Wasserman Schultz on Reauthorization, Increased Funding of the EARLY Act

Washington DC – U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23) released the following statement after her legislation, the Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act, or EARLY Act Reauthorization of 2020, became law this week with the President’s signing of the larger government spending and COVID-19 relief package:

“For young women and those of certain ethnic and racial populations, breast cancer can be even more deadly because it is often more aggressive and too frequently caught later than it should be. The EARLY Act of 2020, which reauthorizes the law that I sponsored and passed in 2010 after overcoming my own battle with breast cancer, increases funding and ensures that young women’s breast health awareness, education and grant programs are funded through the EARLY Act at an increased level of $9 million annually from 2022 through 2026. This vital funding will expand the effective Bring Your Brave  and Health Care Provider education and awareness programs implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and fund additional grants to young women’s and higher risk women’s breast cancer organizations. By reauthorizing the EARLY Act, we continue the vital work of educating young and higher risk women about their breast health and help focus their attention to this deadly disease. Among other things, this legislation will fund grants and support initiatives educate and provide help to young and high-risk women, collect family histories and educate health care providers. I know first-hand this law and funding is needed, because I was a young woman who was unaware of my risk and after my breast cancer diagnosis at 41, was diagnosed with the BRCA2 gene mutation. Today, I am still cancer-free because my cancer and my genetic risk were caught early and I am committed to helping high risk and young women acquire the knowledge and resources they need to not just survive, but thrive. The earlier that cancer cases are identified, the better the chances of survival. That is just what the EARLY Act will continue to do: save women’s lives.”