WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) supports a federal cigarette excise tax increase — currently $1.01 per pack — to help pay for “basic medical research,” reports WUIS.org.

The news source writes that Durbin stated his case during a speech on Monday before a group of doctors and scientists at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, noting that federal investment in basic medical research “has lagged far behind inflation.” Also, in the past 10 years the number of grant proposals that have been federally funded has dropped from 30% to 15%.

Durbin added that medical research funding should be “fundamental to Americans and their politicians,” according to the news source, and that a funding increase of $150 billion over the next decade would be paid for in part by a 95-cents-per-pack increase in the federal cigarette excise tax, which would bring the total per-pack tax to almost $2.