Dear Representative :

With bipartisan support, the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations recently approved for the FY2026 federal budget the following actions for the two federal programs that serve as the backbone of cancer surveillance in the United States:

• Continuation of the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) with funding of $53.4 million.
• Funded the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at $7.374 billion, which will fully support NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program.

As your constituent, I am urging you to support these same funding levels when the House of Representatives continues its work on the FY2026 federal budget this fall. These funding levels are necessary to continue the nation’s War on Cancer – a war that has made significant progress but will see major setbacks without your support of these vital cancer surveillance programs.

The U.S. cancer surveillance system enables the tracking of cancer data nationwide. Public health officials, health care professionals, researchers, and policymakers rely on this data to make the best decisions on how to prevent, detect, and treat cancer. Cancer surveillance is how we know:

• One in three Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.
• One in five deaths in men and women are due to cancer each year.
• Childhood cancer survival has improved over the last 50 years to over 90% for some cancers.
• Rates of colorectal cancer have increased over 30% among young adults in the past 20 years.
• Death rates from uterine cancer have increased by 30% in the past 20 years.

In addition, special research studies and registries, like those listed below, are dependent on the CDC-NPCR’s cancer data and the NCI-SEER’s linkage systems to exist and explore cancer risk and occurrence. Without federal funding to ensure state cancer registries are supported to collect cancer data, the work of these important investigations, many of which are federally mandated, would not be possible and will not continue.

• Childhood Cancer Survivor Study
• Former Service Members and Cancer Incidence Study
• Gulf Long-term Follow-up Study (GuLFSTUDY)
• National Firefighter Registry (NFR) for Cancer
• World Trade Center Health Program

I want to see the U.S. House of Representatives mirror the commitment and leadership demonstrated by the Senate Committee on Appropriations by funding, at the same levels, the CDC and NCI cancer surveillance programs. Without your support, I fear the Administration’s proposed FY2026 budget will prevail. In that budget, CDC-NPCR is eliminated, and the NCI-SEER Program is severely impacted by the proposed 40% funding cuts to NCI.

The War on Cancer must continue, and it cannot be won without cancer surveillance. Our community and our country rely on the data from the U.S. cancer surveillance system to improve public health and cancer outcomes. As my representative, I am counting on you to show leadership and support cancer surveillance funding at the same levels recently approved by the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.

• Continuation of the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) with funding of $53.4 million.
• Fund the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at $7.374 billion, which will fully support NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program.

Please let me know if I have your commitment. I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,