I'M BACK!  I apologize (again) for my absence - I'm sure the 2 or 3 of you who read my blog have missed me.  I promise I will try to do better.

Congress keeps rolling down the highway and while there doesn't seem to be much traffic, they are moving about 20 mph under the speed limit.  This summer will see things change however and we're all expecting a flurry of activity and important debates and hearings.

Health care reform will most likely take the spotlight and watching that take shape is of keen interest to us as I'm sure it is to everyone else.  The big question (yes, it's loaded) is how do we - that's the BIG 'WE'; the prostate cancer community - protect our interests in a debate that will be much bigger than our cause?

Keep in mind that cancer is only one of the topics that they will address and that prostate cancer is only a portion of that.  We are already fighting a PR battle for attention among other more highly visible cancers and a new fuel to a old argument recommending me against early detection.

People are throwing around terms like 'comparative effectiveness' and 'least costly alternative' and we're all supposed to know what they mean.  Certainly, prostate cancer will be effected by all of these things, but the only way we will be able to play a key role in these debates is by partnering with other organizations that are of like-mind and engaging our elected officials at home.

I know some folks are very interested and engaged on these issues and others that surround the health care debate - I will try to address each of them in future posts individually.

Moving on...the appropriations process will also become more visible in the coming weeks.  Markups are expected to begin next week (after the Memorial Day Recess - I know they call them 'Work Periods' now, but they will always be recess to me).  Of course the two biggies for us are Labor-HHS-Ed and Defense.  I've not heard a schedule yet, so I don't know - but I would expect at least one of them to go the 2nd or 3rd week of June.

Keep in mind that this is only the beginning - none of these bills will complete its legislative journey until mid-September AT THE EARLIEST.

Another bill that we are waiting on is the Thomas J. Manton Early Detection and Treatment Act.  It has been stalled because they are experiencing difficulties in adding the NY House delegation to the bill as original co-sponsors.  This is very important to Rep. Marshall who is the sponsor of this bill.

If you have not heard about this year's Summit in DC, please be sure to mark it on your calendar.  We have already secured a room in the Capitol Visitor's Center for Thursday and we're very much looking forward to having an energetic group of advocates here with us this year.  The Summit is scheduled for September 23-24 and we have blocked a number of rooms at The Liaison Capitol Hill Hotel.

I look forward to hearing from anyone with comments about this post or questions about our Summit.

-- Kevin