On the recordNovember 30, 2016
The Affordable Care Act failed because it was a one-sided, partisan, and close-looped system. This bill, the 21st Century Cures Act, will succeed because it has been done just the opposite. Chairman Upton, Diana DeGette, Frank Pallone, and many other people have worked together, as they said, for the last 3 years to find the best pathway forward to get new drugs and new therapies to our citizenship more quickly and efficiently. I want to congratulate both of them plus Chairman Brady, Dr. Murphy, and the others that have worked on this. This bill makes it possible for cures to actually be put into practice without all the red tape and regulatory overkill. Let me give you an example. This bill makes possible the use of what is called regenerative medicine which we call stem cell therapy. My 11-year-old son, Jack, last week played football with Coach Sam Harrell of Ennis, Texas, who 3 years ago could not get out of bed because of his disease. He had to go out of the country twice to get stem cell therapy. He can now act normally. This bill makes possible those kinds of cures. I rise in strong support and thank Chairman Upton for his strong work on this.
