By a vote of 217-203 the House approved the fiscal year 2012 agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 2112). The bill includes funding for the FDA.

Total funding for the FDA, including user fees, is $3.7 billion. This is about 0.09% above last year’s funding level which reflects an increase in mandatory programs over $3 billion. This means that the overall total for the fiscal year 2012 agriculture bill is higher than last year’s bill even though the bill cuts millions from the FDA’s budget.

The bill cuts discretionary funding for the FDA by $284 million. This reduction in discretionary funding for the FDA is an 11.5% cut from last year’s funding level. The reduction includes an $87 million cut from the FDA’s food safety budget.

The $284 million in cuts to the FDA’s budget:
• May delay or prevent development and implementation of a regulatory pathway for bio-similars;
• Significantly reduce efforts to stop importation of illegal products;
• Slow efforts to approve generic drugs;
• Undercut our nation’s investment in development of medical countermeasures in the case of pandemic disease or bio-terrorism.

In addition to the $284 million cut in FDA funding, the House also produced a committee report on the bill. Here are a few highlights from the report:
• In order to focus resources, FDA is strongly encouraged to set up a pilot project to expedite imports for highly compliant importers
• In order to achieve independent post-market surveillance, FDA is directed to submit plans to Congress for an independent office to carry out this work.

We have hopes for a higher allocation in the Senate, and will keep you updated as the Senate Appropriations Committee moves forward with their bill.

Today, the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense held a public witness hearing about funding needs for the fiscal year 2011 defense appropriations bill.  C3′s President, Carlea Bauman, testified at the hearing about the urgent need for more funding for colorectal cancer research.

Ms. Bauman thanked the Subcommittee members for including $15 million for the Department of Defense (DoD)’s Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP) in the fiscal year 2010 bill and urged them to increase the level of funding for the PRCRP to $50 million in fiscal year 2011.

C3 is making the request for funding along with other advocacy groups representing the eight research areas in the PRCRP.  The program, funded through the DoD’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) supports high-quality cancer research, concentrating its resources on mechanisms which complement rather than duplicate the research approaches of the major funders of medical research in the United States.

The PRCRP also represents a unique partnership among the public, Congress, and the military.  Congress has required the DoD to ensure that the research funded through the program has relevance to service members and their families.  The research can help service members exposed to toxins and decrease the more than $1 billion that the DoD spends on cancer care.

Although the cancers included in this program are diverse, the research on these disease types is often synergistic. Advances or progress related to one cancer fuels the research on the other cancers in this program, and treatments initially approved for one cancer are routinely found to be effective in others.

In her testimony, Ms. Bauman advised the Subcommittee that areas of focus for colorectal cancer research in the PRCRP could be:

• An inexpensive, non-invasive, accurate screening test;
• Predictive markers to identify who will benefit from which treatments; and
• Accurate diagnostics that can evaluate the markers.

Discoveries resulting from investment in PRCRP research have the potential to transform the investigation of cancer, through the development of new prevention strategies and therapies, and someday, cures.  A $50 million investment will greatly enhance and accelerate such breakthroughs.  It is an opportunity to advance the best research to eradicate diseases and support the warfighter for the benefit of the American public.

Ms. Bauman’s complete testimony is available online here.

A list of the other witnesses who testified at the hearing is available here.

Today, C3 joined with twenty-one groups to send a letter to Congressional leaders about ways Congress can improve the final health care reform bill to make high quality and affordable health care available to cancer patients.

House and Senate Leadership were back at the White House today for another day-long negotiation session aimed at reconciling differences between the House-passed and Senate-passed bills.  President Obama is scheduled to met with Democrats this evening at the Democrats’ annual issues conference to talk about health care reform.

Congressional leaders are working to get a final compromise agreed to, and sent to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) by Friday.  CBO will need 10-15 days to analyze the bill and put together a cost estimate.  Members want to see a final cost estimate and analysis before voting on the package.

The letter C3 sent asks Congress to:

• Eliminate pre-existing condition exclusions and waiting periods for all individuals in every health insurance market in order to ensure access to care.
• Completely eliminate annual and lifetime caps on coverage.

Many colorectal cancer patients face a lifetime of cancer treatment.  Caps on insurance result in very difficult decisions about the care they will receive and how they are going to pay for it.

Eliminating pre-existing conditions exclusions is very important for cancer patients.  Pre-existing condition exclusions lock the millions of Americans with at least one chronic illness (nearly one third of the population) into existing plans and employment.

There are a number of additional provisions in both the House-passed and Senate-passed health care reform bills that will affect colorectal cancer patients.  Click here to see a chart outlining and comparing these provisions.

C3 will continue to work with legislators to advocate for improvements to the pending bills that will provide all Americans with the access to care that is critical to preventing, treating and beating colorectal cancer.

Please feel free to share your thoughts with us by leaving comments below.

After 25 straight days of debate, by a vote of 60-39, today the Senate approved the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In January, the House and Senate will begin the difficult task of reconciling the differences between the bills they have passed.

There are a number of provisions in both the House-passed and Senate-passed health care reform bills that will affect colorectal cancer patients.  Click here to see a chart outlining and comparing these provisions.

