The House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved H.R.6, the 21st Century Cures Act, on May 21. The revised legislation incorporated many of the previously submitted comments and suggestions from the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and others in the research community, including ASPET. Significant changes from the first to the fifth drafts included the authorization of appropriations increases for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal years 2016–2018 and the creation of a $10 billion Innovation Fund to provide additional support for NIH. The approved legislation also requires NIH to form a plan to reduce administrative burden for researchers, rather than form a new working group on the subject, which would have repeated previous efforts. In addition, it converts the proposed searchable database of de-identified patient data to a pilot program, with a study to assess its usefulness and effectiveness.

Despite the improvements to the legislation, there are several provisions advocated by FASEB and others that were not incorporated. FASEB has submitted a letter to the House Energy & Commerce leadership thanking the committee for their efforts on H.R.6, the 21st Century Cures Act and suggesting that additional provisions supported by FASEB be added to the pending legislation before it goes to the full House for a vote. Key recommendations in the letter included:

• Providing multi-year budget authority to NIH
• Providing greater flexibility in the allocation of Innovation Fund dollars
• Provisions to mitigate the burden of the travel restrictions on federal scientists, ideally through an exemption for federal researchers from these restrictions.

Read the full letter here.