On Feb. 4, 1927, a decade before the National Cancer Institute (NCI) was established, Senator Matthew Neely (D) of West Virginia 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 1937 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.