Washington, DC – The U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously approved legislation to extend the Breast Cancer Research Stamp for another two years. The House measure, sponsored by Representative Joe Baca (D-Calif.), was approved last week. It serves as companion legislation to a Senate-approved bill sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas). The bill is expected to be signed soon by the President.

“The Breast Cancer Research Stamp, the first stamp of its kind dedicated to raising funds for a special cause, has been a rousing success,”Senator Feinstein said. “In addition to thanking Representative Baca and Senator Hutchison, who has worked with me closely on this issue through the years, I would like to thank Senators Susan Collins and Joseph Lieberman, chair and ranking member of the Government Affairs Committee, for helping move this important bill forward.”

“A growing number of people today are becoming cancer survivors, rather than cancer victims, thanks to breakthroughs in cancer research. And, until a cure is found, the money from the sale of this extraordinary stamp will continue to focus public awareness on a devastating disease and provide hope to breast cancer survivors,” Senator Feinstein said. “I am delighted that we in Congress are doing our part to continue the legacy of the stamp.”

Since 1998 when the stamp was first introduced, the United States Postal Service has sold more than 657.5 million Breast Cancer Research Stamps and raised $47.9 million for breast cancer research. In the month of September 2005, 6.9 million stamps were sold. The stamp is set to expire at the end of this year if this legislation is not enacted.

Seventy percent of the proceeds from the stamp will continue to go to breast cancer research programs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and 30 percent of the proceeds will continue going to research programs at the Department of Defense (DOD). As of August 31, 2005, NIH and DOD have received almost $44 million in Breast Cancer Research stamp proceeds.

Breast cancer is considered the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in every major ethnic group in this country. Over two million women in the U.S. are living with breast cancer, one million of whom have yet to be diagnosed. This year, approximately 211,240 women in this country will get breast cancer and about 40,410 women will die from this dreadful disease. Though much less common, about 1,300 men in America are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

Senator Feinstein is a strong supporter of breast cancer research funding through the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, and the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Breast Cancer Program, where she has consistently voted in to increase funding for these programs:

• Senator Feinstein is a cosponsor of the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act, which authorizes $30 million a year for five years for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to award grants to study the relationship between environmental factors and breast cancer. Modeled after the DoD Breast Cancer Research Program, which has been so successful, it would also include consumer advocates in the peer review and programmatic review process.

• Senator Feinstein is also an original cosponsor of the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act, S. 910, which prohibits insurers from restricting hospital lengths of stay for mastectomy or breast conserving surgery to less than 48 hours or 24 hours in connection with a lymph node dissection and requires the patient’s doctor to obtain prior authorization for such hospital lengths of stay. The bill requires health insurance plans providing medical and surgical benefits to ensure that inpatient (and in the case of a lumpectomy, outpatient) coverage and radiation therapy are also provided for breast cancer treatment.

• In the 108 th Congress, Senator Feinstein was the author of the National Cancer Act, a comprehensive national battle plan to modernize and re-energize the Nation’s war on cancer, a war which former President Nixon declared in his State of the Union Address on January 22, 1971.

• Senator Feinstein is the co-chair of the Senate Cancer Coalition along with Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and serves as Vice Chair of C-Change: Collaborating to Conquer Cancer along with Co-Chairs President George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Bush.