Steele to Sens. Fetterman, McCormick and AG Sunday: Defend American medicine; we are counting on you
Rep. Mandy Steele February 13, 2025 | 4:04 PM
CHESWICK, Feb. 13 -- State Rep. Mandy Steele today posted an open letter to Pennsylvania’s Attorney General David Sunday and the state’s two U.S. senators, John Fetterman and David McCormick, detailing her concerns about the Trump administration’s funding cuts to medical research.
Seele said that although she supports the president’s goal of reducing government waste, the “severe and immediate cuts to research funding” will impact the state’s economy, health and security.
“The Pittsburgh region’s robust economy is driven in large part by our universities and health systems,” Steele said. “More people are employed in this space than any other. Imagine what will happen when this economy takes a dramatic and sudden hit.”
Steele said the reverberations will be felt further afield than just Pittsburgh, with no work, young people leaving the state and empty communities, just like the collapse of the steel industry.
“We are still rebuilding. And now we find ourselves in a familiar place, staring down round two of economic collapse,” she said.
Steele also worried about the harm medical research funding cuts will cause to the gains the U.S. has made.
“How many of us have had loved ones saved, treated, mended, made whole by medical innovations? I’d wager, all of us,” Steele said.
She said this blow also will give China a significant advantage over the U.S. while this country goes into survival mode.
“Do we believe China will share breakthroughs they make on cancer, Alzheimer’s, medicine for countless diseases? To protect our people, we need American innovation, American research, American medicine,” Steele said.
“As a state lawmaker, I will be advocating for legislation to support vital medical research and enshrine protections for Pennsylvanians,” Steele said. “Please defend American medicine. We are counting on you.”
To read her statement in full, please click here.