Date: 2013-10-02
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. here we go againthe majority instead of opening Federal government they are introducing another scheme to waste time trying to make what they are doing even more painful to the American public. I rise to speak on the Continuing Resolutions to reopen the National Institutes of Health (NIH). one of many very important Federal government agencies. NIH is comprised of many institutes that specialize in seeking cures for some of mankinds most dreaded and difficult diseases and afflictions such as: blindness. heart disease. blood diseases. infection diseases. cancer. stroke. alcoholism. arthritis. musculoskeletal and skin diseases. hearing and balance disorders. drug abuse. and mental illness. NIH institutes focus solely on finding cures for the list of illnesses that I just mentioned. Researchers work often within a closed sterile world for decades looking for that one piece of information when placed within the body of knowledge known about a disease may save lives or health. The NIH Institutes include the following. the: National Cancer Institute. National Eye Institute. National Heart. Lung. and Blood Institute. National Human Genome Research Institute. National Institute on Aging. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. National Institute on Drug Abuse. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. National Institute of General Medical Sciences. National Institute of Mental Health. National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. National Institute of Nursing Research. and National Library of Medicine. Because of the work of NIH to identify potential treatments and cures each year and a rare few are allowed into treatment and drug trials to discover if what the Institutes researchers have discovered will yield beneficial results for the entire population. not just in the United States but the entire world. NIHs work is racing against the clock to find cures in time to save or improve the quality of lives. There are medical professionals who are serving in the Congress and you have each benefited from the work of NIH and so have your patients. We should listen to what researchers are saying about the Federal government shutdown: Mary Woolley. president and CEO of Research! America. said: "On a micro level. we are concerned that an incremental approach to the shutdown neglects disruptions to lifesaving funded by other federal agencies. as well as access to treatments in the pipeline at the Food and Drug Administration." Woolley said. "And because it is unlikely that this measure would pass both houses. it may simply delay funding for NIH." Benjamin Corb. director of public affairs for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: "The data shows that deep cuts to federal investments in research are tearing at the fabric of the nations scientific enterprise and have a minimal impact on overcoming our national debt and deficit problems." he said. "I hope leaders from both parties in Washington review these findings and join with scientists to say enough is enough." Chris Hansen. president of American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network said "Every week the government is shut down. the NIH Clinical Center will have to turn away cancer patients who are eligible to start potentially lifesaving clinical trialsa devastating impact that compounds the problem created by the sequester that resulted in 1.000 people being turned away from clinical trials in the past year." This Congress has done harm to NIH research through Sequestration: funding cuts occurred indiscriminately across all areas of research. Cell lines were lost that had been developed over generations to see how they change to learn more about what goes wrong within cells and what may be done to prevent cancers from developing. Sequestration damaged NIH research that involved a study of rabbits that were carefully breed over years to learn about inherited disorders. but due to the Sequestration an entire line was destroyed because they could not be cared for nor were there funds to keep the copious and careful notes needed to document each generations development. It should chill us all to think about what may be lost in NIH research because of the last few days of government shutdown. Our tools are words. the work of NIH researchers are cells and specimens that cannot wait for the majority to figure out why the Federal government matters. Every 36 minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. Thats enough children to fill a classroom each day. which adds up to almost 15.000 new cases of childhood cancer each year. Children under the age of 21 are diagnosed with cancer every year. approximately 1/4 of them will not survive the disease. Each year in Texas. almost 1.200 children and adolescents younger than 20 years of age are diagnosed with cancer. Approximately 200 children and adolescents die of cancer each year. making cancer the most common cause of diseaserelated mortality for Texans 019 years of age.