Washington, D.C., —Congress is poised to pass a funding bill that includes a $2 billion increase for medical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) later this month as part of a combined Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS) bill introduced today. The measure, agreed upon by both House and Senate conference committee members, also provides $6.1 billion for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and increases funding for cancer prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while maintaining funding for the Office of Smoking and Health (OSH).
If passed, this will be the first time the LHHS funding bill has been completed before the start of the next fiscal year since 1996.
A statement from Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) follows:
“Congress should be commended for recognizing the importance of continued increases in medical research funding at the NIH and NCI. The $2 billion NIH increase represents the kind of consistent investments needed to keep up the momentum in cancer prevention, detection and treatment.
“CDC cancer prevention and early detection programs and those that prevent kids from starting and help adults to quit smoking, are also critical to reducing death and suffering from a disease that will claim the lives of more then 600,00 Americans this year.
“Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Patti Murray (D-Wash) and Reps. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have consistently worked together in a bipartisan manner to prioritize funding for cancer research and prevention and their work should be commended.
“We urge the full House and Senate to pass this bill before the end of the fiscal year on September 30th and send it to the president for his signature. We know that there are very few legislative days left to get this done, but the lifesaving research taking place at NIH and across the country can’t wait.”