Haley Stevens: “those 1,700 or however many you have, soldiers, aren't going to the University of Chicago. This is simply a provision to…”

“those 1,700 or however many you have, soldiers, aren't going to the University of Chicago. This is simply a provision to take $2 million of the defense money for the University of Chicago for epilepsy research. As I said, we had a total of $3 billion in requests from this subcommittee for medical research from other Senators. We turned them all down. The Senator from Illinois wouldn't take ``no.'' I understand his position. His position is he now wants to say other items we allowed him to earmark in other portions of the bill would be changed in order to have this go to the University of Chicago. Every Senator who asks for that money is going to come wanting to do the same thing. In other words, it will not make any difference. The money will be going to medical research instead of going to the needs of the military. I didn't say it was for readiness. I said we could not have any more money going out of the Defense bill to take care of medical research when medical research is basically a function of NIH and the subcommittee that deals with Labor, Health, and Human Services. It is not our business. I confess, I am the one who made the first mistake years ago. The Senator just reminded me. I am the one who suggested that we include some money for breast cancer research. It was languishing at the time. It was back in the 1980s.…”