Caucus Supports Inclusion of Transition Funding for CIS Partnership Program in Senate Bill 717
(May 6, 2009) The ICC Caucus has contacted Senator Edward M. Kennedy requesting that transition funding for the Cancer Information Service (CIS) Partnership Program be included in Senate Bill 717, 21st Century Cancer ALERT (Access to Life-Saving Early detection, Research and Treatment) Act, which he co-sponsored. A decision was made late last year by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to discontinue this over 25 year old Program effective January 14, 2010. The cancer control community was told it was not an economic decision and that the performance of the Program and its staff was excellent. The cancer control community was told that NCI needed to “pause” and reconsider the model. At the present time, the Program will end in less than a year and a follow on program is in the very early stages of being developed. The present estimate is that it will take another 15 months to two years to commence the successor program. The result of this is that the CIS Partnership Program, which is the critical link between underserved communities and the NCI would lapse and a gap in service, potentially a significant gap, would result.
Please contact your US Senators and urge them to support Senate Bill 717 and add to it transition funding for the CIS Partnership Program. See www.senate.com if you need information on how to reach your Senators.

With the inauguration of Barack H. Obama as the 44th President of the United Sates on January 20, 2009 the CHANGE.GOV Web site of the president-elect was replaced by WHITEHOUSE.GOV. We encourage you to visit the site, review the President's health care agenda, and share with the new administration your concerns regarding elimination of the unequal burden of cancer among racial and ethnic minorities and medically underserved populations in the US and its associated territories.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network has published a 2008 Presidential Candidate Voter Guide with the candidates' answers to questions regarding access to care, tobacco control, cancer research and prevention.
read the candidates' answers to these questions

(April 3, 2008 - Washington, DC) With mounting evidence that many Americans remain the invisible people with cancer who don’t get regular screening examinations, smoke at higher rates, are frequently diagnosed after their cancer has spread and, therefore, die more frequently and more quickly from this disease, the ICC Caucus issued a new 12-step action plan at the Intercultural Cancer Council's 11th Biennial Symposium on Minorities, the Medically Underserved and Cancer. The plan outlines how the Administration and the U.S. Congress can begin to help those cancer patients who are falling through the cracks of the healthcare system. Titled From Awareness to Action: A Renewed Call to Eliminate the Unequal Burden of Cancer, this national call to action provides realistic goals for helping racial and ethnic minorities, those living in rural areas, the elderly and the poor who remain at greatest risk for developing and dying from cancer. Specifically, the plan addresses a widening gap in cancer care among American Indians and Alaskan Natives and those living in the out islands of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa and other Pacific Islands, who now have cancer incidence and death rates similar to third world countries.
Read what others are saying about our new call to action . . .
Indian Country Today
Nation's Health (American Public Health Association)

The Intercultural Cancer Council's quarterly newsletter, theVoice, includes an "Advocacy in Action" column by Caucus President, Jennie R. Cook. Following her column is good way to learn more about the work of the Caucus.
You can read the current and previous issues of the newsletter at . . .
http://iccnetwork.org/thevoice/