Washington, D.C. – Congressman Erik Paulsen (MN-03) voted for, and the U.S. House of Representatives passed, the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of new cures and treatments. The bill brings our health care infrastructure and processes into the 21st century and further ensures our health care system meets the needs of patients and their loved ones, including investing in the Cancer Moonshot initiative led by Vice President Biden, as well as the BRAIN initiative to better our understanding of and improve treatment for diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

 

“This groundbreaking bipartisan initiative gives patients with deadly and critical diseases new hope,” said Congressman Paulsen. “The 21st Century Cures Act presents a generational opportunity to transform and modernize the way we treat diseases by further advancing the U.S. as a leader in medical innovation and research.”

 

Click on the video below for Congressman Paulsen’s remarks on the bill on the House floor:

 

 

The 21st Century Cures Act ensures that the U.S. remains a leader in medical treatment and innovation through several important and commonsense reforms, including providing more funding for medical research, modernizing the FDA, and streamlining the medical device review process. The bill also reforms our mental health system by building off of the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which passed with near-unanimous support in the House earlier this year. This legislation also combats the national opioid abuse epidemic by providing effective education and treatment options.

 

The 21st Century Cures Act is the product of a two-year effort to identify ways to invest in research and make the approval process for drugs and medical technologies more efficient and effective. There are currently over 10,000 known disease – 7,000 of them rare – with only about 500 of them having FDA-approved treatments.

 

Congressman Paulsen, a champion of small business and advocate of free enterprise, entrepreneurship, and innovation, serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, the bicameral Joint Economic Committee, and is co-chair of the Congressional Medical Technology Caucus.