Sheryl Crow Lobbies to Break Breast Cancer Bill Logjam

March 28, 2007 — -- Senators from both parties took a short break from the Iraq War funding debate to unite behind an offensive in a different kind of war -- a war that was declared back in the Nixon administration. And they brought out the heavy artillery -- on Capitol Hill there is no better way to draw people to your press conference than star power.

Today it was breast cancer survivor Sheryl Crow, who appeared with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York (and others) from the left, and Sens. Orrin Hatch and Lisa Murkowski from the right.

"I was in high school when President Nixon declared a war on cancer," Crow said. "And there I am, 25 years later, diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago."

Funding for cancer research should be increased, the singer argued. "The war on cancer should be won," Crow said.

Crow appeared with lawmakers to lobby for the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act, which was first introduced in 2000. She met yesterday with the Congressional Women's Caucus.

Nothing brings out reporters and TV cameras on Capitol Hill like a real-live celebrity, who gets recognized outside the beltway.

"I know the platinum-selling musician you came here to see is not Orrin Hatch," said Hatch, who in addition to being a senator is also a successful writer of religious music.

The bill sets a national strategy and authorizes $40 million per year to fund research on possible links between breast cancer and the environment.

There is a higher occurrence of breast cancer in some New York Zip codes than in others, Clinton pointed out. Murkowski said that native Alaskan women have a higher incidence of cancer than other ethnic groups.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who told the audience that his wife had a scare when a lump in her breast was biopsied in the past several months, vowed to pass the legislation this year.

The bill was held up last year when anti-pork crusader (and OB-GYN) Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., placed a hold on the legislation. He worried that the bill would take the authority for research out of the hands of scientists and put it into the hands of politicians. Then-Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had declined to sidestep Coburn's hold. Since then, the National Breast Cancer Coalition, which has been the chief proponent of the legislation, has declared a PR war on Coburn.