Vice President Joe Biden met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers March 16 to go over a medical innovation bill that could provide funding for his cancer "moonshot" initiative, according to The Hill.
Vice President Biden met with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), ranking member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who serve as leaders of the House's 21st Century Cures effort.
Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) also attended the meeting. Mr. Alexander and Ms. Murray are in the process of negotiating a companion to the 21st Century Cures bill, which passed in the House in July. The Senate bill is taking longer than expected, but it will likely include new funding for the National Institutes of Health to conduct medical research, some of which could support the cancer moonshot initiative, according to the report.
"Today's meeting with Vice President Biden and Senate leaders was positive and productive. The #Path2Cures connects both the White House and U.S. Capitol, and we welcome the vice president's enthusiastic participation in this bipartisan effort," Mr. Upton, Mr. Pallone and Ms. DeGette said in a joint statement. "We are seeing a tremendous opportunity for Cures, with our legislative efforts coupled with the 'moonshot' and the administration's precision medicine initiative, there is no question that 21st Century Cures is the right vehicle to get this done," the lawmakers added.
Currently, Mr. Alexander and Ms. Murray are negotiating how much new mandatory funding to provide NIH and how to pay for it. Senate Democrats want to allocate $5 billion per year, but the White House has not disclosed how much it is looking for, according to the report.