WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is set to remove the last hurdles to legislation bolstering disease research and simplifying the government’s pathway for pharmaceutical and medical device approvals as Congress heads toward closing out the year.
With Vice President Joe Biden presiding, senators were expected to vote Monday to end delaying tactics against the biomedical measure. They need 60 votes to push the bipartisan bill to the brink of final congressional approval, which might come Tuesday. The near 1,000-page package, which cleared the House overwhelmingly last Wednesday with backing from President Barack Obama, would also overhaul federal mental health programs.
Lawmakers were hoping to complete their year’s work by week’s end, clearing the decks of legislation under Obama’s presidency for a 2017 that will see Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of the 115th Congress. Their top priority for the week was approving spending legislation to keep the government functioning into next spring.
Biden planned to preside over Monday’s Senate roll call, marking the final time he would oversee a vote by the chamber where he served 35 years before becoming vice president in 2009. The vice president is the Senate’s official presiding officer.
Biden’s appearance, however, was more than a valedictory one. The $6.3 billion the biomedical bill envisions providing over the next decade includes $1.8 billion for cancer research. Obama put Biden, whose son died of the disease, in charge of a “moonshot” to find ways to cure and treat it.
The vice president’s presence could also help limit Democratic opposition to the legislation. Among its critics were Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who are trying to tug the party in a more liberal direction following its Election Day drubbing.
Sanders and Warren were among those complaining the measure would make it easier for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries — strong supporters of the legislation — to win federal approval for their products while raising risks to consumers. There was also anger that while the bill would require subsequent legislation by Congress to actually provide the money, it would lock in savings including cuts in a public health program created by Obama’s health care law.
Overall, the legislation maps spending $4.8 billion over the next 10 years for research by the National Institutes of Health, including a pair of Obama priorities: work on brain diseases and developing personalized medical treatments. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has backed provisions supporting efforts to use adult stem cells to regenerate cells.
It plans state grants worth $1 billion over the next two years for preventing and treating abuse of addictive drugs like opioids and heroin. And it would establish new positions within the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate anti-drug efforts, but without much additional money.
To the chagrin of consumer groups, the bill lets the Food and Drug Administration use data summaries — instead of more detailed information — when considering whether to approve existing drugs for new uses. It allows the agency to approve drugs aimed at life-threatening infections based on test results from smaller numbers of patients.
To speed its approval processes for drugs and medical devices, the FDA would receive $500 million.
Republicans planned to unveil legislation Tuesday to keep federal agencies functioning into early next year. That would give the next Congress and the incoming Trump administration time to approve more than $1 trillion to fund federal agencies through Sept. 30, when the government’s budget year ends.
Current spending expires at midnight on Friday. Since the measure is the only absolute must-do bill before Congress adjourns, it’s likely to carry several add-ons.
They include $170 million to help Flint, Michigan, repair its aging water system to prevent its water from being poisoned with lead. Other items include about $4 billion to help Louisiana and other states rebuild from floods and other natural disasters, and money to partially meet the Obama administration’s $11.6 billion request last month for war-related money.
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