Congressman Sander Levin

Health Research

Health care research is essential to improving clinical treatments and finding new cures. I strongly support increasing federal funds for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the country’s top-notch federal agency for supporting and conducting research on disease prevention, causes, treatment, and cures.

After years of underfunding under the Republican-led Congress, the Democrats took steps to increase NIH funding in 2008 and 2009. This year, Congress and President Obama also acted definitively to increase funding for the NIH. The Recovery Act included $10 billion in funding for the NIH. These funds will enable thousands of new research projects that will create and maintain jobs around the country. In 2007, 1440 federal research grants were awarded in the state of Michigan and $565,397 went directly to Michigan’s 12th Congressional district.

I sent a letter in April encouraging a 7-10% increase in NIH funding for the coming year. This letter stated, in part, “NIH research is a critical part of health care reform, strengthening our economy, inspiring the next generation of scientists and researchers, and maintaining our nation’s leadership in innovation.

Another unfortunate result of the Bush Administration’s position on medical research was the stifling of new discoveries from embryonic stem cell research during the past 8 years. President Bush restricted federal funding for this research to a small number of existing stem cell lines.

As I said on the floor in January, “We can never guarantee the results of scientific research, but without it we can guarantee that there will be no results.”

In March, President Obama’s reversed the Bush Administration policy and allowed federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. This research may help us find cures and treatments for diseases from Alzheimer’s to ovarian cancer to juvenile diabetes and beyond. This announcement is a beacon of hope for all the families affected by the devastating diseases stem cell research might help to cure.

(Updated October 19, 2009)