Key Committee Advances Reed’s Bill to Renew & Improve National Bone Marrow & Cord Blood Programs

WASHINGTON, DC -- In a big step toward enhancing patient access to life-saving bone marrow and cord blood transplants, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) today unanimously voted to advance U.S Senator Jack Reed's (D-RI) bipartisan bill, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2026 (S.4109). This legislation will advance medical research, improve patient outcomes, and ensure that America's bone marrow transplantation program and the National Cord Blood Inventory can continue to save lives and provide treatments and therapies derived from adult stem cell lines.

Specifically, Reed's bill would reauthorize the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and the National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI), which contracts with the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The bill would renew, through 2031, federal programs for using bone marrow and umbilical cord blood to treat diseases and conduct research. It would make up to $280 million available, over a five-year period, pending appropriations, to help individuals diagnosed with diseases such as leukemia and lymphomas, sickle cell anemia, and rare genetic blood disorders and help them find suitable bone marrow or umbilical cord blood donors. Without Congressional action, these programs would expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

Approximately $115 million would be authorized for the National Cord Blood Inventory program which has cumulatively banked more than 122,500 cord blood units to be tapped for life-saving treatments.

The National Marrow Donor Program, which recently celebrated facilitating its 150,000 transplant, would be authorized at $165 million over five years. Donating stem cells through the NMDP can save the life of someone battling blood cancer or another serious disorder. The program provides the infrastructure necessary to find an unrelated donor match for patients who need a bone marrow or umbilical cord transplant to treat or cure blood cancers, like leukemia or diseases, like sickle cell disease.

"Thanks to sustained federal investment, advancements in innovative research have been amazing and we want to accelerate that progress by passing this bill and funding these life-saving programs. This bill will help patients and families in their time of need as they face unimaginable circumstances. It provides direct support to these critical institutions that do incredible research, match donors and patients, help save live lives, and improve health outcomes," said Senator Jack Reed. "Our bipartisan bill builds upon the highly successful National Marrow Donor Program that has been a lifeline for thousands of transplant patients over the last two decades. Bone marrow and cord blood transplants continue to offer effective treatments for a number of diseases and disorders. This bipartisan bill would help expand access to lifesaving therapies to patients with conditions that can be treated and even cured with bone marrow or cord blood."

Reed's bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Tim Scott (R-SC), Tina Smith (D-MN) and James Lankford (R-OK). Companion legislation (H.R.5160) has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ).

There are three ways to donate blood stem cells: through transplants of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC), bone marrow, and umbilical cord blood that is donated after a baby's birth.

According to the Cleveland Clinic: "a stem cell transplant can treat -- and sometimes cure -- certain blood disorders, cancers and autoimmune diseases. The procedure replaces unhealthy stem cells with healthy ones" by either using "healthy stem cells from your own bone marrow" or from "donated stem cells from another person."

More information about the transplant process and need for stem cell and marrow donors is available at: https://www.bloodstemcell.hrsa.gov

Now that the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act has been approved by the HELP Committee, it must be passed by the full U.S. Senate and the House before it can be sent to the president's desk to be signed into law.

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