President Obama Thursday afternoon signed a bill into law that will provide an additional $126 million for pediatric cancer research over the next 10 years.
Congressman Peter Welch is a lead sponsor of the legislation. Welch says the money will used by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The proposal will be paid for by eliminating taxpayer financing of political party conventions.
“We have 10,000 of our kids who die each year from childhood cancer and we need to invest research money so that our scientists can help find cures for cancer and other diseases that affect our kids,” Welch says.
Welch notes that the bill enjoyed strong bipartisan support. He thinks it’s an example of how Democrats and Republicans can work together on a variety of important issues.
“Yes, we disagree on many things but let’s focus a little bit on where we actually agree and then pare it down to where we can take some constructive steps forward and that might ideally become a habit where then we are able to reach some constructive and principled compromise on the larger things,” Welch says.
This is the second bill sponsored by Welch that the President has signed into law this week.
The other bill gives additional financial assistance to rural hospitals that serve a disproportionately large number of seniors in their communities. Vermont has four hospitals that qualify for this assistance.
