The Senate invoked cloture Monday evening on legislation (HR 34, 21st Century Cures) designed to spur medical innovation. Eighty-five Senators supported the motion to limit debate and proceed with a vote on the measure.
It takes two days for a cloture motion to limit debate to “ripen,” and there already is one pending on the defense bill that authorizes myriad Pentagon programs and activities. Other measures are in limbo, with some senators trying to extract end-of-the-year concessions by threatening to stall action and not consent to expediting passage of popular legislation. This means a vote is likely on Wednesday, when McConnell can stack multiple roll call votes together, so Cures will be immediately followed by a big procedural vote on the FY 2017 NDAA conference report .
The legislation includes $6.3 billion over a decade deposited in three dedicated funds that funnel money to the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and to the states to respond to the growing opioid abuse crisis. The drawdown of that funding would need to be approved by federal appropriators each year. The money would be earmarked for President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, the cancer “moonshot” program backed by Vice President Biden, and the NIH BRAIN initiative.
The Senate is expected to clear the bill this week and Obama is expected to sign it. Biden was presiding over the chamber Monday for the vote.