Mandatory Funding For FDA, NIH Is Center Stage At First Senate ‘Cures’ Markup

Lawmakers traded jabs across the aisle over FDA and NIH funding at the first of three Senate health committee markups on the upper chamber’s innovation agenda. Key Democrats reasserted their view that the package, meant to accompany the House-passed 21st Century Cures bill, must include mandatory funding for the National Institutes of Health and FDA to get their support, but several Republicans rebutted those calls, citing the amount of funding provided to NIH in last year’s spending bill and the...