U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) on March 3 met with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and a bipartisan, bicameral group of congressional lawmakers to make plans on how to end cancer.
Rep. Upton was joined in the meeting by U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Patty Murray (D-WA), Dick Durbin (D-CO), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), as well as U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Brett Guthrie (R-KY).
“Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet w/ @POTUS & @RepDianaDeGette in the Oval Office to discuss our shared mission to END cancer as we know it,” Rep. Upton tweeted on March 4. “I’m encouraged that our bipartisan partnership will help us achieve this goal & much more.”
Reps. Upton and DeGette in 2016 worked with then-Vice President Biden to pass the 21st Century Cures Act, a $6.3 billion funding package that included federal monies for research on cancer and other diseases. Over the past year and a half, the two lawmakers have been working on a “Cures 2.0” to update and accelerate biomedical research and approvals for drugs and treatments, according to Rep. Upton’s office.
“Diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, and that’s why we were able to garner such bipartisan support for our original 21st Century Cures bill,” Reps. Upton and DeGette said in a joint statement released after the meeting.
They noted that currently, the nation is seeing the consequences of a global health crisis getting out of control.
“The federal government has amazing resources at its disposal to help prevent and cure some of the world’s most devastating diseases,” said Reps. Upton and DeGette. “Now is the time to put those resources to use, not only to end this pandemic, but to cure some of the other heartbreaking illnesses that affect millions of Americans every year — including cancer, diabetes, ALS, lupus, Alzheimer’s and so much more.”
On Wednesday, the two lawmakers said they discussed Biden’s plan to create a research agency dedicated to innovations in health, among other items. “Today, President Biden told us ending cancer as we know it would be a major priority, and we couldn’t be more excited to be working with him, once again, to help make this dream come true,” they said.
For instance, among the topics discussed was the new ARPA-H initiative. “We welcome this exciting, bold proposal that builds on our goal of speeding up the development of treatments and cures while bringing consumer costs down,” according to the congressmen’s statement. “We need every tool in the tool box to find faster cures.”
Following the meeting, President Biden said he thinks the group is “on the cusp” of some real breakthroughs on cancer. “Cancer is personal to almost everybody,” said Biden, whose son Beau died from brain cancer at age 46 in 2015. “It is probably the one word that is the most frightening word in the English language to people when they hear that C word, cancer, it is just devastating.”