Earlier this month, the House Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education Appropriations Subcommittee announced that it has postponed consideration of its fiscal year (FY) 2012 spending bill until September.

Delayed consideration of this bill, which funds the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gives colorectal cancer advocates more time to contact their House and Senate lawmakers when they return home in August.

The message: Funding for colorectal cancer research and prevention must be a priority.

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This afternoon, by a vote of 336-87, the House passed the Fiscal Year 2012 Department of Defense Appropriations bill (H.R. 2219). The bill includes funding for critical national security needs while also providing essential funding for health and quality of life programs for the men and women of the Armed Services and their families.

The final bill includes more than $223 million for cancer research, including $12.8 million for the Department of Defense’s Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP) that funds colorectal cancer research.

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Fight Colorectal Cancer is pleased to announce the 2011-2012 members of our Grassroots Action Committee. The Committee is a group of committed, engaged volunteer advocates who take action when asked. The Committee is the catalyst of our grassroots advocate community, and provides advice to help us achieve our strategic goals and objectives by empowering grassroots advocates across the country.

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Earlier today, a federal appeals court in Ohio held that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. Specifically, in a 2-1 ruling, the Sixth Circuit held the “individual mandate” does not exceed Congress’s powers under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The individual mandate is the provision in the new health reform law requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance by 2014 or face a monetary penalty.

In a 64-page opinion, the court held “that the minimum coverage provision is a valid exercise of legislative power by Congress under the Commerce Clause.” Read the court’s decision.

Judge Jeffrey Sutton is the first Republican-nominated judge to rule in favor of upholding the law. In his concurring opinion, Judge Sutton wrote that while the plaintiffs challenging the law failed to make their case for now the ruling doesn’t prevent individuals from initiating new challenges to the Affordable Care Act after the insurance requirement goes into effect and it becomes clear how the law affects particular individuals.

The court’s decision today upheld a district-court ruling that also found the law constitutional. There are two other cases challenging the Affordable Care Act pending before different federal appeals court.

Walter Pincus’s latest article published by the Washington Post criticizes the health research funding in the defense appropriations bill as both earmarked funding and unneeded duplicative funding. He is wrong.
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