News

Share

Ambassadors traveled to DC to Urge Lamakers to Make Cancer a National Priority

September 17, 2013

On September 10, more than 600 cancer patients, survivors, volunteers and staff from all 50 states and nearly every congressional district [will unite/united] in Washington, D.C., as part of the annual American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) Leadership Summit and Lobby Day, to call on Congress to take steps to make cancer a national priority.

Cancer patients, survivors, caregivers and volunteers discussed the need to restore and sustain funding for cancer research and proven prevention programs, to co-sponsor legislation that supports patients’ quality of life and to support an increase in the federal tobacco tax. Congress has a critical role to play in the fight to defeat a disease that kills 1,500 Americans each day.

Specifically, our Maryland Ambassadors asked their Members of Congress to:

  1. Restore and sustain funding for cancer research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and prevention program and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Earlier this year, across-the-board cuts known as sequestration took effect, resulting in more than a 5 percent cut in funding for the NIH and steep cuts to the CDC.
  2. Co-sponsor legislation to improve the quality of life for cancer patients by providing patients with better access to palliative care services and coordinated care.  Palliative care is a proven cost-effective way of improving the quality of patient care by focusing on relief from pain, stress and other often debilitating symptoms of treatment for a serious disease such as cancer. The bills currently introduced in Congress will help make palliative care more easily available to cancer patients and their families from the point of diagnosis by focusing on improving public outreach, research and workforce training and development.
  3. Support a 94-cent increase to the federal tobacco tax that would help adults quit and prevent kids from ever starting to smoke. The increase could prevent 1.74 million youth from ever becoming smokers and having to face the possibility of a tobacco-related death.