Alexander: “Senate Should Finish Its Work on 21st Century Cures in September”

“Rarely do we have such an opportunity: it includes support for the President’s Precision Medicine initiative and the Vice President’s Cancer Moonshot. Speaker Ryan has said that 21st Century Cures is a major part of his health care agenda. Majority Leader McConnell says he wants to pass the bill this year.”

WASHINGTON, July 11 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said that the Senate should finish its work on 21^st Century Cures in September.

“Rarely do we have such an opportunity: it includes support for the President’s Precision Medicine initiative and the Vice President’s Cancer Moonshot. Speaker Ryan has said that 21^st Century Cures is a major part of his health care agenda. Majority Leader McConnell says he wants to pass the bill this year,” said Senator Alexander. “This could be the most important legislation Congress passes this year, and there’s no excuse for not finishing our work in September.”

Senator Alexander continued: “In 10 years, the head of the National Institutes of Health predicts we'll have a universal flu vaccine, hearts rebuilt from a patient's own cells so we don’t have to do transplants, non-addictive pain medication, and the ability to diagnose Alzheimer’s before symptoms, and delay the onset of this disease which causes untold family grief.”

Background:

On January 19, Chairman Alexander released the Senate health committee’s mark-up schedule for step by step consideration of biomedical innovation bills, saying, “The House has completed its work on the 21st Century Cures Act. The president has announced his support for a precision medicine initiative and a cancer ‘moonshot.’ It is urgent that the Senate finish its work and turn into law these ideas that will help virtually every American.”

On February 9, the Senate health committee kicked off its biomedical innovation agenda, passing seven bills with bipartisan support. On March 9, the committee passed 7 more bipartisan biomedical innovation bills. The committee completed its work on marking up biomedical innovation bills on April 6.

### 

For access to this release and Chairman Alexander’s other statements, click here.