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 bot