Public health needs. There, and as you mentioned, the public health urgency here is obvious, to all of us.

I'd like to see it get a little more attention.

The administration has come forward with a cut this year, again. The proposal is to cut NIH by $327 million.

the funding for autism has risen, as I noted, from $27 million in 1998, to a projected budget in 2008 of $107,870,000

We have to be candid about it. The budget resolution is confederate money. Until it gets into an appropriation it doesn't count.

the allocation for autism is substantially less than the allocation for other major research activities

As I think it is fairly well known, Senator Harkin and I, over the course of the past two decades, have taken the lead on increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health so that we have taken it from about $12 billion to about $29…

My view is that the funding through the NIH is insufficient.

Candidly, a budget resolution is only Confederate money, it doesn't really count until there is an allocation.

I'm looking forward to the day when either Senator Harkin or I will be chairman of appropriations. I have a preference.

The work of this subcommittee is well known, and our vigorous advocacy for NIH.

Attitudes are changed in Washington, with political pressure.

So, it is the NIH research which has identified a way for early screening to treat cancer at an early stage.

I would emphasize that the increase in crime across the country, and especially juvenile crime, really underscores the need for those programs.

Why the repeated effort to eliminate that program when every time you do, both the House and Senate come back and insist on it?

Well, Madam Secretary, I can understand the problem of the backlog, especially when the funding for your Department is cut.

If the pie were a little bigger, we would be able to give more to your requests.

Well, we will continue to work with you, Madam Secretary. We have been for a long time. These are big, big problems. We want to do our best to try to solve them.