"This is a win for the community," said Cynthia Duncan, Director of Advocacy, CureSearch for Children's Cancer.
The proposed budget comes as a much-needed reward for many members of the childhood cancer community who traveled to the CureSearch Reach the Day event in June. Hundreds of people trekked around Capitol Hill lobbying Congress to appropriate funds for childhood cancer research.
Advocates made an impact on the Hill by presenting the shockingly low amount of funding appropriated for childhood cancer research since the passage of the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act. The proposed $5 million for research is a significant increase over last year's funding.
The budget must still pass the full House Appropriations Committee, the full House and Senate, and be signed by President Obama.
"While we are excited about this development," said John L. Lehr, President and CEO, CureSearch for Children's Cancer, "we must continue to apply the appropriate level of advocacy on the Senate side and then again during the House-Senate conference."
Our lobbying is far from done! Now that an initial bill has passed in the House Subcommittee on Defense Appropriations, we can write letters to the senators and representatives that we met in June to see if they will follow through on their promises. Oh, politics! Simple, huh?
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