The Director of NIH is encouraged to continue and expand, through the Pain Consortium, an aggressive program of basic and clinical research on the causes of and potential treatments for pain.
Not less than annually, the Pain Consortium, in consultation with the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, shall develop and submit to the Director of NIH recommendations on appropriate pain research initiatives that could be undertaken with funds reserved under section 282a(c)(1) of this title for the Common Fund or otherwise available for such initiatives.
In this subsection, the term “Pain Consortium” means the Pain Consortium of the National Institutes of Health or a similar trans-National Institutes of Health coordinating entity designated by the Secretary for purposes of this subsection.
The Secretary shall establish not later than 1 year after March 23, 2010, and as necessary maintain a committee, to be known as the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (in this section referred to as the “Committee”), to coordinate all efforts within the Department of Health and Human Services and other Federal agencies that relate to pain research.
The Committee shall include such nonvoting members as the Secretary determines to be appropriate.
The voting members of the Committee shall select a chairperson from among such members. The selection of a chairperson shall be subject to the approval of the Director of NIH.
The Committee shall meet at the call of the chairperson of the Committee or upon the request of the Director of NIH, but in no case less often than once each year.
The Secretary shall ensure that recommendations and actions taken by the Director with respect to the topics discussed at the meetings described in paragraph (4) are included in appropriate reports to Congress.