I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3067 

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

of Breast Cancer. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011 

Ms. BASS of California (for herself, Mr. BASS of New Hampshire, Ms. 

HANABUSA, Mr. SCALISE, Ms. MOORE, Mrs. CAPITO, and Ms. DELAURO) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

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. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accelerating the End 

5 of Breast Cancer Act of 2011’’. 

6 SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

7 The table of contents of this Act is as follows: 

Sec. 1. Short title. 

Sec. 2. Table of contents. 

Sec. 3. Findings. 

Sec. 4. Establishment. 

Sec. 5. Mission; duties. 


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Sec. 6. Membership. 

Sec. 7. Chairperson and commissioners. 

Sec. 8. Coordination and nonduplication. 

Sec. 9. Evaluation of the commission. 

Sec. 10. Termination. 

1 SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 

2 The Congress finds the following: 

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 1.3 million 

8 cases each year and the leading cause of cancer 

9 death with more than 500,000 women dying from 

10 the disease in 2010. 

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

12 cancer are caused by metastasis, when breast cancer 

13 has spread to other organs or bone. 

14 (4) The National Cancer Institute estimated 

15 that breast cancer care in the United States cost 

16 $16.5 billion in 2009 and cost the Nation $12.1 bil17 lion in lost productivity. 

18 (5) Very little has improved in terms of breast 

19 cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates over 

20 the past 40 years. 


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1 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT. 

2 The President shall establish a commission to be 

3 known as the Commission to Accelerate the End of Breast 

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

5 SEC. 5. 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 gov10 ernment and the private sector that are key compo11 nents in achieving the end of breast cancer and 

12 which have been overlooked, yet are ripe for collabo13 ration and investment, and 

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 (c) MEANS.—In carrying out the duties described in 

21 subsection (b), the Commission shall— 

22 (1) identify revolutionary opportunities and 

23 ideas in fundamental and applied sciences and epide24 miology with a focus on ending breast cancer; 

25 (2) identify timely opportunities and scientific 

26 discoveries which can be turned into real world 


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1 strategies to prevent breast cancer and prevent 

2 breast cancer metastasis and deaths; 

3 (3) promote ideas that are intellectually compel4 ling, innovative, and imaginative; 

5 (4) accelerate potential transformational sci6 entific advances— 

7 (A) not being prioritized within the Fed8 eral Government, but which can help to achieve 

9 the mission described in subsection (a); and 

10 (B) unlikely to be achieved by the private 

11 sector due to technical and financial uncer12 tainty; 

13 (5) identify promising, underdeveloped areas of 

14 research that would benefit from a cluster of govern15 ment, industry, and academia forming innovation 

16 communities to rapidly advance knowledge into prac17 tice, while creating new opportunities for job cre18 ation and advancement; 

19 (6) identify opportunities for transdisciplinary 

20 cross-cutting collaborations; and 

21 (7) identify opportunities for seed grants to le22 verage identified opportunities and ideas. 

23 (d) STRATEGIC VISION.—Not later than 6 months 

24 after the appointment of the initial members of the Com25 mission, the Commission shall submit to the President and 


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1 the relevant authorizing and appropriations committees of 

2 the Congress a description of the Commission’s strategic 

3 vision for making progress in achieving the mission de4 scribed in subsection (a) by January 1, 2020. 

5 (e) ANNUAL REPORTS.—The Commission shall sub6 mit an annual report to the President, the Congress, and 

7 the public describing the Commission’s activities under 

8 this section, including its progress in achieving the mission 

9 described in subsection (a). 

10 SEC. 6. MEMBERSHIP. 

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

12 be composed of not more than 10 members, of which— 

13 (1) not more than 8 shall be appointed by the 

14 President; 

15 (2) 1 shall be appointed by the Speaker of the 

16 House of Representatives; and 

17 (3) 1 shall be appointed by the majority leader 

18 of the Senate. 

19 (b) COMPOSITION.— 

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each member of the Com21 mission shall be appointed to represent one of the 

22 following 3 categories: 

23 (A) Representatives of varied disciplines 

24 within the biomedical research field. 


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1 (B) Representatives of varied disciplines 

2 outside of the biomedical research field. 

3 (C) Educated patient advocates, meaning 

4 individuals who— 

5 (i) represent a patient-led, patient6 centered organization with a patient con7 stituency; 

8 (ii) have been personally affected by 

9 breast cancer; and 

10 (iii) are trained, knowledgeable, and 

11 prepared to participate in the decision12 making process of science and medicine. 

