Tom Harkin: “I am sorry. The Office of Alternative Medicine has 14 employees, the last count I had, and its budget next year is $13…”

“I am sorry. The Office of Alternative Medicine has 14 employees, the last count I had, and its budget next year is $13 million out of $13 billion at NIH. That is one-tenth of 1 percent. Huge? I beg to differ. There are only two changes under this amendment. It provides that it could make grants, that it could do its own grants, and could have peer review. That is the only difference. We are not creating anything new and huge. It is up to the Congress to decide later on if they want to expand it or not. I am just changing its status. Also, Mr. President, I want to say that if it were not for this point of order this amendment would pass. The cosponsors are Senators Hatch, Daschle, Craig, Mikulski, Lugar, Specter, Grassley, Durbin, Wellstone, Moseley-Braun, and a number of others. I am not going to read them all. This amendment would pass, if the point of order were not raised.”