Ensuring future generations are free of today’s diseases and chronic conditions

By U.S. Rep. Tom Cole
R-Oklahoma

Cancer is a terrible disease that affects almost every American family in some form. During April, National Cancer Prevention and Early Detection month, we recognize the importance of expanding access to cancer screenings, stopping more cancers before they start, supporting research to find a cure for cancer and enabling healthy lifestyles.

During this month, I am reflecting on the technologies and drugs that doctors utilize in the fight against this terrible disease. Medicine is truly extraordinary. However, despite all the medical progress we have made, cancer remains the second highest cause of death in our nation.

So, as a Congress, what can we do to help beat cancer and other deadly diseases?

We can do a great deal actually. In fact, the federal government plays a very crucial role in funding robust biomedical research, which can not only improve treatments for patients, but also ultimately find a cure.

This is why, during my time as chairman, as well as ranking member, of the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee, I made supporting medical research a priority of mine, as it is truly essential to strengthening health care, combatting diseases, improving the well-being of Americans, developing new treatments and cures, addressing global health challenges, and saving more lives.

In fact, during my time chairing the subcommittee, I worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to increase funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by nearly fifty percent in just seven years. This is an accomplishment I am very proud of, as this funding helps to ensure future generations are free of today’s diseases and chronic conditions.

Additionally, I helped to get the University of Oklahoma Stephenson Cancer Center operating. This cancer center is genuinely life-changing for so many Oklahomans, as it brings best-in-class care to patients and is driven to find a cure through thorough research.

In addition to cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and heart disease, as well as many other horrible diseases and conditions, also affect the lives of so many. When it comes to Alzheimer’s, I know this firsthand. My father, John Cole, battled and ultimately lost his life to this debilitating disease. With heavy hearts, my family and I watched him progressively become a different person and slowly forget so many recollections from his lifetime, including his time bravely serving our great nation in the Air Force, as well as our precious family memories.

This is why, during my time with the gavel of the Labor-HHS subcommittee, I increased Alzheimer’s funding within the NIH from $586 million to $3.633 billion, an increase of over $3 billion from where it was initially in Fiscal Year 2015. This tragic disease takes the lives of far too many, and I remain dedicated to working with my colleagues to ensure Alzheimer's research funding continues to increase.

Diseases and chronic conditions can truly uproot a person’s life and change it for the worse. If robust biomedical research funding can help to ease some of the personal, physical, emotional, or economic pain, then we should all, Republicans and Democrats alike, prioritize this issue and help build the future of medicine.

At the end of the day, medical research has already saved so many lives, and I am hopeful that one day, it will also lead us to a cure for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and so many other terrible diseases and conditions.

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