Supporting the Goals and Ideals of National Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month
SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF NATIONAL CYSTIC FIBROSIS AWARENESS MONTH -- (House of Representatives - April 25, 2006)
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Mr. MARKEY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I thank my friend from Florida Mr. Stearns. He and I have partnered on the resolution and on cofounding the Congressional Cystic Fibrosis Caucus. And I want to thank him for his commitment to CF, its cause, and the difference that this institution can make in helping to find the cure. It is, without question, something that we can agree upon on a bipartisan basis.
The resolution before us today is to support the goals and the ideals of the National Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month, and it is really so that we can bring the most powerful four-letter word to this cause, and that word is ``hope''; hope that the United States Government will increase its funding, will help to find the cure for this dreaded disease, that we can give hope to the families who are affected by it. And today is a really important day on that path because for the first time we do have a caucus, and this resolution in a lot of ways will memorialize that and give more momentum to finding the cure.
CF is one of the most common life-threatening genetic diseases in the United States. People with CF produce abnormally thick, sticky mucus, which makes breathing very difficult. They find, as a result, they cough and they wheeze constantly and are at constant risk for life-threatening lung infections.
Approximately 30,000 children and adults in the United States have cystic fibrosis, but it affects far more than those 30,000 people. It affects all of the families and the loved ones of those people who are struggling with this horrible disease. It affects the moms who have to wake up at 5 a.m. so that they can pound on their child's chest before they go to work. It affects their siblings who have to wait with their sister while she goes to yet another doctor's appointment. And it affects the dads who worry that their child will never grow up to have a normal life. This resolution is about supporting these families and providing them with the hope for a better future.
Significant improvements have been made in the treatment of cystic fibrosis. A few decades ago many children with CF did not live past 10 years of age. Today life expectancy is 35 years of age, and much of these achievements are due to the hard work and the dedication of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. That is why CFF really stands for courageous fighting families, courageous fighting friends of those families.
Yet even with this incredible work of our courageous fighting families, we still have a long way to go to provide the people with CF with a normal and healthy life. It is time for Congress to become more involved in the pursuit of a cure. We need to make a greater investment in research and make a stronger commitment to the people with CF, their families, and their caretakers.
This is something which in the 21st century we should leave as a forgotten memory, but we can only do it if we provide hope now. It is the most powerful word in the English language: Hope that we can raise awareness of the families struggling with CF, hope that we can find better treatments and ultimately a cure, hope that our children will have to turn to the history books to find that there ever was such a thing as cystic fibrosis.
I thank, again, the cochair of the caucus Mr. Stearns. This is now going to bring a larger, more powerful spotlight on this disease. And hopefully, working together in a bipartisan fashion, we can address this as a human issue and not as a Democrat or Republican issue.
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