The Muscular Dystrophy Community Assistance Research and Education Amendments of 2001 ("MD CARE Act", Pub.
823, enacted December 18, 2001) amended the Public Health Service Act to provide for research with respect to various forms of muscular dystrophy, including Duchenne, Becker, limb girdle, congenital, facioscapulohumeral, myotonic, oculopharyngeal, distal, and Emery–Dreifuss muscular dystrophies.
[1][2] The act established a Federal Advisory Committee called the Muscular Dystrophy Coordinating Committee (MDCC), which is composed of no more than 15 members to coordinate the activities across the National Institutes and with other Federal health programs and activities relating to the various forms of muscular dystrophy.
The first stage led to the Muscular Dystrophy Research and Education Plan for NIH, which was submitted to Congress in August 2004.
[3] On July 28, 2014, the United States House of Representatives voted to pass the Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Community Assistance, Research and Education Amendments of 2013 (H.R.