Bill to create dementia research institute approved in House, but could face $3 billion funding hurdle

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The Texas House on Wednesday passed a Senate bill that would create a $3 billion Texas research fund for dementia, but another measure to activate the funding for it could face obstacles in the chamber on Monday.

Senate Bill 5, by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, creating the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, was approved by House members, 127-21.

“To me this is a dream come true,” state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, told members before the final vote. Thompson, who has worked on previous efforts for such a research fund for the past eight years, urged her colleagues to pass it because every lawmaker has constituents with relatives whose lives have been impacted by Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia and other brain diseases.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick signaled his prioritization of such a fund last fall.

On Monday, House members are scheduled to vote on Senate Joint Resolution 3, which would require voter approval. If voters approve the constitutional amendment, the initial $3 billion in state surplus revenue would be transferred to the fund and a board appointed by Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott would be set up to approve research proposals. Going forward, the institute would receive up to $300 million annually. This funding is intended to attract physicians, researchers, and experts in the field of dementia to Texas. This institute would research all brain diseases, not just dementia.

Despite the overwhelming support for the Senate bill, SJR 3, however, could fall victim to the dispute over school vouchers. House Democrats threatened early last week to kill all constitutional amendments for the rest of session unless the House votes to put school vouchers before voters in November. A constitutional amendment requires approval of at least 100 votes from the House’s 150 members to pass the chamber before going before Texas voters. With 62 Democrats in the House, Republicans need at least 12 Democrats to make any constitutional amendment happen.

The House passed the vouchers bill on Thursday with every present Democrat voting against it. Amid the Democrat blockade, Republicans postponed all five constitutional amendments that were up for consideration on Tuesday and on Wednesday, SJR 3 was postponed and another constitutional amendment, HJR 72, failed to reach the needed 100 votes.

Even so, members across the aisle are also signaling disapproval. Some Republicans have criticized the $3 billion pricetag for running counter their tenet of downsizing government.

State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midloathian, urged lawmakers to vote the bill down because he said it does nothing more than to expand the state’s bureaucracy. The $3 billion should be returned to taxpayers, who were overcharged on their taxes, he said.

“Every Texan would love to find a cure for dementia,” Harrison said. “But I do not know what part of stop-growing-government-and-give-people-back-their-money, that this body doesn’t understand.”

State Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, who is also an anesthesiologist, countered that while he too is against expanding government, there is a danger if the public relies solely on private enterprise, namely the pharmaceutical industry, to fund all medical research. Too often, he said, the industry oversells the promise of a drug that they’ve developed only to double back later and insist that it wasn’t as effective after all.

“The only solution to that problem is to provide an independent, non-conflicted source of funding,” Oliverson said. “Medical research should never be like the arts, where essentially the patrons, the ones that fund it, are the ones that decide what art is.”

Alzheimer’s, a degenerative brain disease, is the most common form of dementia, accounting for about 80% of cases, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that 459,000 Texans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, about 12% of the state’s population over the age of 65. While a 2023 study shows that the eastern and southeastern United States have the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s, Texas is one of three states that has the highest estimated number of older residents who are at risk of Alzheimer’s.

The symptoms — memory loss and the inability to perform simple tasks — tend to develop in the mid-to-late 60s and occur when clumps of abnormal proteins block the communication of brain cells. Symptoms can be mild at first and worsen over time.

Of the nearly 7 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, nearly two-thirds are women, and dementia care costs Americans more than $300 billion a year. The cost of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s is estimated to be $1 trillion by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

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