‘Historic’ $100 million Alzheimer’s bill passes in House, heads to president’s desk

December 20, 2018

A bipartisan bill that authorizes $100 million in funding over five years to create a new public health infrastructure to combat Alzheimer’s disease is headed to the president’s desk after being passed Wednesday night by the House of Representatives.

“Today is a historic day in the fight against Alzheimer’s,” Alzheimer’s Association Chief Public Policy Officer Robert Egge said. More than half of the members of Congress — 58 senators and 254 congresspeople — co-sponsored the legislation, known as the Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act, he said.

Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) had introduced the bill, S. 2076, in November 2017. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee unanimously passed it Nov. 29, and the full Senate unanimously passed it Dec. 12.

The measure also was endorsed by dozens of organizations, among them AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living, Argentum and LeadingAge.