Obama creates new federal task force on cancer

Obama first announced the efforts to find a cure for cancer during his State of the Union address earlier this month. By establishing it as a presidential task force, other federal laws on advisory committees may not apply.

The task force is “advisory only”, Obama said in a presidential memorandum Thursday.

Biden, speaking at the annual House Democratic retreat on Thursday, referenced the Obama administration over the past seven years – including saving the economy, the Iran nuclear a dal and auto sales. Biden is said to have been inspired to launch the initiative after his son, Beau Biden, died from brain cancer past year.

President Barack Obama spoke at the House Democratic retreat Thursday in Baltimore.

Biden said the task force will work on three key areas: building on the recent breakthroughs in immunotherapy and other treatments, sharing data more widely from recent research at cancer centers, and expanding access to clinical trials.

“The best way to win is to run on what we’ve done and what we stand for, and run on what more we are trying to do”. “For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all”.

The task force, chaired by the vice president, will be comprised of at least 13 federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Defense Department.

It will present to Obama a report before December 31, just before Obama leaves office, on its findings and recommendations on cancer. The loss played heavily into Biden’s decision not to run for president in 2016, but he instead vowed a “moonshot” to cure cancer before leaving the White House.

The Vice President called House Speaker Paul Ryan a “lovely guy” but he said the budget he drafted was “a gift” to Democrats because it allows them to show a contrast, mentioning the proposed cuts to education and Medicaid. “But I do have something to offer when it comes to being a catalyst and bringing folks together”, Biden wrote.

And Biden, who recently met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said “Erdogan has seen the Lord” and stepped up his country’s contributions to the campaign.