Blackburn cheers House passage of 21st Century Cures Act

After last week’s House passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, which aims to encourage health care innovation to improve the lives of all Americans, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) issued a statement in support of the action.

“America has been at her best when facing great challenges,”  Blackburn, vice chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said. “Some of our greatest challenges today are in the area of health care. With over 10,000 known diseases, only 500 have cures. We need to embrace a national vision of improving lives, and, of course, saving money, through a Cures Strategy. Our Cures Strategy provides hope for parents who have children with autism, for mothers and sisters who have breast cancer, for the senior who has a family history of Alzheimer’s disease and for many others.”

Essentially, the 21st Century Cures Act would help facilitate discovery, development and delivery of various new treatments and cures for patients, encouraging investment and innovation from the private sector in the U.S. by providing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with extra funding opportunities. The bill, advanced to the House floor by the Energy and Commerce Committee, would push through several conservative fiscal and regulatory reforms, and would help lower the federal deficit by a half-billion dollars, saving several billions in additional entitlement reforms.

The draft of the 21st Century Cures measure includes verbiage from two additional pieces of legislation co-authored by Blackburn: the Sensible Oversight for Technology Which Advances Regulatory Efficiency (SOFTWARE) Act and the Children Count Act.

“Getting bureaucracy out of the way and allowing innovation (are) the goals of the SOFTWARE Act,” Blackburn said. “The SOFTWARE Act will codify the manner in which the FDA approaches health IT – including the wonderful apps that we all use to keep us healthy. Data is not a drug or device, and it makes no sense to regulate it as such. However obvious that is, it hasn’t stopped the FDA from trying to make medical-device law fit health IT. We need to modernize the FDA authorities to reflect the new technology that is health IT. The SOFTWARE Act, as included in the 21st Century Cures Act, is an important first step in our efforts to modernize the FDA.”

In regard to the Children Count Act language, which directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to ensure children are appropriately considered for NIH-funded studies, Blackburn said, “Research is crucial to finding cures, and we must ensure our children receive the benefit of these studies. The children of today represent the future of tomorrow. By improving their lives through this legislation, they’ll have the best opportunity to grow up strong and healthy.”