II 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3237 

To provide for the establishment of a Commission to Accelerate the End 

of Breast Cancer. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 24, 2012 

Mr. WHITEHOUSE (for himself, Ms. COLLINS, Mr. BROWN of Ohio, Ms. MURKOWSKI, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. HELLER, Mr. WARNER, and Mr. GRASSLEY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to 

the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To provide for the establishment of a Commission to 

Accelerate the End of Breast Cancer. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Accelerating the End of Breast Cancer Act of 2012’’. 

6 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 

7 this Act is as follows: 

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 

Sec. 2. Findings. 

Sec. 3. Establishment. 

Sec. 4. Mission; duties. 

Sec. 5. Membership. 


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Sec. 6. Chairperson; program managers. 

Sec. 7. Coordination and nonduplication. 

Sec. 8. Evaluation of the Commission. 

Sec. 9. Authorization of funding. 

Sec. 10. Termination. 

1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress makes the following findings: 

3 (1) In the United States, the chance of a 

4 woman developing breast cancer during her lifetime 

5 has increased from 1 in 11 in 1975 to 1 in 8 today. 

6 (2) Worldwide, breast cancer is the most fre7 quently diagnosed cancer in women with 1,300,000 

8 cases each year. Breast cancer is also the leading 

9 cause of cancer death in women, with more than 

10 500,000 women dying from the disease worldwide in 

11 2010. 

12 (3) More than 90 percent of deaths from breast 

13 cancer are caused by metastasis, which occurs when 

14 cancerous cells spread to other organs or bone. 

15 (4) The National Cancer Institute estimated 

16 that breast cancer care in the United States cost 

17 $16,500,000,000 in 2009, and cost the nation 

18 $12,100,000,000 in lost productivity. 

19 (5) Over the past 40 years, very little has im20 proved the incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates 

21 of breast cancer. 


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1 SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT. 

2 There shall be established a commission to be known 

3 as the Commission to Accelerate the End of Breast Cancer 

4 (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’). 

5 SEC. 4. MISSION; DUTIES. 

6 (a) MISSION.—The mission of the Commission shall 

7 be to help end breast cancer by January 1, 2020. 

8 (b) DUTIES.—The Commission shall— 

9 (1) identify opportunities and ideas within the 

10 public and private sectors, basic and applied 

11 sciences, and epidemiology that can be turned into 

12 real world strategies to prevent breast cancer and 

13 breast cancer metastasis; 

14 (2) recommend projects to leverage such oppor15 tunities and ideas in the areas of— 

16 (A) the primary prevention of breast can17 cer; and 

18 (B) the causes and prevention of breast 

19 cancer metastasis; 

20 (3) promote ideas that are intellectually compel21 ling and innovative; 

22 (4) accelerate potentially transformational sci23 entific advances that are— 

24 (A) not being prioritized within the Fed25 eral Government but which can help to achieve 

26 the mission described in subsection (a); and 


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1 (B) unlikely to be achieved by the private 

2 sector due to technical and financial uncer3 tainty; 

4 (5) identify promising but underdeveloped areas 

5 of research that would benefit from a cluster of sup6 port from government, industry, and academia to 

7 rapidly advance knowledge into practice; and 

8 (6) create opportunities for transdisciplinary, 

9 cross-cutting collaborations. 

10 (c) STRATEGIC VISION.—Not later than 6 months 

11 after the appointment of the initial members of the Com12 mission, the Commission shall submit to the President and 

13 to the relevant authorizing and appropriations committees 

14 of Congress, a description of the Commission’s strategic 

15 vision for its role in achieving the mission described in 

16 subsection (a) by January 1, 2020. 

17 (d) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than January 15, 

18 2013, and annually thereafter, the Commission shall sub19 mit an annual report to the President, Congress, and the 

20 public describing— 

21 (1) the Commission’s activities under this sec22 tion, including its progress in achieving the mission 

23 described in subsection (a); and 


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1 (2) the amount of funding expended by the 

2 Commission in the preceding year and the activities 

3 carried out with such funds. 

4 SEC. 5. MEMBERSHIP. 

5 (a) NUMBER; APPOINTMENT.—The Commission shall 

6 be composed of not more than 10 members who shall be 

7 appointed by the President, by and with the advice and 

8 consent of the Senate. 

9 (b) COMPOSITION.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each member of the Com11 mission shall be appointed to represent one of the 

12 following 3 categories: 

13 (A) Representatives of varied disciplines 

14 within the biomedical research field. 

15 (B) Representatives of varied disciplines 

16 outside of the biomedical research field. 

17 (C) Educated patient advocates, including 

18 individuals who— 

19 (i) represent a patient-led, patient20 centered organization with a patient con21 stituency; 

22 (ii) have been personally affected by 

23 breast cancer; and 


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1 (iii) are trained, knowledgeable, and 

2 prepared to participate in the decision3 making process of science and medicine. 

4 (2) REPRESENTATION OF MEMBERSHIP CAT5 EGORIES.—Of the members of the Commission— 

6 (A) at least 1, but not more than 3, shall 

7 be appointed to represent the category de8 scribed in paragraph (1)(A); 

9 (B) at least 1, but not more than 3, shall 

10 be appointed to represent the category de11 scribed in paragraph (1)(B); and 

12 (C) at least 2, but not more than 4, shall 

13 be appointed to represent the category de14 scribed in paragraph (1)(C). 

15 (c) INITIAL MEMBERS.—The initial members of the 

16 Commission shall be appointed not later than 60 days 

17 after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

18 (d) TERMS.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each member of the Com20 mission shall be appointed for a term of 3 years and 

21 may be reappointed. 

