Connie Mack: “The Senate resolution calls for doubling the investment in medical research at the National Institutes of Health over…”

“The Senate resolution calls for doubling the investment in medical research at the National Institutes of Health over the next 5 years. There are many, many motivations for doing this. As most of my colleagues know, both my wife and I are survivors of cancer, Priscilla with breast cancer; I am a melanoma survivor. In my quest to gain more knowledge about the various weapons that might be at our disposal to fight this disease and to hope that someday we can find a series of cures. I have also had the opportunity to listen to research scientist in many different areas, many different diseases, whether that be Parkinson's disease, whether that be diabetes, whether that be in spinal cord injuries, in the area of cancer, prostate, breast cancer, melanoma, and so forth. There was a hearing held at the end of the last Congress by now retired Senator Mark Hatfield and Senator Bill Cohen. There were a number of individuals who testified at that hearing and made, I thought, a remarkable case about why it was no longer acceptable for the Congress of the United States, for the Federal Government to continue a kind of business-as-usual attitude with respect to medical research, biomedical research.”