I
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 7091
To amend title 38, United States Code, to require medical facilities of the
Department of Veterans Affairs to share certain data with State cancer
registries, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY25, 2024
Mrs. K
IGGANSof Virginia (for herself and Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Vet-
erans’ Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Com-
merce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to require medical
facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs to share
certain data with State cancer registries, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Counting Veterans’ 4
Cancer Act of 2024’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jan 31, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7091.IH H7091
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•HR 7091 IH
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 1
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 2
(1) According to 2017 data from National Pro-3
gram of Cancer Registries of the Centers for Disease 4
Control and Prevention, approximately 26,500 can-5
cer cases among veterans were not reported to State 6
cancer registries funded through such Program. 7
(2) Established by Congress in 1992 through 8
the Cancer Registries Amendment Act (Public Law 9
102–515), the National Program of Cancer Reg-10
istries under section 399B of the Public Health 11
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 280e) collects data on cancer 12
occurrence (including the type, extent, and location 13
of the cancer), the type of initial treatment, and out-14
comes. 15
(3) The Centers for Disease Control and Pre-16
vention support central cancer registries in 46 17
States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, cer-18
tain territories of the United States in the Pacific 19
Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. 20
(4) The data obtained by registries described in 21
paragraph (3) combined with data from the Surveil-22
lance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program of 23
the National Cancer Institute and mortality data 24
from National Center for Health Statistics of the 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jan 31, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7091.IH H7091
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•HR 7091 IH
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention com-1
prise the official United States Cancer Statistics. 2
(5) The United States Cancer Statistics reflect 3
all newly diagnosed cancer cases and cancer deaths 4
for the entire population of the United States, ex-5
cept for unreported veterans. 6
(6) Federal law requires the Centers for Dis-7
ease Control and Prevention and the National Can-8
cer Institute to collect cancer data for all newly di-9
agnosed cancer cases, but that currently cannot be 10
achieved due to frequent lack of reporting by med-11
ical facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs. 12
(7) Releasing all data from medical facilities of 13
the Department to State cancer registries will pro-14
vide more complete data for health care providers, 15
public health officials, and researchers to— 16
(A) measure cancer occurrence and trends 17
at the local and national level; 18
(B) inform and prioritize cancer edu-19
cational and screening programs; 20
(C) evaluate efficacy of prevention efforts 21
and treatment; 22
(D) determine survival rates; 23
(E) conduct research on the etiology, diag-24
nosis, and treatment of cancer; 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jan 31, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7091.IH H7091
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•HR 7091 IH
(F) ensure quality and equity in cancer 1
care; and 2
(G) plan for health services. 3
(8) Capturing cancer data from medical facili-4
ties of the Department in State cancer registries and 5
the United States Cancer Statistics can benefit vet-6
erans by— 7
(A) improving the ability to identify can-8
cer-related disparities in the veteran commu-9
nity; 10
(B) improving understanding of the can-11
cer-related needs of veterans, which can be in-12
corporated into State Comprehensive Cancer 13
Control planning for screening and treatment 14
programs funded by the Centers for Disease 15
Control and Prevention; and 16
(C) increasing opportunities for veterans 17
with cancer to be included in more clinical trials 18
and cancer-related research and analysis being 19
done outside of the health care system of the 20
Department. 21
(b) P
URPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to im-22
prove care for veterans by ensuring all data on veterans 23
diagnosed with cancer are captured by the national cancer 24
registry programs supported by the National Program of 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jan 31, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7091.IH H7091
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5
•HR 7091 IH
Cancer Registries of the Centers for Disease Control and 1
Prevention and the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End 2
Results Program of the National Cancer Institute. 3
SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT THAT DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS 4
AFFAIRS SHARE DATA WITH STATE CANCER 5
REGISTRIES. 6
(a) S
HARING OFDATAWITHSTATECANCERREG-7
ISTRIES.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 73 9
of title 38, United States Code, is amended by add-10
ing at the end the following new section: 11
‘‘§ 7330E. Sharing of data with State cancer registries 12
‘‘(a) S
HARING BY THEDEPARTMENT.— 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall share 14
with the State cancer registry of each State, if such 15
a registry exists, qualifying data for all individuals 16
who are residents of the State and have received 17
health care under the laws administered by the Sec-18
retary. 19
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENTS RELATING TO DATA 20
SHARED.—In sharing data under paragraph (1) with 21
a State cancer registry, the Secretary shall comply 22
with the requirements for non-Department facilities 23
to report data, in a manner that is as complete and 24
timely as possible, without requiring a data use 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jan 31, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7091.IH H7091
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6
•HR 7091 IH
agreement in place between the Department and 1
each State cancer registry— 2
‘‘(A) to State cancer registries that are 3
supported by the National Program of Cancer 4
Registries of the Centers for Disease Control 5
and Prevention under section 399B of the Pub-6
lic Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 280e); 7
‘‘(B) to State cancer registries that are 8
supported by the Surveillance Epidemiology and 9
End Results Program of the National Cancer 10
Institute authorized under the National Cancer 11
Act of 1971 (Public Law 92–218); and 12
‘‘(C) to State cancer registries as set forth 13
in relevant State laws and regulations that au-14
thorize a cancer registry. 15
‘‘(b) Q
UALIFYINGDATADEFINED.—In this section, 16
the term ‘qualifying data’, with respect to a State cancer 17
registry, means all data required to be provided to the reg-18
istry pursuant to the authorities specified in subpara-19
graphs (A) through (C) of subsection (a)(2).’’. 20
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sec-21
tions at the beginning of subchapter II of such chap-22
ter is amended by inserting after the item relating 23
to section 7330D the following new item: 24
‘‘7330E. Sharing of data with State cancer registries.’’.
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jan 31, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6211 E:\BILLS\H7091.IH H7091
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7
•HR 7091 IH
(b) SHARING BYSTATECANCERREGISTRIES.—The 1
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-2
tion shall assist State cancer registries described in sub-3
paragraphs (A) and (B) of section 7330E(a)(2) of title 4
38, United States Code, as added by subsection (a)(1), 5
in facilitating, to the extent allowed under State laws regu-6
lating the cancer registry program, the sharing with the 7
Secretary of Veterans Affairs of data in the possession of 8
each such registry regarding diagnosis of cancer for each 9
veteran— 10
(1) enrolled in the system of annual patient en-11
rollment established and operated under section 12
1705(a) of such title; or 13
(2) registered to receive care from the Depart-14
ment of Veterans Affairs under section 17.37 of title 15
38, Code of Federal Regulations, or successor regu-16
lations. 17
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jan 31, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H7091.IH H7091
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB