Across-the-board backing of the 21st Century Cures Act awaiting congressional approval has increased substantially in recent weeks, with statements of support issued from several key health care industry entities urging passage of the nonpartisan legislation.
Most recently, the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities (APLU) and the Association of American Universities (AAU) wrote expressing their continued espousal of the bill. Together, the two associations drafted and sent a letter representing their constituents.
“On behalf of our associations’ more than 200 research universities, we respectfully urge Congress to pass and send to the president this year a 21st Century Cures/medical innovation bill which provides a surge of multiyear, guaranteed funding as well as robust authorization levels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH),” Peter McPherson, president of APLU, and Mary Sue Coleman, president of AAU, said in the letter. “The House and Senate’s bipartisan efforts on such legislation in the 114th Congress have been truly extraordinary and should not go unfulfilled.”
The collaboration encouraged Congress to pass the measure prior to the end of the calendar year.
“We strongly encourage you to seize this notable opportunity and move an NIH Cures/innovation bill over the finish line,” they said.
The letter listed scores of nationwide institutions and university systems belonging to APLU and AAU. Additionally, similar letters of support were recently addressed to congressional leaders from Research!America and United for Medical Research and One Voice Against Cancer (OVAC) constituents.
“OVAC members believe (Vice President Joe Biden’s) Cancer Moonshot Initiative objective of making a decade’s worth of life-saving scientific progress in the next five years can most likely be achieved by Congress, promptly assuring essential funding of it by enactment of the 21st Century Cures Act in 2016,” OVAC representatives said. “Waiting until next year to act is not an option for cancer patients and their families.”
