S.Amdt. 920

SA 920. Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself and Mr. Carper) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 13, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2010, revising the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2009, and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2011 through 2014; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 73, after line 6, add the following:

SEC. 317. SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE ROLE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE LIFE SCIENCES INDUSTRY.

It is the sense of the Senate that--

(1) the United States is the established and undisputed global leader in life sciences, and biotechnology companies of the United States are developing advances in medicine, energy, defense, and agriculture;

(2) the biotechnology industry is a source of high-wage, science-oriented jobs, and the success of the industry is critical to ensure that the President's call to “cure cancer in our lifetime” is met;

(3) the ongoing financial crisis has made it difficult for small biotechnology firms to access capital, negatively affecting the cutting-edge life sciences industry of the United States by threatening to halt or significantly delay the next generation of promising therapies for cancer, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, and other diseases and afflictions affecting tens of millions of people of the United States, as well as threatening to halt or significantly delay the development of next-generation biofuels;

(4) the potential for biotechnology to prevent and cure disease, improve surgical outcomes, and pioneer other medical breakthroughs represents tremendous opportunity to reduce costs and improve public health; and

(5) Congress should act to facilitate access to capital for the life sciences industry of the United States, including emerging biotechnology companies, as the industry faces a severe funding crisis that is jeopardizing a critical sector of the United States' 21st century innovation economy and a source of high-paying, high-quality jobs in the United States.