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Texas on Wednesday passed a Senate bill that would establish a $3 billion Texas Research Fund for Dementia, but another measure to stimulate the funds could face a barrier to the Chamber of Commerce on Monday.
Senate Bill 5 by Senator Joan Huffman of R-Houston, is a creation of the Texas Institute for Dementia Prevention and was approved by Representatives 127-21.
“For me, this is a dream,” D-Houston MP Senfronia Thompson told members before the final vote. Thompson, who has worked on previous efforts for such research funds for the past eight years, has urged her colleagues to pass it on as all lawmakers have components with relatives whose lives have been affected by Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia and other brain diseases.
Dan Patrick Central signaled prioritization of such funds last fall.
On Monday, House members are scheduled to vote for Senate Joint Resolution 3, which requires voter approval. If voters approve constitutional amendments, the first $3 billion state surplus revenue will be transferred to the fund, and a board appointed by Gov. Patrick and Greg Abbott will be established to approve research proposals. Going forward, the lab will receive up to $300 million a year. The funding is intended to attract doctors, researchers and experts in the dementia field in Texas. The institute studies not only dementia, but all brain diseases.
But despite overwhelming support for the Senate bill, SJR 3 could fall victim to a conflict over school vouchers. House Democrats threatened to kill all constitutional amendments for the remaining sessions earlier last week unless the House votes to vote for a school voucher in November. Constitutional amendments require at least 100 votes approval from 150 members of the House before going before Texas voters. With 62 Democrats in the House, Republicans need at least 12 Democrats to make constitutional reforms.
The House passed the voucher bill Thursday. Amid the Democratic lockdown, Republicans postponed all five constitutional amendments considered on Tuesday and Wednesday, with SJR 3 being postponed, and another constitutional amendment, HJR 72, failing to reach the required 100 votes.
Still, members of the aisle also show disapproval. Some Republicans have criticized the $3 billion pricing for rebutting the doctrine of a downsizing government.
R-Midloathian Rep. Brian Harrison urged lawmakers to vote for the bill as he said it wasn’t just expanding the state’s bureaucracy. $3 billion should be returned to taxpayers, he said, and taxpayers were overcharged with taxes.
“All Texans want to find a treatment for dementia,” Harrison said. “But I don’t know what this body doesn’t understand, the part of the government and the donor that it will cease.”
State Sen. R-Cypress, who is also anesthesiologist, opposes the government’s expansion, but refuted that there is a risk if the private sector, or the pharmaceutical industry, relies solely on all medical research. Frequently, he said, the industry claims it’s too much to sell drug promises developed just to return and double later, and is ineffective after all.
“The only solution to that problem is to provide an independent, unmistakable source of funding,” Oliverson said. “Medical research should never be like art. Essentially, the client, the patrons who fund it, decide what art is.”
According to the Texas Health and Human Services Board, Alzheimer’s, a degenerative brain disease, is the most common form of dementia, making up about 80% of cases. The Texas Department of Health reports that 459,000 Texans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for around 12% of the state’s population age 65 and older. A 2023 survey showed that the US East and Southeast had the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease.
Symptoms – memory loss and inability to perform simple tasks – tend to develop in the mid-60s and later in the 60s, occurring when abnormal protein clusters block brain cells’ communication. Symptoms can initially become mild and worsen over time.
Of the nearly 7 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, nearly two-thirds of women are women, and dementia care costs Americans more than $300 billion a year. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, care for people with Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to be $1 trillion by 2050.
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