II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1994
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JUNE14, 2023
Mr. K
ELLY(for himself and Mr. TILLIS) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
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 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 6
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 7
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(1) According to 2017 data from National Pro-1
gram of Cancer Registries of the Centers for Disease 2
Control and Prevention, approximately 26,500 can-3
cer cases among veterans were not reported to State 4
cancer registries funded through such Program. 5
(2) Established by Congress in 1992 through 6
the Cancer Registries Amendment Act (Public Law 7
102–515), the National Program of Cancer Reg-8
istries under section 399B of the Public Health 9
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 280e) collects data on cancer 10
occurrence (including the type, extent, and location 11
of the cancer), the type of initial treatment, and out-12
comes. 13
(3) The Centers for Disease Control and Pre-14
vention support central cancer registries in 46 15
States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, cer-16
tain territories of the United States in the Pacific 17
Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. 18
(4) The data obtained by registries described in 19
paragraph (3) combined with data from the Surveil-20
lance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program of 21
the National Cancer Institute and mortality data 22
from National Center for Health Statistics of the 23
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention com-24
prise the official United States Cancer Statistics. 25
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(5) The United States Cancer Statistics reflect 1
all newly diagnosed cancer cases and cancer deaths 2
for the entire population of the United States, ex-3
cept for unreported veterans. 4
(6) Federal law requires the Centers for Dis-5
ease Control and Prevention and the National Can-6
cer Institute to collect cancer data for all newly di-7
agnosed cancer cases, but that currently cannot be 8
achieved due to frequent lack of reporting by med-9
ical facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs. 10
(7) Releasing all data from medical facilities of 11
the Department to State cancer registries will pro-12
vide more complete data for health care providers, 13
public health officials, and researchers to— 14
(A) measure cancer occurrence and trends 15
at the local and national level; 16
(B) inform and prioritize cancer edu-17
cational and screening programs; 18
(C) evaluate efficacy of prevention efforts 19
and treatment; 20
(D) determine survival rates; 21
(E) conduct research on the etiology, diag-22
nosis, and treatment of cancer; 23
(F) ensure quality and equity in cancer 24
care; and 25
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(G) plan for health services. 1
(8) Capturing cancer data from medical facili-2
ties of the Department in State cancer registries and 3
the United States Cancer Statistics can benefit vet-4
erans by— 5
(A) improving the ability to identify can-6
cer-related disparities in the veteran commu-7
nity; 8
(B) improving understanding of the can-9
cer-related needs of veterans, which can be in-10
corporated into State Comprehensive Cancer 11
Control planning for screening and treatment 12
programs funded by the Centers for Disease 13
Control and Prevention; and 14
(C) increasing opportunities for veterans 15
with cancer to be included in more clinical trials 16
and cancer-related research and analysis being 17
done outside of the health care system of the 18
Department. 19
(b) P
URPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to im-20
prove care for veterans by ensuring all data on veterans 21
diagnosed with cancer are captured by the national cancer 22
registry programs supported by the National Program of 23
Cancer Registries of the Centers for Disease Control and 24
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Prevention and the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End 1
Results Program of the National Cancer Institute. 2
SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT THAT DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS 3
AFFAIRS SHARE DATA WITH STATE CANCER 4
REGISTRIES. 5
(a) S
HARING OFDATAWITHSTATECANCERREG-6
ISTRIES.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 73 8
of title 38, United States Code, is amended by add-9
ing at the end the following new section: 10
‘‘§ 7330E. Sharing of data with State cancer registries 11
‘‘(a) S
HARING BY THEDEPARTMENT.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall share 13
with the State cancer registry of each State, if such 14
a registry exists, qualifying data for all individuals 15
who are residents of the State and have received 16
health care under the laws administered by the Sec-17
retary. 18
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENTS RELATING TO DATA 19
SHARED.—In sharing data under paragraph (1) with 20
a State cancer registry, the Secretary shall comply 21
with the requirements for non-Department facilities 22
to report data, in a manner that is as complete and 23
timely as possible, without requiring a data use 24
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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.’’.
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(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
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