Congressional Advocacy for Brain Tumor Research Funding

Lainey Titus Samant, Associate Director of Public Policy for the National Brain Tumor Society, writes:

Last week, members of Congress returned to Washington, D.C. from their home districts following the November elections. Will you welcome them back and ask them to take immediate action in support of critical medical research funding? 

Research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), is critical to advancing treatments for brain tumor patients. Together, these institutes are the largest funders of brain tumor research in the country, and their funded projects are working to discover new ways to treat and eradicate brain tumors. Yet, biomedical research is complicated and takes many years, and thus needs a consistent and reliable funding stream. 

Although there is support in Congress for a well-funded NIH, the budget process is a cause for concern. In September, Congress continued the trend of recent years by forgoing the full budget process in favor of a temporary spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, or CR. The CR extended government spending from Fiscal Year 2014, which ended on September 30, until December 11, when Congress will either pass a full budget or an additional CR. When a CR is passed, no increases are made, and this year a slight cut was made to the NIH, including NCI and NINDS, through the CR. 

It’s time for Congress to pass a real funding bill that includes an increase for the NIH before the December 11 deadline. Ask your member of Congress TODAY to put an end to temporary fixes and pass a comprehensive funding bill for Fiscal Year 2015 that includes an increase for NIH, including NCI and NINDS.

Katie Bevington, survivor of grade 3 astrocytoma, adds:

If you'd like to sign this form and send to your own congressional representatives, please click this link. It only takes 5 minutes.

I personalized my letter with a paragraph about my own experience; I am a grade 3 astrocytoma brain tumor survivor and mother to three young children. I was lucky this time that my surgeon could remove most of the tumor but I know eventually it will regrow. Having already been through the extremely difficult radiation and chemotherapy treatments already, I want to know that there are better treatments available next time I need them. Please fund the NIH research programs.