The National Breast Cancer Coalition's 2009 Legislative and Public Policy Priorities
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITY #1
Guaranteed access to quality health care for all. We will not achieve our mission of eradicating breast cancer until everyone has guaranteed access to quality health care. NBCC’s Board of Directors adopted a Framework for a Health Care System Guaranteeing Access to Quality Health Care for All in 2007, after extensive analysis and deliberation. This Framework builds on NBCC’s longstanding principles and core values for quality health care. NBCC will use this framework to educate and mobilize grassroots advocates to demand political leadership and action towards comprehensive health care reform.
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITY #2
$150 million for FY10 for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. As a result of NBCC’s advocacy and strong bipartisan leadership on Capitol Hill, more than $2 billion has been invested in this competitive peer-reviewed research Program. This innovative Program has changed the world of breast cancer research. The inclusion of consumers in every aspect of decision-making and the Program’s unique grant opportunities have led to groundbreaking scientific advances.
PUBLIC POLICY PRIORITIES
Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act. The strategies outlined in the NBCC supported Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act (BCERA) would result in an overarching plan to look at the links between the environment and breast cancer and a new model of resource allocation at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NBCC is looking at various strategies to achieve the intent of BCERA.
Quality Breast Cancer Care. While we advocate for guaranteed access through a framework for a system governing coverage for health care, we must also push for quality care. One step toward quality is determining how to measure whether the public is getting the right care for breast cancer. NBCC is working on quality measures that will become the basis of our campaign for regulatory and legislative reform in this area.
Preservation of the Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program (BCCTP). While NBCC pursues its work on guaranteeing access to quality health care for all, we are committed to making sure women with breast cancer have access to the care they need. The BCCTP provides enhanced matching funds to states to provide full Medicaid coverage to low-income, uninsured women screened and diagnosed with breast and/or cervical cancer through a federal program. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have opted into the program, but efforts to reduce funding for Medicaid or dramatically alter the program threaten the future of the BCCTP. NBCC will work to protect and preserve the BCCTP.
Transparency and Accountability at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI). NBCC strongly believes that the enterprise of clinical and scientific research at NIH could be vastly improved with greater participation from educated health care consumers and trained advocates who can help to inform all aspects of decision making at NCI and across the Institutes. NBCC also has deep concerns about the lack of transparency, external oversight and accountability in research priority-setting, decision-making and evaluation. What is needed is to determine the right process for and atmosphere within which biomedical research will be prioritized and conducted. We must make certain that the process is inclusive and maximizes our ability to get the right research done in the right way.
Below are the National Breast Cancer Coalition's legislative and public policy priorities for 2008.
Click on any description to view details of each priority including supporting legislation, bill co-sponsor lists, testimony and press releases.
For more information, please visit: www.stopbreastcancer.org.
Write to your Legislators
Letters to Members of Congress have been one of the most powerful tools for breast cancer advocates and are considered to be more effective than phone calls and e-mail. Congressional staff members generally respond to every letter and consider them to be a very important measure of constituent opinion. The number of letters that have streamed into Congressional offices on the issue of breast cancer often have made a critical difference in gaining a legislator's support.
To identify your legislator and learn about current issues, status of legislation, etc. For more information, please visit www.thomas.loc.gov.
Florida Congressional Delegation
| To a Senator: The Honorable (full name) United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 |
To a The Honorable (full name) United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 |
|
| THE SENATE | ||
| Mel Martinez Republican District: 2 Phone: 202-224-3041 Fax: 202-228-5772 356 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Room: SR-C2 |
Bill Nelson Democrat District: 1 Phone: 202-224-5274 Fax: 202-228-2183 716 Heart Office Senate Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Room: SH-716 |
|
| THE HOUSE | ||
| Jeff Miller Republican District: 1 Phone: 202-225-4136 Fax: 202-225-3414 324 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: CHOB-324 |
Allen Boyd Democrat District: 2 Phone: 202-225-5235 Fax: 202-225-5612 1227 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: LHOB-1227 |
|
| Corrine Brown Democrat District: 3 Phone: 202-225-0123 Fax: 202-225-2256 2444 Raybum House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: RHOB-2444 |
Ander Crenshaw Republican District: 4 Phone: 202-225-2501 Fax: 202-225-2504 127 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: CHOB-127 |
|
| Ginny Brown-Waite Republican District: 5 Phone: 202-225-1002 Fax: 202-226-6559 414 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: CHOB-414 |
Cliff Stearns Republican District: 6 Phone: 202-225-5744 Fax: 202-225-3973 2370 Raybum House Office Buidling Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: RHOB-2370 |
|
| John Mica Republican District: 7 Phone: 202-225-4035 Fax: 202-226-0821 2313 Raybum House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: RHOB-2313 |
Ric Keller Republican District: 8 Phone: 202-225-2176 Fax: 202-226-2048 419 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: CHOB-419 |
|
| Michael Bilirakis Republican District: 9 Phone: 202-225-5755 Fax: 202-225-4085 1630 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: LHOB 1630 |
Bill Young Republican District: 10 Phone: 202-225-5961 Fax: 202-225-9764 2407 Raybum House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: RHOB-2407 |
|
| Kathy Castor Democrat District: 11 Phone: (202) 225-3376 Fax: (202) 225-5652 317 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: CHOB-317 |
Adam Putnam Republican District: 12 Phone: 202-225-1252 Fax: 202-226-0585 1725 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: LHOB-1725 |
|
| Vern Buchanan Republican District: 13 Phone: (202) 225-5015 Fax: (202) 226-0828 1516 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: LHOB-1516 |
Connie Mack Republican District: 14 Phone: 202-225-2536 Fax: 202-226-0439 115 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: CHOB-115 |
|
| Dave Weldon Republican District: 15 Phone: 202-225-3671 Fax: 202-225-3516 2347 Raybum House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: RHOB-2347 |
Tim Mahoney Democrat District: 16 Phone: 202-225-5792 Fax: 202-225-3132 1541 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: LHOB-1541 |
|
| Kendrick Meek Democrat District: 17 Phone: 202-225-4506 Fax: 202-226-0777 1039 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: LHOB-1039 |
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Republican District: 18 Phone: 202-225-3931 Fax: 202-225-5620 2160 Raybum House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: RHOB-2160 |
|
| Robert Wexler Democrat District: 19 Phone: 202-225-3001 Fax: 202-225-5974 213 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: CHOB-213 |
Debbie Wasserman Schultz |
|
| Lincoln Diaz-Balart Republican District: 21 Phone: 202-225-4211 Fax: 202-225-8576 2244 Raybum House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: RHOB-2244 |
Ron Klein Democrat District: 22 Phone: 202-225-3026 Fax: 202-225-8398 313 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: CHOB-313 |
|
| Alcee Hastings Democrat District: 23 Phone: 202-225-1313 Fax: 202-225-1171 2353 Raybum House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: RHOB-2353 |
Tom Feeney Republican District: 24 Phone: 202-225-2706 Fax: 202-226-6299 323 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: CHOB-323 |
|
| Mario Diaz-Balart Republican District: 25 Phone: 202-225-2778 Fax: 202-226-0346 328 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Room: CHOB-313 |
 |
|
Other Links
http://www.politicsnationwide.com/
http://www.myflorida.com/
http://www.congress.org