Ed Markey: “Thank you, Madam President. I thank the Senator from Missouri for his great leadership on this issue. As he was pointing…”

“Thank you, Madam President. I thank the Senator from Missouri for his great leadership on this issue. As he was pointing out, this issue of whether we make a continued increase in the funding for research at NIH goes right to the long-term budgetary objectives of our country. If we do not find the cure for Alzheimer's by the time we reach the year 2050, the budget at Medicare and Medicaid for taking care of Alzheimer's patients will be equal to the defense budget of our country. Obviously, that is not sustainable. So the only way we are going to be able to deal with this issue is to find a cure. Research is medicine's field of dreams, from which we harvest findings that give hope to families that there could be a cure for the disease that runs through their family's history. It could be Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, cancer. Whatever the disease, it is going to take funding from the NIH to match the magnitude of the challenge. That is what this bill is going to do. Working with Chairman Shelby and Senator Leahy, along with Mr. Blunt, what we are seeing is another dramatic increase. He and Senator Murray have worked with the chairs in order to accomplish this goal. Ultimately, I know how important this issue is because my mother died from Alzheimer's. The funding level for Alzheimer's research has been woefully inadequate matched against the magnitude of the problem, so there has had to be a dramatic increase.…”