Speaking to The Washington Post Tuesday, a group of policymakers agreed that the funding efforts for the 21st Century Cures Act bill to defeat cancer will be complicated. “All of the money has to come back through the authorization process when we do appropriations,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn, (R-Tenn.), said. “That is a way for us in Congress to have the ability to do that double check and do the necessary oversight.” Her democratic colleague Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, (D-Fla.), called the yearly appropriation process for infinite regulatory rollback “a real concern,” noting that the pay structure for the bill includes a “lock box” of dollars that can exclusively be allocated on cancer funding, but that would disappear if not fully used. Greg Simon, Executive Director of the White House Cancer Task Force, said that while this could be concerning, it is unlikely that all of the money wouldn’t be spent. “Unless you really don’t like Cancer spending, that money can only be used cancer,” he said.