The two key differences between the House and Senate bills are the public option and pay-fors.  The House bill would create a government-sponsored insurance plan (i.e., a public option), but the Senate bill is silent on this point.  How to finance the health care expansion is also a contentious issue.  House members refused to consider the so-called Cadillac tax (i.e., a tax on expensive insurance plans) but the Senate has taken the opposite approach to financing and included a wealth surtax (the so-called millionaires’ tax) rather than including a Cadillac tax.  The House bill also has stricter language against funding for abortion.

While negotiators are expected to closely adhere to the Senate-passed bill  in order to ensure the 60 votes needed to pass a final conference report in the Senate, they will have to make some changes in conference in order to keep the support of House Democrats.  The House version of the bill passed by only three votes, and the Speaker knows that rank and file members will not accept a final conference report without changes.

Leadership and committee staff are expected to start meeting in the next week to design a framework for the final negotiations and committee chairs are expected to be back in DC the first week of 2010 to start negotiating in earnest.

Congressional leaders hope to send a final bill to President Obama by the end of January or early February.

C3 will continue to work with legislators to advocate for improvements to the pending bills that will provide all Americans with the access to care that is critical to preventing, treating and beating colorectal cancer.  Click here to see a chart outlining and comparing the provisions in the House-passed and Senate-passed bills that will affect colorectal cancer patients.

Please feel free to share your thoughts with us by leaving comments below.

There are a number of provisions in both the House and Senate health care reform bills that will affect colorectal cancer patients.  Click here to see a chart outlining and comparing these provisions.

This month both the House and Senate took historic votes and moved a couple of steps closer to getting the President a final health care reform bill to sign, but there is a long road ahead before Congress has a final bill that will be ready for the President.  On November 7, the House passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act by a vote of 220-215.  And, on November 21, by a party-line vote of 60-39 the Senate voted to move forward with debate on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The Senate is expected to begin floor debate and consideration of amendments the week of November 30 and continue debate until right before Christmas.  A vote on final passage of the health reform bill is expected in the Senate sometime between December 18-23.

If the Senate passes a health reform bill, that bill will have to be combined with the House bill into a “conference report.”  Both the House and Senate will then have to vote again on the conference report.  House and Senate leadership has indicated that they would like to consider a final health care reform conference report the second or third week of January in order to send a bill to the President before the State of the Union address.

C3 will continue to work with legislators to advocate for improvements to the pending bills that will provide all Americans with the access to care that is critical to preventing, treating and beating colorectal cancer.  See the document below for a summary and comparison of some of the provisions in the House and Senate bills that C3 thinks are important for people living with colorectal cancer.

Please feel free to share your thoughts with us by leaving comments below.

Comparison of House and Senate Health Reform Bills 11 24 09 – FINAL

Congressman Dan Boren (D-OK)

C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition is proud to support The Colorectal Cancer Screening and Detection Act of 2009 (HR 1330) introduced by Congressman Dan Boren (D-OK). The bill would require group and individual health insurance plans provide coverage of colorectal cancer screenings.

Americans age 50-64 are a critical group when considering colorectal cancer. HR 1330 will provide the same protections to non-Medicare beneficiaries that are already provided to Medicare beneficiaries.

Congressman Boren lost his mother to colon cancer, and personally understands the need for early detection of the disease.

Click here to watch Congressman Boren speak on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Click here to Take Action!

C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition would like to thank Representatives Kay Granger (R-TX) and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) for their continued leadership on colorectal cancer issues in Congress. With the recent reintroduction of The Colorectal Cancer Prevention, Early Detection and Treatment Act (HR 1189), they have taken the initial steps needed to pass legislation that in the end has the potential to save thousands of lives.

The bipartisan legislation would establish a program administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and would authorize $50 million in funding for grants to the states. The grants would be used to conduct programs to provide vital colon cancer screenings, information and follow-up services to those ages 50-64, with a focus on those most at risk, such as low-income, uninsured and underinsured men and women.

It is estimated that colorectal cancer will claim over 50,000 lives in 2009 alone which makes it the second leading cause of death from cancer in the United States. When screened early, however, colorectal cancer patients have a 90% survival rate. Disparities play a significant role in these staggering statistics, as being uninsured often impedes access to colon cancer screening tests, which would detect the disease at an earlier, more treatable stage or even prevent it before it starts.

Similar programs such as the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) have been extremely successful. From January 2001 to December 2005 the NBCCEDP screened over 1.7 million people and was able to detect over 13,000 breast cancers and over 21,000 cervical cancers.

The bill also requires grantees to provide the full range of cancer care, including follow up of abnormal tests, access to diagnostic and therapeutic colonoscopy and treatment for detected cancers. As a result, the program will boost testing rates, reduce colorectal cancer disparities and save lives. This terrible disease can and will be beaten.

The House Appropriations Committee marked up (definition) its portion of the $825 billion stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 598). The package passed by a vote of 35-22 in the full committee. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI) hopes to have a vote on the House floor by next week.

Also, the Senate Appropriations Committee tentatively scheduled a markup of the Senate stimulus package for next week as well. There is rumor that Congress is aiming to finish work on this effort by the start of the President’s Day recess.

This bill includes $2 billion in funding for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).