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AMENDMENT NO. 11 OFFERED BY MR. NOLAN
The Acting CHAIR. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 11 printed in House Report 115–785.
Mr. NOLAN. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.
The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 964, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. NOLAN) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. NOLAN. Mr. Chair, as cochair- man with FRANK LOBIONDO in our bi- partisan Congressional Lung Cancer Caucus, and FRANK LOBIONDO is a co- sponsor of this amendment, I want to begin by expressing our appreciation for making this amendment in order and our additional appreciation for Chairman GRANGER and Ranking Member VISCLOSKY for the tremendous work that they do, and the great respect we also have for the ranking member and the chairman of the committee, who I see here today, RODNEY FRELING- HUYSEN.
Simply stated, this measure would add $6 million to lung cancer research under the Defense Health Program.
In so doing, we would be increasing this amount for this important and worthwhile research from $14 million back to the original $20 million figure that had been appropriated back in 2009.
In that regard, it is worth noting that were we to factor this for inflation, we would have to be asking for $23.5 million to match the buying power of $20 million that this would bring us up to today.
To put my amendment in perspective, a recent study at Walter Reed Medical Center found that treating lung cancer in active military soldiers and veterans every year costs roughly $564 million, treating our veterans.
According to that same study, our veterans are 75 percent more likely to develop some form of lung cancer than those people who do not serve in our military.
Clearly, with some additional re- search to find cures and better treatments for this, there are not only enormous dollars to be saved, but more importantly, lives to be saved. That’s an important message to our veterans in how we value their service and the risks, the great risks, that they take in serving and in protecting us.
So I hope my colleagues would agree that a modest increase in cancer re- search funding to the $20 million figure next year is more than reasonable. It’s a sound and necessary investment in public dollars, and an important message to the men and women who serve in our military.
And make no mistake, those extra funds would make an enormous difference in battling lung cancer, which, by the way, takes more lives than all of the other cancers combined. So it is a disease that obviously, as I said, affects our military, but it kills 159,000 people every year.
As many of you know, my daughter, Katherine, was diagnosed with a very advanced stage IV lung cancer some 3 years ago. I thank all of my colleagues for their prayers. I would also be remiss if I didn’t say thank you to the many colleagues on both sides of the aisle, not a day goes by but one of you haven’t expressed your concern, asked about her well-being, and told me of your continued prayers and hopes for success. And I am here to tell you she is doing well. We have great hope for her in the future, in no small measure due to the prayers, the careful thoughts, and the advances in research, so many of which are coming down the road, in offering her and so many others so much hope.
So I hope we can give many others that same great hope through these additional research dollars.
Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.
This measure passed the US House of Representatives on June 27, 2018.