Every night, there are empty seats at dinner tables across America. Many of those seats are empty, and families are left incomplete, because of cancer. In recent decades, tremendous progress has been made in the fight against cancer. Mortality from cancer has decreased by over 27% since 2000 and over 33% since 1991. Researchers have developed better prevention, screening and treatment measures, allowing more people to live longer. But the war on cancer is far from over. Its toughest battle yet is not a treatment-resistant form of the disease, but rather the defunding of the programs that save lives.
The Trump administration wants to cut $4 billion in funding for research conducted at universities and medical centers. This is not a surprise, given that the budgets he proposed in his first term called for billions of dollars in cuts to the National Institutes of Health and other research efforts. This time, that $4 billion in cuts is much more likely to happen. In the first days of his second term, President Trump imposed a freeze on the disbursement of federal grants and loans. While this was quickly tied up in the courts, its impact was immediately felt across the country — including in Michigan. Between the temporary freeze on grants, the efforts of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and an upcoming budget that is expected to cut funding, cancer research is on the chopping block. While the private sector and states like Michigan have made significant strides in research, cuts of this magnitude would set medical advancements back decades.
Michigan has taken a lead on research. Last term, my colleagues and I worked to create a Research and Development Tax Credit. We have a robust set of public research universities, dozens of businesses investing in cutting edge innovation, internationally recognized hospital systems and this critical credit. While Michigan has been associated with manufacturing for over a century, both our public and private sectors have made efforts to diversify our economy and expand opportunities in technology and health care. Now, all of that is at risk. If these cuts occur, talented researchers and scientists will be out of jobs, our economic prospects will decline and most importantly, lifesaving medicine will not get the attention it needs.
Our country’s increased success in saving lives from cancer is due to advancements in prevention, screening and treatment. Prevention is not just encouraging people to quit smoking or eat healthier but finding links between certain foods or habits and getting sick. Doctors can catch cancer earlier now because of better screening, whether that’s more
men getting prostate exams, the proliferation of colorectal tests or new additions to routine blood work. Better treatments are prolonging and saving lives with new medicines, helping to increase the five-year survival rate for all cancers by over 20% in the past fifty years. Cuts to research funding risks all of this progress. Right now, lifesaving efforts on all of these fronts are going on in laboratories and hospitals across Michigan. Cutting their funding will prevent the next major cancer breakthrough.
We should be spending even more on research for cancer and other deadly diseases, not making arbitrary, politically motivated cuts that have real world implications. This is why my colleagues and I in the Michigan Legislature have worked hard to encourage new investments so that more medical advancements are spurred here in Michigan. We cannot bring the loved ones we have lost back to life, but we can make sure that fewer families face the heartbreak of cancer. The investments we make today will save your loved ones’ life tomorrow.