WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its FY 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services spending bill today. The bill includes a $2 billion funding increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a $190 million funding boost for the National Cancer Institute (NCI). An additional $2 million will go to cancer registries to help track pediatric cancer cases as part of the Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access and Research (STAR) Act, which became law last month. The bill also preserves current funding levels for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cancer screening and early detection programs and programs at the Office on Smoking and Health
A statement from American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) President Chris Hansen follows:
“ACS CAN applauds members of the Appropriations Committee, specifically Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Labor-HHS-Education Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.), for their commitment to increased cancer research funding through the NIH and their protection of funding for cancer prevention and tobacco cessation efforts through the Center of Disease Control and Prevention and the Office on Smoking and Health.
“Significant and sustained increases in federal research funding are essential to the development of new diagnostic tests and improved treatments and therapies against a disease that will claim the lives of more than 600,000 Americans this year. Senators Blunt and Murray should be praised for including a $2 billion increase for the NIH in the Senate Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill for the fourth straight year. Their efforts will help ensure future medical breakthroughs can make it from the lab to the patient, giving individuals the greatest chance of survival.
“The committee’s decision to dedicate resources specifically in support of the STAR Act and pediatric cancers as well as preserving current funding for early detection programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and tobacco prevention and cessation funding for the Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) should also be noted. These funds will improve our understanding of childhood cancer, provide timely breast and colon cancer screenings to uninsured and underinsured Americans and fund critical tobacco control programs.
“We appreciate the committee’s bipartisan commitment to increase cancer research funding and protect important prevention dollars and urge the House to adopt the Senate committee’s budget levels for FY 2019.”
