The Biden administration kicks off a series of conversations with the president's "cancer cabinet" this afternoon. The virtual conversations, which are part of the White House cancer moonshot initiative, include wide-ranging agencies and departments: the National Cancer Institute, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health and the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, Energy, Defense and Veterans Affairs. The meetings are meant to highlight moonshot progress in key areas, including improving cancer prevention, increasing screening access, better understanding and addressing toxic exposure and environmental risks, strengthening support for patients and caregivers, and ensuring that cancer research, prevention and treatment innovations make it from the lab to patients. YouTube will livestream the talks. What we're listening for: Whether the moonshot is on track to hit the ambitious goal President Joe Biden set when he reignited the program: reducing the cancer death rate by half by 2045. Big picture: While cancer is a bipartisan priority, it's not clear that Biden's program will endure if Republicans take power next year. House Republicans have proposed slashing federal health research, with a House Appropriations subcommittee last month approving a funding bill that would cut ARPA-H's budget by $1 billion, though they also offered NCI a $651 million budget boost. Still, deep research cuts aren't likely, given Democratic control of the Senate and the White House. What's next? The first conversation, "Improving Cancer Outcomes: Bringing Research to Rural Communities," is at 2 p.m. today. Sessions run through July 17.
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