States, but this has been a multinational effort, and this morning, at 
the White House, we had Prime Minister Blair on closed circuit 
television. He was in London. He had his scientists around him. They 
had provided great support for our project, as had the French and the 
Germans, the Swiss, the Chinese, the Japanese, and a number of others. 
They had all provided help and support for sequencing this human gene. 
Dr. Francis Collins led this international effort.
  Finally, I also pay tribute to Dr. Craig Venter, a former NIH 
scientist now the head of a private entity called Celera Genomics. It 
is the private sector firm that has been central to today's 
breakthrough. Dr. Venter, again, at a critical point, came up with a 
new way of discovering and sequencing more base pairs in a shorter 
period of time than had ever been done before. Again, because of his 
insight and his leadership and efforts, and his own private enterprise, 
he was able to help us reach this day a lot sooner.
  I think that also points out the benefit of the tremendous 
relationship we have had in this country between public-sector-funded 
basic research and private-sector-funded research. Most--I would not 
say all--of the basic research done in this country is funded publicly 
by our taxpayers through the money that we appropriate here in the 
Congress. There is some basic research done by the drug companies, that 
is true. But in most of the research done in the private sector they 
take the basic research that is funded publicly and determine whether 
or not there is something there that can be made into a drug or 
therapeutic or intervention or diagnostic tool that can be used in the 
private sector, in the real world, to help either to stop the onset of 
a certain illness, to cure it once it has onset, or to make the illness 
less invasive and less detrimental to the normal life of a person.
  With this marriage, we have in the United States cultivated a very 
unique body of health research. Today's announcement, with the public 
and private sector together, illustrated that.
  Again, my congratulations to Dr. Venter for his leadership in the 
private sector.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. HARKIN. Yes, I am delighted to yield.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, as this week progresses, we are going to 
be busier and busier and there will be less time to say what I want to 
say.
  I said at our subcommittee hearing how much I admire and respect the 
work Senator Harkin and Senator Specter do in the subcommittee. The 
audience there was very small. Hopefully, the audience here is bigger. 
I want everyone to understand what great work Senator Harkin has done 
with Senator Specter on this subcommittee.
  This year--and the President made an announcement today--we have a 
surplus of $217 billion. We have not had that in recent years. This 
subcommittee, in spite of the fact it has been fighting for money, has 
done wonderful things dealing with the National Institutes of Health. 
They have been the leaders in stem cell research. They held hearings. 
That work being done on stem cell research, together with the work 
being done on the human genome, is the same as the work we did with 
computers and the Internet. What we did 10 years ago with the computer 
is nothing compared to what we can do now, and the same is going to be 
true when we understand the genomes each of us has, together with stem 
cell research and some of the other things being done as the result of 
the funding of this subcommittee.
  When the history books are written, the work the two Senators have 
done in funding this very important research is going to be a big 
chapter. There is hope, as the Senator mentioned. The people who have 
multiple sclerosis, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's are going to 
benefit from the work done with the funding of this subcommittee.
  I hope the Senator from Iowa knows how much he is appreciated. This 
is as important as anything we have ever done in this Congress. Half 
the people in the rest homes in America today are there because of two 
things: Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Think what it will mean for not 
only the people who are sick but their loved ones. Think how good it 
will be if we can do something to delay the onset of these two diseases 
or, when the miracle does come, we can cure them. Think how important 
it will be for them and their families. In addition to that, think how 
important it will be for the American taxpayers. Billions of dollars go 
into taking care of people who have these two diseases.
  On behalf of the people of the State of Nevada, and I think I can 
speak for the people of this country, the Senator is appreciated. I 
hope he understands that. It is great work. We hear so much negative in 
the press about no one will cooperate with anything. What this 
subcommittee does is an example of what the rest of the Congress should 
do. The work of the Senator from Pennsylvania and the Senator from Iowa 
has been good. I want the Senator to know how much I appreciate what he 
has done.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I thank the Senator for his kind words. 
I was thinking as he was talking on this specific project, the human 
genome project, it is true I happened to be chairman at that time and 
we started funding it because of what Dr. Watson was able to get across 
to us when he explained what this would mean down the road. I must say, 
when I turned over the gavel to Senator Specter in 1995, there was not 
even a bump in the road. We always worked together on this. When he 
took over as chairman, we continued our strong support for NIH and our 
strong support for the human genome project.
  As the Senator from Nevada said, it has truly been good bipartisan 
teamwork. I do not mean to say only the two of us. The members of the 
committee have been very much involved in this through the years.
  Looking back now and seeing what has happened gives me goose bumps 
because when we first started this I checked with some people to find 
out what it would mean to sequence the human genes. We knew we could 
map it, but to sequence the 3 billion base pairs of genes, of cold 
human genome, I asked them how long: Maybe 25 years; maybe we will get 
it done in 25 years, maybe longer.
  Even then they did not know if they could really get them all 
sequenced. So I would talk with Dr. Watson about it, and he would say: 
No, it may take us that long, but we should start on it; we should not 
put it off any longer; we should start on it.
  I thought when we first started this it was going to take literally 
20 years, as an outside estimate. As I said in my remarks, there came a 
time when Dr. Watson and some of his team figured out a better way of 
sequencing these genes, and that collapsed the timeframe right there. 
It took money. The whole effort in the human genome project has been 
people and money. If one has the people and the money, one can get it 
done. It took people to do it, but it took money to buy the big 
computers. The faster the computers got, the better it was. And along 
came Craig Venter with a different concept

