On the recordDecember 12, 2019
I have served on the Health Subcommittee for all my days on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and we have seen firsthand the different families impacted by these awful diseases, whether it be Alzheimer's or sickle cell, cystic fibrosis. Just this last week, we witnessed real advancements, we think, in pancreatic cancer stage III, stage IV. SMA, spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that is often fatal by the year 9 or 10; we saw a woman who had been on a new drug for 15 days, and for the first time she could actually move her neck after more than 10 years literally trapped in a wheelchair. If we want to find the advancements and cures for these diseases, we need to pass H.R. 19. I urge my colleagues to vote for that substitute and get a bill to the President that he will actually sign, and we can get something done.
