Chair Rodgers Opening Remarks at Health Hearing on Proposals to Support Patients and Caregivers

Rogers for 5 minutes for her opening statement thank you Mr chairman first just let me say thank you um to all of you to the to the chair to the ranking member to my colleagues to the extraordinary staff um given my announcement last week um what I am blessed I am blessed and and it has been a tremendous blessing to lead this Committee just extraordinary I um I can I can testify that being the chair of the house Energy and Commerce Committee the best committee on Capitol Hill is the best uh best position in the house and it's been a privilege and honor for me to lead and I'll just say you know what we're going to finish strong we have a whole year ahead of us and uh we have a lot of work to do and I look forward to to working with all of you on uh important issues including the issues that are before us today uh the the the bills before the health subcommittee so uh just a big thank you everyone I've said it many times and I will continue to say that this committee is extraordinary because it has a rich history of plowing the hard ground necessary to legislate and it means coming together to get things done to get results and I'm proud of our efforts so far this Congress like the lowering cost more transparency act which are fundamental to driving down the cost of care and fixing our broken Health Care system and today we are we're focusing on 19 bipartisan bills that support patients caregivers and healthc care providers specifically we will examine proposals to help improve our understanding of various diseases disabilities chronic conditions and still births we'll look at legislation to continue support for emergency medical services and health care providers to reauthorize respit care resources for family caregivers and to prevent Oregon transplant candidates from being denied a transplant Bas solely on having a disability I look forward to hearing from our Witnesses today thank you for being here about the importance of these programs I especially am excited to be moving forward on the DeAndre Dixon include project Act of 2024 that I've introduced alongside with representative Diana deette Tom Cole Rosa deloro and Elanor Holmes Norton and I expect all of you to co-sponsor this bill anyway you all know that my mission here has been to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities and that's why I'm proud to Champion this bill that would provide important congressional oversight and direction for the include project at the National Institutes of Health it was established by a congressional directive in 2018 include it's also known as the investigation of cooccurring conditions across the lifespan to understand Down syndrome project and it conducts research on critical health and quality of life needs for individuals with Down Syndrome throughout their lives and at the time included food was established Down syndrome was among the least funded genetic condition at NIH despite being the most common chromosome adnormal so I just want to underscore how important it was that Congress took action to make sure that down syndrome was a priority at NIH you know the individuals with Down Syndrome are affected by many of the same diseases and conditions that we're examining across the board uh the good news is that individuals with Down Syndrome are living longer than ever and what but they're developing Alzheimer's or dementias like at 100% there's no case of an individual with Down Syndrome being having a a a tumor cancer yet they have a higher likelihood of juvenile leukemia and so when we are looking at research that benefits those with Down Syndrome we also have the potential as we continue to focus on the 21st chromosome and some of the the specific issues related to to those with Down Syndrome that will benefit millions of people who battle these other conditions whether it's Alzheimer's cancer heart conditions uh that are not just uh uh that are common but hardly limited to people with Down Syndrome so this is bipartisan legislation directing NIH to continue this important work on down syndrome research um to help everyone with Down syndrome and their families and uh you know I'll just say once again we have a lot of work ahead of us these are important bipartisan bills and I look forward to continuing to work with each one of you over the rest of this Congress to continue to improve the lives of the people that we have the honor and privilege of representing all across this country a big thank you again to the witnesses for traveling for being here today sharing your your insights and expertise um uh we look forward to your testimony and with that I yield back thank you the chair yields back the chair will now recognize the ranking member the f