Collins applauds law that will put money toward research for childhood diseases

U.S. Rep Chris Collins, R-Clarence, praised what he called a “bipartisan effort that led President Obama to sign the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act (H.R. 2019) into law” on Thursday.

Collins, a co-sponsor of the bill in the House, stated in a release that it will eliminate federal funding for presidential campaigns and party conventions and reallocate the funding to expand pediatric research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“The millions of federal taxpayer dollars we currently spend on these political party activities will go to better use to help the NIH make huge strides in research and clinical trials aimed at curing and preventing juvenile (type 1) diabetes, childhood cancers, autism, and Down Syndrome, to name a few,” Collins stated.

The legislation has the support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), Autism Speaks, the Children’s Hospital Association, the Coalition of Pediatric Medical Research, the National Down Syndrome Society and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, among others.

The legislation is named for Gabriella Miller, a girl from Virginia who fought to raise awareness of the need for pediatric cancer research and who died of brain cancer last year at the age of 10.

The House passed the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act on December 11, 2013 in a 294-103 vote. The Senate passes it on March 11, 2014 with unanimous consent.