Roy Cooper: “I am a cancer survivor myself, but I think every family in America has been touched by serious illness, and the NIH can…”

“I am a cancer survivor myself, but I think every family in America has been touched by serious illness, and the NIH can help if it is properly funded. We are very grateful for the increases in the past. I celebrate the leadership of the gentleman from Ohio; he is a great Member of this body. But I worry that others in his party who call themselves compassionate conservatives have left out the compassionate part. To freeze the NIH budget at a time like this does serious damage to the research efforts that are going on all across this country, literally harming the futures of so many of our citizens. We can and must do more. We must influence the President's budget-making process right now for his budget for next fiscal year. We need to make sure that we have no more freezes like this, no more inadequate increases, because the need is too great, whether it is cancer or heart or stroke or ALS or cystic fibrosis and a myriad of other diseases. People do not have the time to wait.”