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# Senate and House Leaders Eager to Push Cures Act Through
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/senate-and-house-leaders-eager-to-push-cures-act-through/
- Published: 2016-11-10T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T21:46:47.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, Devices, #legacy-id-D5137312

Senate majority leader **Mitch McConnell** (R-KY) has reiterated that he is “redoubling” his push to see the [21st Century Cures Act](https://energycommerce.house.gov/cures?ref=fdaweb.com), legislation to accelerate the cycle of discovering, developing, and delivering new cures and treatments to patients, signed into law this year. “There are two priorities for me for the lame duck. One issue is how to fund the government and the second is the 21st Century Cures bill,” **McConnell said 11/9**. “The president’s interested in the Precision Medicine part of that, the vice president is interested in the Cancer Moonshot part of it, I’m interested in the regenerative medicine part of it. Sen. Alexander and Chairman Upton have done terrific work on this. I’d like to see us finish that important new measure this year. And the president and I discussed those two matters this morning.” **Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-MI)** concurs, adding that the top priority for when Congress returns is getting 21st Century Cures across the finish line.

After the presidential election, many observers have been wondering whether the lame duck session of Congress opening 11/14 will fast-track the legislation’s approval ([see earlier story](https://www.fdaweb.com/21st-century-cures-may-be-on-fast-track/)). With Republican control of both the House and Senate now assured for the next two years, lawmakers may be ready to pass what they see as a signature piece of legislation for the current Congress, despite [calls](https://www.fdaweb.com/lawmakers-face-tug-of-war-over-21st-century-cures-bills/) at the end of October from politically liberal and progressive groups that action on it should be deferred until the new administration is in place, calls likely based on an assumption that Hillary Clinton would be president-elect and that there would be a shift in the power balance in Congress.

Meanwhile, **Gregg Gonsalves** of Yale University’s Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency (CRIT) [says the legislation](http://fdaweb.com/login.php?sa=v&aid=D5137310&cate=&stid=%241%24cS%2F.%2F95.%24fVLF09hBCiIlxy9aJvG9l%2F&ref=fdaweb.com) “is a disaster still” for its likely weakening of FDA regulation of medical products. In a [four-page critique](http://www.fdaweb.com/download.php?file=11%5F01%5F16%5F21st%5FCentury%5FCures%5F.docx) requested by staff of Senator **Chris Murphy** (D-CT), CRIT says the latest version of the legislation has several liabilities, like weakening device regulation by expanding the expedited pathways program for vaguely defined “breakthrough” devices, and permitting the agency “to approve more devices through a less stringent review process.”