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Breast Cancer Research Stamp Reauthorization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

Date: Nov. 30, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Women Health and Health Care

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Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of S. 1170, the Breast Cancer Research Stamp Reauthorization Act of 2015. I thank Senator Feinstein of California for her leadership on the legislation and her commitment to funding breast cancer research. This is a very important bipartisan issue, and 25 Senators have joined Senator Feinstein in sponsoring this legislation.

I also want to thank my colleague, Representative Speier, also from California, for introducing the House companion bill, which has 59 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle.

I thank Chairman Chaffetz for bringing this bill to the floor and for his support of this crucial legislation.

S. 1170 would extend the authority of the United States Postal Service to issue the popular semipostal stamp that raises funds for breast cancer research. Currently, Postal Service customers can choose to buy a 60-cent breast cancer research stamp. The extra 11 cents above the price of the regular first-class stamp minus the Postal Service's administrative costs go to lifesaving research.

Since its first issuance in 1998, the Postal Service has sold almost 1 billion breast cancer research stamps, generating nearly $82 million that has gone directly to the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense to fund vital research.

In a 2014 report to Congress, the National Cancer Institute of the NIH has concluded: Having this additional funding has furthered the cancer research community's efforts to exploit increasing knowledge of genetics and molecular biology to develop more effective and less toxic treatments for breast cancer.

Research funding from this semipostal stamp is critical in the fight against breast cancer, as one in eight women in the United States will develop invasive breast cancer during her lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women after lung cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that, in 2015, about 40,000 women will die from this disease.

If we do not pass the measure before us today, the authorization for the Postal Service to sell the breast cancer research stamp will expire by the end of the year.

I, therefore, will urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support S. 1170.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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