108th Congress

Research Review Act of 2004

H.R. 5213

Background

The Research Review Act of 2004 combines elements of two earlier bills, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Act, with new language regarding the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap for Medical Research.

The Roadmap for Medical Research was conceived in May 2002 by the Director of NIH. Its purpose was to identify major opportunities and gaps in biomedical research that the Agency must address in order to make the greatest impact on the progress of medical research. Developed with input from more than 300 nationally recognized leaders in academia, industry, government, and the public, three NIH Roadmap themes emerged: New Pathways to Discovery, Research Teams of the Future, and Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise. The Research Review Act of 2004 requires NIH to submit a progress report to Congress on Roadmap activities. The bill incorporated a component of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act that required NIHNIHto prepare a report describing NIH Roadmap efforts with respect to spinal cord injury and paralysis research. Although the Research Review Act of 2004 also incorporated provisions of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Act, the NIH research provisions were not included.

Provisions of the Legislation/Impact on NIH

Section 2 of the Research Review Act of 2004 requires the preparation of a report outlining the ways that the Roadmap has advanced the use of multidisciplinary research teams and consortia of research institutions in order to advance treatments, develop new therapies, and collaborate on clinical trials, including methods related to spinal cord injury and paralysis research.

Under section 2, subsection (b), the report must be submitted to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions no later than February 1, 2005.

Status and Outlook

H.R. 5213 was introduced by Representatives Michael Bilirakis (R-FL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) on October 5, 2004, and was passed unanimously by the House on October 7 and by the Senate on November 16. President Bush signed P.L. 108-427, the Research Review Act of 2004, on November 30.