13 (2) REPRESENTATION OF MEMBERSHIP CAT14 EGORIES.—Of the members of the Commission— 

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

16 be appointed to represent the category de17 scribed in paragraph (1)(A); 

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

19 be appointed to represent the category de20 scribed in paragraph (1)(B); and 

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

22 be appointed to represent the category de23 scribed in paragraph (1)(C). 


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

2 Commission shall be appointed not later than 60 days 

3 after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

4 (d) TERMS.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each member of the Com6 mission shall be appointed for a term of 3 years and 

7 may be reappointed. 

8 (2) VACANCIES.—Any member of the Commis9 sion appointed to fill a vacancy occurring before the 

10 expiration of the term for which the member’s pred11 ecessor was appointed shall be appointed only for 

12 the remainder of that term. A member may serve 

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

14 successor has taken office. A vacancy in the Com15 mission shall be filled in the manner in which the 

16 original appointment was made. 

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

18 shall constitute a quorum. 

19 SEC. 7. CHAIRPERSON AND COMMISSIONERS. 

20 (a) CHAIRPERSON.— 

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

22 Commission appointed under section 6(a), the Presi23 dent shall at the time of appointment, designate one 

24 to serve as Chairperson of the Commission. 


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1 (2) QUALIFICATIONS.—The Chairperson shall 

2 be an individual who, by reason of professional back3 ground and experience, is especially qualified to 

4 manage areas of study pertaining to ending breast 

5 cancer by January 1, 2020. 

6 (3) RESPONSIBILITIES.—The responsibilities of 

7 the Chairperson shall include— 

8 (A) approving all new study projects and 

9 areas of study of the Commission based on in10 novation, impact, and scientific and technical 

11 merit; 

12 (B) developing criteria (including mile13 stones) for assessing, and overseeing assess14 ment of, the success of the study projects and 

15 areas of study of the Commission; 

16 (C) identifying opportunities for seed 

17 grants and other funding through awards, 

18 prizes, grants, and contracts to achieve the mis19 sion described in section 5(a); and 

20 (D) terminating study projects and areas 

21 of study of the Commission that are not achiev22 ing the mission described in section 5(a). 

23 (b) COMMISSIONERS.— 

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

25 Commission may appoint members of the CommisVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:17 Sep 27, 2011 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3067.IH H3067

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1 sion to oversee one or more areas of study of the 

2 Commission. 

3 (2) RESPONSIBILITIES.—A member appointed 

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

5 more areas of study, be responsible for— 

6 (A) recommending novel proposals, 

7 projects, and collaborations based on scientific 

8 and technical merit to achieve the mission de9 scribed in section 5(a) with a focus on strate10 gies for the primary prevention of breast can11 cer, and methods to prevent breast cancer me12 tastasis; 

13 (B) identifying ideas and opportunities to 

14 achieve the mission described in section 5(a) 

15 that are intellectually compelling, innovative, 

16 and imaginative, including such ideas and op17 portunities not being prioritized for breast can18 cer relevance within Federal agencies or pro19 grams or the private sector; 

20 (C) working with other relevant Federal 

21 agencies to identify areas of concurrent inter22 ests in order to maximize Federal investment 

23 and stimulate collaborative projects; 


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1 (D) identifying opportunities for 

2 transdisciplinary, cross-cutting collaborations; 

3 and 

4 (E) monitoring the progress of study 

5 projects and areas of study and recommending 

6 restructure or termination. 

7 SEC. 8. COORDINATION AND NONDUPLICATION. 

8 To the maximum extent practicable, the Commission 

9 shall ensure that the activities of the Commission are co10 ordinated with, and do not duplicate the efforts of, pro11 grams and laboratories of other government agencies. 

12 SEC. 9. EVALUATION OF THE COMMISSION. 

13 (a) IN GENERAL.—The President shall seek to enter 

14 into an agreement with the Institute of Medicine of the 

15 National Academy of Sciences under which the Institute, 

16 after the Commission has been in operation for 3 years, 

17 completes an evaluation of how well the Commission is 

18 making progress towards achieving the mission described 

19 in section 5(a). 

20 (b) INCLUSIONS.—The evaluation under subsection 

21 (a) shall include— 

22 (1) a recommendation on whether the Commis23 sion should be continued or terminated; and 

24 (2) a description of lessons learned from oper25 ation of the Commission. 


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

2 under subsection (a), the Commission shall make the eval3 uation available to the Congress and the public. 

4 SEC. 10. TERMINATION. 

5 The Commission shall terminate on June 1, 2020. 

Æ 


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