Following a two year fight to reauthorize the expired Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Act, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-08) the co-founder and co-Chairman of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force applauded passage of the legislation in the House of Representatives today.  The legislation was approved by a vote of 392-1.

“I thank my House colleagues for joining me to reauthorize the extension of federal services and care for brain injury victims,” stated Pascrell.  “With thousands of brain injury survivors returning from military combat and 5.3 million Americans suffering from TBI here at home, it more critical than ever that Congress prioritize brain injury prevention and rehabilitation.  By approving the TBI Act, the House is giving a voice to the millions of brain injured Americans suffering from this silent epidemic.”

Originally passed in 1996 and reauthorized in 2000, the TBI Act represents a foundation for coordinated and balanced public policy in prevention, education, research and community-living for people with TBI.  The TBI Act is the only federal law that specifically authorizes programs to support individuals with brain injury.  Prior to the 1996 law, federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institute for Health (NIH) and the Health Resources Administration (HRSA) did not have the tools to assess the number of brain injury victims or provide services to them.  The TBI Act will reauthorize federal programs under these agencies through 2011.  

The TBI Act has a proven ten-year record of successfully providing direction and legal authority for the brain injury researchers and care providers to educate the public, register the prevalence of TBI and authorize state governments to create grant programs for community-based services and support for children and adults with TBI.

An important new provision in the TBI Act authorizes a study by the CDC and the NIH in collaboration with the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify the incidence of brain injury among our nation’s veterans, especially veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.  It ensures that national research takes veterans into account and that current information about diagnostic tools and treatments are shared between the civilian and military scientific communities.  Other new studies authorize the CDC and NIH to combine resources for the determination of TBI incidence, to identify common therapeutic interventions and to develop rehabilitation guidelines.     

“The reauthorized TBI Act promises to build on its tremendously successful first ten years by extending services and establishing new studies to register brain injured veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan,” stated Pascrell.  “We can not ignore what military health experts consider to be the signature injury of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I am pleased to see the beginnings of a collaborative effort towards TBI prevention, research and care between civilian and military healthcare leaders.”  

“The Brain Injury Association of New Jersey is pleased to see the House of Representatives pass this important bill,” stated Barbara Geiger Parker, the President and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of New Jersey.  “The TBI Act has been helpful to many New Jersey residents impacted by brain injury.  Its passage is a step toward ensuring those impacted by this disability get the support and services they need.”

TBI is the leading cause of death and disability in young Americans.  An estimated 5.3 million Americans are living with long term, severe disability as a result of brain injury.  The annual incidence and prevalence of TBI is higher than Breast Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Spinal Cord Injury and HIV/AIDS combined.

Co-founded by Rep. Pascrell in 2001, the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force’s mission is to further provide education and awareness of brain injury (incidence, prevalence, prevention and treatment) and support funding for basic and applied research on brain injury rehabilitation and development of a cure.  The Task Force is bipartisan and made up of 119 members of Congress. 

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