$3.7 Billion for Alzheimer’s Research Signed into Law Following Senator Collins’ Advocacy
The historic level of funding keeps the U.S. on the path to preventing and treating this disease
Washington, D.C.— U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), the Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee and a founder and co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s disease, announced that the 2023 government funding law included $3.74 billion to support Alzheimer’s research, which is a $266 million increase over the previous year’s appropriation.
Investing in Alzheimer’s research is one of Senator Collins’ top priorities due to the disease’s exorbitant human and financial costs. Nearly six million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s. This disease costs the United States an estimated $321 billion per year, including $206 billion in costs to Medicare and Medicaid. Without a breakthrough to prevent, slow, or cure Alzheimer’s, the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s is expected to nearly double by 2050, with 12.7 million people age 65 and older projected to have Alzheimer’s disease by then.
“In recent years, we have significantly boosted funding for Alzheimer’s research, and this legislation builds on that momentum,” said Senator Collins. “I have long championed increased investments for Alzheimer’s research, which holds great promise to end this disease that has a devastating effect on millions of Americans. The continued, bipartisan commitment to this research brings us closer to the national goal of finding an effective means of prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s.”
The law also includes $38.5 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Alzheimer’s disease activities, including increased investment in the Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act. This is an $8 million increase from the previous year’s appropriation. Senator Collins authored the BOLD Act, which became law in 2018, to develop a public health approach that will improve prevention.
In 2011, Senator Collins authored the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA), with then-Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN). NAPA convened a panel of experts, who determined that $2 billion per year in research funding is needed to achieve our goal of preventing and treating Alzheimer’s. Following the effort led by Senator Collins, annual funding for Alzheimer’s research surpassed this threshold for the first time in 2018 and has been sustained above $2 billion since then.
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