Women and Lung Cancer Research and Preventive Services Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2319, the Women and Lung Cancer Research and Preventive Services Act of 2025.

I want to begin by commending my colleague, Representative Brendan F. Boyle, for his tireless leadership on this critical issue.

Every 9 minutes, a woman loses her life to lung cancer. In the time it will take the House to consider this bill, more mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends will be lost. This legislation is a meaningful step in addressing the disproportionate impact of lung cancer on women.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among men and women in the United States. It kills more people each year than breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and uterine cancer combined.

Despite historically lower smoking rates than men, women are estimated to make up over half of all new lung cancer cases and nearly half of all deaths.

In the United States, we are seeing a concerning trend among young and middle-aged women who are being diagnosed with lung cancer. Even more striking, lung cancer disproportionately strikes women who have never smoked.

Approximately two-thirds of never-smokers who have been diagnosed with lung cancer are women. A clear understanding of the existing research and innovative opportunities to reduce lung cancer mortality, particularly among women in underserved populations, is needed.

This legislation directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, working in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to conduct a comprehensive interagency review of lung cancer in women and in underserved populations.

This legislation will help us take steps toward answering key questions our researchers need to answer. We need to know what environmental and genomic factors contribute to lung cancer in women. We need to know where the gaps are in our existing research. We need to know how we expand access to early detection and screening, which we know saves lives. And we need to know how we mount a public awareness campaign to better inform the public and providers.

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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Boyle) who is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee.

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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, in closing, I just want to say that this is a very important piece of legislation. It is obviously bipartisan.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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