On Apr. 23, 1929, Senator W. J. Harris, Georgia, introduced S. 466, “To authorize the Public Health Service and the National Academy of Sciences jointly to investigate the means and methods for affording Federal aid in discovering a cure for cancer and for other purposes.”

While the bill was introduced in 1929, it didn’t lead to immediate funding or the establishment of a dedicated cancer research institute. The National Cancer Act of 1937 eventually established the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a federal agency focused on cancer research