Supporting The Goal Of Eliminating Suffering And Death Due To Cancer ByThe Year 2015
SUPPORTING THE GOAL OF ELIMINATING SUFFERING AND DEATH DUE TO CANCER BY THE YEAR 2015 -- (House of Representatives - September 19, 2006)
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I support the goal of ending suffering and death by cancer by the year 2015 as set forth in this resolution. It is certainly a commendable goal; and, of course, I support the resolution.
But what is Congress doing to set up programs and strategic plans to make that goal a reality? For example, the National Cancer Institute has focused the fight against cancer on eight strategic objectives, including: First, understanding the causes and mechanisms of cancer; second, accelerating the progress in cancer prevention; third, improving early detection and diagnosis; fourth, developing effective and efficient treatment; fifth, understanding the factors that influence cancer outcomes; sixth, improving the quality of cancer care; seventh, improving the quality of life for cancer patients, survivors and their families; and, eighth, overcoming cancer health disparities.
That is the National Cancer Institute. That is what they are focusing on. Congress, on the other hand, is doing little to help this fight. A resolution I would say is mere talk and does not actually take action to fight cancer.
I think Congress has choices right now, and instead of passing this resolution, we should, for example, increase funding for NIH's cancer research, fund real stem cell research supported by the scientific community, fund the Department of Defense's breast cancer research program, and probably most important, expand health coverage to the 46 million Americans that do not have it today. Three times as many people have lost health insurance as jobs since the Bush administration has come to power. Without health coverage, early detection and treatment are almost impossible.
There are many cancers that can be cured today, such as cervical, breast and prostate cancer, but without health insurance, access to early detection or follow-up treatment it is almost impossible for the many hard-working people across this country.
This year alone, Madam Speaker, cancer will claim the lives of 570,000 Americans, that is 1,500 per day, almost half of those that gave their lives on September 11. In addition, 1.3 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2005 alone.
Again, the goal of this resolution is good. I support it, but we should be on the floor today supporting legislative action, not a resolution to help everyone suffering from or touched by cancer. As much as I support this resolution, I think that a lot more needs to be done that is not being addressed today by this Republican majority.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I would just say that, again, while the Democrats support this resolution, we are very concerned over the fact that it is essentially commemorative in nature and it does not do anything in terms of funding or addressing any of the problems that have been outlined by the National Cancer Institute in order to move forward and eliminate cancer by the year 2015. So while we think it is a good resolution and we do support it, we need to point out that the Republican majority is essentially doing nothing to implement a strategy that would actually lead us to the eradication of cancer.
Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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