Two bills providing a roadmap for federal efforts to respond to and fund Alzheimer’s research and programming unanimously passed in the US House of Representatives last week and now are awaiting President Biden’s signature.
The House passed the National Alzheimer’s Project, or NAPA, Reauthorization Act and the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act. Both bills passed the Senate in July.
“Together, these bipartisan bills will renew our nation’s commitment to addressing this devastating disease so we can one day achieve our vision of a world without Alzhiemr’ers and other dementia,” said Robert Egge, Alzheimer’s Association chief public policy officer and president of its advocacy arm, Alzheimer’s Impact Movement. “With NAPA and the original Alzheimer’s Accountability Act set to expire soon, updated legislation is urgently needed by people living with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers.”
The NAPA Reauthorization Act would build on the progress made in the fight against Alzheimer’s and other dementia over the past decade by reauthorizing the National Alzheimer’s Project Act through 2035. It originally was signed into law in 2011 and was set to expire in 2025.
NAPA established the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care and Services. The act emphasizes the importance of healthy aging and risk reduction for Alzheimer’s disease to reflect the sixth goal of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which was updated in December.
The Alzheimer’s Accountability Act, enacted in 2014, also was set to expire in 2025. The act would continue to prioritize Alzheimer’s and dementia research funding at the National Institutes of Health by requiring the agency to continue to submit an annual professional judgment budget to Congress to ensure Alzheimer’s and dementia research is funded at levels necessary to achieve goals set out in the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease.
The passage of those bills follows passage in the House of a bipartisan bill funding Alzheimer’s interventions through public health departments earlier this month. The BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Reauthorization Act would reauthorize the Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act. That bill awaits Senate action.
Funds authorized by the BOLD Act would support Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Centers of Excellence on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The centers support the CDC’s Healthy Brain Initiative Road Map in the areas of risk reduction, early detection and caregiving.
