Bend cancer survivors and advocates travel to nation’s capital to urge Congress to take a stand in the fight against cancer
KTVZ
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – This week, more than 700 cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico, will unite in Washington, D.C., as part of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)’s annual Leadership Summit and Lobby Day.
In addition to meeting directly with lawmakers, advocates will also gather outside the U.S. Capitol to urge Congress to protect critical funding for cancer research and prevention.
Bend survivors and advocates will meet with Oregon’s Congressional delegation, including Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, to discuss the need to support federal funding for cancer research and prevention ahead of the September 30 deadline to pass a new federal budget.
In the last 30 years, substantial and steady increases in federal cancer research funding have fueled discovery and innovation that has led to a 34% decline in cancer mortality rates. However, future cancer cures are in jeopardy due to dramatic and unprecedented proposed reductions in research funding, staff eliminations, and policy shifts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The administration has recommended an $18 billion cut to the NIH, taking funding back to levels last seen in 2003, or back as far as the mid-1980s when considering biomedical inflation.
Thankfully, congressional committees have rejected these proposed cuts to NIH and NCI, but the fight is far from over. Lawmakers must continue to push for a spending bill for FY2026 that includes the highest possible increases for cancer research and prevention.
The advocates will also ask Congress to support the bipartisan Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act. This legislation would create a pathway for Medicare to cover new multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests once they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and clinical benefit is shown. MCEDs have the potential to test for multiple cancers at once with a single blood test.
Additionally, they will ask Oregon’s delegation to extend health care tax credits that help make health insurance more affordable for the nearly 112,000 Oregonians enrolled in exchange plans. If these tax credits are left to expire at the end of the year, affordable health insurance will be out of reach for many more Oregon residents next year.