YAHOO! NEWS – The Texas Senate on Wednesday advanced to the House a bill that would create America’s largest brain health research center.
Senate Bill 5, by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would create the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Senate Joint Resolution 3, which would require voter approval if passed by the Legislature, would fund it with $3 billion in surplus revenue.
This funding is intended to attract physicians, researchers, and experts in the field of dementia to Texas. This institute would research all brain diseases, not just dementia.
Under the bill, the institute would be governed by a board of physicians and scientists with expertise in dementia research.
Grants could be awarded for projects addressing the causes, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of dementia patients, as well as new medicines and facilities to help treat patients.
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Following the initial $3 billion in general revenue, future appropriations into the institute would be capped at $300 million annually.
“I can’t think as a body, as a legislature, that we could make a wiser, more prudent, better investment for the people of Texas and future generations,” Huffman said from the Senate floor prior to the vote.
One of the institute’s primary duties will be awarding grants. All grant proposals must undergo a peer review, and the oversight committee must approve final grant awards to ensure fairness in the grant-making process.
Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, during the discussion of the bill on Wednesday, shared that his father lived eight years with dementia before passing away last year, and it’s a disease he wouldn’t wish on anyone.
He said that despite his personal experience, he didn’t believe funding a dementia center was the government’s role …
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