Political Quotes

“we thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Bentsen) for his very valuable contribution. There is something I always wanted to put in the Record to how we got started on this tremendous effort on behalf of the National Institutes of Health, and after a number of searches of memory as to how this all began, we concluded that the starting point was an article written by scientists interested in expanding the avenue towards increased research. In 1993, the magazine Science published a call for action by two Nobel Peace Laureates and other science leaders like Dr. Michael Bishop, Harold Varmus and Mark Kirschner, who at that time pleaded with their government and their Congress to double the amounts of Federal funding for the basic research being undertaken by the National Institutes of Health over a period of 5 years. This was not the enterprise of some creative lobbyists, but rather born from the thoughtful rationale and scientific deliberations of some of the foremost minds in science.”