Senator Lamar Alexander spoke about the spending package that the Senate is considering this week which funds the Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor and Education Departments. Specifically, he talked about the important increases in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the need for President Trump to make science and research a part of his ‘America First’ agenda.
Senator Alexander said, "A few weeks ago, one of my friends in Nashville came up to me and said that his friend is one of the major contributors to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
He said, ‘It's a real shame that you guys in Congress aren't funding biomedical research.’ So I said to my friend, ‘Well, let me tell you what's happened the last three or four years and see if you still believe that. The United States Senate is on track for the fourth straight year this year to provide record funding for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health in a regular appropriations bill. This year's bill includes $39.1 billion for the National Institutes of Health – a $2 billion increase over the last year. Over the last three years, Congress has increased NIH funding by about $7 billion. First, Congress increased National Institutes of Health funding by $2 billion in 2015. Then in 2016, we increased it another $2 billion. Then in 2017, Congress increased funding at the NIH by $3 billion, including $500 million dollars to work on a non-addictive painkiller, which in my view is a holy grail of the fight against the opioid crisis – finding some form of painkiller, for the 100 million Americans who hurt and the 25 million who have chronic pain, that's not addictive. This year's increased funding for biomedical research will mean more medical miracles, new treatments and cures.
"The reason Congress has given this such a priority was very well described by Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health. He calls it the ‘National Institutes of Hope.’ When he testified before our appropriations committee, he talked about what we might expect during the next 10 years, what we might expect to see if we properly fund the National Institutes of Health. Some of those predictions by Dr. Collins were being able to identify Alzheimer's disease before symptoms appear. The possibility that we could rebuild a patient's heart with the patient's own cells. In other words, put the transplant surgeons out of business with the creation of a safe and effective artificial pancreas making life easier and healthier for the millions of Americans with diabetes. Development of new vaccines, Dr. Collins said, including for Zika and for HIV aids and for the universal flu. Development of the new non-addictive painkiller, which I mentioned. Significant progress on precision medicine initiative, which President Obama championed, which aims to map the genomes of 1 million volunteers so we can better tailor treatments to patients, and new treatment for cancer patients.
"Those are just some of the new treatments and cures and miracles that we might expect, Dr. Collins said, in the 10 years. The bill also provides this bill we're talking about – $3.7 billion to help those on the front lines of the opioid crisis and to help bring an end to opioid abuse. Senator Murray and I, as well as about 60 members of this body, have put together a comprehensive opioids authorization bill, which we hope to be able to present to the full Senate at the end of next week or shortly after Labor Day. That can be put together with the House to address this crisis, but this is the money for the opioids initiative. It's in this bill. $1.5 billion for state opioid response grants. State grants originally authorized by 21st century cures act. $500 million to develop nonaddictive painkillers, more funding for more substance abuse and mental health treatment services at community health centers.
"I've suggested to President Trump that he makes science and research a part of his ‘America First’ agenda. We need to do that. Since 2007, over the last 10 years, China has increased its spending on basic science by a factor of four and may surpass the United States in total spending on research and development this year. According to Norm Augustine, who during the George W. Bush Administration, chaired the bipartisan committee rising above the gathering storm that made recommendations to the Congress on how to retain America's competitive advantage. Our country needs to continue to be first in the world and basic research. The president's already signed into law two consecutive appropriations bills that provide record funding for science, technology, energy, and biomedical research, and the two appropriations bills we’re debating this week will provide even more funding for basic research.
"I urge my colleagues to support these bills because passing these bills means more biomedical research at National Institutes of Health for treatments and cures, more federal help for states and communities struggling to combat the opioid crisis, the largest Department of Defense research budget in history, and pay raises for men and women who serve in our military. And let me say again what I said a little earlier. This funding that we're talking about, this record funding for science, technology, basic research, supercomputing, in another bill, needs for our national defense, all of this is within the part of the federal budget that's under control. Over the last 10 years, this discretionary part of the budget, roughly a third or a little less than a third of the budget, has grown at about the rate of inflation and over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, is expected to grow at just a little more than the rate of inflation.
"This is not the federal spending that's causing the big federal deficit. This is spending for national defense, national parks, National Institutes of Health and national laboratories. This is the core of what we need to do in the United States of America. We need to resolve our courage in a bipartisan way, and the president needs to join us and deal with the part of the budget that's running up a big deficit."