Throughout our 25th anniversary year, we’re featuring champions who’ve been nominated by the childhood cancer community for their outstanding contributions toward our mission of improving the lives of children with cancer and survivors.
Representative Michael McCaul (TX-10) is currently serving his tenth term in Congress. Very early in his Congressional career, Representative McCaul demonstrated a strong passion for helping children with cancer by co-founding the bipartisan Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus.
Since then, Rep. McCaul has worked closely with the childhood cancer community and organizations like ours to introduce several major pieces of childhood cancer legislation. Rep. McCaul has helped successfully secure passage of the RACE for Children Act, the Childhood Cancer STAR Act, and the Creating Hope Act.
Rep. McCaul first introduced the STAR Act in 2015, and it was signed into law in 2018. Since then, it has worked to expand opportunities for childhood cancer research, improve efforts to identify and track childhood cancer incidences, and enhance the quality of life for childhood cancer survivors. Passage of the original STAR Act was a true collaborative effort with many organizations and coalitions working together tirelessly.
In 2022 - thanks in large part to the leadership of Rep. McCaul - we did it again, securing passage of the Childhood Cancer STAR Reauthorization Act, enabling STAR Act programs to continue making a life-saving impact for the 15,000 children in the U.S. who are diagnosed with cancer every year and the more than 500,000 survivors who face a lifetime of health challenges due to their treatment.
“Since I started the Childhood Cancer Caucus, I have met with countless cancer patients and advocates who have asked me for one thing: hope,” said Rep. McCaul earlier this year.
Recently, Rep. McCaul co-sponsored the introduction of the Innovation in Pediatric Drugs Act, a bipartisan bill Children’s Cancer Cause has been advocating around for many years, which builds upon the promise of the RACE Act to further strengthen the development of childhood cancer drugs. “Children deserve the best chance at beating any disease — no matter how rare," said Rep. McCaul. "If there's a drug out there that can cure a child, it's imperative we use every resource to study and bring it to market. As chair of the Childhood Cancer Caucus, I'm proud to stand with Rep. Eshoo once again to help protect the lives of our most precious investment: our children.”
