Congressman Michael McCaul
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. This week the House passed the
21st Century Cures Act landmark legislation to accelerate the discovery development and delivery of drugs to patients. This legislation reauthorizes the National Institutes of Health to reverse the decade-long decline in biomedical research investments that has eroded Americas competitive edge against countries like China.
The bill which is fully offset makes reforms to our entitlement programs and will save taxpayers $500 million. Also included are key provisions of the
Andrea Sloan CURE Act legislation I introduced earlier this year to reform the FDAs
compassionate use process and improve patient access to potentially lifesaving treatments.
This bill also reauthorizes the
Creating Hope Act a law I authored in 2012 to established an incentive program for pharmaceutical companies to develop new treatments for children with rare pediatric diseases at no cost to the taxpayer. This program has helped bring three new drugs to market including the
first drug ever approved by the FDA to treat high-risk neuroblastoma one of the most deadly forms of pediatric cancer. I recently met Rex Ryan a 3-year old who got access to this breakthrough drug through a clinical trial at Dell Childrens Hospital in Austin which I recently visited.
Upon passage Dr. Ronald DePinho the President of MD Anderson said Thanks to the compassion and leadership of Congressmen McCaul and his colleagues the House overwhelmingly passed legislation to support vital research at the NIH. Research that can and will save lives such as MD Andersons groundbreaking work in harnessing the immune system to fight cancer. Today marks a great day for humanity and a dark day for disease." Its not very often that Congress passes visionary legislation that has the chance to truly improve and save lives. The 21st Century Cures Act is one of those rare bills which I was proud to support.
Finally this week I also voted for the
Student Success Act which reforms the broken No Child Left Behind law. This legislation will reduce the federal footprint in education and restore local control that empowers parents and education leaders to hold schools accountable for effectively teaching students. This is a great step forward in educating our children and the future leaders of America.
