SPECIAL POLICY ALERT - YOUR ACTION IS NEEDED!

Federal funding for the National Institutes of Health, the primary source of funding for cancer research, is being threatened and we are asking for your help.

Congress is currently working on the 2006 budget and a Labor-HHS Conference Report that will set the level of NIH funding for next year.  Funding for NIH could face possible cuts, and advocates across the country are being asked to contact their members of Congress with the following messages:

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PLEASE CONTACT YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TODAY!

ëIt would be particularly helpful to contact members of the Labor-HHS Conference Committee who will set the NIH funding level, which will then be presented to Congress.  They are as follows:

Senators on Labor-HHS Sub-Committee:
http://appropriations.senate.gov/subcommittees/labor/topics.cfm?code=labor
Representatives on Labor-HHS Sub-Committee: http://appropriations.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=AboutTheCommittee.MemberList&SubcommitteeId=11

Additional Conferees include: Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV).

èCALL the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at  (202)224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Member of Congress.

èEMAIL: http://capwiz.com/acs-national/home/

è Please send a copy of, or an update on, any actions you take in this regard to us at agarber@focr.org.  Please do not hesitate to contact us at (202)944-6655 if you would like additional information.

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Some background details:

In 1976, only half of all cancer patients survived five years or more after being diagnosed. Today, because of the cancer community's efforts in this battle, closer to two-thirds of patients are living five years or more (Source: American Cancer Society).  We cannot let a lack of funding stop this important progress!

According to the National Cancer Institute, funding cuts at NIH could lead to significant consequences in areas of high strategic priority that might include the following:

• Fewer investigator-initiated grants will be funded, which will effectively cut basic research and reduce the number of discoveries that could lead to better interventions for cancer patients.
• Cuts to Cancer Centers and Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs), which will weaken translational research and clinical trial capabilities.
• Reduced funding for the training of new and recently established cancer researchers, damaging the future makeup of the cancer research community.
• Clinical trials will be forced to slow patient accrual, significantly delaying the planned downstream benefits to cancer patients and researchers that these carefully crafted studies provide.  
• Pieces of a new proteomics initiative will need to be scaled back or postponed.  This will delay the development of early detection and screening tools and the delivery of proteomic technologies to clinical practice, leaving many cancers to be detected and diagnosed only after they have already developed past their most treatable form.
• Delay or a scaling back of a major pilot study on the Human Cancer Genome Collaboration project with National Human Genome Research Institute.  This project could lead to an improved understanding of the genetic basis of cancer and has the potential to transform drug discovery and development, and medical management.

Earlier this month, the House narrowly voted against a Labor-HHS spending bill that called for less than a 1% percent increase for NIH, which falls below the medical inflation index and would have marked the lowest increase to the NIH in 36 years.   The Senate did not take up the measure, opting instead to send it back to the Labor-HHS Conference Committee with instructions to restore the Senate’s original increase for the NIH of around $1 billion or 3.7%.  However, the House has not yet decided to return to conference and there is discussion of a Continuing Resolution, which would regress to funding NIH at the lowest level it has been funded at in the past two years.    Additionally, there is wide-spread speculation that an across-the-board-cut of 1 to 2 percent in all discretionary spending will be proposed in the near future.  Cancer advocacy groups across the country have been activating their grass roots to call, write, and visit members with a message to back the Senate’s original 3.7% increase for NIH and to oppose any measures that would cut NIH funding.