{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=2683B470-AE01-4E74-8FBA-99B8FCAEE0CC", "Alexander: \"21st Century Cures\" Law Highlights 2016 Accomplishments of Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee", "2016-12-20", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Committee one of the most productive, with 24 bipartisan bills signed into law \u2013 including legislation to \u201chelp virtually every American family\u201d \u00a0\r\nNASHVILLE, December 20 \u2013 Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today highlighted the committee\u2019s accomplishments for 2016 saying that it \u201cwas one of the most productive in the Senate, with 24 significant, bipartisan bills now signed into law \u2013 including legislation that will help virtually every American family.\u201d\r\nAlexander continued, \u201cFor the second consecutive year, President Obama has signed into law what he called last year \u2018a Christmas miracle\u2019 made possible by the bipartisan work done on this committee. Last year, it was legislation to fix No Child Left Behind for 50 million children in 100,000 public schools \u2013 and this year, it\u2019s the 21st Century Cures Act, a Christmas medical miracle to make better health possible for nearly every American.\r\n\u201cIn addition to the Cures bill, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called \u2018the most important legislation of the year,\u2019 this committee has produced new laws to help find faster treatments and cures for the heartbreaking Zika virus as well as legislation to boost doctors\u2019 ability to tackle the opioid epidemic ravaging Tennessee and so many other states. I look forward to next year when our committee can continue its bipartisan work on behalf of American families.\u201d \u00a0\r\nAlexander thanked the committee\u2019s ranking Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington State, and committee members of both political parties for \u201cbeing willing to focus on the 80 percent of things we can agree on and coming to a result rather than perpetually arguing about the 20 percent on which we can\u2019t agree. Because we took the time to resolve our considerable differences in a bipartisan way, the next Congress and the next President will not be trying to repeal these laws, because in the end almost all of us voted for them. \u00a0This is the unique purpose of the United States Senate, to find a consensus on difficult issues for the benefit of the country.\u201d\u00a0\r\nThe full list of accomplishments is below: \r\nPublic Laws:\r\nHouse Message to accompany 21st Century Cures (H.R. 34) \u2013 Spurs treatments and cures for cancer and Alzheimer\u2019s and drives the research discoveries predicted over the next decade by National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins, including the development of an artificial pancreas, organs built from patients' own stem cells, non-addictive painkillers, an HIV/AIDS\u00a0vaccine and a Zika vaccine, as well as provides $1 billion in state grants to fight opioid abuse and improves mental health programs for the first time in over a decade. The Senate health committee worked on the legislation for two years, held 12 hearings, 5 working groups, and passed 20 bipartisan bills that make up much of the policy signed into law by the president:\r\nHELP Bills Signed into Law as Part of 21st Century Cures: \r\n \r\nThe Advancing Targeted Therapies for Rare Diseases Act of 2015 \u2013 (S. 2030): Advances therapies to patients with serious or life-threatening rare genetic diseases by allowing innovators to rely on their own data used for a previously approved targeted therapies to develop subsequent targeted therapies.\r\nNext Generation Researchers Act \u2013 (S. 2014): Helps attract talented young scientists to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).\r\nThe Enhancing the Stature and Visibility of Medical Rehabilitation Research at NIH Act \u2013 (S. 800): Requires the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR) to develop and periodically update a comprehensive research plan for rehabilitation research.\r\nAdvancing Research for Neurological Diseases Act of 2015 \u2013 (S. 849): Helps advance our understanding of neurological diseases and helps researchers access data on these diseases in order to discover new therapies and cures.\r\nPreventing Superbugs and Protecting Patients Act \u2013 (S. 2503): Further encourages and clarifies that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires cleaning and validation data for reusable medical devices and to direct the FDA to clarify when device changes require regulatory clearance.\r\nThe Improving Health Information Technology Act \u2013 (S. 2511): Improves health information technology for doctors and their patients.\r\nThe Advancing Hope Act \u2013 (S. 1878): Continues a program that gives drug companies an incentive to develop a drug to treat or cure rare pediatric diseases \u2013 if a company develops a drug like that, and it\u2019s approved, they get a voucher they can keep or sell that will speed up the review of another drug.\r\nThe Advancing Breakthrough Medical Devices for Patients Act of 2015 \u2013 (S. 1077): Focuses more of FDA attention and resources and put more senior people at FDA in charge of the review of breakthrough devices so that they will move more efficiently through the review process and get to the patients whose health could be improved by a truly breakthrough device.