Congress Must Protect DoD Medical Research Funding

Since 1992, the Department of Defense Congressionally-Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) has transformed healthcare for service members and the American public through innovative and impactful biomedical research. As of 2017, Congress has, on a bipartisan basis, provided the CDMRP with $11.9 billion in funding to support high impact, high risk, and high gain projects that other agencies and private investors may be unwilling to fund. During this time, over $259 million has been devoted to peer-reviewed cancer research, including melanoma. Over the past quarter century, research funded by the CDMRP has resulted in life-saving medical breakthroughs for military service members, their families and the general public. This critical funding is now in jeopardy.

Every year, Congress must authorize defense spending for programs like the CDMRP through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The current NDAA bill before the Senate contains four provisions that—if enacted—would weaken the Department of Defense’s medical research program, hindering advances in life saving cancer research both now and in the future. In response, Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) are circulating a bipartisan letter urging their fellow lawmakers to remove these harmful provisions from the bill before it is passed.

Previous attempts to restrict this funding have been met with overwhelming bipartisan opposition, and we need your help now to ensure it remains protected! Download the Durbin-Blunt letter which includes more detailed information about the CDMRP and the harmful effects these proposed changes would cause. Contact your Senator and urge them to sign on to this letter and take a stand for their constituents who are counting on the life-saving medical breakthroughs made possible by the CDMRP.