This is our daily report of activity in Congress. Today’s report includes summaries of the 21st Century Cures Act and the Veterans Entrepreneurship Act. For more bills please visit our main site, GovTrack.

Seven bills were passed in the House, two of which had a roll call vote. These were the 21st Century Cures Act (H.R. 6), which passed last Friday by a vote of 344–77, and the Veterans Entrepreneurship Act (H.R. 2499) which passed by a vote of 410–1 yesterday. You can find summaries of both bills below. The other five were passed by voice vote. These were the Small Business Investment Company Capital Act (H.R. 1023), the Superstorm Sandy Relief Act (H.R. 208), the Microloan Modernization Act (H.R. 2670), the Economic Development Through Tribal Land Exchange Act (H.R. 387), and an act to designate the name of a Minnesota post office (S. 179).

Consideration of amendments to the Every Child Achieves Act continued in the Senate, with two more amendments accepted and six left pending. Only one of the accepted amendments had a roll call vote, which was unanimous. It establishes a committee on student privacy policy. The other accepted amendment amends the measures used to determine the need for postsecondary education.

Summaries:

The 21st Century Cures Act is a bipartisan bill that would reform the current standards and appropriations for biomedical research, provide $1.75 billion annually for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and $110 million for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This funding would end after five years. Support for this funding would come from budget offsets. Along with an increase in NIH and FDA funding, the bill would reduce regulations on access to medical research and expedite the testing processes of new drugs. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which released a section-by-section summary and a discussion document. The committee chairman, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI6), sponsored the bill. It passed by a vote of 344–77 last Friday. It received bipartisan support, with 170 Republicans and 174 Democrats voting in favor of the bill. It has moved on to the Senate.

The Veterans Entrepreneurship Act would waive the upfront guarantee fee required for a Small Business Administration express loan for veterans or their spouses. Normally this fee is required from the borrower and scales increasingly with the size of the loan. The bill would remove any obligation for a veteran or their spouse to pay this fee. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Small Business, which released this press release upon the introduction of the bill in late May. The committee chairman, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH1), is the sponsor of the bill. It was passed in the House by an almost unanimous vote of 410–1. The bill has moved on to the Senate.