On Jul. 29, 1998, the Stamp Out Breast Cancer stamp was first issued. The driving force behind the creation of the Stamp was Dr. Ernie Bodai, a Kaiser Permanente surgeon and director of the Breast Cancer Survivorship Clinic at Kaiser Permanente, in Sacramento, California.

Dr. Bodai successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress and the Act, sponsored by Representatives Vic Fazio (D-CA) and Susan Molinari (R-NY). passed the House (422-3); and the companion version sponsored by Senators Feinstein (D-CA), Alfonse D’Amato (R-NY), and Lauch Faircloth (R-NC), was passed unanimously in the Senate. President Bill Clinton signed the bill into law (PL 105-41) on August 13, 1997.

The bill established a special alternative rate of postage up to 25% higher than a regular first-class stamp. Seventy percent of the profits from the sale of the stamp would go to NIH to fund breast cancer research; the remaining 30% would go toward U.S. Department of Defense breast cancer research.