‘Irreversible Damage Has Already Been Done’: Jon Ossoff Decries Funding Cuts To Biomedical Research

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) slammed the Trump Administration’s funding cuts to biomedical research.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Senator Ossoff.

00:06Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for convening this hearing today.

00:12It is a tragedy that we have to hold it.

00:17And evidence of the catastrophic incompetence of the Trump administration

00:24that the U.S. Senate is reduced to holding hearings to affirm that, yes,

00:29clinical research into childhood cancer is worth investment.

00:35A young woman came into my office, Ms. Stenson, just a few weeks ago

00:40and explained to me that she had stage four colorectal cancer.

00:46Three children.

00:49And the clinical trial in which she'd been enrolled was paused.

00:54So those three little kids may now lose their mother.

01:00For what?

01:01Why?

01:03What's the constituency for this?

01:06Who out there in the American public is sitting at home demanding that we shut down cancer research

01:11and Alzheimer's research?

01:13We're going to pay for this not just in lives and children's lives right now,

01:19but we're going to pay for this for a century.

01:21Irreversible damage has already been done, and it's an outrage.

01:27And I hope that this hearing demonstrates that there's bipartisan rejection of these policies here

01:32in the United States Senate, and I hope that we'll follow up this hearing with real action.

01:37And Ms. Stenson, I've got a three-and-a-half-year-old little girl at home,

01:41and thank God that your little girl is alive.

01:48Every parent can understand.

01:50When you hold your precious, innocent, kind child,

01:55and you fear the most intense fear that something could happen to them,

01:59to think that American parents with children who have cancer

02:04now don't know whether they can enroll that child in a trial

02:09because maybe there's a way to save that life,

02:12it's devastating.

02:16So thank you for being here and bringing your sweet little girl.

02:18Thank you for sharing your testimony with us.

02:21I have here a statement for the record from Emory University in Georgia.

02:25It includes the following statements.

02:30Quote,

02:30This research has contributed to significant advancements in treating diseases like cancer,

02:34Alzheimer's, infectious diseases, and cardiovascular conditions.

02:38Federal support for biomedical research is essential.

02:41Cuts or stagnation in research funding jeopardize these efforts

02:44and could have far-reaching consequences for both patients and communities,

02:48even a short interruption of research funding could set back scientific progress for decades.

02:53We urge Congress to continue prioritizing bipartisan investment in biomedical research.

02:57And Madam Chair, I'd like to ask consent to enter that into the record.

03:00Without a judge.

03:02Mrs. Stenson,

03:04my understanding

03:05is that Charlie's participation in clinical trials saved your daughter's life.

03:11Is that right?

03:12Yes.

03:15And because of what you've experienced and what you've been through in your advocacy,

03:21I would imagine that you've come into contact with other families similarly situated

03:25whose children are only alive thanks to clinical trials.

03:29Yes.

03:32I'd like to ask

03:33at the end of the day, sir, forgive me,

03:37the multi-decade

03:42potential impact

03:44of this war

03:46on medical research.

03:48Talk about the long run, please, sir.

03:50I can tell you that

03:51in the next few months,

03:53we're going to determine,

03:54we're sitting at a crossroads.

03:56We are at this moment of extreme opportunity.

03:59And you've heard it from all the scientists at this table

04:01about what's already been accomplished

04:03and what could be accomplished.

04:05Or there's another path.

04:07And that path is this path of the leaked passback budget.

04:11That budget,

04:12I hope it's wrong,

04:13but it says a 44% cut to NIH funding.

04:17And we can talk about administrative costs

04:19and talk about everything else.

04:20That level of funding means that we aren't in a race anymore.

04:23It means we aren't in a race anymore.

04:25And what that means is

04:25there may be

04:28cures for disease.

04:29There may be

04:29investment made in China and elsewhere

04:32that leads to some things happening

04:35that we would want.

04:35We're not going to be able to set the standards.

04:37We're not going to understand access.

04:40We're not going to have

04:40the ability to even catch up

04:43because the benefits will accrue

04:45to some other place.

04:47But what it really means for patients

04:48is that we can't drive the priorities.

04:51We can't say pediatric cancer.

04:53We can't say Alzheimer's.

04:54We can't say Parkinson's.

04:56We will have lost that race.

04:58And these early career scientists

05:00that are really in moments of panic right now,

05:04they are going to be determinative

05:06of whether or not we have a generation of scientists

05:08to replace the ones that we have today.

05:10This is not just a five-year problem.

05:12It's a 10-year, 20-year, 30-year problem

05:14that just becomes not a virtuous cycle,

05:17but the opposite.

05:18It becomes a cycle on the way to a downward slope

05:20that we can't pull out of.

05:22In Germany, 100 years ago,

05:23if you wanted to do chemistry,

05:25you spoke German.

05:26And in the U.S., you spoke German.

05:28You had to learn German.

05:3020 years from now,

05:31what is going to be the language of science?

05:33Is it going to be English?

05:34I don't know that for certain at this moment.

05:36We're at a crossroads to figure that out.

05:38It's a historical moment.

05:40Well put, and it's urgent.

05:42Thank you all.

05:42Thank you, Madam Chair.

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