Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, last night the President spoke to Congress and to the Nation about the need for increased funding for biomedical research, both to improve the quality of life of our Nation's citizens, and to generate new economic investment. He is right, and we must heed his call on this initiative. Cancer research is a vital part of our Nation's biomedical research enterprise, but our Federal commitment to this promising field has not kept up with the rapid place of scientific innovation. In fact, when you take into account medical inflation, our funding commitment to the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health has actually been cut over the past 7 years. We can, and must, do better. We will only see new, promising cancer therapies that increase survival and life quality through a sustained, multi-year commitment of Federal funding for cancer research. There is only one failure in cancer research. It's when you quit or you're forced to quit because of lack of funding. When Federal cancer funding is cut or not sustained over the long term, we lose not only promising cancer research, but we also lose talented cancer researchers. President Nixon recognized this 40 years ago when he signed the National Cancer Act. At that time, less than 50 percent of cancer patients lived 5 years beyond their diagnosis. Today, with advances in early detection, healthy lifestyles, and new cancer therapies, the survival rate is 65 percent for adults and 80 percent for kids.…”