Leahy Uses Defense Bill To Advance Breast Cancer Research; Brings SixYear Total Won By Leahy and Allies to $737.5 Million

WASHINGTON (Sept. 29, 1998)  For the sixth year in a row, Sen. Patrick Leahy successfully secured critical funding for breast cancer research in the annual Department of Defense funding bill.

Beginning in 1992, Leahy and his allies in Congress and the breast cancer survivor community have led 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 affects men.  In the new fiscal year 1998 defense spending bill, Leahy worked to secure another $135 million earmark for breast cancer research.  This year's funding brings the sixyear total to $737.5 million designated for breast cancer research in the last six defense spending bills.

Leahy is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its Defense Subcommittee which wrote the overall defense budget bill.  The defense appropriations measure passed the Senate Sept. 25 and heads next to the President's desk for his expected approval.

"Research and development continue to be our best hope for finding a cure to this terrible disease," Leahy said.  "Current statistics show that one out of every eight women will contract breast cancer sometime in their lives.  We must find a cure to breast cancer and we must do all we can to find it fast.  We have taken encouraging steps in recent years, and this research funding puts us one step closer to finding a cure."

The money will be used to fund the peerreviewed breast cancer research program, which takes an innovative and exploratory look into the biology of breast cancer.  Recent studies have concluded that genetics may play an important role in detecting the disease as well as revealing other information regarding the basic mechanism of cancer cells.

The National Breast Cancer Coalition has recognized Leahy for his efforts to fight breast cancer.  In May, the Coalition presented a congressional award to Leahy for an unprecedented fifth year in a row.  Leahy is the only member of Congress to win the award every year since its inception.

Pat Barr, who is from Bennington and is the Grassroots Coordinator for the Coalition, cheered the news.   "Once again Pat Leahy has taken the lead to ensure that critical research to find a cure for breast cancer proceeds at a brisk pace.  Breast cancer survivors throughout Vermont and the country owe a debt of gratitude for his work."

David W. Yandell, Director of the Vermont Cancer Center in Burlington, also applauded the news.  "The funds made available through the DOD program have had a huge impact on the field of breast cancer research because the program is specifically targeted toward research with immediate relevance to human disease," Yandell said.  "There is nothing abstract about the goal — the goal is to eradicate breast cancer."

Vermont and other Northeast and MidAtlantic states have higher rates of breast cancer than other regions, and Leahy and Rep. Bernard Sanders in 1993 chartered a study, now underway, to find out why.