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Last updated on Wednesday, March 14, 2018
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly released the following statement after companion legislation to his bipartisan ‘Right to Try’ bill failed to get the required 2/3 vote it needed to pass in a special process in the House of Representatives Tuesday.
In late January, Donnelly called on the House to take action. Donnelly introduced a 'Right to Try' bill with Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), and it passed the Senate in August 2017. The bill, which President Trump mentioned in his State of the Union in January, would allow terminally ill patients who have exhausted all approved treatment options to access certain investigational drugs for treatment. Nearly forty states have passed right to try bills.
Donnelly said, "I'm disappointed by today's result in the House. I remain hopeful that my bipartisan legislation, which passed the Senate unanimously, will get another vote in the House soon to move forward. Families in Indiana and across the country deserve the right to try to access potentially life-saving, clinically tested medical treatment for their terminally ill loved ones."
The bill can be voted on again in the U.S. House under a normal procedure that would require only a majority vote.
Donnelly first met Indianapolis resident Laura McLinn and her son Jordan McLinn--who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a disease with no cure--in early 2016. Donnelly has met with the McLinn family many times and worked closely with them to advance this legislation.
In October 2017, Donnelly and Johnson sent the House Energy and Commerce Committee a letter urging it to pass the bill. The Donnelly-Johnson bill that passed the Senate in August can be found here. Vice President Pence and the White House also indicated their support of right to try earlier this year.
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