Tsunami Warning, Education, and Research Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the 21st Century Cures Act, knowing that I am far from alone in supporting this bill. More than 700 groups representing patients, healthcare providers, researchers, and others have voiced support for the bill, as has the White House, which provided its enthusiastic endorsement last night.

This is a watershed moment in this country for biomedical research. With this bill, we bring hope to millions of patients who suffer from cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and a host of other ailments.

As my cosponsor and partner in crime, Fred Upton, just said, we started working on this measure 3 years ago. We traveled the country together to gather information about much-needed reforms, and we had tremendous participation in the process from patient groups, medical professionals, academia, and Federal and State healthcare authorities, not to mention the entire Democratic and Republican membership of the Energy and Commerce Committee who worked so closely together to make this happen.

All of this led to a bill that was passed in July, 2015, by 344-77. We can barely pass the Journal every day by that amount, Mr. Speaker.

Now, this was in the summer of 2015, and we have worked tirelessly in a bipartisan way since then to improve and expand the bill and to make sure it can pass through the Senate and be signed by the White House.

The result will help to overcome obstacles to medical progress from discovery to development to delivery through investing in innovation, incorporating the patient perspective, and modernizing clinical trials.

Among the key provisions, this consensus version of the bill will provide $4.8 billion to the National Institutes of Health, including money for Vice President Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative, including money for Precision Medicine and the BRAIN Initiative. It will provide almost $1 billion in grants to the States to address the urgent opioid crisis in this country.

It removes the silos at the Food and Drug Administration by transitioning it to a disease-centric approach, and it gives $500 million so the FDA can implement these reforms. It includes all- important mental health legislation that we have also worked on so hard for so long, and it will catalyze cutting-edge research by supporting potentially transformative efforts.

Mr. Speaker, at a time of heightened acrimony in Washington and in the wake of one of the most rancorous elections we have ever had, isn't it wonderful that we can come together to find cures that affect millions of Americans?

Disease doesn't discriminate according to political party. It knows nothing of claims and counterclaims. It responds only to carefully developed treatments and cures. What we are doing today is we are voting to put vital innovations in biomedical research within reach, potentially saving countless lives. I urge all of our colleagues to think about the millions of Americans who will be heartened by this bill's progress, and I urge you to vote ``yes'' on the 21st Century Cures Act.

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Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Pallone for yielding me the time and for being an unerring partner on this quest that we have had.

I just want to take a few minutes to talk about the extraordinary journey that we have had here. When Representative Fred Upton came up to me on the floor about 3 years ago and asked if I would help him work on a bill to help modernize and update the way we do biomedical research in this country, little did I realize the road that lay ahead. There have been a lot of twists and turns in that road. There have been some very interesting sightings along that road, and it has been an extraordinary effort for all of us. It has really brought the Energy and Commerce Committee together in a bipartisan way, and I am hoping that we can continue those efforts in the next Congress.

So many of my colleagues are right. We still have a lot that we have to do in the area of mental health, in the area of biomedical research, and so much more.

I want to thank a number of people because they really all deserve to be thanked: Of course, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Pallone, and Subcommittee on Health Ranking Member Gene Green and Chairman Joe Pitts. I want to thank the entire committee, as I said.

I want to thank the patient advocacy community who have been with us unerringly throughout this process. I want to thank the researchers. I want to thank the entrepreneurs who came and talked to us about what they needed. I want to thank the agencies themselves, specifically the FDA and the NIH, for technical assistance, and the entire executive branch.

I want to thank a number of people. First of all, I want to thank Lisa Cohen, my chief of staff, who has been with me for 20 years through thick and thin. I want to thank Polly Webster, my health policy director, who took the bar exam, got married, and actually helped pass this bill all during this process. I want to thank Lynne Weil, my communications director, and Eleanor Bastian, my legislative director. I want to thank Rachel Stauffer, my former health policy director who started this, and Matt Inzeo, who is Lynne's predecessor. From the Upton staff, I want to thank Gary Andres, Joan Hillebrand, Paul Edattel, John Stone, Carly McWilliams, Adrianna Simonelli, and J.P. Paluskiewicz. All of you guys have worked together as a team with my team.

I want to thank Kristen O'Neill from Mr. Green's staff. I don't think I thanked Mr. Green. I want to thank Mr. Green, who has done such an extraordinary job and who has really been my wingman. I want to thank Wendell Primus, who is Leader Pelosi's senior adviser; and Charlene MacDonald, who is Mr. Hoyer's adviser. Finally, I want to thank the entire Pallone team, who has worked as our committee staff tirelessly: Jeff Carroll, Tiffany, Kim, Arielle, Waverly, and Megan. They have been fabulous. We haven't always agreed on everything, but in the end we have all worked together. It really is a great team. I hope we can use this in the next Congress to get to even greater heights.

I urge the House to pass this bill on a strong bipartisan basis, and I urge the other body to take it up.

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