WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Richard Hanna voted in favor of H.R. 34, the 21st Century Cures Act last Wednesday evening, Nov. 30, a bill which aims to give the National Institutes of Health funding to perform further research into various rare and intractable diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

The Cures Act, which will now be considered by the Senate following the House's approval of the bill by a vote of 392 to 26, will increase funding for medical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $4.8 billion over 10 years and funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by $500 million over 10 years. Money directed to the NIH will be divided between the Precision Medicine Initiative, cancer research programs, and the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The FDA funding will go towards reducing the time that it takes to get a medical treatment from the lab to patients in need.