On Mar. 7, 1928, Senator Matthew Neely (D) of West Virginia introduced S. 3554, “To authorize the National Academy of Sciences to investigate the means and methods for affording Federal aid in discovering a cure for cancer and for other purposes.

On Feb. 4, 1927, Senator Neely proposed a bill that would offer a $5 million reward for the discovery of a cure for cancer. Senator Neely’s “reward” bill did not pass, but it was among the first in a series of proposed legislation that laid the groundwork for the National Cancer Institute Act.

In 1937, Senator’s Matthew Neely and Homer Bone, with representative Warren Magnuson, introduced the National Cancer Institute Act, which was signed into law by Franklin Roosevelt on Aug. 5 of that year.