Hartzler Supports Legislation Targeting Childhood Cancer

Statement

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (MO-04) supported two pieces of important health care legislation today. The Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research Act of 2018 and the Right to Try Act both passed the House and now head to the White House for consideration.

"The Childhood Cancer Act is the most comprehensive childhood cancer bill ever taken up by Congress," said Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler said. "It would increase the National Institutes of Health's ability to research childhood cancer, enhance states' ability to track childhood cancer, and help survivors suffering from secondary side effects from their initial fight with cancer. This bill is a great step forward in researching this disease."

Specifically, this bill would reauthorize the national childhood cancer registry through FY2022, authorize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to award grants to state cancer registries, establish a task force to develop and test standards for high-quality childhood cancer long-term care, and identify opportunities to expand the research of therapeutics necessary to treat childhood cancers.

Hartzler also supported the Right to Try Act, which empowers patients by providing them the freedom to seek out cures for life threatening diseases. "The Right to Try bill would allow terminally-ill patients who have exhausted all available treatment options to access drugs that have passed the preliminary human-testing phase and are still being evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration," said Hartzler, who took an interest in this legislation after meeting with a family whose father suffered from ALS and had exhausted all treatment options. "Families like this need us to act," Hartzler continued. Previously, the Congresswoman spoke on the House floor in support of this important legislation. Click here or on the image above to see her speech.

Specifically, this legislation would prevent the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) from interfering with states like Missouri that have already passed similar Right to Try laws. It would also require drug manufacturers to report to the FDA in real time any adverse reactions patients may have to the drug.

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