Congressional Update
July 1, 2008

Congress has begun the Appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2009. The economic situation is definitely impacting this process, but thanks to all of the emails you have sent to Congress, we made some important progress in our fight to get more federal funding for pancreatic cancer research!

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (L-HHS) approved its FY 2009 bill, and sent it to the full committee with an increase of $170 million for the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The Senate version of the bill includes an increase of $154 million. While these increases are less than what we were hoping for, they are higher than House and Senate leadership’s initial projections. In a bill that funds many critical needs, this increase again demonstrates the level of support Congress has for cancer research.

The REALLY BIG news is that the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have heard our cries for more federal attention to pancreatic cancer research and have written instructions in the L-HHS bill to the NCI to make pancreatic cancer research a higher priority. Each year, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees include a report that serves as a guidance manual for the entities getting funded of how Congress would like to see the funding spent. While we have had language requesting that the NCI make pancreatic cancer a higher priority in the past, your collective communications have helped Congress realize that more needs to be done. Thanks to the work of our House and Senate champions (Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) - Chair of the Senate L-HHS Appropriations Committee; Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) – Ranking Member of the L-HHS Appropriations Committee; Senator Patty Murray (D-WA); Representative David Obey (D-WI) - Chair of the House Appropriations Committee and the L-HHS Subcommittee; and Representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA); and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) this year’s report included the strongest language Congress has ever used to indicate their interest in seeing pancreatic cancer research move forward. Please see below to read the House and Senate language.

We still have a long way go before the FY 2009 appropriations process is complete, but these are good first steps. There is strong Congressional support for cancer research, but it takes hearing from grassroots advocates to motivate Congress to act on that support.

To learn how you can help us in these efforts, please click here.

Senate Version
Pancreatic Cancer.—The Committee notes that less than 2 percent of NCI's budget is devoted to pancreatic cancer research, even though this form of cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer-related death. The Committee strongly urges the NCI to assign more resources to launch a pancreatic cancer-specific research and training initiative, including the establishment of a prioritized research plan that includes exception funding for grants that are pancreatic cancer focused, strengthening and expanding the SPOREs, and instituting training mechanisms designed to stimulate clinical and translational career development. The Committee expects the NCI to be prepared to provide a detailed accounting of resources targeted principally on pancreatic cancer research before the fiscal year 2010 budget hearing.

House Version
Pancreatic Cancer.—The Committee is concerned that NCI has implemented only a small fraction of the 39 recommendations to improve pancreatic cancer research that were contained in the 2001 "Pancreatic Cancer: An Agenda for Action." The Committee encourages NCI to launch a pancreatic cancer-specific research and training initiative, including the establishment of a prioritized research plan, to strengthen the Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs), and to institute training mechanisms designed to stimulate clinical and translational career development. Prior to release of the 2010 budget, the Committee requests a report on concrete steps taken by NCI to implement these recommendations, including a detailed accounting of resources targeted to pancreatic cancer research.