[[Page 12253]]

on how to do this, and that again collapsed the timeframe.
  To think we started this project literally a decade ago, in 1990, and 
here we are 10 years later. Having the entire human genome sequenced is 
just mind boggling. It really is the Rosetta stone. Before that, they 
did not know how to read the Egyptian hieroglyphics. When they found 
the Rosetta stone, they could break the code.
  That is what this is. It is going to provide the best tool 
researchers all over the world have ever had. The beauty of it is that 
any scientist anywhere in the world can go on the Internet right now 
and get all the information they need. Every sequence is now in the 
public domain. It is not being held privately. Any researcher can get 
access to it.
  I say to my friend from Nevada, I cannot wait for the next 10 years 
to see what is going to happen. We are going to see an explosion of new 
findings researchers are going to come up with that are truly going to 
be mind boggling.
  In the next 10 years, mark my words--I probably will not be here; 
maybe the Senator from Nevada will be here--by gosh, we are going to 
look back and say the first decade of the 21st century was the decade 
when we truly understood disease and illness, the things the Senator 
from Nevada talked about--Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's 
disease. Not only will we understand it, we will know how to go right 
in there and fix it 10 years from now. Mark my words.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I say to my friend from Iowa--I did not do 
a very good job of describing it--had someone told Senator Harkin and I 
10 years ago what is now possible with the Internet through computers, 
we would not have believed it. We simply would not have believed it. I 
know I would not have.
  Mr. HARKIN. I did not have the capacity to understand it.
  Mr. REID. But now the progress that has been made is unbelievable. 
What I tried to say--and the Senator from Iowa described it better than 
I--the same is going to apply to medicine. Ten years from now, people 
will think this conversation of ours was so amateurish.
  Mr. HARKIN. Archaic.
  Mr. REID. I thank the Senator.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Burns). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending 
Cochran amendment regarding antimicrobial resistance monitoring agents 
be laid aside to recur as the pending business at 9:40 a.m. and there 
be 5 minutes for closing remarks tomorrow morning with a vote to occur 
on the amendment at 9:45 a.m. with no second-degree amendments in 
order.
  I further ask unanimous consent that following that vote, the Senate 
resume consideration of the McCain amendment regarding the Internet.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I supported the amendment to create a 
Medicare prescription drug benefit under the Medicare program offered 
by my colleague, Senator Robb from Virginia, to the Labor, Health and 
Human Resources and Education Appropriations bill.
  Despite the Senate defeating this amendment largely along a party 
line vote of 44 to 53, I vow to continue the fight with my colleagues 
to push the Senate for further debate on prescription drug proposals 
and pass a meaningful prescription drug bill this year. The millions of 
needy seniors and those with disabilities receiving Medicare deserve 
nothing less.
  Some of my colleagues have argued that this was not the time, nor the 
proper legislative process by which we should pass a Medicare 
prescription drug proposal. Mr response to that accusation, is when is 
the proper time then? When are we in Congress going to listen to the 
constituents like those that I have spoken to from Wessington Springs 
and Custer, South Dakota? This is not, nor should be a partisan issue. 
This is not, nor should be an issue that gives greater deliberation to 
the pleas of party politics than pleas of needy seniors.
  Constituents in my home state of South Dakota, have been telling me 
for years that they are struggling to make ends meet and need help 
affording their prescription drugs. I introduced my first bill on this 
issue well over a year ago in the Senate, and since then debate 
surrounding how to provide Medicare beneficiaries with access to 
affordable prescription drugs has produced several proposals from both 
Democrats and Republicans.
  Yet, this is the first time that the Senate has taken the time during 
the 106th Congress to have a floor vote on this issue. I am cautiously 
optimistic that we will continue to see debate on this critically 
important matter, and may indeed find compromise between the two 
parties to help our senior citizens better afford their expensive 
prescription drug medications.
  I am in constant contact with South Dakotans who have expressed their 
difficulty in choosing between paying for medication, or buying food 
and paying utilities. I want to assure them that the Senate will not 
wait any longer and will pass legislation this session to provide 
immediate relief to the thousands of senior citizens in South Dakota 
and across the nation who are having difficulty affording life-saving 
medication.
  Even if we can't reach an agreement on a Medicare prescription drug 
plan this year, there are several steps we can take now that would 
provide some relief to seniors who face rising prescription drug costs. 
All three of the bills that I have sponsored, including the 
Prescription Drug Fairness For Seniors Act, the International 
Prescription Drug Parity Act, and the Generic Pharmaceutical Access and 
Choice For Consumers Act, if enacted this year, would provide immediate 
relief to millions of Americans across the country. Equally so, these 
bills would require no additional taxpayer dollars nor new government 
program.''
  While they may not be the magic bullet that meets all of the long 
term needs of providing Medicare prescription drug coverage, they would 
provide a mechanism for immediate relief from rising drug costs. 
Working together, reaching across the aisle, we can use this time of 
unparalleled prosperity to do the right thing by our seniors. We should 
do it this year for their sake, and for the sake of the future of 
Medicare.

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