The US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense yesterday marked-up their version of the FY14 Defense Appropriations Act. The full committee is scheduled to mark up tomorrow Thursday). The following is an excerpt from the committee’s summary of the bill:

Significant increases to DoD medical research efforts, including:

o $200 million for the Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program;

o $100 million for the Joint Warfighter Medical Research Program;

o $60 million for Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychological Health;

o $120 million for breast cancer research;

o $64 million for prostate cancer research;

o $10 million for ovarian cancer research; and

o $25 million for other cancer research.

On one hand this is great news as we stand to see additional dollars, on the other hand it means that the Senate and Congress will need to work out their differences. Bottom line is that there is now a very high probability of secure funding for FY14.

A time to celebrate!!!

Don’t forget to go to www.StartACure.com and add to Congress’s funding for prostate cancer research.

Joel T Nowak, M.A., M.S.W.