Medical Research Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in the last two centuries, Federal support for scientific research has helped to split the atom, defeat polio, explore space, create the internet, map the human genome, develop vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, and so much more.

No nation has made such significant investments in science, and no nation's scientists have done more to improve the quality of life.

But with the challenges we face today, from devastating diseases to climate change, there is more progress to be made.

So America is at a turning point, and unless we commit to providing strong and sustained funding increases for our Nation's premier medical and scientific researchers, our position as the world leader will be at risk.

That is exactly why, since 2014, I have continued to introduce legislation to keep our Nation on the cutting edge. It is entitled the American Cures Act.

This bill will provide our top medical research Agencies with 5 percent real funding growth every year. That is steady, predictable growth, pegged above the rate of inflation.

This money would support the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense Health Program, and the Veterans' Affairs Medical and Prosthetics Research Program.

This investment would be game-changing for the Agencies. Consider the National Institutes of Health. It is our Nation's--if not the world's-- premier medical research Agency. Their pioneering work at this single agency saves lives and fuels our economy, supporting nearly 20,000 jobs just in my home State of Illinois.

Today, the NIH budget is $47.5 billion. More than 95 percent of this funding is competitively awarded to scientists, research institutions, and small businesses in every State across the country.

Researchers supported by the NIH make tens of thousands of new discoveries every year--breakthroughs that could literally change the world.

In recognition of these remarkable feats, Congress has, on a bipartisan basis, increased the NIH annual budget by more than $17 billion since I first introduced the American Cures Act in 2014.

This chart is an indication of that growth. It has gone from $30 billion to $48 billion in that period of time since 2014--a 58-percent increase.

These increases would not have been possible without a bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate.

I enlisted a willing participant and ally and really effective Member of the Senate, Patty Murray, to be part of this; former Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, who, when the Republicans were in majority control of the Senate, kept up this promise to increase the spending; and retired Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee, who shared our passion for medical research.

Luckily, we had a leader at the time, Dr. Francis Collins, former Director of the NIH, who really did his part in enlisting support for these increases.

NIH is not the only Federal medical research Agency to see significant funding increases. We have also secured $2.4 billion in increased funding for the CDC over the last 9 years. That is a 35- percent increase since fiscal year 2014.

And while it is not reflected in the chart I just showed, both the CDC and NIH also received billions in supplemental funding from COVID rescue bills passed by the Senate in 2020 and 2021.

While this year's budget provided a 5.8-percent bump to the NIH, a $2.5 billion increase, I am sorry to say we fell short of the 5-percent real-growth target above inflation.

If we had met this target, NIH would have received $650 million, up to a level of more than $48 billion.

That said, I am still encouraged about how far we have come. We finally reversed a 22-percent decline in NIH purchasing power that took place after 12 years of flat funding, but we need to step up our efforts.

Diseases like cancer, stroke, opioid addiction, and mental illness will not wait on us. Half of all men and one-third of all women in the U.S. will develop cancer in their lifetime. Someone's mother, father, brother, sister, or spouse is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease every 65 seconds.

And 1 in every 300 people will be diagnosed with ALS in their lifetime. Sadly, a number of my closest friends already have received this diagnosis.

Sustained and robust NIH funding will help cure, prevent, and treat these diseases. It will help the people that we all care about the most, and it already has.

Because of NIH funding--listen to this--the American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 3\1/2\ million lives were saved between 1991 and 2019 as a result of improvements in cancer treatment, detection, and prevention--a 32- percent drop in the cancer death rate since 1991.

Thirty years ago, HIV was a death sentence, but because of NIH research, that is no longer the case.

And because of NIH funding, we are also on the verge of curing--yes, curing--sickle cell anemia, an inherited blood disorder that primarily affects African Americans.

Consider this: NIH funding contributed to research associated with every new drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration from 2010 to 2019.

Let me repeat that for emphasis. There are only two countries in the world that allow general advertising of prescription drugs--the United States and New Zealand. You can't turn on the television without hearing the story of a new drug. Every single drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration from 2010 to 2019 started off with government- funded, taxpayer-funded research at the National Institutes of Health.

So when you see these wonderful drugs, understand we, as Americans, put down the initial investment that made these drugs all possible.

However, there is a real threat to our Nation's investment in medical research. The new House Republican majority, after more than a dozen-- in fact, 15--painful and embarrassing failed votes to secure the Speaker, announced that Speaker McCarthy had finally won the day, he made some deals, agreements with MAGA Republicans for that to happen.

One of those agreements would literally devastate funding for medical research in the future. What a price to pay.

He reportedly agreed to hamstring government funding for 2024 at 2022 levels--a senseless move--senseless move--that would cut funding for scientific breakthroughs by roughly 7 percent and delay the delivery of new cures and treatments for those most in need.

So I would like to know, for the record, which diseases and conditions would Speaker McCarthy and the House Republicans like us to slash funding for? Cancer? Alzheimer's? Parkinson's? Diabetes? ALS? Heart disease? Which one?

Speak up, Mr. Speaker. This is supposed to be a new transparent House of Representatives. If you are going to cut funding in medical research, what can we put on the back of the burner, and how can we explain that to the families across America?

Now is not the time for political horse-trading that puts one person in power at the expense of everyone waiting for a cure.

We need to build on the bipartisan success which we have had to date and we have achieved over the past decade and continue to prioritize medical research funding that creates jobs but, most importantly, saves lives.

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