(contd. from post 4 of 13)
CONGRESS TAKING INITIATIVE ON FUNDING MEDICAL RESEARCH
IN CONTRAST, President Clinton has sent a FY 98 budget to Congress that
contains a 2.6% increase for the NIH. With biomedical inflation taken into
account, this amounts to a cut in funding.
"President Clinton's proposal doesn't even keep pace with inflation, so
in essence, he is proposing a cut in the NIH's budget," commented Mary
Woolley, president of Research! America, an advocacy group targeting medical
research discoveries.
The Clinton Administration, often categorized as too sensitive to public
opinion polls, is not following the public's direction on the medical
research issue, according to Woolley. "The new poll data emphasize that cuts
are not what the public wants," she added, quoting a 1996 telephone survey of
adults in California, Florida, and Texas conducted by Charlton Research
Company.
In remarks introducing his resolution, Senator Mack recalled compelling
Parkinson's testimony at a hearing of the Appropriations and Aging Committees
chaired by now-retired Senators Mark Hatfield (R-OR) and William Cohen(R-ME).
"There were a number of individuals who testified at the hearing and
made, I thought, a remarkable case about why it was no longer acceptable for
the Federal government to continue a kind of business as usual attitude with
respect to biomedical research." Mack recalled.
"One of the individuals who spoke to us, Joan Samuelson, speaking about
Parkinson's disease, said, "The current federal policy on Parkinson's wastes
billions in public and private dollars coping with its effects, when millions
could simply cure it.'"
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