\r\nThe Medical Electronic Data Technology Enhancement for Consumers Health Act \u2013 (S. 1101): Encourages companies to develop tools like the Weight Watchers application on your iPhone to count calories or a Fitbit watch to log steps, free from unnecessary FDA oversight and red tape.\r\nThe Medical Countermeasures Innovation Act of 2015 \u2013 (S. 2055): Ensures the government is planning ahead by increasing the likelihood there will be a drug to help in the event of bioterror attack with a substance such as anthrax or smallpox. If a company develops such a drug and it\u2019s approved, they get a voucher they can keep or sell that will speed up the review of another drug.\u00a0\r\nThe Combination Products Innovation Act of 2015 \u2013 (S. 1767): Helps prevent combination products, such as bandaids with Neosporin built in or heart stents that can be implanted to also deliver blood thinners to prevent clots, from being caught in regulatory red tape between various departments at FDA.\r\nPatient Focused Impact Assessment Act of 2015 \u2013 (S. 1597): Gives patients and their families a voice in the drug approval process, and requires FDA to hear their opinion.\r\nPlan of Safe Care Improvement Act \u2013 (S. 2687): Improves plans for safe care for infants affected by illegal substance abuse or withdrawal symptoms.\r\nThe FDA Device Accountability Act of 2015 \u2013 (S. 1622): Reduces unnecessary burdens in device evaluation and streamlines the review process for clinical trials for new medical devices to ensure Americans benefit from these devices more quickly.\r\nFDA and NIH Workforce Authorities Modernization Act \u2013 (S. 2700): Helps the FDA and NIH attract and retain the talent they need to handle all the exciting developments headed their way for research and review.\r\nPromise for Antibiotics and Therapeutics for Health Act \u2013 (S. 185): Shortens the development of new treatments to help those infected with life-threatening superbugs.\r\nAdvancing Precision Medicine Act of 2016 \u2013 (S. 2713): Supports the president\u2019s Precision Medicine Initiative to map 1 million genomes and make the information available to researchers who in turn will be required to share their research data \u2013 all to help find treatments for diseases sooner.\r\nAdvancing NIH Strategic Planning and Representation in Medical Research Act \u2013 (S. 2745): Requires NIH to come up with a strategic plan at least every six years, and helps ensure that scientists are including women and minorities in their research and reports on the differences they find. \u00a0\r\nPromoting Biomedical Research and Public Health for Patients Act \u2013 (S. 2742): Allows researchers at the NIH to spend more time finding life-saving treatments and cures and less time on paperwork.\r\nMental Health Reform Act of 2016 \u2013 (S. 2680): Ensures that mental health programs are effectively serving those with mental illnesses and improves access to mental health care.\r\n \r\nBills Signed into Law as Part of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) \u2013 Supports education, prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts to address the opioid abuse crisis and help individuals with an opioid use disorder get and stay well.\r\nThe final bill signed by the president included two Senate health committee bills:\r\n \r\nThe Recovery Enhancement for Addiction Treatment Act \u2013 (S. 1455): Increases the number of patients that a qualifying physician can dispense narcotic drugs for maintenance or detoxification treatment from 30 to 100 patients a year.\r\nCo-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015 \u2013 (S. 2256): Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to provide information on best practices for prescribing a drug used to rapidly reverse an overdose of opioids for patients receiving chronic opioid therapy or being treated for opioid use disorders.\r\n \r\nAdding Zika Virus to the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act (S. 2512) \u2013 Gives drug companies an incentive to develop a drug or vaccine for the Zika virus, to spur a faster treatment, cure or vaccine.\r\nExpanding Capacity for Health Outcomes \u2013 ECHO Act (S. 2873) \u2013 Connects the medical brain power of institutions like Vanderbilt University Medical Center to doctors in rural areas of the country to better treat patients with complex diseases.\r\nPassed by the Senate: \r\nJoint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the \u201cfiduciary\u201d rule (H.J. Res. 88) \u2013 Would have invalidated the Department of Labor\u2019s so-called \u201cfiduciary\u201d rule, which will likely cripple low- and middle-income Americans\u2019 access to affordable retirement advice\u2014forcing Americans to work longer and retire with less.\r\n###\r\nFor access to this release and the senator\u2019s other statements, click here.\r\nTo stay up-to-date on the senator\u2019s latest actions, follow him on Twitter and YouTube.", 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=2683B470-AE01-4E74-8FBA-99B8FCAEE0CC"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4021999668329954, "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"}