Tom Harkin: “last year, 2013, marked the 10-year anniversary of the completion of the historic campaign to double funding for the…”

“last year, 2013, marked the 10-year anniversary of the completion of the historic campaign to double funding for the National Institutes of Health. Beginning in fiscal year 1998, I worked with Congressman John Porter and Senator Arlen Specter in our leadership roles on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. In that year, 1998, funding for the National Institutes of Health was $13 billion. By fiscal year 2003, we had increased NIH funding to $27 billion. We doubled funding in 5 years. We said we were, and we laid out a plan under both Republican and Democratic administrations and we got it done. That was a historic milestone for biomedical research in the United States. Truly, increasing our Nation's investment in NIH was a bold statement of our Nation's commitment to retaining our standing as the undisputed world leader in biomedical research, and we have reaped extraordinary benefits from that investment. We reaped benefits in terms of new treatments, new diagnostics, and the new jobs and economic growth that biomedical research brings. But where does NIH stand today, 10 years after the historic doubling of funding for biomedical research, which did so much to advance America's economy and our standing in the world? Where are we today? Sadly, as this chart illustrates, we have been falling behind. So here we are. We got back up to where we should be by doubling the funding.…”