Subject: Updated Board Materials, Today's press release, legislative wrap-up and lots of other things
From: "Skip Lockwood" <[email-masked]>
To: "Jonathan Schwartz" <[email-masked]>, "Mitch Laurance" <[email-masked]>, "Robin Sparrow" <[email-masked]>, "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Sherry Galloway" <[email-masked]>, "Jill O'Donnell-Tormey" <[email-masked]>, "Tom Quinn" <[email-masked]>, "Michael Milken" <[email-masked]>, "Sanford Siegel" <[email-masked]>, "Thomas Moody" <[email-masked]>, "Concepcion, Raoul S." <[email-masked]>, "Jonathan Schwartz" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Jamie Bearse" <[email-masked]>, "Betsy London" <[email-masked]>, "Kevin Johnson" <[email-masked]>, "Kathy Costigan" <[email-masked]>, "Michael Milken" <[email-masked]>, "Nancy Cromwell" <[email-masked]>, "Anne Marie Person" <[email-masked]>, "Sherry Wilson" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:33:51 -0400

All,

Thanks for your enthusiasm and participation. The last several weeks have
been some of the most successful and hectic weeks of the organization¹s
existence.   Since we last met on the 14th of September there has been a
highly-successful Summit to End Prostate Cancer that was part of the Advance
on Washington, a cooperative advocacy and research activity with PCF, the
Prostate Health Education Network and the Black Barbershop Health Outreach
Program.   On top of that success we had 7 races around the country.  The
Baltimore race and the Alexandria race had more than >2,000 registered
runners and walkers and nearly that many spectators and volunteers between
the two.   Baltimore again topped the field for registrations and
fundraising (>$200,000) but there are four races left and Central Florida,
Long Island, Poughkeepsie, and Albuquerque promise to give Baltimore a run
for its money for the top spot.  Overall there will be 14 races this year
and we are on track to have 22-25 for next season.  Also, special welcome to
Dr. Raoul Concepcion the newest Board member.

One of the immediate benefits of the Summit to End Prostate Cancer was the
passage of House Resolution 1485.  This is the first time that the House of
Representatives has ever officially acknowledged Prostate Cancer Awareness
Month.  The resolution was passed on September 28, 2010.  Passage of this
resolution was directly affected by ZERO¹s advocate lobby day.  On the same
day that our 100+ advocates walked the Hill, the legislation picked-up 24
new co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.  While this is not the
resounding victory we need for the CDMRP increase it is an excellent step
forward to finding new champions and sensitizing Members of Congress and
their staffs about the need to support prostate cancer legislation.  Which
brings me to another piece of legislation that was recently introduced:
The PROSTATE Act of 2010 also known as S. 3775 .  The text of the
legislation can be found here:
http://thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3775.IS:

Here is Kevin Johnson¹s take on S.3775:  ZERO does not support S. 3775  we
support the intent, but when ZERO consulted with them before it was
introduced (them being AUA) on the language and for support we identified 2
glaring problems.  The bill states that such sums as necessary are
authorized for appropriations  that¹s a blank check, there goes any real
chance at bi-partisan support or actual passage.  Also, we have real
concerns that most of the bill could be  accomplished administratively by
talking to the entities involved  we don¹t believe that AUA consulted NIH,
DOD or VA  at least 2 of 3 (NIH and DOD) are very accessible on issues like
this.  There is a lot of legislative ³fluff² in this bill that really
doesn¹t mean much because from a practical point of view it just doesn¹t
work.
 
Long term political ramifications have not been considered and we will be
surprised if they get more than 10 co-sponsors before congress breaks for
the election  we are pretty confident in this prediction because we know
they¹ve been trying to find co-sponsors for over 2 months.  AUA has a big
problem with the GOP because of the language mentioned before.  We think
that the Dems that actually read it will probably shy away to some degree.
Nobody wants to support a bill that would allow limitless amounts of money
to be thrown at pilot programs and studies.
 
On the House side, Elijah Cummings may introduce the bill  AUA cannot
identify any Republican that will support the bill and that is a HUGE
problem moving into next year.  Even if it is introduced on the House side
at this point  with no R support the bill is forever dead because of the
likelihood of the House changing control next year  even if it doesn¹t the
margins are going to be so close that nothing that is not a bi-partisan
measure has a snowballs chance.
 
So ZERO will not be making any statements of support for that bill at this
time  we already have to justify making requests for $40 million increases
at DOD for prostate cancer research (which does get bi-partisan support) 
we have to be honest with staffers when they ask us about that bill and
having a blanket statement of support for anything is bad political
business. 

We will wait and see on S.3775 and will hope to have some influence on the
legislation before it is reintroduced in the next Congress.

You can go to our Facebook page to see photos from the Congressional
reception and the board meeting.

Congressional Reception and Board Meeting Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=262092&id=91065952106&ref=mf

It is just a few days after many of the races so we only have photos of the
Alexandria race at this time.  You can see those photos in our race album on
Facebook.

Alexandria Dash for Dad Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=262092&id=91065952106&ref=mf#!/album.p
hp?aid=249211&id=91065952106

Today is the 50th Anniversary of ³The Flintstones.²  Attached is the press
release we did reminding Fred to get checked.

Finally, our partnership with the NHL and the NHLPA has finally gone public
so feel free to share this news with whomever you would like.   You can read
the official release here:  http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=538962.

Please don¹t hesitate to call or email if you have questions or comments.
Even more to come.

--Skip

Skip Lockwood
CEO
ZERO -- The Project to End Prostate Cancer
10 G St., NE
Suite 601
Washington, DC 20002
202-463-9455 (main)
202-463-9456 (fax)

Virginia Office:
515 King St.
Suite 420
Alexandria, VA 22304

www.zerocancer.org
Twitter:  www.twitter.com/digitalskip
Facebook:  ZERO ‹ The Project to End Prostate Cancer
Combined Federal Campaign #12161
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