Senator Collins’ Two Bills to Combat Alzheimer’s Signed into Law
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Susan Collins, the Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, announced that two bipartisan bills she authored—the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) Reauthorization and the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act (AAIA)—have been signed into law. These bills will cement and build on the important progress that has been made to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease.
“We have made tremendous progress in recent years to boost funding for Alzheimer’s research, which holds great promise to end this disease that has had a devastating effect on millions of Americans and their families,” said Senator Collins, a founder and co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease. “These two bills will maintain our momentum and make sure that we do not take our foot off the pedal just as our investments in basic research are beginning to translate into potential new treatments. We must not let Alzheimer’s to be one of the defining diseases of our children’s generation as it has ours.”
“The bipartisan NAPA Reauthorization Act and the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act being signed into law today represents a major step forward in the fight against this devastating disease,” said Robert Egge, Alzheimer’s Association chief public policy officer and AIM president. “On behalf of the Alzheimer’s Association, thank you to Sen. Collins for your continued, outstanding leadership in advancing these critical bills through the legislative process and getting them signed into law today. Together they will build on the progress made in the fight against Alzheimer’s and other dementia for years to come.”
“With the bipartisan NAPA Reauthorization Act and the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act being signed into law, our nation has renewed its commitment to the fight against Alzheimer’s and other dementia,” said Drew Wyman, executive director, Alzheimer's Association Maine Chapter. “Thank you to Sen. Collins for your leadership in introducing and advancing these pivotal bills, and for your longstanding dedication to the Alzheimer’s community in Maine and across the nation.”
“These two bills are incredibly important to the work we are doing to end the scourge of Alzheimer’s,” said George Vradenburg, chair and co-founder of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. “By reinforcing our national commitment to fighting this crisis and requiring accountability for every federal dollar spent, these bills help ensure that our country will keep its foot on the gas to stop this disease. We look forward to working with Health and Human Services on establishing new national goals for 2035 and engaging the business community in those conversations so we can address the enormous economic impact of Alzheimer’s. We’re also grateful for the leadership of Senators Collins, Markey, Warner, and Capito and for every member of the Senate who joined them in getting these bills across the finish line.”
More than six million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s costs our nation an astonishing $360 billion per year, including $231 billion in costs to Medicare and Medicaid. If we continue along this trajectory, Alzheimer’s is projected to claim the minds of 13.8 million seniors by 2060 and nearly surpass $1 trillion in annual costs by 2050. In 2022, family caregivers provided 18 billion hours of unpaid care for loved ones with dementia.
In 2011, Senator Susan Collins authored the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) with then-Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN). NAPA convened a panel of experts, who created a coordinated strategic national plan to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. The law was set to expire and needed to be reauthorized to ensure that research investments remain coordinated, and their impact maximized.
The NAPA Reauthorization Act will:
- Reauthorize NAPA through 2035 and modernize the legislation to reflect strides that have been made to understand the disease, such as including a new focus on promoting healthy aging and reducing risk factors.
- Update language in recognition of the need to include underserved populations, including individuals with Down syndrome, who are at increased risk for Alzheimer’s as they age.
This bill is endorsed by the National Down Syndrome Society, the National Down Syndrome Congress, and LuMind IDSC Foundation.
The Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act will:
- Continue through 2035 a requirement that the Director of the National Institutes of Health submit an annual budget to Congress estimating the funding necessary to fully implement NAPA’s research goals.
- Only two other areas of biomedical research – cancer and HIV/AIDS – have been the subject of special budget development aimed at speeding discovery.
Senator Collins authored the NAPA Reauthorization Act with Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act with Senator Ed Markey (D-MA). Both bills are cosponsored by Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
The NAPA Reauthorization Act and the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act are endorsed by the Alzheimer’s Association and UsAgainstAlzheimer’s.
The complete text of the NAPA Reauthorization Act can be read here.
The complete text of the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act can be read here.
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