WTF? Pentagon cancer research budget comes under scrutiny

[spanone]

those in charge of killing get 3.6 BILLION for cancer research?

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As the Pentagon seeks to trim spending, there are some programs Congress believes the military can’t do without. Among them: cancer research.

For almost 20 years, the Defense Department has been the recipient of more than $3.6 billion for cancer research. The programs have never been requested in any presidential budget, and are outside the Pentagon’s traditional mission of battlefield medicine and research.

Nonetheless, lawmakers, prodded by grass-roots lobbyists, have annually added in the money as part of the appropriations process.

With Congress now debating a spending bill for the remainder of this fiscal year — and both parties calling for budgetary restraint — lawmakers have shown no inclination to curtail this spending. The Senate Appropriations Committee recently added $250 million to the fiscal 2011 Continuing Resolution for cancer research.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pentagon-cancer-research-budget-comes-under-scrutiny/2011/03/10/ABq7S5R_print.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. That might explain why they have turned most of the ME into a depleted Uranium laboratory.

[DJ13]

2. never been requested in any presidential budget

How much annually is spent on off budget items to the Defense Department?

I bet that $3.6b is a drop in the bucket.

[Igel]

5. It looks like that $3.6B is cumulative. A few hundred million each year. n/t

[spanone]

3. why isn't this money going to civilian cancer research?

[DJ13]

4. Because human tests cant be done by a civilian research project?

[Igel]

6. Three reasons.

The DOD, through the VA, has access to a lot of ex-soldiers with odd pasts as far as exposure goes. Easier to grant DOD researchers clearance to churn through the paperwork and files. The DOD researchers are still generally civilians. Lots of civilians work for the DOD. (I was a civilian summer intern one year back before dinosaurs walked the Earth.)

The VA has a lot of hospitals with cancer patients. They're good places for clinical trials that *could* be done elsewhere but finding the doctors willing to host them is sometimes a bear. VA doctors want to host them, let them. But fund them. So a breast-cancer association kicked off one funding "stream" by lobbying Congress to fund breast cancer research through the DOD.

The research ultimately helps cancer patients, including VA patients, ex-military in general, and their dependents. It helps bring cutting-edge treatment options to those who served in the military because by having the DOD cooperate with other research endeavors they get access to their databases and protocols.