[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 118 (Thursday, July 17, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S6931]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CONQUER CHILDHOOD CANCER ACT

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I am very pleased by the Senate's actions 
last night to pass bipartisan legislation that I introduced, the 
Conquer Childhood Cancer Act.
  Recently, through the leadership of Representative Pryce, the House 
passed its version of this legislation by an overwhelming vote of 416-
0. The bill was renamed after Representative Pryce's daughter, Caroline 
Pryce Walker, who died of neuroblastoma at a young age.
  Ben Haight of Rhode Island also died of neuroblastoma. But Caroline 
and Ben shared more than this terrible disease. They inspired their 
families to turn tragedy into hope. They and others also inspired many 
of us in Congress to work on this legislation.
  The bill invests $30 million a year to expand pediatric cancer 
research. It also creates a national childhood cancer registry to track 
pediatric cancer. Researchers would be able to contact patients within 
weeks, enroll them in research studies, and follow up with them over 
time. In Europe, similar registries are already yielding results to 
research questions.
  Again, I am pleased that our many efforts to overcome objections to 
the bill have finally succeeded, and that the bill is on its way to the 
President's desk to be signed into law.

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