Dick Durbin: “I will conclude. I would just say to my friend from South Carolina that I have gone through a long list of research…”

“I will conclude. I would just say to my friend from South Carolina that I have gone through a long list of research projects at the Department of Defense and their medical research program, and each and every one of them I have linked up to medical families and peculiar circumstances affecting our military. That is why I think this Department of Defense medical research is so critical. I have yet to hear the other side say that one of these is wasteful, and they can't. If our men and women in uniform are suffering from gulf war illnesses, of course we want the Department of Defense or any other medical research group to try to find out what is the cause of the problem and what we can do about it. When it comes to the incidents of cancer being higher among veterans, are you worried about that? I sure am. Why would it be? Should we ask that question? Of course we should. And we do that through legitimate medical research. Here is what the Institute of Medicine said about this medical research program: It ``has shown that it has been an efficiently managed and scientifically productive effort and that it is a valuable component of the nation's health research enterprise.'' This is not wasted money. This is medical research for the men and women in uniform, their families, and the veterans who served this country. I will stand here and fight for it every minute.…”