Discovery, Development and Delivery of New Cures

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the House passed the 21st Century Cures Act with a vote of 392-26. I was proud to support the Cures Act that expedites the discovery, the development, and the delivery of new cures for illnesses and disabling conditions where none exist today. This legislation also included long overdue reforms to our Nation's mental health system.

Mr. Speaker, the text of the Cures Act additionally contains my Special Needs Trust Fairness Act language. This corrects a civil rights oversight or issue for persons living with any disability to be allowed to establish their own special needs trust. Without this legislation, the way the law exists today, a person, any person living with a label of a disability, is deemed incompetent to be able to set up and manage their own special needs trust. Their parents can do it, their grandparents, a court-appointed guardian, but they are deemed incompetent.

I want to thank my colleagues for their support, and encourage the Senate to take swift action on the Cures Act that contains all this language.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source