The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) sent a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) this week urging Congress to pass full repeal of the medical device tax this month.

“The medical device tax has been responsible for job losses and reductions in research and development budgets, which hurts U.S. economic growth and stifles innovation for patients,” said Joe Robinson, chairman of the MITA board of directors and senior vice president of health systems solutions at Philips Healthcare, in a written statement.

“To ensure the tax does not resume for any period of time, our leaders in Congress must act now to fully repeal the tax and give manufacturers the certainty they need to invest in hiring and ongoing innovation in 2018,” Robinson continued.

The 2.3% medical device excise tax was levied on the sale of medical devices that are fundamental to the practice of medicine both in diagnosing and treating disease. A bipartisan coalition in the House and Senate came together in 2015 to approve a two-year suspension of the tax, but it is set to expire at the end of the year.