http://www.tulane.edu/~aau/CFR7.28-8.1.97.html#SNIHReauth7.24.97
AAU CFR Reports on Hearings & Markups
Association of American Universities
For the Week of July 28 - August 1, 1997
July 24, 1997
Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee,
Public Health and Safety Subcommittee
Hearing: National Institutes of Health Reauthorization
Members Present: Subcommittee Chairman Bill Frist (R-TN), Dan Coats (R-IN),
Jim Jeffords (R-VT), Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT), Harry Reid (D-NV), Mike
DeWine (R-OH), Michael B. Enzi (R-WY).
Opening Statement: Chairman Frist introduced the hearing as one in a series
of hearings to determine Biomedical research priorities and the role that
Congress should play in NIH. This hearing was specifically aimed at studying
the potential benefits and harms that can
occur when similar research is done at more than one NIH institution.
Panel 2-- Parkinson's Disease
Witnesses: Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), Senator John McCain (R-AZ).
Testimony: Senators McCain and Wellstone championed the need for more
funding for Parkinson's disease. Senator Wellstone said victims of
Parkinson's disease receive lower levels of funding because they are
embarrassed about the disease and in turn do not fight for it politically.
Senator Coats added that the amount of funding a disease receives depends on
the political clout of its advocates. Perhaps, he suggested, the best way to
determine funding levels is to have an outside opinion on how to allocate
these funds most effectively.
Panel 3-- Parkinson's Disease
Witnesses: Zack Hall, director, National Institute of Neurological Disorders
and Stroke, NIH; C. Warren Olanow, chairman, department of neurology, Mount
Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY.
Testimony: Mr. Hall testified on the recent funding increases for
Parkinson's Disease over the past five years.
Mr. Olanow testified that Parkinson's Disease is a relatively common
disease, with each American having a 2% chance of being afflicted. He said
the societal cost for Parkinson's Disease is $25 billion per year, and will
increase with the aging of the baby boomer generation.
Questions and Answers: Senator Frist asked if funding had not been
significantly increased, would the Parkinson's Disease gene have been found?
Mr. Hall replied that the funding had been critical to the finding of the
gene. He added, however, that it was the preliminary stages of basic
research that went into the discovery that required substantive amounts of
funding.
Margaret Tuchman (55yrs, Dx 1980)- NJ-08540
[log in to unmask]
