House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., plans...

House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., plans to release “a Cures legislative discussion draft in early January 2015,” looking to “swiftly move the legislation early in the next Congress,” he said in an opening statement at a roundtable in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1t1Bakz). He was referring to the committee’s 21st Century Cures initiative, which Upton has framed as a natural companion initiative to the overhaul of the Communications Act he also backs. Telehealth is one dimension that lawmakers involved in the 21st Century Cures initiative have examined, and groups such as the Telecommunications Industry Association have weighed in on that front as the committee considers any legislation.