Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report of the Director of the National Heart and Lung Institute.
To the Congress of the United States:
I am transmitting herewith the Second Annual Report of the Director of the National Lung Institute, as required by the National Heart, Blood Vessel, Lung, and Blood Act of 1972. This report was prepared in consultation with the National Heart and Lung Advisory Council, and it is accompanied by a program plan for the next five years.
The five-year resource allocation projection proposes two levels of expenditures for fiscal years 1977 through 1981, both of which are in excess of what has been requested in the 1976 budget. The report states that these projected expenditures are based on scientific judgment of these particular research areas, but correctly recognizes that the allocation of national resources for the program must be determined in relationship to other competing national needs and in accord with the total resources available for Federal programs.
The report describes encouraging progress. Since 1969, deaths caused by the number one killer--coronary heart disease--have shown a decline of about two percent, or 14,000 deaths, per year. Deaths from stroke, hypertension and rheumatic heart disease are continuing their downward trend, and the death rate from emphysema and chronic bronchitis, after years of sharp increases, has leveled off.
Investments in the National Heart, Blood Vessel, Lung, and Blood Program are showing results. I am hopeful that this momentum will be maintained and, through successful research and its application in medical practice, loss of lives from heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases will be further reduced.
GERALD R. FORD
The White House,
June 27, 1975.
Note: The report, prepared by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, is entitled "National Heart, Blood Vessel, Lung and Blood Program--Second Annual Report of the Director of the National Heart and Lung Institute" (169 pp. plus appendixes).
Gerald R. Ford, Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report of the Director of the National Heart and Lung Institute. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/257190