Gottheimer announces bipartisan bill aimed at strengthening pediatric cancer planning
MONTVALE BOROUGH, N.J. (Bergen County) — U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer announced Tuesday at Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen in Montvale new bipartisan legislation that would require pediatric cancer experts to be represented on state cancer control coalitions.
The bill is named in honor of Kylie Kupperman, a close family friend of Gottheimer who was born in Englewood and grew up in Chappaqua, New York.
Kupperman was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a rare and fast-growing pediatric brain tumor, just weeks before her fourth birthday. After undergoing months of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, she was declared cancer-free. Her cancer returned as she was beginning her freshman year at the University of Delaware. She died Sept. 10, 2025, at age 19.
“Kylie should be starting her junior year of college right now — and wow, you should have heard how her friends gushed about her — and how her brother and sister who played games and music for her — and carried her up the stairs when she was too weak.” said Congressman Gottheimer (NJ-5). “But, instead of being at the University of Delaware, her parents are here today, along with friends from Jersey, Chappaqua, and beyond, to honor and celebrate her memory, and to continue fighting Kylie-style, so that no other family has to go through what they went through.”
Under the legislation, states receiving federal funding for comprehensive cancer control plans would be required to include at least two pediatric cancer experts on their coalitions.
The bill would also direct the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a Cancer Control Plan Pediatric Cancer Advisory Committee. The committee would include representatives from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program, Title V and Health Resources and Services Administration-funded state programs, along with pediatric cancer survivors and caregivers.
The committee would be tasked with developing best practices for addressing pediatric cancer, survivorship and adolescent and young adult care in state cancer plans.
The legislation would also expand the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant Program to specifically include pediatric cancer, allowing states to use existing federal funding to support children with cancer and their families.
According to Gottheimer’s office, every state has a Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalition that helps shape its long-term cancer plan, but only about one-third of states include specific childhood cancer goals in those plans. The congressman’s office said New Jersey ranks third nationally for pediatric cancer incidence, with about 440 children and teenagers diagnosed annually and nearly 1,900 cases reported across Bergen, Passaic and Sussex counties over a recent 25-year period.
Gottheimer is also working with state Sen. Joe Lagana, Assemblywoman Lisa Swain and Assemblyman Chris Tully on state legislation that would require pediatric cancer representatives to serve on New Jersey’s cancer control coalition.
He also plans to introduce a House resolution Nov. 13, which would have been Kupperman’s 21st birthday, to designate the date as “Kylie’s Day.”
“As the father of a childhood cancer survivor, I know the toll this awful disease has on our families. Our community deserves to be heard, and I am thankful to Reps. Gottheimer and Lawler for their steadfast support. We are proud to stand alongside the Kupperman family as we honor their daughter’s memory through the Kylie’s Voices for Childhood Cancer Act. Together, we will ensure that the pediatric cancer community has a seat at the table, ” said Jeff Gelfand, CEO, Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.
“At the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research, we fought to ensure kids with cancer were part of the state cancer plan and efforts in Georgia. Childhood cancer offers unique challenges, and our families deserve a voice in the process. This new bill would guarantee our advocates can be heard throughout the country. We are happy to support this legislation,” said Dean Crowe, Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research.
“Coalition members have worked tirelessly to make sure kids with cancer aren’t an afterthought, but in too many spaces, they still are. This bill gives patients, families, clinicians, and researchers real power to fix that. We thank Reps. Gottheimer and Lawler for standing up for kids with cancer, and we urge their colleagues to join them,” said Ginny McLean, Board Chair, Coalition Against Childhood Cancer (CAC2).
