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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, for the second time over the past few weeks, I have come to the Senate floor to talk about the importance of medical research funding at the National Institutes of Health--NIH.

Last week during his address to Congress, President Trump unveiled a new member of the U.S. Secret Service; a 13-year-old named DJ who had always dreamed of becoming a police officer. It was a touching moment because DJ wasn't supposed to be alive today. You see, in 2018, he was diagnosed with brain cancer and given just a few months to live.

Because of advances in science and medicine, because of medical researchers conducting lifesaving work, because of new treatments and cures, thank goodness this young man is alive today. And he is alive because of the work of the National Institutes of Health.

But that work, for a lot of other desperate families, is in danger because of President Trump and his unelected assistant, Elon Musk, who are carrying out a cruel campaign to cut research funding for diseases such as childhood cancer, ALS, Alzheimer's, dementia, and so many more.

I don't know young DJ or his family, but I can just imagine what they went through when they were told their son had brain cancer. Who can imagine, as a parent, what that must have been like. And I bet you one of their first questions to the doctor was basic: Is there a cure? Is there treatment? Is there something we can do? Thankfully, the answer was ``yes'' because of medical research.

You know, all the miracle drugs you see on TV, a constant deluge of ads about new drugs--99 percent of drugs approved in the last 10 years benefited from NIH research. NIH funding is why kids like DJ are beating cancer, why babies are being spared from preventive illness, why HIV is no longer a death sentence, why progress is being made on ALS and so many neurological diseases.

Since the start of this administration, we have seen the White House unleash a lawless, chaotic attack on everything from our Federal Aviation Administration to biomedical research.

First, President Trump and Elon Musk ordered a freeze on most Federal grant funding, including medical research funding. You see, after extensive review of grant applications, the NIH awards approximately $38 billion a year in funding to the best and brightest medical researchers and universities in all 50 States, Illinois included.

But Trump and Musk inexplicably view this as wasteful and needless. While this freeze was found illegal by a Federal judge, the administration has continued to defy court order. To this day, we are taking actions to prevent medical research funding from going out to scientists in labs with breakthrough ideas. As a result, NIH has delayed awarding approximately $1 billion in grant funding to institutions nationwide. What alarms me is that NIH funding has not historically been a partisan issue. This used to be the most bipartisan thing in the Senate.

Over the past decade, bipartisan members of Congress--Roy Blunt, Republican Senator from Missouri; Lamar Alexander, Republican Senator from Tennessee; and Patty Murray, Democrat from Washington--joined with me in an effort to increase funding for the NIH. This bipartisan team, which I was proud to be part of, increased NIH funding over the last 10 years by 60 percent.

We did this because we know sickness does not respect partisan lines. We need cures on a bipartisan basis, and NIH funding leads to new breakthroughs for all patients in need, supports good-paying jobs in red and blue States, and cements our global leadership.

Illinois universities and hospitals receive approximately $1.3 billion in NIH funding every year that support 16,000 researchers in our State and $3.6 billion in economic activity. Our State is the rule, not the exception in this regard.

But Trump and Musk aren't finished here. Next, they tried to indiscriminately slash how NIH pays for indirect costs. What is an indirect cost? It helps medical researchers operate their laboratories, it pays for new computers, microscopes, and the handling of hazardous materials.

They are negotiated on a case-by-case basis between the Federal Government and each hospital and university. Look, I am open to discussion about reforms to how indirect costs are calculated, but just arbitrarily and illegally slashing all indirect cost allotments will stop medical research in its tracks and many laboratories.

Thankfully, Illinois' attorney general and 21 others sued and secured temporary relief for universities and researchers. Now Trump and Elon Musk have focused their efforts on firing the medical researchers themselves. Reports indicate that 1,200 NIH employees have been fired so far, experienced vaccine researchers, the next generation of scientists and the acting director of the NIH's Alzheimer's and dementia program.

Further, Trump and Musk have ended a popular trainee program that brought 1,600 young scientists out of colleges to the NIH world- renowned campus in Maryland. NIH research leads to new cures and treatments that extend, improve, and save lives. That is why I am once again trying to pass a resolution pledging just basic bipartisan support for NIH.

This resolution is simple. It says the work of NIH should not be subject to interruption, delay, or funding disruptions in violation of the law, and it reaffirms the workforce of the NIH is essential to sustaining medical progress.

For kids like DJ, for people like my friend Brian Wallach who is fighting ALS, for every family out there dealing with a life- threatening diagnosis, we cannot--we must not--stay silent in the face of Donald Trump and Elon Musk's assault on medical research.

I will never stop fighting to protect NIH and the medical research it supports. I hope it once again will become a bipartisan effort.

Res. 93; further, that the resolution be agreed to; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, at this point, I hope I can appeal to my friend from Oklahoma. It is important to every single State, but it is certainly important to my State of Illinois where we have thousands of researchers and millions of dollars being spent. But it is also important to his State. Oklahoma has very valuable laboratories and hospitals that do research as well.

I would like to just give you some examples. Each year, Oklahoma receives $160 million in NIH funding. This money supports 2,500 jobs in the State of Oklahoma and $450 million in economic activity. The top NIH funding research in Oklahoma is the University of Oklahoma. It receives $80 million a year.

With this funding, researchers in Oklahoma recently conducted research on slowing kidney disease progression, improving brain function after strokes, and how changes in cell activity can slow the progression of Alzheimer's.

Senator Mullin, I know, is a graduate--a proud graduate, I am sure-- of Oklahoma State University, which receives $50 million in NIH funding. Mr. President, I hope I can appeal to my colleague and others to take a close look at their own home States on this medical research. It makes a difference in their States, and it makes a valuable difference in the quality of life for Americans across the board.

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