Elizabeth Warren Teams Up With Orrin Hatch To Push Huge Science Research Fund

[kpete]

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) have been quietly working for the past year on the Invest for a Healthy Future Act, a bill that may end up increasing money for government agencies that fund research by more than $21.5 billion over the next dozen years.

The timing of the bill, amid growing concern about America’s vulnerability to Ebola or a biological attack, may give it a bit of momentum heading into the lame duck session, when aides said they hope it gets considered.


Still, the authors recognize that even during times of heightened political concern about medical research funding, there likely isn’t enough support in Congress to simply spend more for scientific studies. So the proposal puts in place a trigger mechanism that may help galvanize that political support.

The bill would create a $10 billion biomedical science fund that would be offset by cuts elsewhere. That fund could only be tapped if appropriators keep the budgets at five major government agencies at steady levels. Those agencies are the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority


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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/24/elizabeth-warren-science-fund_n_6044556.html

[ladjf]

1. Hmm. Senator Warren is keeping some bad company. nt

[CJCRANE]

2. "...a...fund that would be offset by cuts elsewhere"

and look where those cuts are.

[B Calm]

3. Bill is dead in the water, republicans do not believe in science!

[Adrahil]

4. That's less than 2 billion a year.... Hardly huge.

We need massive investments in basic sciences this country, IMO. We need that kind of investment EVERY YEAR.

[mountain grammy]

5. OMG and horrors, Elizabeth Warren compromising with

a right wing Republican!!! According to many on this forum, doesn't that make her, gasp, third way? What about those lofty "Democratic principles" that Democrats aren't standing up for or compromising on?

And why would the funding come at the expense of other health agencies? How about funding it from the "war budget?"

Just sayin....

[Oilwellian]

7. What is she compromising?

[mountain grammy]

8. Do you honestly think she could reach any kind of agreement with Hatch without

compromising? For one, how about restoring the sequester cuts to our national health agencies instead of freezing their budgets. This is by no means any kind of huge advancement, but the point is, it is advancement and I thank Senator Warren. But I would bet the lying snake, Orrin Hatch, will vote against it if it even reaches the Senate for a vote because that's what Republicans do.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Science? Who believes in science anymore.....seal the borders....fuck the science...I is scared...