Senate Committee Carves Out $135 Million Targeting Breast Cancer; Minimum Floor Guarantees Research Funds In Defense Spending Bill

WASHINGTON (June 4, 1998)  The Senate Appropriations Committee today approved a $135 million funding floor for breast cancer research in the FY 1999 defense funding bill.

The committee agreed to $250 million for health care research in the defense budget, and breast cancer research advocates  including Sen. Patrick Leahy, DVt.  successfully added a provision to establish a $135 million floor to guarantee a minimum level of funds for breast cancer research.  Leahy, a longtime leader in the fight against breast cancer, a disease which claims one woman every 11 minutes, applauded the committee's unanimous approval of the bill.

"With today's vote, we take another step toward finding a cure," said Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its Defense Subcommittee, which wrote the defense budget bill.   "We cannot win the war against breast cancer unless those on the front lines have the resources to do their job.  These research funds within the defense budget now have become a significant and dependable resource for beating this disease."

Beginning in Fiscal Year 1993, Leahy and other members of Congress and the breast cancer survivor community launched a crusade to earmark a portion of the defense budget for breast cancer research, just as the defense budget for years has included funds to combat prostate cancer, a disease that strikes men.  The bill approved today by the committee also set aside a portion of the $250 million for prostate cancer research.  If the $135 million approved by the committee is enacted into law, the sevenyear total secured for breast cancer research in the DOD budgets would top $872 million.

Last week Leahy addressed a breast cancer conference which examined Vermont's high incidence of breast cancer.  According to the latest study by the American Cancer Society, there are approximately 26.1 cases of breast cancer per 100,000 women in Vermont  a rate slightly lower than the national average but higher than in most other states.