{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.lee.senate.gov/2025/11/lee-bill-deregulates-life-saving-transplants-for-americans-with-diabetes", "Lee Bill Deregulates Life-Saving Transplants for Americans with Diabetes", "2025-11-05", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "UT", "Mike Lee", "L000577", "www.lee.senate.gov", "mikelee", "https://www.lee.senate.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced legislation today to cut nonsensical bureaucratic red tape preventing life-saving islet transplants for diabetic Americans. The Increase Support for Life-saving Endocrine Transplantation (ISLET) Act corrects a miscategorization of islets as drugs rather than organs \u2013 cutting through unnecessary regulations keeping critical surgeries out of reach. The legislation is sponsored by U.S. Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) and endorsed by Islets for US Collaborative, The Cure Alliance, and the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation.\n\n\u201cAmericans living with diabetes have been kept from life-saving research by nonsensical red tape from the federal government,\u201d said Senator Mike Lee. \u201cOther countries treat islet transplantation as standard care, but a miscategorization in our law regulates islet as drugs rather than organs. My ISLET ACT fixes this bureaucratic mess to bring America up to speed and make critical care available to those with Type 1 diabetes.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs the U.S. continues to lead the world in modern medicine, we should expand patient access to effective therapies rather than overregulating treatments,\u201d said Senator Ted Budd. \u201cI am proud to introduce this important legislation alongside Senator Lee to place islets under a less strict regulatory framework to expand access to proven treatment methods for Type 1 Diabetes,\u201d\n\n\u201cThis long-awaited legislation brings hope to patients with Type 1 diabetes across the United States. It will make a life-saving procedure accessible for those in desperate need, while also enabling further progress in the field and advancing the pursuit of a cure for diabetes. I wholeheartedly support the Islet Act of behalf of the Islets for US Collaborative representing scientific and medical leaders in the field from the leading US academic institutions.\u201d \u2013 Piotr Witkowski, M.D. Ph.D, Director, Pancreatic Islet and Pancreas Transplantation Program, Islets for US Collaborative\n\n\u201cIt is with the highest level of enthusiasm that I endorse the ISLET Act. Finally, Americans with diabetes will be able to benefit from islet transplantation, a treatment that has already been approved, available and reimbursable around the world. We now have a chance to join the rest of the developed world, where islet transplants are regulated similarly to organ transplants, making the treatment available also in the U.S. while further contributing to advancing the field worldwide.\u201d \u2013 Camillo Ricordi, MD, FNAI, The Cure Alliance\n\nThe ISLET Act:\n\nUpdates the current definition of organ in the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) to include \u201chuman cadaveric islets.\u201d This would authorize HRSA and OPTN to regulate islets as organs.\n\nProhibits HHS from regulating pancreatic islets as drugs under the Food Drug & Cosmetic Act (FDCA).\n\nProhibits HHS from regulating pancreatic islets as biological products or Human Cells, Tissues, and Cellular/Tissue-Based Products (HCT/Ps) under the Public Health Service Act (PHSA).\n\nRequires the Secretary of HHS to update all regulations within a year of enactment to reflect the previously mentioned changes.\n\nRequires the Secretary of HHS to submit a report to Congress on its progress within 6 months of the date of enactment.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "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.lee.senate.gov/2025/11/lee-bill-deregulates-life-saving-transplants-for-americans-with-diabetes"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0702448673546314, "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"}