S.Amdt. 2484

SA 2484. Mr. TILLIS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 2301 proposed by Mr. Inhofe to the bill S. 4049, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2021 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle C of title VII, add the following:

SEC. 752. SENSE OF SENATE ON THE ARMED FORCES INSTITUTE FOR
REGENERATIVE MEDICINE.

It is the sense of the Senate that--
(1) the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine
(in this section referred to as ``AFIRM'') delivers critical
regenerative-based technologies lead to functional and
aesthetic recovery from injuries incurred during service in
the Armed Forces;
(2) AFIRM is a highly rated, nationally respected public-
private consortium leading the development of restorative
therapies for battlefield trauma as part of several research
and development programs directed to meet defined medical
technology gaps for warfighter groups;
(3) the efforts by AFIRM span from research and development
to clinical translation, implementation, and
commercialization, with therapies developed for extremity and
craniofacial trauma, skin and genitourinary injuries, and
transplantation;
(4) each AFIRM project specifically addresses a key need of
the wounded warfighter, which has helped guide research
projects toward partnerships with industry that can be
reviewed for approval and entered into clinical trials for
eventual placement in the marketplace;
(5) technologies developed by AFIRM include, in part, those
that will result in the ability to generate and integrate
functional composite tissue, neural pathways,
vascularization, aesthetic skin, bone, and muscle;
(6) despite the technology challenges, the public-private
teaming approach to medical research and development used by
AFIRM has resulted in more than 24 products reaching clinical
trials;
(7) it is essential that Congress continue to support the
technology exploration, maturation, and transition in
regenerative medicine set forth by AFIRM; and
(8) the Senate encourages allocation of funds to AFIRM from
the undistributed medical research funds provided in this Act
to facilitate the continued implementation of the innovative
consortium model used by AFIRM that has a proven track record
of success.
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