Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, held a hearing Thursday on issues of medical innovation underlying his Trickett Wendler Right To Try Act.
During the hearing Johnson called on his fellow senators to cosponsor his bill and give terminally ill patients the right to try to save their own lives. The bill is named after a Waukesha, Wis., woman who died of ALS in 2015. It will ensure that terminally ill patients, their doctors, and pharmaceutical manufacturers are allowed to administer investigational treatments where no alternative exists.
The bill has 41 cosponsors. Senator Johnson plans to ask for unanimous consent on his bill next week on the Senate floor.
"Next week I will be asking the United States Senate to approve the right to try bill under a unanimous consent request. We've cleared it on our side and obviously one of the goals of this committee is to provide powerful testimony and convince every United States senator, if they are not willing to cosponsor, I'd certainly love their cosponsorship of this very simple bill that just allows these state right to try bills to operate, that allow heroes like Dr. Delpassand to give their patients hope. If my Democratic colleagues and my other Republican colleagues aren't willing to cosponsor, please do not object, so we can pass this bill and give patients and their families the right to hope."