Georgetown Lombardi Director Delivers Capitol Hill Briefing
Posted in GUMC Stories
DECEMBER 12, 2014–Georgetown Lombard Comprehensive Cancer Center Director Louis M. Weiner, MD, participated in a Senate Cancer Coalition panel and briefing on Capitol Hill Dec. 10.
Panel co-chairs Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Johnny Isakson hosted the event. The briefing was led by Harold Varmus, MD, director of the National Cancer Institute, and sponsored by One Voice Against Cancer Coalition.
Weiner delivered remarks about the progress being made in cancer research in support of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) proposed “bypass” budget for fiscal year 2016. The bypass budget, released Dec. 9, outlines cancer research priorities of the NCI and identifies areas of potential investment.
Other participants included Otis Brawley, MD, the American Cancer Society’s Chief Medical Officer and Danielle Leach of the St. Baldrick’s Childhood Cancer Foundation.
Weiner presented his perspective on the importance of funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the NCI and what the budget would mean for cancer centers and their patients.
“As director of a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, I experience increasing concern as our enterprise is forced to shrink,” said Weiner. “The persistent and growing funding gap has forced us … to put aside scientists and work that should be supported but cannot — all the while knowing that the wrong decisions could deprive us of advances that cloud the prospects for future generations.”
Additional links:
NCI Annual Plan and Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2016 (new window)
AACR press release on the FY 2016 NCI Bypass Budget (new window)