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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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the next day or a few days afterwards they were still very disinterested and vague about the money, and even though Mahon, Chairman of the Full Appropriations Committee, had a brother dying of lung cancer. I went to see him bearing some information about a new drug that might be helpful for lung cancer, he was unsympathetic to any raise in research figures -- cancer research or any other. He hasn't changed his past position in any way.

So I realized that we would have to work very hard in the Senate and that we'd have to get new allies from the outside the committee in the House, because in that sub-Committee we had men who were going to stick with Mahon. Mahon had bragged to me that he had appointed these men because they would be against additional funds for research,. Indeed they were, and they voted for essentially the Nixon '69 budget.

Q:

Have you succeeded in finding new friends in the House?

Lasker:

I just want to tell you, the final action of the house was 983 million dollars, plus 76 million dollars for Regional Medical Centers, plus 360 million dollars for the Mental Health Administration. Now we are trying to make new friends among the Democratic Study Group, which is led by Mr. John Brademas, a Congressman from





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