National Institutes of Health Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I have the great privilege of representing the congressional district that is home to the national treasure that we call the National Institutes of Health where you have scientists doing critically important work, looking for treatments and cures to diseases that plague every American. These are scientists. They're not Republican scientists. They're not Democratic scientists. They're scientists. They're very smart people.

I've heard from some of them, and they say they are not fooled by the cynical ploy in the House today because they know that the fastest way to open up the National Institutes of Health would be to take up the clean Senate-passed bill and send it to the President tonight. That's how you help the National Institutes of Health.

They also have kids in schools, so they'd also like to keep open the Department of Education and help the Department of Veterans Affairs. They know that the way to do that is not to cherry-pick little pieces of government and leave the rest of it to die on the vine, but to pass a clean CR and keep NIH open, the Department of Veterans Affairs open, all the parks open, the Defense Department open, to keep the government open.

Why hasn't that happened? The Speaker of the House refuses to hold a vote in this people's House. What's he afraid of, the democracy? What's he afraid of, we are going to vote to open the government? Because that's exactly what would happen.

If you want to help NIH, vote for the clean CR. Get it done tonight. Quit the game-playing.

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