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REMARKS BY:	DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE:		Opening Of The Mount Sinai Diabetes Center, New York, New York
DATE:		October 15, 1998

Today, at a conference at Hunter College, I spoke about the millennium and the challenges ahead. But before that, I saw the millennium with my own eyes when I visited an elementary school in East Harlem and talked with the children about their future. When you see their shining eyes, bright smiles and boundless spirit, it makes you feel pretty good about the next century. And it makes you pretty determined to give every child the brightest future possible, including every child whose future is clouded by diabetes.

Sam Bowles knows about a childhood clouded by diabetes. If Sam's father Erskine could have been here tonight, he would have told you his feelings about the disease. How too many Americans suffer and die from diabetes, but too few Americans know about the frightening statistics and the daily dangers. He would have emphasized that there's no such thing as a routine case of diabetes, or a routine treatment. Erskine also would have shared with you his own experience with living with Sam's diabetes. He would have talked about how, for 18 years, he watched his son go to bed scared. Erskine also would have told you about how he felt about the disease, in just three words: "I hate it."

But Erskine also would have told you about love -- the family love that surrounds Sam at home, the best medicine known to humankind. And he would have told you about Sam receiving the best care and treatment human hands can provide at Mount Sinai. Specifically, Erskine would have spoken of Dr. Andrew Drexler -- his concern for Sam and never the clock, his connection and communication with Sam, spoken and unspoken, his approach to medicine -- always thorough, thoughtful, compassionate and confident -- and the devotion he and his staff showed to his patients, from the heart.

You can almost imagine Hippocrates standing up, saluting Dr. Drexler and saying, "that's what my oath is all about." And you could imagine Hippocrates would have applauded Mount Sinai for launching this new Diabetes Center and bringing together so many crucial hands of healing.

When it comes to diabetes, the Clinton-Gore Administration has also taken an oath to channel maximum national energies to fight this disease. And we've put action behind this oath. Last year's balanced budget agreement included a five-year investment to find a cure for diabetes, help citizens served by Medicare better manage the disease, and prevent some of the most traumatic, costly and life-threatening complications. The American Diabetes Association called this investment, "as important for people with diabetes as the discovery of insulin in 1921."

But just as the discovery of insulin wasn't enough, we haven't done enough. Millions of families are counting on modern science to relegate diabetes to the history books, like it did with polio and smallpox. And modern science is counting on national leaders to step up and come forth with the resources to harness this golden age of breakthrough research. That's why, in his State of the Union Address last January, the President called for an historic national investment in medical research, an investment to turn the promise of modern science into real prevention, treatment and cure for our most deadly diseases, including diabetes.

Tonight, I'm happy to announce that the President's challenge is now on its way to becoming a reality. The federal budget about to be approved by Congress includes the largest spending increase in the history of the United States for medical research at the National Institutes of Health. If Congress keeps its promises to Erskine, NIH overall will receive a budget boost of more than 14 percent -- almost two billion dollars more than this year. Diabetes research alone would get a boost of more than 14 percent as well.

When it comes to fighting diabetes, it's World Series time. Like the New York Yankees, we're determined to win. Like Yogi Berra said, it ain't over `til it's over. And it's an understatement to say that as the President's Chief of Staff, Erskine Bowles had a lot to do with the Administration's commitment to diabetes research, treatment and cure. So I would like to close with a passage from the speech he would have given tonight:

"I can't tell you how often, when I think of Sam and others who have this disease, that I think about the challenges of being diabetic. I can't imagine the fear of going to bed at night worrying about a panic seizure, and I can't imagine always worrying about the long-term effect of running blood sugar too high. But I can imagine that there are ways to win this fight, and that there are ways we can work to ensure longer, happier, richer lives for those who have diabetes."

Thanks to the Mount Sinai, this new Diabetes Center and all of your caring hands, and thanks to all of you here tonight and those you represent, the dream of every family who fights this disease every day will come true. Thank you.