Roy Blunt

may I inquire, what is the remaining Republican time? The PRESIDING OFFICER. Three minutes.

Senator Strange is coming, and I will take my time later. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.

Thank you, Chairman. And thanks to all of you for being willing to serve.

the White House started out this week with all kinds of activities on the White House grounds pertaining to things that we make here in America and the importance of manufacturing and, frankly, the kinds of good jobs that have…

it has been nearly 7 months since President Trump took office. He was sworn in on the steps of the Capitol on January 20. Our colleagues across the aisle have had, frankly, more than enough time to come to terms with the election results…

We've been increasing funding the last couple of years for this topic.

The hotline, the human trafficking hotline, got a 50 percent increase.

That takes me perfectly to my next question, which is in fiscal year 2016 and 2017, this bill included $7.5 million to continue establishing some sort of consortium of States, and certainly at the top of that priority list would be skills…

I have serious concerns about the worker training reductions, particularly the proposal to cut State grants by 40 percent and close Job Corps centers.

I have serious concerns with the worker training program reductions--particularly the proposals to cut State grants by 40 percent and close Job Corps Centers.

I think that is a perfectly reasonable thing to do as long as we realize that is what we ought to be talking about after your study is done.

And what about students in the centers that you would close?

CBO scoring is notoriously bad.

since the current healthcare bill--the bill usually called ObamaCare--passed, every year Missouri families have had to worry about whether their healthcare plans would be canceled, whether their options and access would be taken away…

The budget, of course, proposes cuts that I think that you can rest assured the committee will find unacceptable.

It's the wrong message for the millions of Americans suffering from life-threatening diseases.

A cut to NIH is not a cut to Washington bureaucracy; it is a cut to life-saving treatments and cures.

there was no new money to do that, so it was truly a prioritization that eliminated programs and consolidated programs.

The cut is one that I think you can rest assured this committee will not take.

This Committee and Congress did not agree, instead, appropriating a $2 billion increase for a second year in a row.

I certainly fundamentally disagree with the proposed funding reduction.

In my home State of Missouri, that equates to a loss of nearly 1,700 jobs and $292 million in economic activity.

I was pleased with the President's decision to continue your leadership at NIH, and many of us had advocated for that.

The $7.5 billion cut from NIH would, according to analysts, cost nearly 90,000 jobs nationwide.

I fundamentally disagree with the proposed funding reduction for NIH.