Op-Ed: A 20-to-1 Return for Taxpayers: Why Governor Sherrill Should Invest in Cancer Research
Photo from FRNJ Files courtesy of Quinton Law.
Op-Ed
BY QUINTON LAW | Government Relations Director, New Jersey
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Taxpayers have every right to ask: when government spends public dollars, what are we getting in return?
That question matters when we talk about affordability, health care, economic development and whether our government is delivering for us. It especially matters when we talk about cancer research.
Governor Mikie Sherrill has an opportunity to make New Jersey a national leader in the fight against cancer by supporting Assembly Bill 4579 and Senate Bill 773.
This legislation would be a historic investment in the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research, increasing support from $4 million to $10 million and creating stable, dedicated funding for lifesaving research.
At its core, this bill asks a simple question: is $4 million an adequate investment in cancer research for a state like New Jersey? I do not believe it is.
New Jersey is home to world-class medical institutions, researchers and life sciences companies. We should not wait for breakthroughs to happen somewhere else. We should help power them here.
The NJCCR has been doing that work since 1983. Over more than 40 years, the Commission has awarded more than $52 million through 915 peer-reviewed grants and fellowships. It remains the only statewide commission dedicated to funding cancer research across New Jersey.
But demand far exceeds resources. In Fiscal Year 2026, the Commission received a record 105 applications but had funding for only 25. That means 80 strong proposals were left unfunded: promising projects, early-career researchers, pediatric cancer proposals and scientific questions that will likely go unexplored simply because the funding is not there.
A4579/S773 is designed to close this gap, and many of our lawmakers are on board. Support for the bill is not only sweeping but bipartisan and growing. Over half of the Senate has signed on to cosponsor with Republican Senators Robert Singer and Anthony Bucco leading as prime sponsors and working alongside Democratic Senator Andrew Zwicker. In the Assembly, Democratic Assemblywomen Verlina Reynolds-Jackson and Linda Carter and Republican Assemblywoman Aura Dunn are helping lead the charge.
It is also encouraging that budget resolutions in support of this investment for Fiscal Year 2027 have been submitted by Senator Andrew Zwicker and Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson. These temporary Budget Resolutions, S267 and A756 respectively, reflect growing recognition that New Jersey must act now to protect and expand cancer research funding. These lawmakers understand as every family touched by this disease does: cancer is not partisan and nor should our fight against it.
We hope this support extends to Governor Sherrill. This is exactly the kind of investment that should fit within her government efficiency agenda.
Governor Sherrill is right to celebrate programs that work and reform the ones that do not. Every metric tells us that the Commission is working. Incredibly well, at that. Between 2015 and 2019, NJCCR awarded $4.8 million to fellows who subsequently secured $98 million in National Institutes of Health funding. When a program is delivering a 20-to-1 return on state investment, the efficient choice is not to underfund it. The efficient choice is to scale it.
The Commission’s ROI analysis found that these investments supported 3,639 intrastate jobs and generated $1.37 billion in statewide economic activity. But the most important return cannot be measured only in dollars.
Cancer research means time. It means a parent may get to see their child graduate. It means a grandparent may get another birthday. It means a patient with a historically difficult-to-treat cancer may have one more option when every option matters.
At a time when federal cancer research funding faces uncertainty, New Jersey cannot control every decision made in Washington. But we can control whether we strengthen our own research infrastructure here at home.
This legislation is bipartisan. It is practical. It is pro-patient, pro-science, pro-economic growth and pro-New Jersey. It is also a clear example of what government efficiency should mean: investing in programs that deliver results.
Governor Sherrill has a chance to make New Jersey the national model for how states help fuel the next major breakthrough in cancer research. I join cancer survivors, healthcare providers and researchers in asking her to include this investment in her forthcoming budget.
Because when we invest in cancer research, we are investing in economic opportunity, better outcomes, more time and hope for New Jersey families.
Quinton Law is the New Jersey Government Relations Director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
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