We just cannot give up on this. We just cannot. Too much is at stake.

I look forward to hearing more about this. Again, this is something that has endured through both Republican and Democratic administrations.

I have advocated for a long time just get rid of the darn thing, get it over with, and move on.

your commitment to working Americans is reflected in the subject we will discuss today

I think it is going to be several years before the space can be identified, the funds can be found, and the completion of the retirements can be achieved.

I know Senator Landrieu has been kind of in the forefront of this, and I know she wants me to also ask this question.

I think the taxpayers of this country would not mind paying a little bit more in their taxes or the wealthy or the corporations, everybody, to know that this was going to help NIH and that is where the money was going.

We had two wars going on. 9/11 had happened. More and more money was being siphoned off for that.

I appreciate that.

But there is a great deal of interest in moving ahead on this.

Your decision to retire approximately 310 of the 360 Government-owned chimpanzees currently in laboratories was a bold maneuver, and I thank you for that.

I was one of three Senators who requested the IOM (Institute of Medicine) report that revealed that chimpanzee research could not be justified except for a very few conditions.

we need to keep looking.

we really need to work on a bipartisan basis, hands across the aisle, hands across the dome.

we have to come to grips with the funding, and I am open for any and all suggestions.

I would be remiss if I did not thank you for a lifetime of devotion and dedication to biomedical research.

Well, I asked that because, you know, we have a lot of things confronting us in the future.

I have never come away from a conversation or listening to you, Dr. Collins, without being more enlightened and more hopeful about the future.