Biden asks Congress for more than $2.8 billion to fight cancer WGN Radio 720

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is asking Congress for more than $2.8 billion in the federal budget to be sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday to advance his cancer-fighting goals.

More than half of the money, $1.7 billion, will go to the Department of Health and Human Services to help the Democratic president fight cancer across various ministries and agencies, according to White House officials. Details with the Associated Press before Biden formally unveils his spending blueprint in Philadelphia late Thursday.

The funding request supports the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative, announced last year by Biden, with the goal of halving cancer mortality over the next 25 years. Biden will help fill gaps in cancer screening, better understand and address environmental and toxic exposures associated with certain cancers, and prevent preventable cancers such as cancers linked to tobacco and malnutrition. We aim to reduce the impact of The initiative also funds cutting-edge research and resources to support patients and their caregivers.

The “Moonshot” program was initiated by President Barack Obama in 2016 and led by Vice President Biden. As president, Biden revived the initiative last year.

Cancer is personal to Biden and his wife Jill because it is a disease for millions of people in the United States who have been diagnosed with it or who have lost loved ones to various forms of the disease. This year, both the president and first lady had a lesion removed from their skin that was determined to be basal cell carcinoma, a common and easily treated cancer.

In 2015, the Bidens’ eldest son Beau died at the age of 46 from an advanced brain tumor.

Biden’s budget is unlikely to pass Congress intact, but the fight against cancer is an issue Biden hopes will have bipartisan support.

Cancer is one of four issues Biden has made part of the “Unity Agenda” he announced in his 2022 State of the Union address. Veterans, substance abuse, and mental health are also issues. Congress passed a number of bills last year to address aspects of the agenda.

Recognizing March as National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, the White House on Friday hosted a discussion with government officials and others about improving outcomes for this particular form of cancer. was

Excluding some skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men and women and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Featured speakers include Simone Ledward Boseman, widow of “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman. She passed away in 2020 at the age of 43 after a four-year battle with colon cancer, the same disease she was also 43 years old.

Separately on Friday, Jill Biden visited the Louisiana Cancer Research Center in New Orleans with US Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., and his wife, Laura, to discuss the president’s cancer. I was going to talk about budget requests and emphasize the importance of colorectal. cancer screening. Cassidys is a doctor.