[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1197 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1197

To provide for the establishment of a Commission to Accelerate the End 
                           of Breast Cancer.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 2, 2015

Ms. Castor of Florida (for herself and Mrs. Ellmers of North Carolina) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                          Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide for the establishment of a Commission to Accelerate the End 
                           of Breast Cancer.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Accelerating the End of Breast 
Cancer Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    The table of contents of this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
Sec. 3. Findings.
Sec. 4. Establishment.
Sec. 5. Mission; duties.
Sec. 6. Membership.
Sec. 7. Chairperson and commissioners.
Sec. 8. Coordination and nonduplication.
Sec. 9. Evaluation of the commission.
Sec. 10. Termination.

SEC. 3. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) In the United States, the chance of a woman developing 
        breast cancer during her lifetime has increased from 1 in 11 in 
        1975 to 1 in 8 today.
            (2) Worldwide, breast cancer is the most frequently 
        diagnosed cancer in women with 1.7 million new cancer cases 
        diagnosed in 2012. Breast cancer is also one of the leading 
        causes of cancer death in women, with 522,000 women dying from 
        the disease worldwide in 2012, a 14 percent increase since 
        2008.
            (3) More than 90 percent of deaths from breast cancer are 
        caused by metastasis, when breast cancer has spread to other 
        organs or bone.
            (4) In 2010, the National Cancer Institute estimated that 
        breast cancer care in the United States cost $16.5 billion and 
        cost the Nation $12.1 billion in lost productivity. It is 
        projected that, with no changes, the cost of breast cancer care 
        will rise to at least $20.9 million in 2020.
            (5) Very little has improved in terms of breast cancer 
        incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates over the past 40 
        years.

SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT.

    The President shall establish a commission to be known as the 
Commission to Accelerate the End of Breast Cancer (in this Act referred 
to as the ``the Commission'').

SEC. 5. MISSION; DUTIES.

    (a) Mission.--The mission of the Commission shall be to help end 
breast cancer by January 1, 2020.
    (b) Duties.--The Commission shall--
            (1) identify opportunities and ideas within government and 
        the private sector that are key components in achieving the end 
        of breast cancer and which have been overlooked, yet are ripe 
        for collaboration and investment, and
            (2) recommend projects to leverage such opportunities and 
        ideas in the areas of--
                    (A) the primary prevention of breast cancer; and
                    (B) the causes and prevention of breast cancer 
                metastasis.
    (c) Means.--In carrying out the duties described in subsection (b), 
the Commission shall--
            (1) identify revolutionary opportunities and ideas in 
        fundamental and applied sciences and epidemiology with a focus 
        on ending breast cancer;
            (2) identify timely opportunities and scientific 
        discoveries which can be turned into real world strategies to 
        prevent breast cancer and prevent breast cancer metastasis and 
        deaths;
            (3) promote ideas that are intellectually compelling, 
        innovative, and imaginative;
            (4) accelerate potential transformational scientific 
        advances--
                    (A) not being prioritized within the Federal 
                Government, but which can help to achieve the mission 
                described in subsection (a); and
                    (B) unlikely to be achieved by the private sector 
                due to technical and financial uncertainty;
            (5) identify promising, underdeveloped areas of research 
        that would benefit from a cluster of government, industry, and 
        academia forming innovation communities to rapidly advance 
        knowledge into practice, while creating new opportunities for 
        job creation and advancement;
            (6) identify opportunities for transdisciplinary cross-
        cutting collaborations; and
            (7) identify opportunities for seed grants to leverage 
        identified opportunities and ideas.
    (d) Strategic Vision.--Not later than 6 months after the 
appointment of the initial members of the Commission, the Commission 
shall submit to the President and the relevant authorizing and 
appropriations committees of the Congress a description of the 
Commission's strategic vision for making progress in achieving the 
mission described in subsection (a) by January 1, 2020.
    (e) Annual Reports.--The Commission shall submit an annual report 
to the President, the Congress, and the public describing the 
Commission's activities under this section, including its progress in 
achieving the mission described in subsection (a).

SEC. 6. MEMBERSHIP.

