[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 172 (Thursday, December 1, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6643-S6644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
21ST CENTURY CURES BILL
Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I come today to the Senate floor to
offer congratulations to the U.S. House of Representatives because last
night, in an overwhelming vote, they passed what Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell has described as the single most important piece of
legislation the Congress is likely to enact this year.
I am referring to the 21st Century Cures Act, combined with the
mental health bill, which is the most significant set of reforms of
major mental health programs in 10 years. The Cures package is the
result of bipartisan work over the last 2 years. Its purpose is to move
cures and treatments through the expensive development process and the
extensive regulatory process and into the medicine cabinets and
doctors' offices of America more rapidly and safely at the same time.
That also helps to lower costs, and we hear a great deal of talk about
the affordability of prescription medicines. If it takes more than 10
or 15 years and more than $1 billion to develop a drug, such as a
treatment for Alzheimer's, that all adds to the final cost. We would
like to lower that cost and speed that time up as long as we continue
to do it safely.
[[Page S6644]]
I wish to especially compliment the chairman of the House committee
that worked on this, Chairman Fred Upton, as well as Congressman
Pallone and Congresswoman DeGette, Democratic Members of the House of
Representatives. They have worked with Senator Murray, the ranking
Democrat on the Senate's HELP Committee, and with me for the last 2
years on a very complex but very important bill.
Part of the bill has to do with money, and one part of that is $1
billion of funding for State grants for opioids. Now, I suspect one
reason there was such a large vote in the House of Representatives
yesterday--only 26 Members voted no and 392 voted yes--was because of
this $1 billion for opioids. At least in Tennessee--and I am sure it is
true in most States of the country--there is no more urgent epidemic
than opioid misuse. It is filling up the courts. It is filling up the
jails. It is filling up the hospitals. It is causing tragedies in
families all across America.
The Senate passed important legislation earlier this year on programs
authorizing new money, but this is the money for State grants to Iowa,
to Tennessee, to California, and to every State to help deal with the
opioid epidemic abuse. So I suspect that one reason so many Members of
the House voted yes yesterday and so few voted no would be that it
would be pretty hard to explain a ``no'' vote against $1 billion of
State grants for opioid abuse.
There is also $4.8 billion of funding for the National Institutes of
Health, which Francis Collins, the distinguished Director, calls the
``national institutes of hope,'' and there is $1.8 billion for the
Cancer Moonshot led by Vice President Biden. There is $1.4 for the
Precision Medicine Initiative, or personalized medicine initiative, a
special project of President Obama, and $1.6 billion is for the BRAIN
Initiative. There are remarkable advances being made in the ability to
identify Alzheimer's before symptoms are evident and then to slow its
progression. It is hard to imagine how much grief that would end and
the billions it would save if we could do that. So those are other
reasons why there are only 26 Members of the House of Representatives
who voted no yesterday and 392 who voted yes.
The Mayo Clinic has sent a letter to me:
On behalf of the Mayo Clinic, I write in enthusiastic
support of the 21st Century Cures Act and salute your strong,
bipartisan leadership on this essential legislation.
We are pleased to see the inclusion of dedicated streaming
funds for the Food and Drug Administration and National
Institutes of Health. . . .
I ask unanimous consent that this letter be printed in the Record
following my remarks.
So next Monday the Senate will have a chance to see whether we can do
as well as the House of Representatives. I ask my colleagues to think
long and hard about a big vote. We need a big vote. Let me give my
colleagues one reason especially why. This $6.3 billion that is in the
21st Century Cures bill is designated for opioids, for precision
medicine, for cancer, for brain, and for FDA, and it has to be approved
every year by a vote. That is the way our appropriations process works.
I would say to my Democratic friends as well as to my Republican
friends that if you are concerned about whether the $6.3 billion will
be available next year and the next year, the best way to ensure that
it is will be to cast a big vote on Monday for it this year, because it
will be very hard to explain, if you vote for $6.3 billion this year
spread over the next few years, why you did not vote to support it next
year and the following year.
The big vote in the House should give assurance to Democrats as well
as Republicans in the Senate that these are real dollars, that they are
provided in a fundamentally responsible way. To Republicans who look at
the $6.3 billion and say: I like the idea of funding opioids; I like
the idea of improving funding for the National Institutes of Health,
let me say that this is done in a responsible way.
Speaker Ryan, who everybody knows is a conservative budget hawk,
created the mechanism for this funding. It was approved by Tom Price,
the House Budget Committee chairman. It goes like this: $6.3 billion
over the next several years for these dedicated purposes. It can only
be spent for those purposes. It has to be approved every year. It does
not increase the overall spending of the budget by one penny because it
is offset by reductions in mandatory spending on the other side. So
$6.3 billion up here and $6.3 billion down there over the next 10
years.
So this is a compromise, but it is a magnificent compromise. It is,
as Senator McConnell has said, the most important piece of legislation
we will deal with this year. The House passed it with a huge bipartisan
vote: 392 to 26. I hope that we in the Senate do just as well next
Monday because the real winners will be the American people as they
look forward to treatments for Alzheimer's, for cancer, a vaccine for
Zika, a non-addictive pain medicine that will help deal with the opioid
misuse epidemic, and regenerative medicine, which may help restore
hearts and perhaps even eyesight in miraculous ways.
This is truly an exciting time, and this is truly an effective piece
of legislation that deserves our support by coming to the floor on
Monday and then by passing it on Tuesday or Wednesday.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Mayo Clinic,
Rochester, MN, November 30, 2016.
Sen. Lamar Alexander,
Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Alexander: On behalf of Mayo Clinic, I write
in enthusiastic support of the 21st Century Cures Act and
salute your strong, bipartisan leadership on this essential
legislation.
Efforts to advance biomedical innovation and accelerate the
development and delivery of cures are of great importance to
Mayo Clinic and our patients. We are pleased to see the
inclusion of dedicated funding streams for the Food and Drug
Administration and National Institutes of Health--including
funds for research efforts such as the President's Precision
Medicine initiative, the Vice President's Cancer Moonshot,
and the BRAIN initiative to speed diagnosis and treatment of
conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
In addition, provisions to promote administrative
streamlining, telehealth efforts and mental health reform are
also of critical importance in allowing Mayo Clinic
physicians and researchers to provide the best possible care
to patients.
Mayo Clinic is grateful for your leadership, wholeheartedly
supports this comprehensive legislation and looks forward to
this innovative effort being signed into law, and we pledge
to be a committed partner in its implementation. Thank you.
With best regards,
John H. Noseworthy, M.D.,
President & CEO.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I thank the Presiding Officer, and I
yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. COATS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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