[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 101 (Wednesday, July 10, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7670-S7671]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mrs. Boxer, Ms. Moseley-Braun and 
        Ms. Snowe):
  S. 1937. A bill to allow postal patrons to contribute to funding for 
breast-cancer research through the voluntary purchase of certain 
specially issued United States postage stamps; to the Committee on 
Governmental Affairs.


                  THE BREAST CANCER RESEARCH STAMP ACT

 Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I, along with Senators Boxer, 
Moseley-Braun, and Snowe would like to introduce the Breast Cancer 
Research Stamp Act.
  In a time of shrinking budgets and resources for breast cancer 
research, this legislation would provide an innovative way to provide 
additional funding for breast cancer research.
  This bill would: authorize the U.S. Postal Service to issue an 
optional special first class stamp to be priced at 1 cent above the 
cost of normal first-class postage; earmark a penny of every stamp for 
breast cancer research; provide administrative costs from the revenues 
for post office expenses; and clarify current law, that any similar 
stamp would require an act of Congress to be issued in the future.
  If only 10 percent of all the first class mail used this optional 33 
cent stamp, $60 million could be raised for breast cancer research 
annually.
  There is wide support for this legislation. Congressman Fazio, along 
with 62 cosponsors have already introduced the companion bill in the 
House.
  The breast cancer epidemic has been called this Nation's best kept 
secret. There are 2.6 million women in America today with breast 
cancer, 1 million of whom have yet to be diagnosed with the disease.
  In 1996, an estimated 184,000 will be diagnosed with, and 44,300 will 
die from, breast cancer. It is the No. 1 killer of women ages 40 to 44 
and the leading cause of cancer death in women ages 15 to 54, claiming 
a woman's life every 12 minutes in this country.
  For California, 17,100 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 
4,100 women will die from the disease in 1996.
  In addition to the cost of women's lives, the annual cost of 
treatment of beast cancer in the United States is approximately $10 
billion. This means the average American woman will have $5,000 added 
to her health care costs because of the disease.
  Over the last 25 years, the National Institutes of Health has spent 
over $31.5 billion on cancer research--$2 billion of that on breast 
cancer. In the last 6 years alone, appropriations for breast cancer 
research have risen from $90 million in 1990 to $600 million today. 
That is the good news.
  But, the bad news is that the national commitment to cancer research 
overall has been hamstrung since 1980. Currently, NIH is able to fund 
only 23 percent of applications received by all the institutes. For the 
Cancer Institute, only 23 percent can be funded--significant drop from 
the 60 percent of applications funded in the 1970's.
  Most alarming is the rapidly diminishing grant funding available for 
new researcher applicants.

[[Page S7671]]

  In real numbers, the National Cancer Institute will fund 
approximately 3,600 research projects, of which about 1,000 are new, 
previously unfunded activities. For investigator-initiated research, 
only 600 out of 1,900 research projects will be new.
  The United States is privileged to have some of the most talented 
scientists and many of the leading cancer research centers in the world 
such as UCLA, UC San Francisco, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, and the M.D. 
Anderson.
  This lack of funding is starving some of the most important 
research--because scientists will have to look elsewhere for their 
livelihood.
  The United States must reverse the trend of diminishing research 
funds if these scientists and institutions are to continue to 
contribute their vast talents to the war on cancer and finding a cure.
  What is clear is that there is a direct correlation between increases 
in research funding and the likelihood of finding a cure.
  Cancer mortality has declined by 15 percent from 1950 to 1992 due to 
increases in cancer research funding. In fact, federally funded cancer 
research has yielded vast amounts of knowledge about the disease--
information which is guiding our efforts to improve treatment and 
search for a cure. We have more knowledge and improvements in 
prevention through: identification of a cancer gene, use of 
mammographies, clinical exams, and encouragement of self breast exams. 
Yet there is still no cure.
  The Bay Area has one of the highest rates of breast cancer incidence 
and mortality in the world. According to data given to my staff by the 
Northern California Cancer Center, Bay Area white women have the 
highest reported breast cancer rate in the world, 104 per 100,000 
population. Bay Area African-American women have the fourth highest 
reported rate in the world at 82 per 100,000.
  I want to recognize Dr. Balazs (Ernie) Bodai who suggested this 
innovative funding approach. Dr. Bodai is the chief of the surgery 
department at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Sacramento, CA. He 
is the founder of Cure Cancer Now, which is a nonprofit organization 
committed to developing a funding source for breast cancer research.
  As you know, last week the Postal Service introduced their breast 
cancer awareness stamp. Although the issuance of the awareness stamp 
was an important step toward educating the public about the disease, 
the Breast Cancer Research Stamp Act is a new and different effort in 
that it would actually raise funds for the NIH research on breast 
cancer, and if the stamps were purchased and not used, the postal 
service would still make money.
  This legislation is also supported by the American Cancer Society, 
Association of Operating Room Nurses, California Health Collaborative 
Foundations, YWCA-Encore Plus, the Sacramento City Council and Mayor 
Joe Serna, Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, Sutter County Board of 
Supervisors, Nevada County Board of Supervisors, Yuba City Council, 
California State Senator Diane Watson and California State 
Assemblywoman Dede Alpert as well as the Public Employees Union, San 
Joaquin Public Employees Association, and Sutter and Yuba County 
Employees Association.
  Given the intense competition for Federal research funds in a climate 
of shrinking budgets, the Breast Cancer Research Stamp Act would allow 
anyone who uses the postal service to contribute in finding a cure for 
the breast cancer epidemic.
  In a sense, this particular proposal is a pilot. I recognize that the 
postal service may oppose this since it has not been done before. I 
also recognize that in a day of diminishing Federal resources, this 
innovation is an idea whose time has come.
  It will make money for the post office and for breast cancer 
research. No one is forced to buy it, but women's organizations may 
even wish to sell the stamps in a fundraising effort.
  The administrative costs can be handled with the 1 cent added on the 
32 cent stamp and conservatively it can make from $60 million per year 
for NIH's research on breast cancer.
  We need to find a cure for breast cancer and I believe the Breast 
Cancer Research Stamp Act is an innovative response to the hidden 
epidemic among women. I urge my colleagues to support this important 
legislation.
                                 ______