Sponsors (2)
The bill makes clinical trial payments and related reimbursements financially safer for participants and protects benefit eligibility—boosting trial access and research participation—at the cost of modestly higher public program expenditures and added administrative and integrity risks.
Low-income and other clinical trial participants (and their dependents) will keep trial payments and reimbursements from being treated as taxable income, increasing their net pay and reducing out-of-pocket costs for travel, lodging, and childcare.
People receiving means-tested benefits who take part in clinical trials will not lose or have reduced benefits because trial payments are excluded from income/resource counts, preserving access to assistance.
Removing tax and benefit disincentives is likely to increase clinical trial participation—particularly among low-income patients—potentially accelerating medical research and expanding access to experimental treatments.
Federal taxpayers may face modest revenue loss from excluding trial payments as taxable income, which could slightly increase the deficit or reduce funds available for other priorities.
States and localities that administer means-tested programs could incur higher program costs if more payments are excluded from income/resource calculations, potentially shifting costs to state budgets or requiring additional federal support.
If the statutory or IRC definition of qualifying payments is unclear or overly broad, administrators and participants could face disputes, audits, compliance costs, and increased program integrity/fraud risks.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Excludes compensation and expense reimbursements for approved clinical trial participation from taxable income and from income/resource tests for federal and federally funded state/local benefit programs.
Introduced June 26, 2025 by Mike Kelly · Last progress June 26, 2025
Excludes payments made to individuals (or their dependents) for participating in approved clinical trials — including compensation and reimbursements for reasonable and necessary expenses — from taxable gross income. It also requires that such payments not be counted as income or resources when determining eligibility for, or benefit amounts under, any Federal program or any State or local program that is financed in whole or part with Federal funds. The exclusion applies to amounts paid after December 31, 2025.