[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 95 (Thursday, July 16, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H5728-H5729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE LAURIE BEECHMAN MEMORIAL ACT, BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION TO HELP DEFEAT 
                             OVARIAN CANCER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fox) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to discuss 
important legislation which I filed this week which really makes a 
difference in the lives of women across the country. I speak of the 
Laurie Beechman Memorial Act. Together with legislation I have worked 
on with the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Patsy Mink), our legislation 
is a brave, new, ambitious attempt to eradicate ovarian cancer in our 
lifetime.
  Together with the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink) and others, we 
have introduced legislation to increase by $90 million per year money 
for a cure for ovarian cancer.
  Up until this point, Mr. Speaker, ovarian cancer is not detected in 
any early stages, and of course, therefore, it makes it more difficult 
for us to keep the patient alive and to have a cure.
  The Laurie Beechman Memorial Act will have two facets, in addition to 
the research. It will have an Information and Education Act, which will 
increase funding for educational and outreach programs, including those 
which provide information to both the person

[[Page H5729]]

with the illness as well as their family, and will provide $10 million 
annually from 1999 through 2003 for the purpose of this outreach 
program.
  Mr. Speaker, ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer 
death among U.S. women. It is treatable when detected early, but the 
vast majority of cases, as I said, are not diagnosed until it is too 
late. Raising public awareness of ovarian cancer by educating doctors 
and women about the disease can save lives and will save lives. More 
ovarian cancer research is needed to develop reliable diagnostics, 
better therapies, and to learn how to prevent the disease.
  We named the act after someone in my district who was famous all over 
this country. Laurie Hope Beechman died on March 8, 1998, after a 9-
year struggle with ovarian cancer. Her parents and sisters reside in my 
district.
  She grew up in the Delaware Valley in Pennsylvania, and moved on to a 
brilliant career on the Broadway stage in New York, in productions 
including Annie and the Pirates of Penzance and Les Miserables. She was 
nominated for a Tony award as the first female narrator in Andrew Lloyd 
Webber's Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.
  Besides all her outstanding work in the theater and acting, she was a 
great human being and a wonderful wife, sister and daughter, someone 
who really made a difference in this world. She approached with dignity 
and grace her career, her life work here on earth, and her disease, 
with the kind of special sensitivity and courage that she faced all of 
life.
  So this legislation we have filed is in dedication to Laurie 
Beechman, in hopes that we will find a cure, and we will save more 
women's live in the United States because of passage of this important 
legislation.

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