{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=BE9E1DE1-D107-4254-A51D-470F57F8A850", "Alexander: Senate on Track to Pass Most Important Bill of the Year", "2016-12-05", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, December 5 \u2014 Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said the United States Senate is on track to pass what Majority Leader McConnell has called \u201cthe most important legislation Congress will pass this year,\u201d after senators invoked cloture on the 21st Century Cures Act, setting up a vote for final Senate passage of the bill:\r\n\u201cFor the second year in a row, the Senate is poised to send the President another Christmas miracle for his signature\u2014one that will help virtually every American family. This time, it\u2019s the 21st Century Cures Act, which the House of Representatives passed last week by an overwhelming vote of 392-26. Tonight, the Senate has voted to move forward on this bill, sending an unmistakable message that the time is now to deliver on the promise of 21st Century Cures,\u201d Alexander said. \u201cI am looking forward to another successful vote in the Senate tomorrow, so we can send this legislation to the White House where the president has his pen ready to sign it.\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. It\u2019s time for the Senate to deliver on the promise of 21st Century Cures for patients.\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.\"\r\nLast December, Congress passed and the President signed the Every Student Succeeds Act \u2013 legislation to fix No Child Left Behind.\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###\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=BE9E1DE1-D107-4254-A51D-470F57F8A850"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8752620778977871, "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"}