Congressman Tom Cole

“Biomedical research is like the military: You can’t create it overnight,” Congressman Cole said about the need to sustainability invest in research and development (R&D) to combat global diseases. As chairman of the House Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, Congressman Cole is a forceful and vocal champion for key US agencies engaged in global health R&D, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Congressman’s strong support for the NIH Fogarty International Center—amid calls for elimination—was critical to preserving vital international health research partnerships. His determined opposition to cuts to NIH and CDC global health research programs—cuts that he called “penny-wise and pound-foolish”—led the way for his congressional colleagues to do the same.

Congressman Cole speaks passionately about the value of investing in global health R&D not only from a humanitarian perspective, but also from a security and economic perspective. “This is soft power at its very best,” he stressed, “and it earns the US a lot of goodwill around the world.”