The Senate must compromise on legislation to accelerate the drug approval process or it will run out of time to pass the package of bills, according to STAT.
Here are six key observations:
1. Some anticipate Republicans and Democrats will compromise their differences and vote on the bills next month.
2. Congress takes a summer recess on July 15, and when senators return, they will be focused on federal government funding bills.
3. The House passed the 21st Century Cures Act in 2015, which is designed to speed the regulatory process for devices.
4. The Senate health committee has separated its version of the legislation into smaller bills, passing 19 of the bills so far. The bills focus on topics like therapies for rare diseases and National Institutes of Health strategies.
5. Still, packaging these smaller bills into a piece of legislation to bring to the Senate floor proves overwhelming. Democrats want to institute mandatory funding for the new policy changes, but Republicans want Congress to pay for new funding by cutting funding somewhere else.
6. If these financial disagreements aren't resolved, the Senate will most likely not vote on the bills before the recess.
