House to vote Friday on medical cures bill

The House will vote Friday on legislation meant to speed up drug development after the House Rules Committee advanced a multi-billion dollar medical cures bill.

The 350-page legislation, approved by the Rules panel in a Wednesday night voice vote, is expected to pass the full chamber with broad support from both parties.

{mosads}Members approved eight out of 35 amendments, which will be considered on the House floor on Friday.

The bill received glowing praise from top Republicans and Democrats despite concerns from both parties over the bill’s steep price tag.

“I’ll be real blunt. I think this bill is all about spending money more effectively and more efficiently,” Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said, praising the bill as one that would “help a lot of people.”

“There is a real chance here to have a game-changer in the next few years, and sometimes you have to do that, you have to take a risk,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees healthcare.

Most of the concerns raised Wednesday related to the bill’s cost – an issue that has already pushed back the bill’s timeline nearly two months. Its sponsor, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), is hoping to send it to President Obama by the end of the year.

One of the biggest funding streams in the bill would go to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), though the most recent version of the bill provides just $8.75 billion, rather than $10 billion.

That funding decrease occurred after the committee dropped a controversial offset that would have delayed payments to insurers under Medicare’s prescription drug program to allow the government to earn interest on the funds.

The last-minute change riled Democrats, many of whom say the current bill’s funding doesn’t go far enough.

“After a bipartisan markup, the majority made last minute cuts to NIH funding,” Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), a co-sponsor of the bill, said. “It’s concerning to a lot of us.”

“I wish it was even more dramatic,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said about the bill’s overall funding for the NIH.

Despite Democratic gripes, the White House endorsed the bill on Wednesday, while also calling for changes to several GOP-backed proposals.

A statement from the White House said it largely supports the multi-billion dollar legislation, which is designed to speed up drug development.

Upton faced a barrage of questions about the bill’s offsets as a whole, which has prompted conservative backlash from the Heritage Action.

“I’m a fiscal conservative. It needs to be paid for,” Upton said. “If you actually look at the first 10 years, you reduce the deficit by $500 million,” he said, adding that those savings amount to $7 billion after two decades.

Upton defended one of the more controversial assets in the bill – the strategic petroleum fund.

The bill would be partially paid for by selling “less than one day’s supply” of oil out of the petroleum reserve, which Upton said “even the secretary of Energy” has said he supports.

Still, Cole, the appropriations leader, said there would still be uncertainty about the bill’s programs after five years.

After declaring himself a big supporter of the bill, Cole said he was still unsure how about the funding could be sustained in the future.

“It is a real difficult challenge if five years from now, someone’s sitting there saying, how do I find the $5 billion or how do I take it out of NIH’s hide,” he said.