Bonnie Watson Coleman: “I thank Mr. Garamendi for sponsoring this moment that we can speak about such important issues. In a budget proposal…”

“I thank Mr. Garamendi for sponsoring this moment that we can speak about such important issues. In a budget proposal purported to ``make America great again,'' President Trump has put forth a request to cut $5.8 billion from the National Institutes of Health for fiscal year 2018. Mr. Speaker, there is absolutely nothing great about that. These cuts would reverse growth for the agency that President Obama boosted its budget by $2 billion in 2016 and 2017. These cuts would forfeit American dominance in a sector where we are global leaders. In New Jersey's 12th District, Princeton University received close to $46 million in NIH grants, and the College of New Jersey received around $400,000 to continue our Nation's stature at the forefront of medical breakthroughs. The cuts proposed would, in effect, stunt good and essential medical research, lifesaving research. Unlike what we have seen from this administration, the NIH has produced results that improve the health and livelihood of the American people. For example, there is no widely available cure for sickle cell anemia. While some children have been successfully treated with blood stem cell and/or bone marrow transplants, this approach was thought to be too toxic for adults. However, NIH researchers successfully treated adults with severe sickle cell disease using a modified stem cell transplant approach that does not require extensive immune-suppressing drugs.…”