WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan bill to speed government drug approvals and bolster biomedical research cleared its last procedural hurdle in the Senate on Monday.
The 85-13 vote for cloture, or closing debate and preventing a filibuster on the bill, puts the measure on track for final legislative approval by the Senate as early as today. Arkansas' two senators, both Republicans, voted in favor of ending debate.
President Barack Obama has promised to sign the measure, one of the last for the president and the 114th Congress, whose leaders hope to adjourn by week's end.
With Vice President Joe Biden presiding over the chamber where he served for 36 years, senators pushed ahead on the bill that envisions providing $6.3 billion over the next decade, including $1.8 billion for cancer research. Obama had placed Biden in charge of a "moonshot" to find ways to cure and treat the disease, which killed Biden's son Beau last year.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sought approval for renaming a portion of the bill after Beau Biden. The Senate agreed, and lawmakers of both parties applauded and lined up to share quiet words and pats on the shoulder with the vice president, who sat teary-eyed in the presiding officer's chair. A clerk handed Biden a tissue.
The near 1,000-page package, which cleared the House on Wednesday with backing from Obama, would also steer funds to fight drug abuse and overhaul federal mental health programs.
"It's legislation that can have an impact on each of our states and each of our constituents," said McConnell.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., serving his final days in the chamber, praised parts of the bill and cited regrets that it wasn't more generous but added, "I've been around a long time, and I understand what legislation is all about."
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Lawmakers were hoping to adjourn for the year by the end of the week, clearing the decks of legislation under Obama's presidency for a 2017 that will see Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of the 115th Congress. The outgoing Congress and Obama have fought over the budget and health care, with each side frequently thwarting the other's priorities.
Congress' top priority for the week is approving legislation to keep the government functioning into next spring, when the new president and GOP lawmakers could put their stamp on budget priorities.
While the vice president is the Senate's official presiding officer, he seldom appears to oversee the chamber's business.
But Biden's presence helped limit Democratic opposition to the legislation. Among its critics were Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who are trying to tug the party in a more liberal direction after its Election Day drubbing.
Sanders and Warren were among those complaining the measure would make it easier for the pharmaceutical and medical-device industries -- strong supporters of the legislation -- to win federal approval for their products while raising risks to consumers. There was also anger that, while the bill would require subsequent legislation by Congress to actually provide the money, it would lock in savings including cuts in a public health program created by Obama's health care law.
Overall, the legislation maps spending $4.8 billion over the next 10 years for research by the National Institutes of Health, including a pair of Obama priorities: work on brain diseases and developing personalized medical treatments. McConnell has backed provisions supporting efforts to use adult stem cells to regenerate cells.
The bill plans for state grants worth $1 billion over the next two years for preventing and treating abuse of addictive drugs such as opioids. And it would establish new positions in the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate anti-drug efforts, but without much additional money.
To the chagrin of consumer groups, the bill lets the Food and Drug Administration use data summaries -- instead of more detailed information -- when considering whether to approve existing drugs for new uses. It allows the agency to approve drugs aimed at life-threatening infections based on test results from smaller numbers of patients.
Agency funding
Republicans planned to unveil legislation today to keep federal agencies functioning into early next year. That would give the next Congress and the incoming Trump administration time to approve more than $1 trillion for federal agencies through Sept. 30, when the government's budget year ends.
Current spending expires at midnight Friday. Since the measure is the only must-do bill before Congress adjourns, it's likely to carry several add-ons.
They include $170 million to help Flint, Mich., repair its aging, lead-poisoned water system. Other items include about $4 billion to help Louisiana and other states rebuild from floods and other natural disasters, and money to partially meet the Obama administration's $11.6 billion request for war-related money.
House and Senate leaders are negotiating the final details of a stopgap spending bill to keep the government open past the Friday deadline. There is no real question that Congress will avert a government shutdown, but leaders are still debating how long into next year it should keep the government funded so the new Congress and Trump can hammer out a final spending deal for the 2017 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.
House leaders announced before Thanksgiving that Trump and his team had asked Congress to prepare a spending bill that would keep the government open at current spending levels through the end of March. That measure would allow Trump to quickly put his own stamp on government spending. But Senate leaders worried that it would be difficult early next year to write a new spending bill while simultaneously working to vet and approve Trump's Cabinet appointments and some of the party's top legislative priorities.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Thursday that he and other House leaders took those concerns into account and are working on drafting a spending bill that would go beyond March.
Ryan refused to specify how long the spending bill would last, but many lawmakers with knowledge of the talks guessed it would go until the end of April or May.
Leaders also hope to finish work on the Water Resources Development Act, an environment and water infrastructure bill that includes aid for the Flint water crisis and a contentious "Buy American" provision.
The House and Senate passed separate versions of water-projects legislation earlier this year, and negotiators are working to hammer out any final differences, including whether the bill will include a measure to require the government to purchase American-made steel for any upcoming infrastructure projects.
Some Republicans want funding for the "Buy American" language stripped from the bill, putting them directly at odds with Trump, who backed the concept at a rally last week.
In the realm of foreign policy and defense, the main question before Congress is whether it will have to later this month override a pair of potential presidential vetoes.
The Senate is expected to pass the $618.7 billion annual defense policy bill this week. The House passed the measure on Friday by a vote of 375-34. But the White House has not yet indicated whether the president would sign the bill.
While the legislation steered clear of several policy changes the Obama administration opposes, it did not fully resolve a dispute over spending.
Obama is also sitting on a House- and Senate-approved bill to extend the Iran Sanctions Act for 10 years -- legislation lawmakers believe is vital to maintain the threat that the United States will retaliate against Iran if it violates the terms of a nuclear deal struck last year.
The Obama administration has resisted efforts to pass the extension, arguing the president already has ample authority to punish Iran for violations of the nuclear pact and other aggressive moves, such as a recent spate of ballistic missile launches.
Information for this article was contributed by Alan Fram and Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press; and by Kelsey Snell, Karoun Demirjian and Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post.
A Section on 12/06/2016