[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8922]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      H.R. 2231, THE BREAST CANCER AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. GWEN MOORE

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 19, 2006

  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand with the 
National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) and the 3 million women living 
with breast cancer in the country today, and urge my colleagues to push 
for passage of the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act (H.R. 
2231) by the end of this year.
  Too many mothers, daughters, wives, and sisters are dying from breast 
cancer and we will not end this disease until we find out what causes 
it. H.R. 2231 would go a long way towards finding out what causes 
breast cancer and how to prevent it.
  It is generally believed that the environment plays some role in the 
development of breast cancer, but the extent of that role is not fully 
understood. More research needs to be done in this area since it has 
been understudied in the past.
  H.R. 2231 would authorize $30 million per year for 5 years for the 
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to award grants to 
study the relationship between environmental factors and breast cancer. 
The targeted research holds the promise for a better understanding of 
the causes of breast cancer, breakthroughs in prevention and treatment, 
and ultimately perhaps a cure.
  Furthermore, this bill would create a new mechanism for environmental 
health research, and provide a unique process by which up to eight 
centers would be developed to study environmental factors and their 
impact on breast cancer. Modeled after the highly successful Breast 
Cancer Research Program, it would include consumer advocates in the 
peer review and programmatic review process.
  There have been isolated studies looking at suspected environmental 
links to breast cancer. But overall, the issue of what causes breast 
cancer, and the association between the environment and breast cancer 
requires a collaborative, comprehensive, national strategy to study 
these issues. This bill makes that mission possible.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and enact it this 
year so that we can get closer to a day when no woman need worry about 
breast cancer again.

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