Curious why the President’s enactment of this sweeping medical cures bill matters to regulatory practitioners?

The Cures Act is a bipartisan effort to improve and streamline medical research, approval, and funding to accelerate medical breakthroughs. Of interest to the administrative law or rulemaking world, the Cures Act creates the Research Policy Board within the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Section 2034(f) establishes the Research Policy Board, a Federal advisory committee to provide Federal officials with information on the impact of regulations on Federal research requirements. The Board will include representatives from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (White House), National Science Foundation, and various Executive Branch agencies that support or regulate scientific research.

The Board’s primary purpose is to make recommendations to minimize the administrative burden created by research policies, regulations, and funding efforts across agencies. The expectation is the Board will evaluate existing regulations and policies, identify adverse consequences of the policies and regulations, and make recommendations to improve coordination.

Read the entire bill at: http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20161128/CPRT-114-HPRT-RU00-SAHR34.pdf