    (a) Number; Appointment.--The Commission shall be composed of not 
more than 10 members, of which--
            (1) not more than 8 shall be appointed by the President;
            (2) 1 shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of 
        Representatives; and
            (3) 1 shall be appointed by the majority leader of the 
        Senate.
    (b) Composition.--
            (1) In general.--Each member of the Commission shall be 
        appointed to represent one of the following 3 categories:
                    (A) Representatives of varied disciplines within 
                the biomedical research field.
                    (B) Representatives of varied disciplines outside 
                of the biomedical research field.
                    (C) Educated patient advocates, meaning individuals 
                who--
                            (i) represent a patient-led, patient-
                        centered organization with a patient 
                        constituency;
                            (ii) have been personally affected by 
                        breast cancer; and
                            (iii) are trained, knowledgeable, and 
                        prepared to participate in the decisionmaking 
                        process of science and medicine.
            (2) Representation of membership categories.--Of the 
        members of the Commission--
                    (A) at least 1 but not more than 3 shall be 
                appointed to represent the category described in 
                paragraph (1)(A);
                    (B) at least 1 but not more than 3 shall be 
                appointed to represent the category described in 
                paragraph (1)(B); and
                    (C) at least 2 but not more than 4 shall be 
                appointed to represent the category described in 
                paragraph (1)(C).
    (c) Initial Members.--The initial members of the Commission shall 
be appointed not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of 
this Act.
    (d) Terms.--
            (1) In general.--Each member of the Commission shall be 
        appointed for a term of 3 years and may be reappointed.
            (2) Vacancies.--Any member of the Commission appointed to 
        fill a vacancy occurring before the expiration of the term for 
        which the member's predecessor was appointed shall be appointed 
        only for the remainder of that term. A member may serve after 
        the expiration of that member's term until a successor has 
        taken office. A vacancy in the Commission shall be filled in 
        the manner in which the original appointment was made.
    (e) Quorum.--Three members of the Commission shall constitute a 
quorum.

SEC. 7. CHAIRPERSON AND COMMISSIONERS.

    (a) Chairperson.--
            (1) Designation.--Of the members of the Commission 
        appointed under section 6(a), the President shall at the time 
        of appointment, designate one to serve as Chairperson of the 
        Commission.
            (2) Qualifications.--The Chairperson shall be an individual 
        who, by reason of professional background and experience, is 
        especially qualified to manage areas of study pertaining to 
        ending breast cancer by January 1, 2020.
            (3) Responsibilities.--The responsibilities of the 
        Chairperson shall include--
                    (A) approving all new study projects and areas of 
                study of the Commission based on innovation, impact, 
                and scientific and technical merit;
                    (B) developing criteria (including milestones) for 
                assessing, and overseeing assessment of, the success of 
                the study projects and areas of study of the 
                Commission;
                    (C) identifying opportunities for seed grants and 
                other funding through awards, prizes, grants, and 
                contracts to achieve the mission described in section 
                5(a); and
                    (D) terminating study projects and areas of study 
                of the Commission that are not achieving the mission 
                described in section 5(a).
    (b) Commissioners.--
            (1) In general.--The Chairperson of the Commission may 
        appoint members of the Commission to oversee one or more areas 
        of study of the Commission.
            (2) Responsibilities.--A member appointed under paragraph 
        (1) shall, with respect to one or more areas of study, be 
        responsible for--
                    (A) recommending novel proposals, projects, and 
                collaborations based on scientific and technical merit 
                to achieve the mission described in section 5(a) with a 
                focus on strategies for the primary prevention of 
                breast cancer, and methods to prevent breast cancer 
                metastasis;
                    (B) identifying ideas and opportunities to achieve 
                the mission described in section 5(a) that are 
                intellectually compelling, innovative, and imaginative, 
                including such ideas and opportunities not being 
                prioritized for breast cancer relevance within Federal 
                agencies or programs or the private sector;
                    (C) working with other relevant Federal agencies to 
                identify areas of concurrent interests in order to 
                maximize Federal investment and stimulate collaborative 
                projects;
                    (D) identifying opportunities for 
                transdisciplinary, cross-cutting collaborations; and
                    (E) monitoring the progress of study projects and 
                areas of study and recommending restructure or 
                termination.

SEC. 8. COORDINATION AND NONDUPLICATION.

    To the maximum extent practicable, the Commission shall ensure that 
the activities of the Commission are coordinated with, and do not 
duplicate the efforts of, programs and laboratories of other government 
agencies.

SEC. 9. EVALUATION OF THE COMMISSION.

    (a) In General.--The President shall seek to enter into an 
agreement with the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of 
Sciences under which the Institute, after the Commission has been in 
operation for 3 years, completes an evaluation of how well the 
Commission is making progress towards achieving the mission described 
in section 5(a).
    (b) Inclusions.--The evaluation under subsection (a) shall 
include--
            (1) a recommendation on whether the Commission should be 
        continued or terminated; and
            (2) a description of lessons learned from operation of the 
        Commission.
    (c) Availability.--On completion of the evaluation under subsection 
(a), the Commission shall make the evaluation available to the Congress 
and the public.

SEC. 10. TERMINATION.

    The Commission shall terminate on June 1, 2020.
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