Fall 2012
OUTREACH
5
On September 19,
2012,
the U.S. House
of Representatives
passed,
without
opposition,
an
amended
version
of the
Pancreatic
Cancer
Research
&
Education Act
–
our chief legislative priority. The newly named
Recalcitrant
Cancer Research Act
(
H.R. 733) will require the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) to create a long-term plan, or scientific
framework, for pancreatic and other deadly cancers that
includes evaluating its current efforts in studying the disease
and making recommendations on ways to accelerate
progress and improve outcomes.
The passage of this bill in the House represents an
unprecedented milestone in the history of pancreatic cancer.
Never before has a bill dedicated to putting a greater focus on
pancreatic cancer and other similarly deadly cancers gotten
this far in Congress. There is no doubt that the impetus
for moving this legislation forward, especially at a time of
partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill, was due to the extraordinary
bi-partisan support that our advocates around the country
helped to generate for the bill.
As lead bill sponsor, Representative Anna Eshoo said
just after the bill passed, “With 293 bi-partisan co-sponsors,
I’m exceedingly proud of the pancreatic cancer advocates
around the country who helped to make this bill a reality."
To ensure the bill moved forward, we worked in good faith
with the bill sponsors to make modifications to the bill and
to address concerns of members of Congress, third parties
and those at the NCI. For example, to alleviate concerns
about the “disease-specific” nature of the legislation, the
bill was renamed and expanded to include other deadly,
or recalcitrant, cancers (i.e. those with a five-year relative
survival rate of less than 50 percent). Some terminology in
the bill was also modified such as changing the name of the
strategic plan to a “scientific framework.”
The bill still needs to be passed by the Senate and signed
by the President to become law. The Senate could consider
the bill after the presidential election when Congress is back
in session.
We need you to take two more important steps to
help our efforts. Thank your Representative for passing
H.R. 733 and write to your Senators urging them to pass
the bill before the end of the year! To do so, please visit
www.pancan.org/TakeAction
.
To learn more, visit
www.pancan.org/CongressionalUpdate
.
PANCREATIC CANCER BILL CLEARS KEY
HURDLE IN CONGRESS
This past June, nearly 650
advocates from 49 states
attended the sixth annual
Pancreatic Cancer Advocacy
Day in Washington, D.C. By
far, the gathering drew the
largest crowd ever to attend
the event and demonstrated
to Congress the passion
and commitment of our
community.
As a result of the
combinedeffortsof Advocacy
Day and the National Call-In, our advocates reached all 100
U.S. Senators and 371 of the 435 U.S. Representatives either
through in-person meetings or on the phone.
In the days immediately following Advocacy Day,
several new co-sponsors signed onto the
Pancreatic Cancer
Research & Education Act
(
now known as the
Recalcitrant
Cancer Research Act
),
and dozens more signed "Dear
Colleague" letters that the bill authors sent to the Senate
HELP and House Energy & Commerce Committees urging
them to mark-up and pass the bill out of their respective
committees. Less than two months after the letters were
sent, both committees marked up the bill favorably and
referred it to the full House and Senate.
We hope you will join us for the seventh annual Pancreatic
Cancer Advocacy Day next year on June 17 - 18, 2013.
Registration opens in January 2013. For more information,
please visit
www.pancan.org/AdvocacyDay
.
RECORD ADVOCACY DAY ATTENDANCE MAKES
IMPACT ON CONGRESS