Ranking Member Cassidy Delivers Remarks During Hearing on Diabetes
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks during today’s hearing on diabetes.
Click here to watch the hearing live.
Cassidy’s speech as prepared for delivery can be found below:
Thank you, Chair Sanders.
We need solutions addressing America’s high rates of obesity and the associated medical conditions such as diabetes upon Americans’ health. This is bipartisan. I am glad we are devoting Committee time to it. I'm concerned, however, that the focus of this hearing has changed from our original agreement to explore prevention, treatment, and management of diabetes from a clinical and public health perspective.
Diet and access to healthy foods are important, but I do want to point out that corporate marketing practices to consumers and human nutrition are not in the jurisdiction of this committee. Those are under the Commerce and Agriculture committees.
I don’t want to minimize the importance or severity of what the Chair chooses to focus on, but the best use of this Committee’s time would be to tackle the issues with which we have legislative authority.
Our colleagues, Senators Susan Collins and Jeanne Shaheen, led the special diabetes program reauthorization, which this committee successfully voted out in June. When enacted, it will provide additional mandatory resources for diabetes research at the NIH. However, this committee should still look at how NIH can better allocate its discretionary funding.
NIH should fund research looking at genetic predisposition to Type 2 diabetes, understanding why some develop diabetes and others do not.
We should look at why NIH habitually underfunds obesity research despite its overwhelming impact on the health of our country and impact on other related medical conditions.
It’s also important we explore how recent medical advancements improve the lives of diabetics. American medical innovation saves countless lives, and diabetes is no different. Ground-breaking developments in diabetes management like the continuous glucose monitor—or CGM—increase patient adherence to treatment while improving quality of life for patients and peace of mind for parents and caretakers.
It wasn’t even ten years ago that parents worried about children dying in their sleep from diabetic shock. Now with affordable CGMs and other innovative devices, we can monitor blood sugar levels in real time and prevent these devastating occurrences.
We need to continue to foster innovation and the solutions it creates. CGMs are miracles to many now, but we need the next miracle. Cellular treatments are on the horizon and have the potential to again revolutionize how Americans live with diabetes.
The task of this committee is to balance affordability and innovation. If a patient cannot afford the innovation, to them it is as if that innovation never occurred.
These topics are within our committee’s jurisdiction. We do have a responsibility to evaluate them. They are areas where, if appropriate, we could consider legislation. I look forward to exploring these issues with our witnesses.
Thank you.
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