Reprint of Us Too August 4, 2002 Prostate Cancer News You Can Use
URGENT CALL TO ACTION
Tell the White House to Release the Budget for the Congressionally Required
Five-Year Prostate Cancer Research Plan
Background
From 1994 to 1998, the NIH (National Institutes of Health) commitment to prostate cancer research increased about $44 million, from $69.2 million to $113.6 million. From 1998 to 2002 it increased about $249 million, from $113.6 million to nearly $362.1 million. Over the past five years, about $1.2 billion has been generated for prostate cancer research.
What Happened?
In 1998, Congress recognized that prostate cancer research had been under-funded relative to disease burden and required the NIH to submit a five-year research strategy and budget to fast-track discovery of new treatments. The directors of the NIH and NCI submitted a plan and a budget for a five year period, FY 99-FY03.
What's Going On Now?
Now that the original five-year plan for prostate cancer research is expiring, Congress has asked the NIH to submit a new plan for the period FY04-FY08. This plan was due this past April but has yet to be submitted.
This time, however, the Bush Administration has directed the agencies to submit the plan without a budget. NIH is expected to send its plan to Congress within the next two weeks. Without a responsible budget, the plan is no more than an ideological commitment. There is no accountability to the government to increase spending levels in conjunction with scientific advancement - crippling progress in prostate cancer research. You can't run a business without a budget. You can't implement an idea without resources.
What Should YOU Do?
Please FAX and/or e-mail a letter (a sample with key points is printed below) immediately to:
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Phone: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
e-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
and
Mr. Karl Rove
Senior Adviser to the President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Phone: 202-456-2369
FAX: 202-456-2461
Tell your friends and family to visit http://63.66.87.48/entry.cfm?orgcode=USTOO
and you can automatically create (cut and past permitted) and
immediately email the president concerning the Five-Year Plan.
Here is a sample letter that covers the key points that you can easily cut and paste:
Dear Mr. President,
The new five year prostate cancer research plan needs a budget. That's what Congress asked for; that's what a business plan requires. Please make sure the Administration releases the budget to allow NIH and NCI to present it to Congress with the new five-year plan in early August.
Prostate cancer remains under-funded. It is America's most commonly diagnosed non-skin cancer and the second leading cause of male cancer death. Yet, over the past decade, it has received slightly more than five cents of every federal dollar dedicated to cancer research. Breast cancer receives about twice as many dollars, HIV/AIDS research about five times as many dollars. Advancing the fight against prostate cancer should follow the powerful example set by breast cancer and AIDS - it starts with the funding.
To illustrate the power of a solid research investment: AIDS deaths have continued to plummet. In 1980, at the beginning of the epidemic, it was estimated that there could be up to a half-million deaths by 2000. Now there are about 11,000 annually.
You can't win the battle against prostate cancer without human and fiscal capital. Before prostate cancer research funding started to accelerate, one of this nation's great young investigators, Dr. Jonathan Simons, now director of the Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta, called a career in research "professional suicide." That sentiment is changing, so let's not turn the clock back.
