This is not an official government website.
© 2026 PLEJ LC. All rights reserved.
Congressional Daily Record
This section covers nominations, confirmations, or other executive branch business. It mentions members such as Richard Joseph Durbin.
Official title: Government Funding (Executive Session)
Issued
April 27, 2026
senate side of the record
People
1
Linked members mentioned in this section
Legislation
0
No linked legislation in this section
Committees
0
No linked committees in this section
Senate Holds
0
No hold activity linked here
Source Document
Connected Data
People mentioned
1 Helpful Term
Executive business
Senate business involving nominations, treaties, and executive branch communications rather than ordinary bills.
Source Control
Reader mode is for comprehension. The linked government PDF is the official published source.
Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextMr. President, now on a totally separate topic, earlier this month, President Trump issued his fiscal year 2027 budget proposal. It includes a 42-percent increase in military spending for the war in Iran. That war is costing us, we estimate, $1 billion a day. We are now into 2 months and even longer in that war at $1 billion a day.
his war in Iran, he is slashing billions of dollars in investments for medical research and disease prevention. What a senseless, reckless idea from the Trump administration.
Let me tell you a story about why this is so troubling. Over 10 years ago, I went to the National Institutes of Health—the preeminent medical research Agency in the world—and I met with Dr. Francis Collins.
I think Francis Collins is an American hero. He led the NIH through Presidents of both political parties—a real professional.
I said to Dr. Collins: I have been in Congress long enough to remember a time when a Congressman from Illinois named John Porter and two Senators, one Republican and one Democrat, came together and led a bipartisan effort to actually double the NIH budget of that date. I don't know if I can match that, Dr. Collins, but what can I do?
Here is what he told me. He said: If Congress could provide 5 percent real growth in the medical research budget each year, we will light up the scoreboard.
being realized—curing diseases, sparing suffering, giving families hope.
He said: If we can just let the researchers know that we are going to be there to help them year in and year out until they reach their goal, with that confidence, they can achieve greatness.
So we set out to do it. I came here to the Senate and put together a little team. It was easy in some respects. My partner in the effort on the Democrat side was Patty Murray. Patty Murray has been in the Senate longer than I have, and I will tell you something: She is a real dramatic leader when it comes to appropriations and is the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee now. She was anxious to help to make sure medical research was funded.
Missouri, chairman of the Appropriations Committee. I sat down with Roy, and he was sold instantly on making this 5 percent growth every year our cause. Roy was a great person.
Since then, we have been joined by Susan Collins. She chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and has a real commitment to medical research.
We grew the budget for NIH, from the time I visited Dr. Collins, from $30 billion to $49 billion today. The 5 percent a year was virtually guaranteed. And those aren't just numbers on a sheet; they consistently mean new cures and treatments. We have developed new, more effective ways to deliver chemo drugs directly into brain tumors, breakthrough treatments for sickle cell, and continued progress in the fight for patients with dementia, Alzheimer's, ALS, and Parkinson's. Those reliable funding increases gave confidence to our researchers, giving them the belief that they could continue and actually reach their goal of finding a cure.
percent—$18 billion in 1 year. That is what the President proposed. Thankfully, this body on a bipartisan basis rejected President Trump's cuts in medical research and actually provided a nominal increase.
But this President is back at it again. A billion dollars a day for his war in Iran, but now he is knocking on Congress' door to cut $6 billion from the NIH and $3 billion from the Centers for Disease Control.
request. Why would he want to fund 4,600 fewer research grants across the Nation? That is potentially 4,600 cures. Those cuts would extinguish hope for patients and devastate America's standing as the world leader in medical research.
America has been lucky. As a country of immigrants, our immigrants have made this a better life for America from day one. We have attracted the best and brightest minds from all corners of the globe. In case it needs to be stated, it is a good thing, not a bad thing.
hospital. Oftentimes, you will see nurses and staff from all over the world. A doctor's name badge might indicate they aren't originally from this country. That is no coincidence. Sixty-four percent of foreign- trained physicians are practicing in areas of this country where there is a shortage of healthcare professionals.
immigration—legal immigration—has closed the doors to many of these bright, young people who want to come to practice medicine in America. This administration has indefinitely paused most immigration processing for high-skilled visa applicants from 39 countries. Imagine that— categorically saying: If you are from country X, you are not welcome in America.
Let me tell you a story. My staff recently met with a doctor from Iran. Her name is Dr. Mehrnoosh Ebadi. She is a foreign medical graduate and research associate at Northwestern University working on advanced cancer therapies. She recently matched into a family medicine residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Bloomington, IL, but her residency position and legal status are at risk as a result of the processing hold President Trump has put on Iranian nationals. She is not a combatant. She is not involved in politics. She just happens to be a brilliant cancer researcher who wants to help the people of America. She says she came to the United States to “contribute to science and patient care.” She may not be able to begin this residency in Bloomington on time, if at all. She described it as “incredibly difficult.”
Does this sound like someone who is one of the “worst of the worst”? Should we turn ICE loose on this hospital to arrest her and detain her? Absolutely not.
country, in blue States and red States. Especially at a time when Republicans' Big Beautiful Bill is making a trillion-dollar cut in Medicaid over the next several years, which will devastate rural hospitals, what sense does it make to close the door to this doctor whom we so desperately need?
You are not making America any safer, Mr. President, by telling this
scientific progress so we can say we stopped another person from a foreign country from coming into the United States? These are exactly the immigrants we need.
this, by the President's budget dramatically cutting medical research and the President's immigration policies willy-nilly hurting innocent people, like this doctor?
proposed NIH cuts by saying that “a lot of money was wasted” on so- called “insane” studies. Do you know who disagrees? The parents of a 3-year-old in Southern Illinois who have waited for more than a year to enroll their daughter with a rare genetic disease into an NIH-funded clinical trial. It could be their last hope. The chaos of the Trump administration has delayed the grant award, and their daughter waits day after day after day for this clinical trial which has been held up by the Trump administration.
this Nation, and we ought to encourage the best and the brightest to aid us in these noble pursuits.
President Trump's calls for cuts in medical research. Democrats and Republicans ignored his request and actually gave more money for medical research.
Committee—Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington. They were determined to make sure that we kept hope alive by putting this money in medical research.
say to the Trump administration: Enough. Stop this. This notion of cutting medical research is hurting America and American families. Give these doctors and researchers a chance to make this a better, safer nation.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Britt). The Senator from Vermont.