You may start hearing the word “sequestration” a lot over the coming months. It’s a big word that might not mean a whole lot to you now, but make no mistake – it could have a big impact on your life.

To sequester means to set apart or to take something away until a debt has been repaid. Last year, when Congress passed the Budget Control Act, it said that funding for discretionary programs – those are programs that Congress funds each year through the appropriations process – must be cut by $1 trillion over 10 years. It also directed a joint Congressional committee to identify an additional $1.2 trillion in savings over 10 years.

This “super committee” failed to agree on a deficit reduction plan, and that failure put discretionary programs – like cancer research and cancer prevention programs – on a collision course with sequestration; automatic funding cuts set to take effect on January 2, 2013.

Throughout the fall, Fight Colorectal Cancer will keep you updated on this issue and we will likely ask you to speak up about it as well. In the meantime, we urge you to take a moment to learn more about sequestration, and how it may impact your life.

More information, provided by the Coalition for Health Funding

• Sequestration Frequently Asked Questions
• “Think Before You Cut” flyer
• Grassroots Tool Kit

This weekend, Congress completed work on a large spending bill that maintains funding for colorectal cancer research and prevention. In the current budget-cutting environment, holding the line on research and prevention programs is a remarkable accomplishment and reflects the power of grassroots advocacy.

I congratulate the Fight Colorectal Cancer volunteers who took action this year to protect colorectal cancer research and prevention funding. We should be proud of our achievements, but we cannot become complacent. We must prepare for the Fiscal Year 2013 budget battle that lies ahead. Please register to attend Fight Colorectal Cancer’s Call-on Congress next March – where advocates from around the country will be urging their legislators to continue to protect colorectal cancer research funding.

The following are the spending outcomes on Fight Colorectal Cancer’s three appropriations priorities:

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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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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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