S.Amdt. 3371

SA 3371. Mr. SCHATZ (for himself and Mr. Hatch) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 524, to
authorize the Attorney General to award grants to address the national
epidemics of prescription opioid abuse and heroin use; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of title I of the bill, add the following:

SEC. 104. ENHANCING BASIC AND APPLIED RESEARCH ON PAIN TO
DISCOVER THERAPIES TO REDUCE THE CURRENT OVER-
PRESCRIBING OF OPIOIDS.

(a) In General.--Out of any money appropriated to the
National Institutes of Health not otherwise obligated, the
Director of the National Institutes of Health may intensify
and coordinate fundamental, translational, and clinical
research of the National Institutes of Health (referred to in
this section as the ``NIH'') with respect to the
understanding of pain and the discovery and development of
therapies for chronic pain.
(b) Priority and Direction.--The prioritization and
direction of the Federally funded portfolio of pain research
studies shall consider recommendations made by the
Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee in concert
with the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task
Force, and in accordance with the National Pain Strategy, the
Federal Pain Research Strategy, and the NIH-Wide Strategic
Plan for Fiscal Years 2016-2020, the latter which calls for
the relative burdens of individual diseases and medical
disorders to be regarded as crucial considerations in
balancing the priorities of the Federal research portfolio.
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