[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 161 (Thursday, December 15, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2551-E2552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 FURTHER CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 3010, DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH 
AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS 
                               ACT, 2006

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. SANDER M. LEVIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 14, 2005

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, this Labor, Health and Human Services, and 
Education Appropriations bill is a very flawed bill which would badly 
underfund health care, education, and social services critical to all 
Americans. Although I was unable to vote in favor of the bill, I do 
want to call attention to one bright spot.
  For the first time, the Congress has provided dedicated funding to 
educate women, their families, and their physicians about the risk 
factors and early warning signs of gynecologic cancer. Each year, tens 
of thousands of women die of gynecologic cancers that could have been 
treated had they been detected earlier. Ovarian cancer, the deadliest 
of the gynecologic cancers, has a survival rate of 80 to 90 percent if 
detected in Stage One or Stage Two and a survival rate of 20 percent or 
less in the late stages.
  Although only cervical cancer has a screening test reliable enough 
for routine use on

[[Page E2552]]

women without symptoms, gynecologic cancers have clear risk factors and 
early warning signs. A recent study found that almost 90 percent of 
women with early stage ovarian cancer had symptoms before being 
diagnosed. That's why public education is key--if women and their 
doctors know the risk factors and early signs, a specialist can use 
diagnostic tools to rule out cancer or detect it in the early stages.
  I first became aware of the tremendous opportunity for the federal 
government to save lives when I heard the story of one of my 
constituents. Johanna Silver Gordon was a health-conscious public 
school teacher who died of ovarian cancer after being diagnosed in a 
later stage--leaving friends, family, and students heartbroken that 
they and she had not known the early warning signs. Unfortunately, her 
story is all too common. I first heard Johanna's story from her sister, 
Sheryl, and I introduced legislation to create Johanna's Law, a 
national public education campaign to eradicate gynecologic cancer 
death. Thanks to Sheryl's work and that of thousands of other tireless 
cancer survivors, family members, and physicians, Johanna's Law has the 
support of a majority of the House of Representatives and provided the 
inspiration for the language in this bill.
  The language in this bill directs the Secretary of HHS and the Office 
of Women's Health to coordinate their education and outreach efforts on 
gynecologic cancers into a national public education campaign, focused 
on early detection. The bill provides $100,000 in dedicated resources, 
in addition to the resources HHS already has for cancer education. It 
is a small but important first step toward ensuring that what happened 
to Johanna does not happen to other women. I commend the conferees for 
its inclusion, and hope we can work in a bipartisan fashion to build 
upon this effort.
  I also want to commend my colleagues, Darrell Issa, Rosa DeLauro, and 
Kay Granger, who have worked tirelessly with me to promote Johanna's 
Law and raise awareness of gynecologic cancers. I hope we can continue 
to work together to build on this start.

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