Political Quotes

“I want to commend Senators Harkin and Specter for increasing funding for the CDC Chronic Disease Comprehensive Cancer Account by $2.6 million in this bill, bringing the total funding for this account to $12 million in FY 2004. Given the tight budget constraints we are facing this year, I am particularly appreciative of the increased funding they were able to provide for this important program. The Comprehensive Cancer programs support public and private partnerships to reduce cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality. These efforts are especially important to the growing number of cancer survivors and their families who are faced with a wide range of physical and emotional health complications after they have survived cancer. This is an especially critical issue for children. According to the Institute of Medicine's National Cancer Policy Board, while childhood cancer was nearly always fatal before 1970, 78 percent of patients today survive at least 5 years. While this statistic represents a welcome trend and is a major victory against cancer, it raises new issues that need to be addressed. Cancer survivors, especially children, are oftentimes plagued with neurological impairments, heart and lung problems, growth and fertility disorders, and psychological stresses caused by treatment, complications of the cancer, or both. Over the past 3 years, 16 children in the small community of Fallon, NV, have been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.”