Dec 13, 2016:
President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act.
The Cures Act provides $1 billion for opioid abuse prevention and $4.8 billion for biomedical research funding ($1.8 billion of which is dedicated to cancer research).
According to an article on whitehouse.gov entitled "3 Letters That Explain Why President Obama Is Signing the Cures Act the Cures Act "Invests in President Obama's priorities in Science and Health" in the following ways:
- Finally funds the fight against the opioid epidemic to provide the resources and treatment people need
- Supports the Vice President's Cancer Moonshot to transform cancer research and accelerate discoveries
- Invests in the President's signature BRAIN research initiative to tackle diseases like Alzheimer's
- Provides needed resources to expand the President's Precision Medicine Initiative to find cures and better tailor treatments
- Includes important, bipartisan mental health policies that address suicide prevention, serious mental illness and more
The Cures Act bill was passed in the House of Representatives on November 30 by a vote of 94-5, and was passed in the Senate on December 7 by a vote of 392-26.
Cures Act Gains Bipartisan Support That Eluded Obama Health Law | The New York Times