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HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF GABRIELLA MILLER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Wexton) for 5 minutes.
Ms. WEXTON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the remarkable life and legacy of a young constituent, Gabriella Miller, who passed away on this day 8 years ago due to an inoperable brain tumor.
Gabriella was a fierce fighter not just in her own battle with cancer, but as an advocate on behalf of the millions of other children who have suffered from this disease. In the months following her terminal diagnosis at age 9, Gabriella became a national force for change, urging Congress to grant increased funding and to develop better treatments and cures for childhood cancer.
Her passionate plea for lawmakers to ``stop talking, start doing'' helped deliver a successful push to pass the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, bipartisan legislation named in her honor. Gabriella's family joined sponsor Representative Eric Cantor from Virginia and President Barack Obama in the Oval Office in 2014 for the bill signing.
The Kids First program established a 10-year Pediatric Research Initiative Fund and led to the creation of the National Institutes of Health Kids First Pediatric and Data Resource Center. It has allocated millions of dollars to research grants looking into pediatric cancer and rare diseases, supporting over 60 research projects.
I am honored to carry on Gabriella's mission by sponsoring the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act 2.0, which would deliver a new sustained and expanded funding source for this lifesaving program.
It has been 8 years since we lost Gabriella, and there is still a long fight ahead to better understand, treat, and ultimately cure childhood cancer. The 2.0 bill would give a dramatic boost to that fight and help demonstrate that Congress is serious about ensuring that no other family has to go through what the Miller family has.
Madam Speaker, I share Gabriella's story today so that her legacy continues to live on. May Congress have the courage to answer Gabriella's call to ``stop talking, start doing'' and deliver the resources needed to treat and cure childhood cancer.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 188
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