APLU Statement on 21st Century Cures Draft Bill

Washington, DC – The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) today released the following statement regarding the 21st Century Cures discussion draft.

“APLU is pleased to see healthy support for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the bipartisan 21st Century Cures discussion draft, which House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO) released today.

The draft bill would authorize strong increases for NIH, including a mandatory $2 billion increase per year for five years. The proposal would set a steady path for NIH and help reverse the innovation deficit that has been building recently as U.S. investments in biomedical research have stagnated while some of our competitor countries’ biomedical research investments have rapidly increased.

“Public research universities conduct much of the scientific research funded by NIH and that work yields needed advances in human health. The NIH funding increases in the 21st Century Cures proposal would speed up important discoveries that lead to new therapies and cures.”