[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4957]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               NATIONAL MULTIPLE MYELOMA AWARENESS MONTH

  (Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize March as National 
Multiple Myeloma Awareness Month. Myeloma is a cancer of the bone 
marrow that can have a variety of effects on the body, ranging from 
bone pain to organ failure. The National Cancer Institute estimates 
that over 22,000 new cases will be diagnosed and 11,000 deaths will 
occur due to myeloma this year.
  While myeloma is not curable, it is treatable. I thank my colleagues, 
Congressman Bachus and Congressman Rangel, for drafting a resolution to 
establish March as National Multiple Myeloma Awareness Month and the 
International Myeloma Foundation for raising awareness of the disease 
year-round.
  Additionally, as Congress begins to develop a budget, I encourage 
strong support for medical research, increasing funding to the National 
Institutes of Health to $32 billion.
  Finally, I urge the House leadership to bring the Cancer Drug 
Coverage Parity Act to the floor, a bill I introduced to make sure that 
patients with myeloma and other cancers who are prescribed oral 
chemotherapy by their doctors will have the insurance coverage they 
need to treat their illness and to get healthy.

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