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The Texas Medical Center contains 54 world-class educational and research institutions, and top-tier hospitals employing over 106,000 Houstonians. This translates into $14 billion per year in economic activity. However, its economic future and preeminence in scientific research have been in peril for over a decade as federal funding for science has been below the rate of inflation since 2003. During the recent recession and collapse in oil prices, matters became more acute as private donors were less able to make up the difference.

I’m James Cargas, and I am running for the United States Congress in Congressional District 7.

I promise to make fully funding biomedical research my top priority in Congress. While Congress neglects science, countries like China, India, Israel, Sweden, Japan and South Korea are allocating greater and greater public resources to research and development. They are ready to take away our title as the world’s research leader. They are already hiring away our best scientists.

If your congressman was Chair of the Science Appropriations Subcommittee, you would expect him to aggressively fund biomedical research; especially if thousands of his constituents work at the Texas Medical Center.

Not the 16-year incumbent, John Culberson!

He and his Tea Party friends aggressively vote AGAINST funding the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control, and
other federal agencies overseeing scientific research. I will support the federal biomedical research that makes our Texas Medical Center the world class institution that it is.
This is not pork or wasteful spending. This research saves lives, cures terrible diseases and advances our understanding of medicine and science. And, every dollar spent on research in Texas generates $2.49 in economic impact.

Funding biomedical research is a great investment in our future.

I am running because I am tired of our do-nothing Congress.

I am James Cargas, and I would be honored to have your vote.