{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=14AEDDF8-9851-4BDE-B1D0-C6560FFF2FFF", "Alexander: Senate Sends Most Important Bill of the Year to the Presidents Desk", "2016-12-07", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, December 7\u2014 Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said \u201cthe most important bill of the year is headed towards the President\u2019s desk,\u201d after the United States Senate passed the 21st Century Cures Act by a vote of 94 to 5:\r\n\u201cFor the second consecutive year, the Senate is sending the President another Christmas miracle for his signature. Last year, it was the Every Student Succeeds Act, and this time, it\u2019s the 21st Century Cures Act\u2014a bill that will help virtually every American family. With its vote today of 94 to 5, the Senate has sent an unmistakable message that the time is now to deliver on the promise of 21st Century Cures.\u201d\r\nSenator Alexander continued: \u201cThis bipartisan legislation \u2013 which Majority Leader McConnell has called 'the most important legislation Congress will pass this year' \u2013 will help us take advantage of the breathtaking advances in biomedical research and bring those innovations to doctors\u2019 offices and patients\u2019 medicine cabinets around the country. This legislation will advance Vice President Biden\u2019s moonshot to find cures for cancer, President Obama\u2019s Precision Medicine Initiative, and the BRAIN Initiative \u2013 and it will help states in the fight against opioid abuse and the one in five adults in this country suffering from a mental illness. I look forward to the president\u2019s signature.\u201d\r\nThis past weekend, President Obama voiced his strong support for this bill, in his weekly address to the nation saying: \u201cLike all good legislation, [the bill] reflects compromise.\u00a0 This week, the House passed it overwhelmingly, and in bipartisan fashion.\u00a0 The Senate will vote in the next few days, and I hope they\u2019ll do the same.\u00a0 I\u2019ll sign it as soon as it reaches my desk, because like a lot of you, I\u2019ve lost people I love to cancer.\u00a0 I hear every day from Americans whose loved ones are suffering from addiction and other debilitating diseases.\u00a0 And I believe we should seize every chance we have to find cures as soon as possible.\u00a0 When it\u2019s your family, hope can\u2019t come soon enough.\u201d\r\nThe 21st Century Cures agreement will:\r\n \r\nHelp bring safe drugs and devices to market more quickly and at less cost by making needed reforms to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including: expedited review for breakthrough devices, increased patient involvement in the drug approval process, a streamlined review process for combination products that are both a drug and device, and freedom from red tape for software like fitbits or calorie counting apps.\r\nProvide $4.8 billion to National Institutes of Health, including: $1.8 billion for Vice President Biden\u2019s \"Cancer Moonshot\u201d to speed cancer research; $1.4 billion for President Obama\u2019s Precision Medicine Initiative to drive research into the genetic, lifestyle and environmental variations of disease; and $1.6 billion for the BRAIN Initiative to improve our understanding of diseases like Alzheimer's and speed diagnosis and treatment.\r\nProvide $500 million to the FDA.\r\nProvide $1 billion in grants to states to address the opioid crisis.\r\nAddress the country\u2019s mental health crisis and help the one out of five adult Americans suffering from mental illness receive the care they need.\r\nImprove electronic health records for doctors and their patients.\u00a0\r\n \r\n\u00a0###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=14AEDDF8-9851-4BDE-B1D0-C6560FFF2FFF"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8325898088514805, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}