On Tuesday, September 13, 2022, President Joe Biden will sign H.R. 5376, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, on the White House lawn in Washington. He will be joined by VP Kamala Harris and Lovette Jacobs, a fifth-year electrical apprentice with IBEW Local 103 in Boston.
On Monday, Biden provided an update on his administration’s pledge to discover a cure for cancer in a speech at Boston’s JFK Library. In the next 25 years, he said, he wants to reduce cancer death rates by at least 50%.
Biden tried to galvanize Americans behind this fight during his speech by drawing comparisons to President Kennedy’s quest to beat the Russians to the moon. After losing his son Beau Biden to brain cancer in 2015, Biden made a personal commitment to uphold this pledge.
The idea, which Biden described as “bold, ambitious, and, I should add, absolutely attainable,” was first presented in February. “The objective is to reduce the number of cancer deaths by at least 50% over the course of the next 25 years. To make more cancers into chronic illnesses that people can live with, to improve patient and family experiences of support, and to update, update our battle against cancer.”
Doctor Renee Wegrzyn, a biologist, and former federal scientist, will serve as the head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, as part of Biden’s plan. The mission of the ARPA-H, which was founded in March of this year, is to investigate potential cancer therapies or cures.
The Democrat also unveiled a brand-new scholars program to support young researchers in the field.
“According to Biden, ARPA-H’s sole goal will be to advance medical research into ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes while also making it possible for us to have healthier lives.”
A new executive order requiring the federal government to make sure the technology required for such investigations is created in the United States was also unveiled by Biden. The Democrat made no mention of how he would enforce this ruling, though.
“However, developing new technology alone won’t suffice to save lives. Advanced biotechnologies must be produced in the United States,” according to Biden. “That’s why I signed an executive order today directing the federal government to make sure that biotechnology is created and manufactured in the United States of America, he continued.”
