S. 4494 · 119th Congress

American Cures Act

Introduced on May 12, 2026 by Richard J. Durbin (D-IL). 4 cosponsors, all from the sponsor's party. Latest action (May 12, 2026): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations. (text: CR S2239)

Stage
Introduced
Introduced
May 12, 2026
Cosponsors
4
0 from the other party
Policy area
Health
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Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. 2Reported by committee
  3. 3Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

A bill to prioritize funding for an expanded and sustained national investment in biomedical research.

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in Senate, May 12, 2026). Public domain.

American Cures Act

This bill permanently funds several federal agencies and programs that perform biomedical research.

The bill provides specified funding for

  • the National Institutes of Health,
  • the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
  • the Department of Defense health program, and
  • the Department of Veterans Affairs medical and prosthetics research program.

The bill exempts the funding from sequestration, which is a process of automatic, usually across-the-board spending reductions under which budgetary resources are permanently cancelled to enforce specific budget policy goals.

It also exempts the budgetary effects of the funding from the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010 and the Senate PAYGO rule.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Richard J. DurbinD-ILSponsor

Democrats · 4

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. May 12, 2026Introduced in Senate
  2. May 12, 2026 · SenateRead twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations. (text: CR S2239)

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Who lobbied on it

Organizations whose lobbying reports (LD-2) name this measure. Spending is what they reported for those quarters on all issues, not on this measure alone.

  1. American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Inc.1 report
    $1.2M reported (all issues)
  2. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists1 report
    $96K reported (all issues)
  3. Blood Cancer United (FKA The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society)1 report
    $590K reported (all issues)
  4. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS1 report
    $50K reported (all issues)Federal contractor: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS$2.9M in contracts, FY2026AI match · 99%

Reports filed in 2026.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 6, 2026 · loaded Oct 6, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 6, 2026 · loaded Oct 6, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.