The Senate plans to break up the 21st Century Cures Act into a lot of separate bills, but remains mum on whether it will provide any additional funding for the National Institutes of Health.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee announced late Tuesday that it would move a series of separate bills aimed at improving the process for getting new cures and treatments. The measure is far different from the large package called the 21st Century Cures Act the House passed in a largely bipartisan vote last year.
The process will start Feb. 9 with a committee meeting on seven bills that include legislation on improving electronic health records.
“Senators and staff on our committee have been working together throughout 2015 to produce a number of bipartisan pieces of legislation that are ready for the full committee to consider,” committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said Tuesday.
The February meeting is the first of three, with two other meetings to be held in March and April for additional bills.
The Senate plans to meet March 9 to discuss bills that would create a pathway for breakthrough medical devices and bills that support the Precision Medicine Initiative.
But missing is whether the Senate will provide the same financial commitment to NIH that the House was proposing, which was an extra $10 billion in mandatory funding over five years.
The NIH did receive a $2 billion boost in funding in the latest budget, but advocates have said that much more is needed. The funding boost in the House 21st Century Cures Act was one of the most popular parts of the bipartisan measure.
