Political Quotes

“Mr. President I rise today with my colleague, Senator Ben Ray Lujan, to introduce the Neuroscience Center of Excellence Act of 2021, legislation that would establish a Neuroscience Center of Excellence at the Food and Drug Administration, FDA. This program would be modeled after FDA's Oncology Center or Excellence, which was authorized through the 2lst Century Cures Act. Building off that successful and bipartisan model, I hope we can make critical advances for those living with neurological diseases. In July, FDA's Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research testified that neuroscience is an area of medicine where there is tremendous unmet need, and neurodegenerative diseases are particularly challenging from both a research and a drug development perspective. I have seen this firsthand as founder and cochairman of the Senate Alzheimer's Disease Caucus. I have vigorously advocated for record funding increases to support additional NIH research over the past 25 years. Over the past year, many have noted the success of Operation Warp Speed and wondered why we can't achieve the same rapid progress in other health conditions. The Neuroscience Center of Excellence would encompass more than 20 neurological diseases, including conditions that are very rare. For example, Huntington's disease is an inherited disease characterized by the progressive loss of brain and muscle function.…”