"This handbook is a description and record of the dynamic partnership between Congress and the Institute, to further the progress toward overcoming heart, lung, and blood diseases. Legislation plays a key role in authorizing broad programs in areas of public need, and in providing fiscal resources; the Institute translates Congressional mandates into reality. Legislative Handbook : The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute is intended to provide a historical record of the past, a practical manual for the present, and a reference for legislative proposals in the future."--page 3.