National Institute of Health Reform Act of 2006
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH REFORM ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 26, 2006)
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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to today to express my strong support for H.R. 6164, the National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006.
I commend the Energy and Commerce Committee for bringing a bipartisan bill to this floor. It is long overdue for Congress to reauthorize the NIH--the last NIH authorization was 13 years ago. This bill authorizes 5 percent increases in funding for the NIH annually through FY 2009. In addition, it will increase the effectiveness of research efforts by reducing repetitive research and maximize strategic coordination and planning. This reauthorization will improve the transparency of research activities, accountability of research dollars and coordination of research efforts at the NIH. The reforms that are proposed in this bill will allow the NIH to continue to achieve groundbreaking scientific discoveries that will benefit millions of Americans.
While this NIH reauthorization bill provides for increased funding for each fiscal year, I am extremely disappointed that Congress has not recently followed suit the last few years. After successfully doubling the NIH budget over 5 years in a bipartisan manner that ended in 2003, funding for the NIH since 2004 has failed to keep up with inflation. And funding was cut in actual dollar terms for the first time in 36 years in 2006 by $62 million. For 2007, the President and the Republican congressional leadership have proposed a freeze in NIH funding. In addition, all 19 Institutes would receive less funding in the House version of the FY 2007 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill. This is going in the wrong direction.
If Congress does not provide annual funding increases for the NIH, the reforms undertaken in the NIH Reauthorization bill will be less meaningful because we will not be able to provide the NIH and scientists the resources to discover new breakthroughs in biomedical research. Those discoveries, in turn, will lead to better ways of diagnosing and treating many diseases.
I am very proud of the fact that the National Institutes of Health has its home in my congressional district. We also have a flourishing biomedical research industry--with the help of the NIH--that is on the threshold of many new discoveries and many new cures. We have the potential for breakthroughs in so many areas. While I support the National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006, Congress must adequately fund the NIH at the level it deserves. Now is not the time to rest.
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