WASHINGTON, DC - In advance of this week’s House vote on H.R. 6, the 21st Century Cures Act, Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) released the following statement underscoring his commitment, and that of the committee’s Republican members, to ensuring a fiscally responsible approach to finding better, faster, and safer treatments and cures:
“For the past several years, our committee has been at the forefront of efforts to tame the budget through sensible savings. We have dutifully delivered deficit reduction in bill after bill, and we have complied with the cut-go and pay-go principles that ensure added spending in one area is offset with savings in another. When we sat down together to craft the 21st Century Cures Act, we agreed that these same conservative fiscal principles must apply.
“When this bill becomes law, over the next five years the NIH and FDA will continue to receive the bulk of their funding through the regular annual appropriations process, with a temporary add-on to be allocated as mandatory spending by the Appropriations Committee. At the end of those five years, we believe America will have seen tremendous progress on the path to cures; at that time, the Innovation Fund will expire and these agencies will continue to be funded through the regular discretionary spending process.
“If a future Congress determines that additional funding would best serve patients, physicians, researchers, and taxpayers, we believe that temporary, fully offset funding allocated through the appropriations process is the best and most responsible path forward. We are committed to cures. We are committed to innovation. And we are committed to fiscal responsibility. We can and we must achieve these goals together."
