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REMARKS BY:	DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE:		Breast Cancer Awareness Month , Washington, D.C.
DATE:		October 21, 1998

Increasing funding for Breast Cancer

Let me briefly underscore the remarkable progress we've made against breast cancer-and the challenges ahead. As many of you are aware, a controversial exhibit on Sigmund Freud just opened at the Library of Congress. And as we know, it was Freud who posed the glib question: "What do women want?" Well, I believe the answer is quite simple. Women want us to stand up.to step up.and to never give up on their rights and their families. Women want us to take up their health care concerns. And when it comes to breast cancer, women want us to rise up and fight this disease with everything we've got.

Over the past five years, that's exactly what we've done. And we've stepped up in every creative way possible to defeat breast cancer. We stepped up to break down the barriers that once divided agencies, actions and efforts against the disease. We stepped up to form innovative partnerships with our outstanding colleagues at the Department of Defense and at NASA. And we built a network-a power grid against breast cancer-that connects my department.to the corridors of the Pentagon and the headquarters of NASA.to the labs of our best universities and hospitals.to the broadcast airwaves, the boards of private foundations and boardrooms of corporate America-and right into American homes, hearts and minds. We stepped up against breast cancer by addressing the demands of prevention, treatment and research.By increasing funds specifically earmarked for breast cancer research at NIH by 11 percent to over 480 million dollars in FY 1999.By raising the NIH-wide spending on cancer research to over 3 billion dollars in FY 1999-which the Vice-President has pledged will increase by 65% over the next 5 years.And by boosting the National Cancer Institute with an exciting funding increase the First Lady just told you about that will unlock the dark secrets of this disease and shed light on new treatments.decode the genetic causes of breast cancer.disarm the disease before it starts.discover new risk factors and how to treat them.And determine not just the causes but the cures.

By stepping up, we've posed ourselves on the brink of a new millennium that offers a brave new world for any woman who faces the fear of breast cancer. We have much to celebrate. But until we finally reach that brave new world.Until there are no breast cancer statistics-only survivors.Until this shadow of this disease is lifted from every woman's life.Our challenge is to keep fighting this disease with everything we've got. What women want is to keep this challenge on our national agenda, and in our minds, our conscious, and our subconscious. That's what Breast Cancer Awareness Month is all about. It's why another First Lady, Betty Ford, helped launch the very first breast cancer awareness campaign 14 years ago. It's why, every year, we race for the cure with our feet and our science. It's why, every day, we celebrate the survivors and take strength from our memories of those who succumbed. And it's why, every day, we want every woman, everywhere, to know how to avoid the risks and save their lives. One day we will win the race for the cure, the race against this cancer.we will consign it to the history books.we will remove it from our daughter's lives.and we will erase it from every woman's psyche.. Because in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, "What one has to do.can be done." And now I'd like to return the podium to someone who truly understands what women want, our First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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