Childhood Cancer STAR Reauthorization Act

Mr. President, I am pleased to be joined by Senators Capito, Van Hollen, and Murkowski in introducing the Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research, STAR, Reauthorization Act of 2022. This legislation is an extension of ongoing bipartisan efforts in the Senate over the past decade to get us closer to the goal of hopefully one day curing cancers in children, adolescents, and young adults. Representatives McCaul, Speier, Butterfield, and Kelly are introducing companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

I first started working on this issue after meeting the Haight family from Warwick, RI, in June of 2004. Nancy and Vincent lost their son, Ben, when he was just 9 years old to neuroblastoma, a very aggressive tumor in the brain. The heart-wrenching story of Ben Haight highlights the importance of this legislation. It is my hope that one day Ben's story, and thousands of other children like him, will be one of survival. With the strong support of families like the Haights, I introduced bipartisan legislation that eventually was signed into law in 2008 as the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act--the first effort to provide increased research and improved treatment options for childhood cancers.

Over the last several years, I have also had the pleasure of getting to know Grace Carey and her parents, Rebekah Ham and Russell Carey, of Providence, RI. Grace was diagnosed with brain cancer at 5 years old and stands as a proud survivor of childhood cancer. Grace and her family are powerful advocates in the fight against childhood cancer, having worked with the St. Baldrick's Foundation to support the original Childhood Cancer STAR Act, which I introduced in 2015 with Senator Capito and was signed into law in 2018.

The STAR Act took the next needed steps to advance pediatric cancer research and child-focused cancer treatments, while also improving childhood cancer surveillance and providing resources for survivors and those impacted by childhood cancer.

If a treatment is working, doctors elsewhere should know immediately. The same should happen if a treatment isn't working or if other major medical events occur during the course of a particular treatment. It is critical that doctors, nurses, and other providers are able to effectively communicate information about the disease, the treatment process, and what other health and development impacts children can expect to experience. As such, the STAR Act helped build a comprehensive children's cancer biorepository for researchers and improved surveillance of childhood cancer cases. Our reauthorization will build on these efforts and aims to make the biorepository easier for researchers to use, improving access to biospecimens.

In addition, we must do more to ensure that children survive cancer and any late effects so they can live a long, healthy, and productive life. The STAR Act enhanced research on the late effects of childhood cancers, improved collaboration among providers so that doctors are better able to care for this population as they age, and began to explore improved models of care for childhood cancer survivors. Since implementation of the STAR Act, the National Cancer Institute has awarded over $16 million in new survivorship grants. It is critical that we reauthorize the STAR Act to continue funding these vital projects.

I look forward to working with Senators Capito, Van Hollen, Murkowski, as well as Representatives McCaul, Speier, Butterfield, and Kelly, along with advocates like the St. Baldrick's Foundation, to build support for the Childhood Cancer STAR Reauthorization Act.

Mr. President, I am pleased to be joined by Senators Capito, Van Hollen, and Murkowski in introducing the Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research, STAR, Reauthorization Act of 2022. This legislation is an extension of ongoing bipartisan efforts in the Senate over the past decade to get us closer to the goal of hopefully one day curing cancers in children, adolescents, and young adults. Representatives McCaul, Speier, Butterfield, and Kelly are introducing companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

I first started working on this issue after meeting the Haight family from Warwick, RI, in June of 2004. Nancy and Vincent lost their son, Ben, when he was just 9 years old to neuroblastoma, a very aggressive tumor in the brain. The heart-wrenching story of Ben Haight highlights the importance of this legislation. It is my hope that one day Ben's story, and thousands of other children like him, will be one of survival. With the strong support of families like the Haights, I introduced bipartisan legislation that eventually was signed into law in 2008 as the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act--the first effort to provide increased research and improved treatment options for childhood cancers.

Over the last several years, I have also had the pleasure of getting to know Grace Carey and her parents, Rebekah Ham and Russell Carey, of Providence, RI. Grace was diagnosed with brain cancer at 5 years old and stands as a proud survivor of childhood cancer. Grace and her family are powerful advocates in the fight against childhood cancer, having worked with the St. Baldrick's Foundation to support the original Childhood Cancer STAR Act, which I introduced in 2015 with Senator Capito and was signed into law in 2018.

The STAR Act took the next needed steps to advance pediatric cancer research and child-focused cancer treatments, while also improving childhood cancer surveillance and providing resources for survivors and those impacted by childhood cancer.

If a treatment is working, doctors elsewhere should know immediately. The same should happen if a treatment isn't working or if other major medical events occur during the course of a particular treatment. It is critical that doctors, nurses, and other providers are able to effectively communicate information about the disease, the treatment process, and what other health and development impacts children can expect to experience. As such, the STAR Act helped build a comprehensive children's cancer biorepository for researchers and improved surveillance of childhood cancer cases. Our reauthorization will build on these efforts and aims to make the biorepository easier for researchers to use, improving access to biospecimens.

In addition, we must do more to ensure that children survive cancer and any late effects so they can live a long, healthy, and productive life. The STAR Act enhanced research on the late effects of childhood cancers, improved collaboration among providers so that doctors are better able to care for this population as they age, and began to explore improved models of care for childhood cancer survivors. Since implementation of the STAR Act, the National Cancer Institute has awarded over $16 million in new survivorship grants. It is critical that we reauthorize the STAR Act to continue funding these vital projects.

I look forward to working with Senators Capito, Van Hollen, Murkowski, as well as Representatives McCaul, Speier, Butterfield, and Kelly, along with advocates like the St. Baldrick's Foundation, to build support for the Childhood Cancer STAR Reauthorization Act.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Sexual Harassment Independent Investigations and Prosecution Act, also known as the SHIIP Act, which addresses longstanding systemic problems in the way that the military investigates and prosecutes sexual harassment. I thank Senators Booker, Gillibrand, and Feinstein for being original cosponsors and Representative Speier for introducing this important legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

It has been 2 years since Army SPC Vanessa Guillen was murdered after she reported being sexually harassed by another servicemember. Her tragic death was the catalyst to an investigation that led the Independent Review Commission to recommend key changes to the way the Department of Defense handles sexual assault and sexual harassment. Some of these changes, including the codification of sexual harassment as a crime, were established last year through the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. Others, unfortunately, were left out.

We must continue to build on the important work of the Independent Review Commission and the steps taken in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act for the sake of our servicemembers. This includes codifying the requirement that any sexual harassment or assault complaint to be reviewed by a third-party investigator outside the chain of command. This change is essential to restoring the trust between soldiers and their superiors. Servicemembers would no longer have to fear their voices being stifled or dismissed altogether.

That is why I am introducing the SHIIP Act to require that all complaints of sexual assault and harassment be reviewed by a specially trained investigator outside the chain of command. The provisions in this legislation will move prosecutorial decisions on sexual harassment cases to the new special trial counsel, created by the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, and require that independent sexual harassment investigators be outside the chain of command and trained to investigate sexual harassment. These changes are essential to ensure servicemembers feel safe reporting any misconduct and that their complaints are investigated properly.

I urge my colleagues to pass the SHIIP Act as another step forward toward restoring faith in the military justice system.