A Children’s Cancer Bill Had 99 Votes — Then Bernie Sanders Stopped It

In October 2021, five-year-old Kasey Zachmann was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. For the next almost four years, her mother, Alyssa, fought alongside her daughter, advocating for better treatments and fundraising for research, always hoping a miracle drug might be discovered. It never came. Kasey died in August.

Four months later, Alyssa Zachmann rushed to Capitol Hill, believing she was about to witness a moment of hope — the passage of legislation that could spare other families the anguish she had endured. Instead, she watched Senator Bernie Sanders single-handedly block the bill.

“Sitting in the gallery, I kept thinking — what if this bill had passed in 2020 when it was first created? What if something had been discovered that could have saved her life? How different would things be for our family?” Ms. Zachmann tells me. “And then thinking about all the families today who are in the same position we were three years ago — and how not passing this bill destroys their hope.”

The Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act, which passed the House unanimously in early December and was voted on by the Senate on December 17, aims to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to invest in drugs for rare pediatric diseases. This list includes all pediatric cancers.

Despite bipartisan House support and backing from 99 senators, Mr. Sanders refused to vote for the measure, holding it hostage over his insistence that it be paired with funding for community health centers as part of a broader health care package. Mr. Sanders’s “nay” effectively blocked the bill altogether as it required unanimous consent to pass.