Political Quotes

“First of all, I rise to offer a very simple amendment to direct the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs to increase individual grant amounts issued through the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program. I would like to begin, of course, by thanking Chairman Frelinghuysen as well as Ranking Member Visclosky for their work on the underlying bill and for their continued commitment to funding the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program. As someone who has suffered a spinal cord injury at the age of 16, I am acutely aware of how important this research is to the millions of servicemembers and civilians who suffer from various forms of paralysis and other conditions related to spinal cord injury. They simply want to know whether they will ever again be able to move, be able to walk, or even be able to breathe on their own. I am thrilled to say that we are beginning to see meaningful answers in a positive way to these questions. Research into spinal cord injuries is producing, right now, a wealth of groundbreaking discoveries that are making treatment protocols never before envisioned an actual achievable goal. However, if we want these advancements to continue, particularly in the areas of translational research, then we must make sure that we are providing higher grant award levels to the researchers funded by the Spinal Cord Injury Program.…”