Your Representative and Senators will be working in their district offices during the upcoming August Congressional Recess (August 6-31) and we need you to reach out to them while they’re home. House and Senate leaders have requested far less than the amount needed to advance crucial cancer research.

WE NEED YOU!! Tell Congress to keep their promise and properly fund cancer research.

Here are some ideas on how to get the message out about proposed funding levels for cancer research to your Representative and Senators while they are home in the district.

1. Option 1: CALL your Representatives and Senators at their district office today and tell them that the current funding level for the NIH, which includes the NCI, won’t work and needs to be fixed. Click here for their phone numbers

2. Option 2: Attend a public meeting or event where your Representative and Senators may be at.

3. Option 3: Drop by their district office. You may not be able to sit down with your Member of Congress, but you should be able to at least speak with a staff member.

4. Option 4: If time is short, send an E-MAIL to your Representative and Senators today.

Materials:

Click here for talking points developed by C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition.

SPEAK OUT TODAY!!

For more information please contact Joe Arite, Policy and Grassroots Manager at Joe.Arite@FightColorectalCancer.org

Don’t forget to visit C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition’s Advocacy Blog

On Thursday, June 21, 2007, The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY08 Legislation on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Related Agencies. This bill sets the funding levels for the National Institutes of Health (NHI). The Senate increased funding by $1 billion over the FY07 budget and by $1.2 billion over the President’s request. The bill now makes it way to the Senate Floor.

Though the funding levels are the highest we have seen in years, and MUCH higher than the levels proposed by the House of Representatives and The President, it is not the 6.7% increase we hoped for.

I urge you to contact your Senators and let them know that while we are making great progress in the war against cancer, over 52,000 people will die from colorectal cancer in 2007 alone. We must provide for the resources needed to win this war!

Click here to find your Senators’ contact information

Click here to read the Committee’s Press Release on the FY08 LHHS Legislation

Click here to read the Senate FY08 LHHS Funding Summary

I ventured up to Capitol Hill this morning for one last ditch effort to make the House Appropriations Committee Members understand that the funding established in the Subcommittee for The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and The National Cancer Institute (NCI) are not sufficient to continue our fight against cancer.

As I approached the Committee Room I was pleasantly surprised to see the sign on the door that said, “LHHS Mark-Up postponed.” What does this mean for us? This gives us a chance to rally the troops and reach out to the Appropriations Committee Members’ Offices with our message.

Let them know that 1.9% increase for NIH and 1.5% increase to NCI are some of the worst numbers we have seen in years and are not adequate to fight this war against cancer!!

The message is simple:
• Over 52,000 people will die from colorectal cancer in 2007 alone.
• 186 members of the House of Representatives signed a letter in support of a 6.7% increase for NIH.
• Failure to provide adequate funding will stall the next generation of breakthroughs for cancer patients. The current bill proposed in the House would do just that.

TAKE ACTION TODAY!!

For a listing of Committee Members and their phone numbers, click here (PDF file)

Last month, in a show of support for adequate funding of cancer research, 186 House members signed a letter backing a 6.7 percent increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which includes the National Cancer Institute (NCI). C3 advocates joined others in the cancer community in requesting a 6.7 percent increase for NCI and NIH.

Last week the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) Subcommittee marked up a bill containing only a 1.9 percent increase for NIH and a 1.5 percent increase for NCI. This is inadequate to maintain the progress we’ve made against cancer.

There will be 153,700 new cases and 52,180 deaths from colon and rectal cancer this year. Without sufficient funds cancer research which could provide a cure will slow to a crawl. There will be less basic research of cancer, which means we won’t know how normal cells become cancerous and the best intervention points. Fewer new treatments will result in fewer options for people suffering from colorectal cancer. Decreased investigation of how to better use existing treatments means we won’t know who would benefit from what treatment.

Should this small increase pass it will continue the inadequate funding of the past several years and would actually be a decrease when inflation is considered.

The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to meet this Thursday to consider the LHHS Subcommittee recommendation. We need to tell all the members of the committee that this increase is unacceptable and that they can – and must – do better for us. We want a little less talk and a lot more action.

Call the members of the Appropriations Committee and let them know these numbers are unacceptable! For a listing of committee members and their phone numbers, click here (PDF file).

In our effort to get colorectal cancer screening legislation passed at the state level we can forget to look at the effect of such a mandate. Thanks to an article published Wednesday, May 23 in the Maryville (Missouri) Daily Forum we have that opportunity.

In 1999 Missouri enacted HB 191 which, among other things, required health insurers and similar entities to provide colorectal cancer exams and laboratory tests coverage for nonsymptomatic persons in accordance with American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines. This caused Missouri to receive an “A” on the latest colorectal cancer legislative report card issued by the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance.

Missouri experienced a 10 percent decrease in the number of annual estimated colon cancer deaths since passage of HB 191. The number of colon cancer deaths went from about 1,300 in 2001 to an estimated 1,170 in 2007. “Missourians can be proud that out state is contributing to the drop in colon cancer deaths,” said retired Missouri State Senator Patrick Dougherty, the sponsor of HB 191 in 1999.

Sen. Dougherty added, “We know legislation makes a difference. The states like Missouri that require insurance coverage are also the states that have higher screening rates.” The article cited an ACS study released last May which found that screening rates in states with coverage laws had risen 40 percent faster between 1999 and 2004 than states without such laws.

We extend a late thank you to Sen. Dougherty and others in Missouri who worked to pass this legislation which is a vital part of the fight against colon and rectal cancer.

Go here to read the Maryville Daily Forum article.

Go here for information about HB 191.

Go here to see the Colorectal Cancer Legislative Report Card.