Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Rep. Joe Barton;s (R-TX) amendment to cut off NORA funding

The House of Reps is debating the Labor/HHS Appropriations bill for FY'08 an amendment expected to be offered by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) would have a devastating impact on NIOSH.

The amendment would restrict NIH's contribution to the Section 241a Public Health Service Act Evaluation Fund. This fund is the entire source of funding for the NIOSH NORA research program. (The FY 2008 Approps bill proposes to fund NIOSH NORA at $88.365 million) If NIH's contribution is cut, there will be significantly less money in the fund, and funding for NIOSH research would be slashed. The Barton amendment is being pushed by cancer research groups who want to increase funding for cancer research, so it may be a very tough fight.

Talking points on the Barton amendment are located here.

We Now need to get into action and do the same to defeat the Barton amendment. Please contact members of the House and urge them to vote against the Barton amendment.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm confused. You mean they're taking money away from cancer research and AIDS research at NIH to finance silicosis research? Didn't a federal judge call those lawsuits a scam and throw them out of court? How about leaving the money with the NIH doctors who are doing the kind of work that actually saves lives? If NORA deserves funding, too, why does she have to steal it from NIH?

Tammy said...

I do not have all the answers nor do I clam to know all there is to know. However history repeats its self and we need to be smart enough to learn from the past. It was once thought the asbestos was a scam too and it was! BY INSURERS & EMPLOYERS
http://www.historyofasbestoslive.com/

"NIOSH's NORA research funding is used to fund all sorts of workplace safety and health research, in particular, to identify those interventions that are most effective. This includes research on ways to control noise on construction and mining sites, to protect workers from musculoskeletal disorders, whether they work in nursing homes, manufacturing plants, or family farms, to identify ways to protect teenage workers from hazards in grocery stores and restaurants, lots of research to protect firefighters and emergency responders, and on-and-on. There are also plenty of hazards in the workplace that also cause cancer, including chromium, beryllium, vinyl chloride, and benzene. It is a sad day in America when we have to choose between protecting people from workplace injury, illness and death and providing additional funding for cancer research. This is not a choice that we should be force to make when we fund all kinds of less worthwhile projects, like bridges to no where and tax breaks for oil, gas and coal industries."

Anonymous said...

Sounds so good. If it really is, though, why do you have to steal money from the scientists and doctors at the National Institutes of Health? Get your own funding.

Tammy said...

"why do you have to steal money from the scientists and doctors at the National Institutes of Health?

I really don't think this is abut you or me/us or them. It's about working together to make a change. We are loosing 6,000 workers a year just in incidents and another 60,000 to toxic exposures.

It is about saving lives and if you ask me 66,000 families deserve and are worth the time and money used.

Maybe it may be worth wild to go after a worthless cost; you can find one here if you look.

http://coburn.senate.gov/ffm/index.cfm?FuseAction=Home.Home

Or maybe you work for NIH, have
AIDS, cancer or know someone who does which I feel is a good cause also, but I further believe that ones who want to make a difference for the good must stick together.

These 66,000 families YEARLY have a story too and if you want to take the time to listen we can give you a few horror stories.

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