American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

Legislature Funds & Reauthorizes Research Programs

FLORIDA'S CANCER RESEARCH PROGRAMS SAVED!!!

Week 9 Session Update
4/30/2010

The final week of the 2010 Legislative Session proved to be the most productive and successful for the American Cancer Society’s agenda, as the state’s peer-reviewed and competitive research programs were saved. Additionally, the Comprehensive Statewide Tobacco Prevention and Education Program was funded appropriately. This was achieved despite a $3.2 billion deficit facing House and Senate appropriators in an extremely difficult budget environment.

While the House’s original proposed budget would have eliminated funding for the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program altogether and would have cut the King Biomedical Research Program by 92%, the General Appropriations Act passed by the Legislature today has the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program funded at $20 million for the upcoming year and the King Biomedical Research Program at $22.2 million. The House and Senate also repealed the programs’ scheduled sunset date of January 1, 2011 through the passage of HB 5311, meaning both these programs will be reauthorized in law and ongoing, which has been the Florida Division’s number one priority this session. Additional allocations that will positively impact the war on cancer include a $10 million appropriation for the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa and $9.5 million each for the University of Florida Shands Cancer Hospital and the University of Miami Sylvester Cancer Center. An additional $1 million was also appropriated to the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute at Sylvester. The UF and UM allocations are subject to additional action by Congress on enhanced Medicaid funding to the states, a move that many expect to occur in the next few weeks.

Also formally resolved with today’s adoption of next year’s budget was our other major legislative priority, $61.3 million in funding for Amendment 4, the Comprehensive Statewide Tobacco Prevention and Education Program. While there were differences in proposed categorical spending on this issue through much of the process, budget negotiators ultimately agreed to allocate these dollars largely along the lines of the recommendations of the American Cancer Society and its partners in the tobacco control community.

The American Cancer Society is extremely grateful to our research champions, Sen. Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) and Rep. Marti Coley (R-Marianna) for making our top legislative priority a reality. Thanks must also be given to the overall budget chairs, Sen. JD Alexander (R-Lake Wales) and Rep. David Rivera (R-Miami) for their tireless efforts in one of the toughest appropriations cycles in memory. The same is true for Sen. Durell Peaden (R-Crestview) and Rep. Denise Grimsley (R-Lake Placid), chairs of the health care appropriations committees.

And THANK YOU to our Grassroots Army, whose persistence and belief in our mission has once again helped advance our legislative priorities. Without your ongoing efforts in support of our life-saving mission, we could not be successful. Thanks for all you do to wage war against cancer. Together, we will continue to make progress against this insidious disease each and every day.

Yours in the Fight,

Paul

Paul Hull
Vice President, Advocacy & Public Policy
American Cancer Society, Florida Division

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