Well, that's why I'm asking you, Dr. Zerhouni.

Senator Harkin and I are going to be going to the floor and asking for an increase in the budget resolution on NIH.

The budget resolution does contain an increase this year of $1.3 billion and Senator Harkin and I added an amendment to increase the budget resolution for $2.2 billion more.

I share the concern about the budget. I know we live in an era of severe budget constraints.

NIH has researched and found treatments for various strains of cancer, isn't that correct?

If the pie were a little bigger, we would be able to give more to your requests.

Public health needs. There, and as you mentioned, the public health urgency here is obvious, to all of us.

What should be the governmental response, either through the Veterans Administration of the Department of Defense?

You have two strong allies in Senator Harkin and myself, Dr. Zerhouni, and you have the potential to have 533 more if there's sufficient political pressure brought to bear on Washington, DC.

But what we are looking for, within reason, is finding some way to quantify it.

My view is that the funding through the NIH is insufficient.

Do we have to be in the middle of the pandemic before the rules are issued?

Elimination of disease, and the suffering that goes with it, ought to be our primary concern.

Speaking of OSHA, why is the administration proposing to eliminate the $10 million OSHA program for worker training and education?

Candidly, a budget resolution is only Confederate money, it doesn't really count until there is an allocation.

These cuts will be very, very difficult to sustain, given the issues which that funding addresses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman for convening this important hearing and thank you, Dr. Hodes, Dr. Katz, Dr. Nabel, and Dr. Rodgers for joining us this morning to explore the needs of your various Institutes and the impact of the budget cuts…

We, regrettably, cannot use Federal funding on stem cell research, except for a few lines, which were available back on August 9, 2001.

We have to be candid about it. The budget resolution is confederate money. Until it gets into an appropriation it doesn't count.

it is not inappropriate to raise a question.

Why the repeated effort to eliminate that program when every time you do, both the House and Senate come back and insist on it?

Now we have finally found something we agree upon. That is as ridiculous as it sounds.

Senator Harkin and I, and this committee--and I think, really, the whole Congress--are determined to increase funding so we can find an answer to autism.

But not for rehabilitation.

I would suggest and suggest respectfully to the president that he is not the sole decider, that the decider is a shared and joint responsibility.