Further Investment is Critical to Sustain Past Progress and Spur Future Innovation
Washington, D.C. – July 15, 2010 – Members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor Health and Human Services showed their support for increased funding for cancer research and prevention programs despite a tough economic environment with a vote tonight to pass the FY 2011 spending bill. The legislation provides $32 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including $5.2 billion for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and nearly $6.8 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which supports federal cancer prevention and control programs.
The budget proposal would boost biomedical research funding by $1 billion in fiscal year 2011 over FY10 appropriated levels – a step that builds on President Obama’s commitment to double funding for cancer research over eight years. However, the House bill does not sustain the funding increase included in the economic stimulus bill passed last year – a decision that could cut short innovative projects that are already underway.
The House spending bill proposes a $32 million increase for the CDC, the agency responsible for funding the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) – a program that offers low-income and uninsured women access to lifesaving cancer screenings. The program has been dramatically underfunded in the past, now serving fewer than one in five eligible women nationally.
“We commend Congress for recognizing the value of prevention in detecting cancer early when it is easier to treat and survive,” said Christopher W. Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “To defeat cancer in this country, we need to both improve access to the screenings and treatments that work, and invest in research so that cancer can be eliminated as a cause of death altogether.”
An estimated 1.5 million people in America will be diagnosed with cancer this year and 569,000 will die from the disease.
“Thanks to past investment in research, more than 11 million cancer survivors are alive in America today,” said Robert E. Youle, cancer survivor and chairman of the ACS CAN volunteer board of directors. “But we can’t rest on past progress. A sustained investment is critical to developing new and better ways to screen and treat the cancers for which we currently have few effective tools.”
ACS CAN, the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, is calling on the Senate to expand on the House committee’s commitment to make Cancer Research Funding a top national priority.
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Alissa Havens or Steven Weiss
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Phone: (202) 661-5772 or (202) 661-5711
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
