The State Journal-Register - Durbin Touts Benefits of Research Funding

News Article

By Dean Olsen

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin received a standing ovation Monday in front of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine faculty members after the Springfield Democrat explained his proposed $150 billion initiative to boost federal spending on medical research.

"If America is going to remain the world's leader in cutting-edge biomedical research, we must make federal funding for medical research a national priority," Durbin told the audience of 150 people in the medical school's South Auditorium.

The U.S. Senate's No. 2 Democrat a few weeks ago introduced legislation that would enact the American Cures Act, which would, according to Durbin, "create a mandatory fund to provide steady, predictable funding for breakthrough research" at the nation's top four biomedical research agencies.

The legislation would benefit the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense health programs and the Department of Veterans Affairs' biomedical research arm.

SIU officials said the initiative, if it becomes law, would make it easier for SIU faculty to land federal grants from those agencies in what has become an extremely competitive process nationwide.

Half of the $150 billion would be paid for with a proposed 95-cent increase in the current $1.01-per-pack federal tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products, Durbin said.
The other half would be funded by eliminating federal tax deductions available for moving expenses when companies move jobs overseas, he said.

The White House hasn't indicated formal support or opposition to the plan, Durbin said. But he said he has discussed it with President Barack Obama, and according to Durbin, the president called it "a good idea."

In Congress, only Democrats have shown support for the measure, Durbin said.
"From the Republicans, as soon as you say the "T' word -- taxes -- they run for the doors," he said. "I've gone to some of my Republican colleagues who hate tobacco for religious reasons, and they won't support an increase in the tobacco tax."
Durbin said Republicans fear they will face Tea Party challengers in primaries if they support any tax increase.

He said an increase in the tobacco tax wouldn't just benefit research; it would discourage more people from smoking.

Tobacco is a personal issue for Durbin. His father, whom Durbin said smoked "two packs of Camels a day," died of lung cancer at age 53, when the senator was 14.

"I can hear a smoker's cough before anybody in the room hears it, because I grew up with it, and I knew Dad was dying from it," he said.

Durbin, 69, is running for his fourth term against Jim Oberweis, 68, a Republican state senator from Sugar Grove, near Aurora, in the Nov. 4 election.

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