Today, I have some good news to share with you.

Malecare, along with many other prostate cancer advocacy groups have been hard at work attempting to persuade members of Congress to not only maintain the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (DoD PCRP), but to increase its funding for the next fiscal year.

I am happy to report that we have successfully made the first, vital step towards accomplishing our goal! We have just found out that the congressional appropriators have recommend that Congress increases by $10 million fiscal year 2017 funding level.

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations has submitted its Fiscal Year 2017 Defense Appropriations Bill, which includes $90 million for the DoD PCRP. Given that for the prior decade the funding level has been flat at $80 million and that the even earlier years saw decreases in our funding level, this over 12% increase is historical.

To be clear, this is a recommendation of the House Appropriations Committee. There is still a long process left to be completed. The House needs to approve this recommendation and we still need to hear from the Senate side. Then, once both the House and the Senate have approved their versions of the bill (hoping that the DoD PCRP’s allocation remains intact) they will need to be reconciled and then voted on and passed by both sides of Congress.

From there, we hope that the $90 million appropriation bill will make it to the President for his signature.

Malecare wishes to thank and acknowledge the support this appropriation has received from the congressional committee including the Committee Chair, Rodney Frelinghuysen. We also want to acknowledge the work performed by Malecare members in support of this allocation. Thank you and keep up the good work as the battle is not yet completed.