National Institutes of Health Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. WOMACK. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution because it allows the NIH to continue to operate at the FY13 funding levels until mid-December. The bill mirrors the clean CR that our friends across the aisle and Senate Democrats have said they will support. It should be supported by all Members of Congress.

As you have heard, Mr. Speaker, the NIH's mission is to invest in basic biomedical research to uncover new knowledge that can lead to lifesaving cures for disease, like pancreatic cancer, like Alzheimer's, like diabetes. It supports 35,000 research grants at over 3,000 institutes and universities across our country. In my home State of Arkansas, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is one such institute; and just this morning, the UAMS Cancer Institute announced a new collaboration with Highlands Oncology. It will undoubtedly bring incredible opportunity to Arkansas, our research and our cancer patients.

As many of my colleagues know, two-thirds of NIH's staff has been furloughed due to the lapse in appropriations. NIH has been forced to shut down the pipeline for finding future lifesaving cures, and it has shut off all systems that support grant review, leaving our researchers with many uncertainties. That's where this resolution comes in.

Federal funding is essential to sustaining the mission of improving health through scientific breakthroughs and maintaining international leadership in biomedical research, which is why we must allow the NIH to stay open while we continue to work toward regular order and through funding the rest of our Federal Government.

I urge my colleagues to support this critical legislation, legislation on which our scientists, our doctors, our patients, and our futures depend.

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