The BOLD Alzheimer’s Act was advanced out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions (HELP) on November 29th and will now be considered by the full U.S. Senate. The bill, whose official title is Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act (S. 2076), would create an Alzheimer’s public health infrastructure across the country to implement effective Alzheimer’s interventions focused on public health issues such as increasing early detection and diagnosis, reducing risk and preventing avoidable hospitalizations.
If passed, the bill would authorize $100 million over five years to establish:
- Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Public Health Centers of Excellence to promote Alzheimer’s disease and caregiving interventions as well as educate the public about Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive decline and brain health. The centers would implement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Aging Public Health Road Map.
- Cooperative agreements between the CDC and state health departments to help meet local needs in promoting brain health, reducing risk of cognitive decline, improving care for those with Alzheimer’s and other public health activities.
- Data grants to improve the analysis and timely reporting of data on Alzheimer’s, cognitive decline, caregiving and health disparities at the state and national levels.
The Senate bill was introduced by Susan Collins (R-ME), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) and now has 55 co-sponsors. A companion bill, H.R. 4256, has been introduced in the House of Representatives and has 245 co-sponsors.
The Alzheimer’s Association has developed a form letter that community members can send to their elected Senators and Representative to voice support for the BOLD Alzheimer’s Act. You can sign on to send the letter to your elected representative here.
To learn more about the BOLD Alzheimer’s Act and the public health response to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, visit https://alzimpact.org/priorities/bold_alzheimers_act