National Institutes of Health Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.J. Res. 73 which is a political gimmick designed to distract attention from the great harm being caused by the GOP government shutdown and Republican budget policies.

When you consider what makes America ``great'', you may think of the America's public schools where every child, rich or poor, can get an education unlike other countries. You may think of our civil liberties. You may think of the architectural wonders like the Sunshine Skyway Bridge across Tampa Bay.

I am inspired by the talented young researchers across America who are searching to find the cure for cancer or study treatments for Alzheimer's or advance the artificial pancreas for people with diabetes.

The Republican bill on the floor today relating to the National Institutes of Health is a whitewash and a sham. Despite GOP assertions that they support NIH and research across America, the record proves otherwise.

Over the last two years Republicans in Congress have taken a fiscal hatchet to the positions of young and talented researchers in hospitals, universities and cancer centers across America. For FY13 and FY14, President Obama and Democrats proposed healthy funding for the NIH. Republicans have cut it back by almost two billion dollars each year.

Despite GOP assertions that they support research, Republicans have held firm to the sequester cuts for NIH which has led to the elimination of researchers across America. America's researchers, the scientific community, patients, doctors and all of us are not fooled by the Republican hoax here.

For example, at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, one of America's leading cancer research centers, researchers on staff have been cut from 120 to 100. This is devastating for America's ability to investigate and eliminate cancer and treat the disease. America has invested in our best and brightest young men and women in the science and math fields and the Republican budget policies are eliminating their positions, cutting back their work and ceding America's top position in medical research to China and India.

This is the same story at the University of South Florida, and the research in Alzheimer's nursing, neurology, heart disease or mental health. The budget ax employed by Congressional Republicans is hurting us all.

We have fought back. In the Budget Committee, I cosponsored an amendment last spring to restore funding to NIH and cancer research. It was defeated with all Republicans on the Committee voting no. Democrats also offered a balanced sequester replacement plan numerous times, but the GOP has shot it down.

With this context, it is easy to see through the House GOP's ploy to fund the NIH through this bill. They are not beefing up fundhttp://thomas.loc.goving levels. They lock in the devastating sequester and thereby lay off more researchers and put diagnoses and treatments further out of reach. The cumulative impacts of year-after-year cuts in research erodes America's status as the world leader in scientific research.

The American people are not fooled by the political games of my Republican colleagues.

And let's not forget that this Republican government shutdown has lead to the NIH turning away new patients from clinical trials--in particular children. Grant applications will not be considered. And the NIH will stop answering hotline calls from our constituents with medical questions.

The legislation we will be debating today is a ruse. It won't work.

Let's stop playing games, and end the irresponsible Republican shutdown. Then, rather than the empty rhetoric relating to scientific research, commit yourself to making America great rather than tearing it down.

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