cancer control plan and creating an Office of Advocacy and Survivorship. The Livestrong Foundation encourages similar commitments from other nations to combat the disease. Livestrong Day is an annual event established by the LAF to serve as "a global day of action to raise awareness about the fight against cancer". Individuals from around the world are encouraged to host cancer-oriented events in their local communities and then register their events with the Livestrong website. 21st Century Cancer Access to Life-Saving Early detection, Research and Treatment (ALERT) Act The US Senate on 26 March 2009 issued a new bill (S. 717), the 21st Century Cancer Access to Life-Saving Early detection, Research and Treatment (ALERT) Act intended to "overhaul the 1971 National Cancer Act." The bill aims to improve patient access to prevention and early detection by: providing funding for research in early detection, supplying grants for screening and referrals for treatment, and increasing access to clinical trials and information. Obama-Biden Plan to Combat Cancer During their 2008 U.S. presidential campaign then Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden published a plan to combat cancer that entailed doubling "federal funding for cancer research within 5 years, focusing on NIH and NCI" as well as working "with Congress to increase funding for the Food and Drug Administration." Their plan would provide additional funding for: research on rare cancers and those without effective treatment options, the study of health disparities and evaluation of possible interventions, and efforts to better understand genetic factors that can impact cancer onset and outcomes. President Obama's 2009 economic stimulus package includes $10 billion for the NIH, which funds much of the cancer research in the U.S., and he has pledged to increase federal funding for cancer research by a third for the next two years as part of a drive to find "a cure for cancer in our time". In a message published in the July 2009 issue of Harper's Bazaar, President Obama described his mother's battle with ovarian cancer and, noting the additional funding his administration has slated for cancer research, stated: "Now is the time to commit ourselves to waging a war against cancer as aggressive as the war cancer wages against us." On 30 September 2009, Obama announced that $1 billion of a $5 billion medical research spending plan would be earmarked for research into the genetic causes of cancer and targeted cancer treatments. Cancer-related federal spending