Congressman Chris Collins applauds disease research for kids

U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, R-Clarence announced Tuesday Senate passage of the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act (H.R. 2019). Collins, whose district includes part of Ontario County including Canandaigua, co-sponsored the legislation in the House.

The legislation would eliminate federal funding for presidential campaigns and party conventions and reallocate that money to expand pediatric research at the National Institutes of Health.

Collins stated in a release that the funds will help ”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 that he pushed for passage of the legislation last year alongside several local families impacted by juvenile diabetes and a movement by other citizens supporting the bill.

This 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, Collins stated.

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.