Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Accelerating the End of Breast Cancer Act of 2015”.
Accelerating the End of Breast Cancer Act of 2015
A BILL
To provide for the establishment of a Commission to Accelerate the End of Breast Cancer.
Sec. 2 Table of contents
The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
Sec. 3 Findings
The Congress finds the following:
In the United States, the chance of a woman developing breast cancer during her lifetime has increased from 1 in 11 in 1975 to 1 in 8 today.
Worldwide, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women with 1.7 million new cancer cases diagnosed in 2012. Breast cancer is also one of the leading causes of cancer death in women, with 522,000 women dying from the disease worldwide in 2012, a 14 percent increase since 2008.
More than 90 percent of deaths from breast cancer are caused by metastasis, when breast cancer has spread to other organs or bone.
In 2010, the National Cancer Institute estimated that breast cancer care in the United States cost $16.5 billion and cost the Nation $12.1 billion in lost productivity. It is projected that, with no changes, the cost of breast cancer care will rise to at least $20.9 million in 2020.
Very little has improved in terms of breast cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates over the past 40 years.
Sec. 4 Establishment
The President shall establish a commission to be known as the Commission to Accelerate the End of Breast Cancer (in this Act referred to as the “the Commission”).
Sec. 5 Mission; duties
Mission— The mission of the Commission shall be to help end breast cancer by January 1, 2020.
Duties— The Commission shall—
identify opportunities and ideas within government and the private sector that are key components in achieving the end of breast cancer and which have been overlooked, yet are ripe for collaboration and investment, and
recommend projects to leverage such opportunities and ideas in the areas of—
the primary prevention of breast cancer; and
the causes and prevention of breast cancer metastasis.
Means— In carrying out the duties described in subsection (b), the Commission shall—
identify revolutionary opportunities and ideas in fundamental and applied sciences and epidemiology with a focus on ending breast cancer;
identify timely opportunities and scientific discoveries which can be turned into real world strategies to prevent breast cancer and prevent breast cancer metastasis and deaths;
promote ideas that are intellectually compelling, innovative, and imaginative;
accelerate potential transformational scientific advances—
not being prioritized within the Federal Government, but which can help to achieve the mission described in subsection (a); and
unlikely to be achieved by the private sector due to technical and financial uncertainty;
identify promising, underdeveloped areas of research that would benefit from a cluster of government, industry, and academia forming innovation communities to rapidly advance knowledge into practice, while creating new opportunities for job creation and advancement;
identify opportunities for transdisciplinary cross-cutting collaborations; and
identify opportunities for seed grants to leverage identified opportunities and ideas.
Strategic vision— Not later than 6 months after the appointment of the initial members of the Commission, the Commission shall submit to the President and the relevant authorizing and appropriations committees of the Congress a description of the Commission’s strategic vision for making progress in achieving the mission described in subsection (a) by January 1, 2020.
Annual reports— The Commission shall submit an annual report to the President, the Congress, and the public describing the Commission’s activities under this section, including its progress in achieving the mission described in subsection (a).
Sec. 6 Membership
Number; appointment— The Commission shall be composed of not more than 10 members, of which—
not more than 8 shall be appointed by the President;
1 shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives; and
1 shall be appointed by the majority leader of the Senate.
Composition—
In general— Each member of the Commission shall be appointed to represent one of the following 3 categories:
Representatives of varied disciplines within the biomedical research field.
Representatives of varied disciplines outside of the biomedical research field.
Educated patient advocates, meaning individuals who—
represent a patient-led, patient-centered organization with a patient constituency;
have been personally affected by breast cancer; and
are trained, knowledgeable, and prepared to participate in the decisionmaking process of science and medicine.
Representation of membership categories— Of the members of the Commission—
at least 1 but not more than 3 shall be appointed to represent the category described in paragraph (1)(A);
at least 1 but not more than 3 shall be appointed to represent the category described in paragraph (1)(B); and
at least 2 but not more than 4 shall be appointed to represent the category described in paragraph (1)(C).
Initial members— The initial members of the Commission shall be appointed not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
Terms—
In general— Each member of the Commission shall be appointed for a term of 3 years and may be reappointed.
Vacancies— Any member of the Commission appointed to fill a vacancy occurring before the expiration of the term for which the member’s predecessor was appointed shall be appointed only for the remainder of that term. A member may serve after the expiration of that member’s term until a successor has taken office. A vacancy in the Commission shall be filled in the manner in which the original appointment was made.
Quorum— Three members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum.
Sec. 7 Chairperson and commissioners
Chairperson—
Designation— Of the members of the Commission appointed under section 6(a), the President shall at the time of appointment, designate one to serve as Chairperson of the Commission.
Qualifications— The Chairperson shall be an individual who, by reason of professional background and experience, is especially qualified to manage areas of study pertaining to ending breast cancer by January 1, 2020.
Responsibilities— The responsibilities of the Chairperson shall include—
approving all new study projects and areas of study of the Commission based on innovation, impact, and scientific and technical merit;
developing criteria (including milestones) for assessing, and overseeing assessment of, the success of the study projects and areas of study of the Commission;
identifying opportunities for seed grants and other funding through awards, prizes, grants, and contracts to achieve the mission described in section 5(a); and
terminating study projects and areas of study of the Commission that are not achieving the mission described in section 5(a).
Commissioners—
In general— The Chairperson of the Commission may appoint members of the Commission to oversee one or more areas of study of the Commission.
Responsibilities— A member appointed under paragraph (1) shall, with respect to one or more areas of study, be responsible for—
recommending novel proposals, projects, and collaborations based on scientific and technical merit to achieve the mission described in section 5(a) with a focus on strategies for the primary prevention of breast cancer, and methods to prevent breast cancer metastasis;
identifying ideas and opportunities to achieve the mission described in section 5(a) that are intellectually compelling, innovative, and imaginative, including such ideas and opportunities not being prioritized for breast cancer relevance within Federal agencies or programs or the private sector;
working with other relevant Federal agencies to identify areas of concurrent interests in order to maximize Federal investment and stimulate collaborative projects;
identifying opportunities for transdisciplinary, cross-cutting collaborations; and
monitoring the progress of study projects and areas of study and recommending restructure or termination.
Sec. 8 Coordination and nonduplication
To the maximum extent practicable, the Commission shall ensure that the activities of the Commission are coordinated with, and do not duplicate the efforts of, programs and laboratories of other government agencies.
Sec. 9 Evaluation of the commission
In general— The President shall seek to enter into an agreement with the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences under which the Institute, after the Commission has been in operation for 3 years, completes an evaluation of how well the Commission is making progress towards achieving the mission described in section 5(a).
Inclusions— The evaluation under subsection (a) shall include—
a recommendation on whether the Commission should be continued or terminated; and
a description of lessons learned from operation of the Commission.
Availability— On completion of the evaluation under subsection (a), the Commission shall make the evaluation available to the Congress and the public.
Sec. 10 Termination
The Commission shall terminate on June 1, 2020.