A bipartisan bill funding Alzheimer’s interventions through public health departments throughout the country received unanimous support in the US House of Representatives last week and now heads to the Senate for action.
The BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Reauthorization Act, HR 7218 / S 3775, would reauthorize the Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act.
“Thanks to BOLD, public health departments throughout the nation have been successfully implementing effective Alzheimer’s interventions in their communities,” Robert Egge, chief public policy officer of the Alzheimer’s Association and president of its advocacy arm, Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, said in a statement. “The BOLD Reauthorization Act will empower public health departments to continue improving brain health across the life course and supporting caregivers in their communities.”
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.
Since the original BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act passed in 2018, the CDC has given 66 awards to 45 state, local and tribal health departments. Last year, the CDC announced 43 BOLD award recipients, the most in a single year. Award recipients are working to implement public health strategies that promote brain health, address dementia and support individuals living with dementia and their caregivers.
The House now is slated to consider the National Alzheimer’s Project, or NAPA, Reauthorization Act and the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act this week.
The NAPA Reauthorization Act would reauthorize NAPA through 2035 to provide a roadmap for federal efforts in responding to Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. NAPA, set to expire in 2025, was signed into law in 2011 and 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 bill also calls for adding new federal representatives to the NAPA Advisory Council from the Department of Justice, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Social Security Administration.
Renewal of the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act, signed into law in 2015, would continue to prioritize Alzheimer’s and dementia research funding at the National Institutes of Health by requiring NIH scientists to continue to submit annual professional judgment budgets to Congress, which estimate additional future funding needed to effectively leverage scientific opportunities in dementia research.
