[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13672]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 242--CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF SUCCESS FROM THE OFFICE 
   OF RESEARCH ON WOMEN'S HEALTH AT THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

  Ms. MIKULSKI (for herself and Ms. Collins) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions:

                              S. Res. 242

       Whereas, on September 10, 1990, the Office of Research on 
     Women's Health (in this resolution referred to as ``ORWH'') 
     was established at the National Institutes of Health (in this 
     resolution referred to as ``NIH'') to--
       (1) ensure that women were included in NIH-funded clinical 
     research;
       (2) set research priorities to address gaps in scientific 
     knowledge; and
       (3) promote biomedical research careers for women;
       Whereas ORWH was established in law by the National 
     Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993 (Public Law 
     103-43; 107 Stat. 122) and implemented the law requiring 
     researchers to include women in NIH-funded tests of new drugs 
     and other clinical trials;
       Whereas, today, more than \1/2\ of the participants in NIH-
     funded clinical trials are women, enabling the development of 
     clinical approaches to prevention, diagnosis, or treatment 
     appropriate for women;
       Whereas, in 2015, ORWH, with enthusiastic support from NIH 
     leadership, announced that, beginning in January 2016, NIH-
     funded scientists must account for the possible role of sex 
     as a biological variable in vertebrate animal and human 
     studies;
       Whereas ORWH, along with NIH leadership, enhances awareness 
     of the need to adhere to principles of rigor and 
     transparency, including the need to publish sex-specific 
     results to inform the treatment of women, men, boys, and 
     girls;
       Whereas, over the past 25 years, ORWH has helped expand 
     research on women's health beyond its roots in reproductive 
     health to include--
       (1) the study of the health of women across the lifespans 
     of women; and
       (2) biomedical and behavioral research from cells to 
     selves;
       Whereas, by studying both sexes, ORWH is leading the 
     scientific community to make discoveries headed toward 
     treatments that are more personalized for both women and men;
       Whereas, today, ORWH communicates through programs and 
     policies that sex and gender affect health, wellness, and how 
     diseases progress;
       Whereas turning discovery into health for all, the NIH 
     motto, means studying both females and males across the 
     biomedical research continuum;
       Whereas the ORWH Specialized Centers of Research on Sex 
     Differences program supports established scientists who do 
     basic, clinical, and translational research with a sex and 
     gender focus;
       Whereas all NIH Institutes and Centers fund and encourage 
     scientists at universities across the nation to conduct 
     research on the health of women and on sex and gender 
     influences;
       Whereas, over the past 25 years, ORWH has established 
     several career-enhancement initiatives for women in 
     biomedicine, including the Building Interdisciplinary 
     Research Careers in Women's Health program that connects 
     junior faculty with mentors who share interests in women's 
     health research;
       Whereas ORWH co-directs the NIH Working Group on Women in 
     Biomedical Careers, which develops and evaluates policies to 
     promote the recruitment, retention, and sustained advancement 
     of women scientists;
       Whereas the Women's Health Initiative (in this resolution 
     referred to as ``WHI'') marked the first long term study of 
     its kind and resulted in a wealth of information so that 
     women and their physicians can make more informed decisions 
     regarding postmenopausal hormone therapy;
       Whereas WHI reduced the incidence of breast cancer by 
     10,000 to 15,000 cases per year, and the overall health care 
     savings far exceeded the WHI investment;
       Whereas ORWH supported the National Cancer Institute's 
     development of a vaccine that prevents the transmission of 
     Human Papilloma Virus, resulting in a decrease in the number 
     of cases of cervical cancer;
       Whereas, in 1994, ORWH co-sponsored with the National 
     Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases a landmark 
     study, the results of which showed that giving the drug AZT 
     to HIV-infected women with little or no prior antiretroviral 
     therapy reduced the risk of mother-to-child transmission of 
     HIV by \2/3\;
       Whereas, according to the CDC, perinatal HIV infections in 
     the United States have dropped by more than 90 percent;
       Whereas ORWH co-funded a large clinical study of the 
     genetic and environmental risk factors for ischemic stroke, 
     which identified a strong relationship between the number of 
     cigarettes smoked per day and the probability of ischemic 
     stroke in young women, prompting the targeting of smoking as 
     a preventable and modifiable risk factor for cerebrovascular 
     disease in young women; and
       Whereas, over the past 25 years, ORWH has contributed 
     support toward major advances in knowledge about the genetic 
     risk for breast cancer, and discovery of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 
     genetic risk markers has enabled better-informed genetic 
     counseling and treatment for members of families that carry 
     mutant alleles: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) ORWH has improved and saved the lives of countless 
     women worldwide and must remain intact for this and future 
     generations;
       (2) there remain striking sex and gender differences in 
     many diseases and conditions, on which ORWH should continue 
     to focus, including--
       (A) autoimmune diseases;
       (B) cancer;
       (C) cardiovascular diseases;
       (D) depression and brain disorders;
       (E) Alzheimer's disease;
       (F) diabetes;
       (G) chronic diseases and disorders;
       (H) infectious diseases;
       (I) obesity; and
       (J) addictive disorders;
       (3) ORWH must continue to focus on ensuring that NIH funds 
     biomedical research that considers sex as a basic biological 
     variable, across the research spectrum from basic to clinical 
     studies; and
       (4) the Director of the NIH should continue to consult and 
     involve ORWH on all matters related to the influence of sex 
     and gender on health, especially those pertaining to the 
     consideration of sex as a biological variable in research 
     with vertebrate animals and humans.

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