Money Would be Better Spent to Find Cures and Treatment for Diseases, Not for More Weapons of Mass Destruction

MONEY WOULD BE BETTER SPENT TO FIND CURES AND TREATMENT FOR DISEASES, NOT FOR MORE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION -- (House of Representatives - May 21, 2008)

(Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, in the next day or two, this House will consider funding the war in Iraq and also we will be thinking and have been thinking about our colleague in the Senate and the father of one of our Members, Senator Ted Kennedy. We will think about Hamilton Jordan, who passed away also.

Senator Kennedy suffers from a brain tumor. Hamilton Jordan suffered from cancer. When you think about how many dollars we have spent on that war effort and what those dollars could do to cure diseases of people here on Earth, I would submit, Mr. Speaker, we need to put more money into curing disease, finding treatments and cures,

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rather than funding weapons of mass destruction.

The Bible says something about beating your swords into plowshares. I would submit that if we have the ability to seek finite spots on the Earth from the air to find targets for our weapons, we should turn those scientists' efforts toward finding ways to look inside our bodies and find cures for diseases.

Mr. Speaker, I am submitting a letter to the Speaker and to the chairman of the Finance Committee to do just that.

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Washington, DC May 15, 2008.
Speaker NANCY PELOSI,
U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC.
Chairman DAVID OBEY,
Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC.

DEAR SPEAKER PELOSI AND CHAIRMAN OBEY: I am writing to request that NIH funding in the President's FY09 budget for the research of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, AIDS, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease be doubled in the final FY09 budget set forth by Congress.

The following are the estimates included in the President's FY09 Budget request for research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH):

Cancer: $5.654B.

Diabetes: $1.033B.

Heart Disease: $2.111B.

Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis under National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: $300M.

Alzheimer's Disease: $644M.

Parkinson's Disease: $186M.

These debilitating diseases affect millions of people each year across the globe. Families are torn apart, emotionally and financially, by the effects of their contraction. Congress has a serious responsibility to provide adequate funding for research that could not only find promising treatments, but permanent cures.

I cannot imagine a more pressing issue than ensuring the healthy future of those we are here to represent. The disparity between the amounts of funding requested for the war in Iraq and that requested to treat deadly diseases is incomprehensible. The successful findings of research programs made possible through increased funding will not only aid people in the United States, but the rest of the world, as well. It is my hope that, by taking full advantage of the scientific resources we have here at home, we can better our relationships with research teams across the globe to reach our common goals: finding a cure and establishing peace.

As always, I remain,

Most Sincerely,

Steve Cohen,
Member of Congress.

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