The Speeding Therapy Access Today (STAT) Act is expected to be among key rare disease community legislative priorities discussed during the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions hearing today, Tuesday, April 5th at 10:00 a.m. The hearing is entitled, “FDA User Fee Agreements: Advancing Medical Product Regulation and Innovation for the Benefit of Patients” and can be watched live here. Follow the conversation on Twitter @everylifeorg.
The inclusion of the STAT Act (HR 1730 / S 670) in this hearing signals continued momentum for the bill which aims to pass targeted and impactful policy reforms at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Thanks to the strong support of the community, the bill has added 11 co-sponsors since Rare Disease Week on Capitol Hill was held in February.
On March 17th, the bill was included in the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee hearing on “The Future of Medicine: Legislation to Encourage Innovation and Improve Oversight.” The STAT Act was among a number of bills supporting the rare disease community discussed during this hearing, including: Cures 2.0, the HEART Act, the BENEFIT Act, ARPA-H, and the DIVERSE Act. Read the Foundation’s statement here.
To keep growing this momentum, advocates are encouraged to ask their members of Congress to co-sponsor the STAT Act – even if they have reached out previously. Increasing the number of STAT Act cosponsors will help make the case that the STAT Act should advance into the next stages of the legislative process – a sub-committee markup.
Advocates may check if their member is already a cosponsor here and use this simple action alert to reach out to their members.
