Research!America’s Letter Urging Action on a Budget Deal

July 10, 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

President Donald J. Trump                             
The White House                                           
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW                   
Washington, D.C.   20500   

The Honorable Mitch McConnell      
 Majority Leader      
 U.S. Senate              
Washington, D.C.   20510

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi                          
Speaker of the House                                      
U.S. House of Representatives                       
Washington, D.C.   20515  

The Honorable Charles Schumer
Minority Leader    
U.S. Senate                       
Washington, D.C.   20510

The Honorable Kevin McCarthy
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.   20515

 

Dear President Trump, Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader Schumer, and Minority Leader McCarthy:

 

On behalf of Research!America, the nation’s largest nonprofit alliance advocating for heightened action to address deadly and debilitating health threats, thank you for your continued efforts to negotiate a bipartisan agreement that addresses the Fiscal Year 2020 and 2021 budget caps established under the 2011 Budget Control Act. We urge you to remain vigilant, treating this effort as an urgent priority and forging a deal that raises the budget caps and empowers faster medical and public health progress.

Failing to reach an agreement to raise the caps and reducing investment in science and engineering will have very real, profoundly negative consequences in the U.S. and across the globe. Every second of every day, Americans and people all over the world are losing their lives or their loved ones to illnesses that we can overcome. In the U.S. alone, nearly 120,000 individuals under age 45 – family members, friends, neighbors; children, teens, adults – die each year because of health threats we have not yet conquered.[1] But we can wipe out these scourges. The medical and public health progress our nation has made to date is remarkable, and we can build on it. Stopping diseases that will otherwise continue to breed tragedy is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of will.

One of the countless examples illustrating the power of research: Before the 1960s, a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a type of blood cancer commonly affecting children, was a virtual death sentence.  Science, from federally-funded noncommercial discovery to private-sector funded research and development, has fueled massive progress; today children with this disease have a survival rate of over 90%. Allowing research to stagnate under a year-long continuing resolution, or worse yet, cutting funding because of a nearly decade-old law, would literally cost lives.

To ensure the U.S. remains at the forefront of new technologies, therapies, and other discoveries that benefit us all, we urge you to work quickly in a bipartisan manner to raise the budget caps and strengthen federal science funding.

Thank you for your leadership and consideration. Our thanks also to your dedicated staff members for their hard work in support of your efforts.

Sincerely,

 

Mary Woolley

President and CEO, Research!America