Our voices were heard!
We have cleared the first important hurdle to restoring and securing $20 million in federal funding for lung cancer research.
Today, the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense passed its fiscal year 2021 Bill that funds the Lung Cancer Research Program (LCRP), within the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. Included in the funding is the full allocation of $20 million for lung cancer research. This action sets in motion processes to pass the bill in the House of Representatives and move it to the Senate for approval.
This action comes on the heels of our recent Virtual Lung Cancer Voices Summit, held on June 15–16 that united hundreds of lung cancer advocates across the country. Our collective call to action demanded that Congress increase federal funding for lung cancer research—a core policy priority for GO2 for Lung Cancer for the past 13 years.
Some background.
The Lung Cancer Research Program was first established in 2009 with $20 million in federal funding. Each year, we’ve worked with the Congressional Lung Cancer Caucus and advocates to fund this program. Although it received annual appropriations from Congress, they have been at levels below the original allocation. The program has had a total of $155.5 million in funding over the past ten years (FY09-FY20), making it the largest lung cancer research program – public or private – outside of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
With today’s actions, the funding level for FY21 restores the LCRP to its original level of $20 million – a 40% increase above last year, which would bring the total combined funding to $175.5 million, if this level is retained through the next steps of congressional actions.
Thank you!
GO2 for Lung Cancer thanks every advocate who elevated their voice to achieve this important outcome. We also extend a special thank you to Congressmen Brendan Boyle (D-PA) and John Rutherford (R-FL), co-chairmen of the Lung Cancer Caucus, for their leadership and support for our cause. They organized a bi-partisan group of more than 40 additional congressional leaders to sign a letter of support for this increased funding. Our combined efforts will lead to improved outcomes for all of those impacted by lung cancer.
What happens now?
The next step in the legislative process will be for the FY21 Department of Defense funding bill to be considered by the full House Appropriations Committee. When approved by both the House and the Senate, it will then be sent to the President for signature.
Your voice makes a difference!
Yes, there are many more legislative steps to go, but our voices are only getting louder. You can notify your congressional representatives about the need to support this critical funding for lung cancer research. We’ve made it easy, just click here and send a message today.
Be assured that we will be monitoring this funding every step of the way until our goal is reached. Whatever it takes. Whatever the need. We get it done together.
Bonnie Laurie
Co-Founder, Board Chair Co-Founder, President and CEO
BRAVO! We did it. Let’s keep fighting the good fight.
I sent this to Congressman Jeff Van Drew , Senator’s Cory Booker and Menendez of New Jersey!!I sent it in the format provided in your email with the good news, our voices were heard !!Here is my story!
Hello , Today I’m a proud New Jerseyan! I was born and raised outside of Philadelphia! I was the youngest of a family of 4. My father worked in the insurance business in Ft. Washington Pa. My Mother was a school teacher! I have 4 grown children and 8 grandkids!
My Cancer Journey started in 2012 at 49 yrs old! I was a Single mom and a nurse! I was not a smoker.I had a chronic cough that was treated for months like your everyday cold and cough. I went to a Pulmonary specialist in NJ. He sent me for a Cat Scan. I went back a week later and he said he saw a ground glass opacity in my left lung. I had been working as a nurse so I knew that wasn’t a good thing! He referred me to
U Penn. for a consult with the tumor board. You can imagine my thoughts about this! I was scared! The Thoracic surgeon decided the best way to take care of this would be a Thoracotomy to remove the upper left lobe of my lung! My youngest daughter drove in from KY. to help with my recovery! Following that I would go for quarterly ck. ups with no further treatment!!
I went 5 years being NED ! Then it started again I went from stage 1 NSCLC to stage IV by 2019!
I had 5 grandkids and had to drive back and forth from Mays Landing NJ to Philadelphia for SBRT everyday for 4 weeks !My cancer progressed from that point it became metastatic to both lungs and lymph nodes! I decided to seek a second opinion at Memorial Sloan Kettering! I was diagnosed with a mutation EGFR in which a targeted therapy was approved in a pill! I could take it in the comforts of my home instead of schlepping to the cancer center everyday! I’ve been taking this since April 2019 and am happy to say all the recent testing shows my cancer is stable not gone its decreasing! What if this story was your sister, mother, wife ,daughter or brother, husband , father or grandparents or your ? Wouldn’t you insist that everything that could possibly be done to advance the funding for research to prevent this from happening to another family ?
Cancer doesn’t just impact the patient…
It becomes a family disease!
This is why it’s so important to have the bill passed to increase the funding for LCRA to $20 million which isn’t nearly enough!!!
P.S please don’t forget that Lung cancer is the # 1 killer of men and women! I hope you can help with this request!!
Thank you for your attention it’s so crucial!
Best regards,
Valerie Brown
As a person with a beloved relative (never smoked!) fighting lung cancer I strongly urge you to properly fund this research. It is overdue and will benefit us all.
I am beyond excited to hear this. We are so very close to making some forms of cancer (lung being one of them) a chronic if not cureable disease. We just need the continuing research dollars.