President Signs Bill for Medical Research

Last week President George W. Bush signed a bill that provides funding for most federal spending, including medical research for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2007.

While most programs saw their funding stay the same or get cut medical research was one of the few to come out ahead. Although the president just signed the FY07 funding bill, work began on it in early 2006. The final bill provides an additional $620 million to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and an additional $43 million to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) over Fiscal Year 2006 levels. According to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) literature, it is a testament to the power of the cancer advocacy community, including pancreatic cancer advocates that PanCAN was able to achieve this important step.

PanCAN wrote 6,358 emails to Congress and got results: Congress agreed to increase the amount of funding that would be available for cancer research.

A rep from PanCAN national headquarters said they are looking forward to building on their successes, in particular with the launch of their own Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Lobby Day April 24th in Washington, D.C.

"This will be an exciting event and a fantastic opportunity to meet other pancreatic cancer advocates from across the country. During Lobby Day we will talk to members of Congress about the need to increase pancreatic cancer research funding and awareness of pancreatic cancer," said the rep. "Advocacy Coordinators within our TeamHOPE Affiliates develop relationships with elected officials in their home districts and help us get the word out when important Action Alerts are issued."

To get in touch with the Advocacy Coordinator in your local TeamHOPE Affiliate, contact their office at volunteer@pancan.org.

"Whether or not the position has been filled locally, we are always looking for advocates to join the ranks of our affiliate," states a PanCAN press release. "We have already begun working with Congress on federal funding for Fiscal Year 2008. The President's budget was released in early February with a proposed cut of $11 million for the National Cancer Institute and Congress has begun developing their own budget plan."

TeamHOPE Texas in Fort Worth participated Feb. 10th and 11th in the NBC 5 HealthFit Expo, having a booth and passing out information to increase awareness of pancreatic cancer and PanCAN.

"I learned we now have PanCAN affiliates across the country participating in their health fairs across the USA," said Virginia Griffin, TeamHOPE Texas Volunteer Coordinator. "We also had a meeting of the folks in the Dallas area Feb. 10th and it was great to see such interest in getting a Dallas coordinator and activity going on there as well."

Griffin said for those in the Fort Worth area the local chapter is hoping to set up a time for a meeting of those who could participate in activities they are working on or are willing to be on the committee.

For information, email vgriffin@pancan.org.