Heidi Alexander: “I ask unanimous consent that a copy of my remarks to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be…”

“I ask unanimous consent that a copy of my remarks to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Improving the Federal Response to Challenges in Mental Health Care in America Before we begin today's hearing, I want to briefly mention for the information of committee members one of the next items on the committee's agenda, and that's biomedical innovation. I was glad to announce yesterday our committee's plans to hold its first markup on Feb. 9 to consider the first set of bipartisan bills aimed at spurring biomedical innovation for American patients. Senators and staff on our committee have been working throughout 2015 to produce a number of bipartisan pieces of legislation that are ready for the full committee to consider. The House has completed its work with its 21st Century Cures Act. The president announced his support for a precision medicine initiative and a cancer ``moonshot.'' It is urgent that the Senate finish its work and turn into law these ideas that will help virtually every American. The committee has also been working for months on legislation to help achieve interoperability of electronic health records for doctors, hospitals and their patients--and the committee will be releasing a bipartisan staff draft of that legislation later today for public comment.…”