[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 171 (Thursday, October 1, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H5119-H5120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Indiana (Mrs. Brooks) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, October is Breast Cancer 
Awareness Month, so it is fitting that I rise today in support of H.R. 
4078, the EARLY Act Reauthorization, which passed the House earlier 
this week. I am honored to have co-led this bipartisan legislation with 
my good friend, colleague, and breast cancer survivor, Representative 
Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
  This is an important public health bill to ensure that young women 
throughout the United States understand the importance of breast health 
and the value of regular breast cancer screenings.
  This bipartisan bill raises public awareness about breast health and 
educates healthcare providers to encourage early detection of breast 
cancer. It also supports initiatives and research to help identify 
high-risk women by collecting family histories and educating patients 
about early warning signs.
  These programs are vitally important. We all know the statistics. One 
in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast 
cancer over her lifetime, and many women with breast cancer typically 
have no symptoms.
  This disease has taken far too many of our loved ones. In 2017, 
breast cancer was the number one most diagnosed cancer type in the 
United States and the number two most deadly.
  Earlier this year, I lost a very dear friend to this terrible 
disease, Judy Christofilis. She and I had volunteered in the Junior 
League in Indianapolis over 20 years ago. She was a successful 
accountant, a pillar of the Indianapolis community, and, above all, a 
dedicated philanthropist.
  She was on the board of the Indianapolis Day Nursery, Indiana's 
oldest and largest early childhood education nonprofit. She was 
extremely active in the Junior League of Indianapolis and the 
Indianapolis Art Center.
  But in the last decade of her life, when she was battling breast 
cancer, she was a founding member of the Indianapolis American Cancer 
Society Guild and served as its treasurer. The guild's mission is to 
support the central Indiana office of the American Cancer Society by 
generating awareness, raising funds, and providing support for 
community outreach programs to achieve the shared goal of savings lives 
by helping people stay well, get well, find cures, and fight back.

                              {time}  1015

  This mission epitomizes Judy's fight against breast cancer. She 
battled metastatic breast cancer for more than a decade. Her 
resilience, and spirit, served as an inspiration to me and so many 
others in our community.
  Her story is just a reminder of why breast cancer screening is 
vitally important, and it is often the best and only way to identify 
this cancer in its earliest stages. Women--even young women--are 
susceptible to this deadly disease, which is why regular breast 
screenings are so crucially important.
  Our bill reauthorizes the program through fiscal year 2024, and it 
funds CDC programs to identify gaps in education and awareness, 
particularly among young women and healthcare providers. It supports 
young survivors through grants to organizations focused on helping them 
cope with the many unique challenges they face as young women and in 
implementing a targeted media campaign to reach young and higher-risk 
women.
  The science is clear: Early detection is the single most effective 
way to stop these cancers before they become deadly.
  In my very last conversation with Judy before she passed away in 
March of this year, she asked me to keep up the fight for all people 
battling cancer. This bill, in large part, for me, is dedicated to my 
very dear, close friend Judy Christofolis. She truly is one of my 
heroes.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge our Senate colleagues to pass this important bill 
this month during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

[[Page H5120]]

  



                       U.S. Center for SafeSport

  Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pass S. 
2330, the Empowering Olympic Paralympic and Amateur Athletes Act of 
2020.
  This bill is the result of several years of work that began in 2016. 
Indiana's very own Indianapolis Star broke the story about former USA 
Gymnastics' team doctor, Larry Nassar's abuse of athletes under his 
care. Several years have passed since Dr. Nassar went to prison, but 
Congress has continued to work to ensure this kind of abuse never 
happens again.
  In 2017, I led the charge in the House to address the horrible 
situation by introducing the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse 
Act. I was grateful to see it pass the House and see it get signed into 
law.
  That law established the U.S. Center for SafeSport as the entity 
responsible for developing policies that all U.S. Olympic governing 
bodies must implement to better protect their athletes and, most 
critically, the center was charged with investigating claims of abuse 
against amateur U.S. athletes.
  The center has received hundreds of claims they are responsible for 
investigating. And, today, with the passage of this bill later today, 
we will help ensure they will be able to fulfill that mandate.
  When it was originally conceived, the center was not provided a 
steady revenue stream, but today S. 2330 will require the U.S. Olympic 
and Paralympic Committee to provide direct funding to the U.S. Center 
for SafeSport to guarantee it stays committed to protecting athletes.
  This reform, along with many others included in Empowering Olympic, 
Paralympic, and Amateur Athletes Act, will bring much-needed further 
reform to ensure our young athletes will not have to suffer at the 
hands of another in their quest for gold.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this measure.

                          ____________________