[JURIST] The US Senate [official website] voted on Wednesday to pass the 21st Century Cures Act [bill], which will allow the Food and Drug Administration [official website] to fund more medical research and speed up access to new drugs. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) [official website] said the bill would provide more funding [Congressional report] towards research for cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease and rare diseases. He also said that the bill will support resources to combat the opioid epidemic and help Americans with mental illnesses]. The bill received bipartisan support and passed [Reuters report] by a vote of 94-5. Those who did not support the bill, such as Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) [official website] say that it gives the pharmaceutical industry too much power. The 21st Century Cures Act received bipartisan support in the US House of Representatives [official website] last week, where it passed [JURIST report] by a vote of 392-26. Before becoming law, the bill must be signed by President Obama [official website], who has supported [NYT report] the bill from the beginning.

Health care has been a major topic over the past year. In November the US House submitted a motion [JURIST report] requesting the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit delay any further action on the appeal of the district court ruling against the Affordable Care Act. Early that month the District of Columbia Council approved a “Death with Dignity” bill [JURIST report] that would allow terminally ill patients to end their own lives with a physician’s help. During the election Colorado voters rejected [JURIST report] an amendment that would have created the state’s first universal health insurance program, with over 80 percent of voters voting against the amendment. In October a federal court blocked [JURIST report] a Mississippi law disqualifying Medicaid benefits for non-therapeutic abortions.