Political Quotes

“before the Senator from Missouri leaves the floor, I want to say a word about him and the topic he raised today about health and, in this particular case, children. Senator Blunt and I have adjoining States, Illinois and Missouri. We have joined up, as well, on the issue of medical research. I salute him. Even though he is my Republican colleague, I want to make clear that this is a bipartisan issue. He has made it a bipartisan issue. We had the good support of Senator Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, and Senator Murray, Democrat of Washington. The Senator from Missouri has done some amazing things. I want to say specifically for the Record that America owes him a debt of gratitude, as chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee that is responsible for the National Institutes of Health, the foremost leading medical research agency in the world. Let me tell you, with his leadership, what we accomplished. For two straight years, Senator Blunt has been able to raise the appropriations for medical research at the National Institutes of Health by $2 billion or more. The net result of that is that a $30 billion budget has grown to almost $34 billion. What does it mean? It means that researchers don't get discouraged. They stay on their projects. They keep working to find cures. Secondly, we are making dramatic advances in medicine because of it. His leadership has been absolutely essential. If there is ever a bipartisan issue, this is it.…”