Continuing to lead Congress in supporting individuals with brain injuries, U.S. Reps. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-08) and Todd Russell Platts (R-PA-19) the co-chairmen of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force today introduced legislation to reauthorize funding for the highly successful Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Act.    

“The prevalence of TBI in our society is rising as an increasing number of our bravest sons and daughters return home from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” stated Pascrell, the founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force.  “Congress has a moral responsibility to step up and meet the needs of our veteran and the civilian populations.  The TBI Act represents an opportunity to invest in the medical practitioners, researchers, and healthcare experts who work to develop new methods of rehabilitation and ultimately a cure for TBI.  I am proud to take on this incredible responsibility and committed to eradicating TBI once and for all.”   

”Every 21 seconds, another person in the United States of America sustains a traumatic brain injury,” said Congressman Todd Platts, co-chairman of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force.  “Likewise, TBI has been named the "signature wound of the war in Iraq."  I am committed to ensuring that individuals affected by TBI, especially our injured troops, receive the necessary services and treatment that they need.  Our task force will work on a bi-partisan basis to push for the necessary funding and to promote awareness and research into this vital health issue.”

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 legislation that specifically allocates federal funds for programs supporting individuals with brain injury.”

The TBI Act directs the:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• To identify strategies to prevent traumatic brain injury
• To increase awareness and understanding of TBI by implementing public information programs for medical professionals and the general public
• To monitor and report the incidence of TBI and the prevalence of TBI-disability
• To develop a uniform system for states to report population-based TBIs

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
• To make grants available to states for the coordination, expansion and enhancement of service delivery systems for persons with TBI and their families
• To make grants available to state-based protection and advocacy organizations

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• To support work in brain injury rehabilitation at the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation and Research (NCMRR) and the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

Traumatic Brain Injury (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.

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 over one hundred members of Congress.

The Congressional Brain Injury Task Force is currently gathering support in an effort to provide $19.5 million in funding for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC) to continue TYBI research and provide state of the art rehabilitation to the most severely injured military TBI victims.  Established in 1992 as a Defense and Veterans Head Injury Program (DVHIP), the clinical research conducted by DVBIC has come to define optimal care for survivors of TBI. Patient care, clinical research and education are currently undertaken by three military and four VA sites and one civilian treatment site.

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