July 9, 2026
Mr. McCaul (for himself, Mr. Bera, and Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
To better coordinate Federal efforts to utilize advance technologies, such as AI, to improve diagnoses, treatments, cures, and prevention strategies for pediatric cancer, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Accelerating Innovation (AI) for Kids with Cancer Act
.
Sec. 2. Harnessing United States AI innovation to treat and cure pediatric cancer
(a) In general
The President, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services (in this section referred to as the Secretary
), shall appoint an individual or entity to serve as the coordinator of Federal efforts to utilize advance technologies, such as AI, to improve diagnoses, treatments, cures, and prevention strategies for pediatric cancer. Such individual or entity shall be known as the Coordinator of AI Innovation (in this section referred to as the Coordinator
). The Coordinator shall serve as a member of the Domestic Policy Council.
(b) Identification of CCDI opportunities
In carrying out subsection (a), the Coordinator shall identify opportunities to accelerate the progress of AI-driven solutions at the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (in this section referred to as the CCDI
), including—
(1)
by improving clinical trial design and access through incorporating AI approaches;
(2)
by making data platforms and tools available as part of the CCDI Data Ecosystem;
(3)
by improving data infrastructure through consolidating data from multiple sources for AI-ready analysis and through utilizing AI to better select participants for clinical trials;
(4)
by enhancing data analysis through integration with AI tools—
(A)
to improve predictive modeling of patient response, disease progression, and treatment toxicity; and
(B)
to turn multi-omics data and imaging data into novel diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic biomarkers; and
(5)
by improving clinical trial design, access, and outcomes for patients by incorporating multimodal data and using AI approaches.
(c) Improving data sharing and empowering patients
(1) Integration of AI innovation into current work on interoperability
The Secretary shall work to ensure that AI innovation is appropriately integrated into current work on interoperability to maximize the potential for electronic health records and claims data to inform private sector and academic research and clinical trial design, while ensuring that individuals (or authorized representatives) control their health information.
(2) Interoperability standards for patient data to be used with AI
The Secretary shall work to finalize interoperability standards for patient data to be used with AI that—
(A)
appropriately account for structured and unstructured data; and
(B)
enable safe and privacy-compliant exchanges of data.
(d) Report
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report on the implementation of this section.
(e) Definitions
In this section:
(1) Artificial intelligence; AI
The terms artificial intelligence and AI have the meaning given the term artificial intelligence in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401).
(2) Appropriate committees of Congress
The term appropriate committees of Congress means—
(A)
the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives;
(B)
the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives;
(C)
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; and
(D)
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate.
(f) Authorization of appropriations
(1) In general
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section such funds as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2031.
(2) CCDI
In addition to amounts made available to carry out this section under paragraph (1) for a fiscal year, there is authorized to be appropriated to carry out subsection (b), $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2031.