[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 59 (Thursday, May 8, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4243-S4244]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. Mack, Mr. D'Amato, Mr. Reid, 
        and Mr. Johnson):

  S. 728. A bill to amend title IV of the Public Health Service Act to 
establish a Cancer Research Trust Fund for the conduct of biomedical 
research; to the Committee on Finance.


                  THE CANCER RESEARCH FUND ACT OF 1997

 Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today Senators Mack, D'Amato, 
Reid, and I are introducing a bill to give citizens two ways to 
contribute to the Nation's cancer research program. In connection with 
their annual tax return, taxpayers could make a tax deductible 
contribution for cancer research of not less than $1 and could check 
off or designate a contribution of not less than $1 from their tax 
refund owed them by the Government.
  The bill establishes a Cancer Research Trust Fund and directs the 
National Institutes of Health to use the funds for research on cancer. 
It prohibits expenditures from the fund if appropriations in any year 
for the NIH are less than the previous year so that these funds do not 
supplant appropriated funds.
  In fiscal 1997, the National Cancer Institute could only fund 26 
percent of grants received with appropriated funds. This approval rate 
dropped from 29 percent in 1996 and 32 percent in 1992. Under the 
President's budget request for fiscal 1998, the success rate is 
estimated to drop again, to 25 percent.
  While we do not have a specific estimate for how much our bill for 
cancer research would raise, a Federal tax checkoff for health research 
could raise $35 million in revenues for health research, if the average 
contribution were $2, according to Research America. If taxpayers gave 
$10, it would raise $410 million. Their study shows that the average 
contribution would be $23 and at that rate, $1.1 billion could be 
raised. In 1994, U.S. taxpayers contributed $25.7 million through State 
checkoffs.
  I believe Americans would be very willing to make a contribution to 
health research and using the tax return is a very easy way. Sixty 
percent of Americans say they would check off a box on the tax return 
for medical research. The median amount people are willing to designate 
is $23.
  Virtually everyone is touched by disease and has had some experience 
with incurable diseases. We all fear dreaded diseases. A May 1996 
California poll found that 59 percent of my constituents would pay an 
extra dollar a week in taxes to support medical research. An 
overwhelming 94 percent of Americans believe it is important that the 
United States maintains its role as a world leader in medical research 
and medical research takes second place only to national defense for 
tax dollar value.
  Cancer mortality has risen in the past half-century. By the year 
2000, cancer will overtake heart disease as the leading cause of death 
of Americans. Over 40 percent of Americans will develop cancer and over 
20 percent of us will die from cancers. Cancer is

[[Page S4244]]

causing twice as many deaths as in 1971. Cancer's total economic costs 
in 1995, according to the National Institutes of Health, came to $104 
billion.
  In my own State of California, in 1996, 125,800 new cases of cancer 
were diagnosed and 51,200 people died. The incidence of certain 
cancers, specifically cervical, stomach, and liver, is higher than 
national rates. The San Francisco area has some of the highest rates of 
breast cancer in the world. There are areas in my State, such as 
Alameda County, where prostate cancer incidence exceeds the national 
rate. In my State, African-American women have a 60-percent higher risk 
of developing cervical cancer than white women. Hispanic women have the 
highest risk of cervical cancer in my State. Asian-Americans in 
California are twice as likely to develop stomach cancer and five times 
more likely to develop liver cancer than whites.
  We have made great strides in understanding cancer, particularly the 
genetics of cancer and what makes a normal cell become a cancer cell. 
Because of research, cancer survival rates have increased for some 
cancers. But we cannot rest until we find a cure.
  The National Cancer Institute's bypass budget identifies five 
promising areas of research and with 74 percent of grants going 
unapproved, the scientific talent is there. As the National Cancer 
Advisory Board said in its 1994 report to Congress, ``Current 
investment is insufficient to capitalize on unprecedented opportunities 
in basic science research.'' Clearly additional funds can be well used 
by some of the world's leading cancer researchers.
  By introducing this bill, I do not believe giving taxpayers an 
opportunity to contribute to cancer research will or should be the 
mainstay of funding for our national war on cancer. Congress needs to 
continue increasing appropriations and I am disappointed that the 
President's fiscal year 1998 budget for the National Cancer Institute 
represents only a 2.5-percent increase over fiscal 1997. I hope we can 
do better and I pledge my help in doing that. To insure that these 
taxpayer contributions generated by this bill do not supplant 
Congressionally appropriated funds, the bill includes a provision that 
prohibits expenditures from the cancer research fund if appropriations 
in any year for the NIH are less than the previous year.
  Twenty-six years of research since the 1971 passage of the National 
Cancer Act has brought great progress, but some say that the war on 
cancer has really only been a skirmish. We must escalate that war, we 
must launch an armada of scientists, we must push vigorously ahead, we 
must find a cure for cancer. I hope this bill will help to escalate 
that battle.
                                 ______