22 (2) VACANCIES.—Any member of the Commis23 sion appointed to fill a vacancy occurring before the 

24 expiration of the term for which the member’s pred25 ecessor was appointed shall be appointed only for 


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1 the remainder of that term. A member may serve 

2 after the expiration of that member’s term until a 

3 successor has taken office. A vacancy in the Com4 mission shall be filled in the manner in which the 

5 original appointment was made. 

6 (e) QUORUM.—Three members of the Commission 

7 shall constitute a quorum. 

8 SEC. 6. CHAIRPERSON; PROGRAM MANAGERS. 

9 (a) CHAIRPERSON.— 

10 (1) DESIGNATION.—Of the members of the 

11 Commission appointed under section 5(a), the Presi12 dent shall at the time of the appointment, designate 

13 one such member who meets the qualification re14 quirement of paragraph (2) to serve as the Chair15 person of the Commission. 

16 (2) QUALIFICATIONS.—To be selected as Chair17 person under paragraph (1), a member shall be an 

18 individual who, by reason of professional background 

19 and experience, is especially qualified to manage 

20 areas of study pertaining to ending breast cancer by 

21 January 1, 2020. 

22 (3) RESPONSIBILITIES.—The responsibilities of 

23 the Chairperson shall include— 


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1 (A) approving areas of study of the Com2 mission based on innovation, impact, and sci3 entific and technical merit; 

4 (B) developing criteria (including mile5 stones) for assessing, and overseeing the assess6 ment of, the success of areas of study of the 

7 Commission; 

8 (C) terminating areas of study of the Com9 mission that are not achieving the mission de10 scribed in section 4(a); and 

11 (D) appointing staff as necessary to aid in 

12 carrying out the mission described in section 

13 4(a). 

14 (b) PROGRAM MANAGERS.— 

15 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Chairperson of the 

16 Commission may designate members of the Commis17 sion who may act as program managers to oversee 

18 one or more areas of study of the Commission. 

19 (2) RESPONSIBILITIES.—A member designated 

20 under paragraph (1) shall, with respect to one or 

21 more areas of study, be responsible for— 

22 (A) recommending novel proposals, 

23 projects, and collaborations based on scientific 

24 and technical merit to achieve the mission de25 scribed in section 4(a) with a focus on strateVerDate Mar 15 2010 23:55 May 29, 2012 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3237.IS S3237

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1 gies for the primary prevention of breast can2 cer, and methods to prevent breast cancer me3 tastasis; 

4 (B) identifying innovative ideas and oppor5 tunities to achieve the mission described in sec6 tion 4(a), including such ideas and opportuni7 ties not being prioritized for breast cancer rel8 evance within Federal agencies or programs or 

9 the private sector; 

10 (C) working with other relevant Federal 

11 agencies to identify areas of concurrent inter12 ests in order to maximize Federal investment 

13 and stimulate collaborative projects; 

14 (D) creating opportunities for 

15 transdisciplinary, cross-cutting collaborations; 

16 (E) using the authorized funds of the 

17 Commission, subject to the approval of the 

18 Chairperson— 

19 (i) to convene workshops and confer 

20 with experts in both the public and private 

21 sector; 

22 (ii) to build collaborations for identi23 fying areas of study; 

24 (iii) to identify all areas where re25 sources could be leveraged; and 


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1 (iv) to carry out other functions of the 

2 Commission that are approved by the 

3 Chairperson and necessary to carry out the 

4 mission described in section 4(a); and 

5 (F) to monitor the progress of areas of 

6 study and recommend restructure or termi7 nation. 

8 SEC. 7. COORDINATION AND NONDUPLICATION. 

9 To the maximum extent practicable, the Commission 

10 shall ensure that the activities of the Commission are co11 ordinated with, and do not duplicate the efforts of, pro12 grams and laboratories of other government agencies. 

13 SEC. 8. EVALUATION OF THE COMMISSION. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—The President shall enter into an 

15 agreement with the Institute of Medicine of the National 

16 Academy of Sciences under which the Institute, after the 

17 Commission has been in operation for 3 years, shall com18 plete an evaluation of how well the Commission is making 

19 progress towards achieving the mission described in sec20 tion 4(a). 

21 (b) INCLUSIONS.—The evaluation under subsection 

22 (a) shall include— 

23 (1) a recommendation on whether the Commis24 sion should be continued or terminated; and 


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1 (2) a description of lessons learned from oper2 ation of the Commission. 

3 (c) AVAILABILITY.—On completion of the evaluation 

4 under subsection (a), the Commission shall make the eval5 uation available to the Congress and the public. 

6 SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDING. 

7 (a) FUND.—There is established in the Treasury of 

8 the United States a fund, to be known as the ‘‘Accel9 erating the End of Breast Cancer Fund’’, which shall be 

10 administered by the Chairperson, as defined in section 

11 6(a), for the purpose of carrying out this section. 

12 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

13 are authorized to be appropriated to the Chairperson for 

14 deposit in the Fund, without fiscal year limitation— 

15 (1) $8,000,000 for fiscal year 2012; 

16 (2) $12,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2013 

17 and 2014; and 

18 (3) such sums as may be necessary for each fis19 cal year thereafter until the Commission is termi20 nated. 

21 (c) LIMITATION.—None of the amounts appropriated 

22 for a fiscal year under subsection (b) shall be used for 

23 the operation or construction of any laboratories or pilot 

24 plants. 


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1 SEC. 10. TERMINATION. 

2 The Commission shall terminate on June 1, 2020. 

Æ 


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