| April 28, 2008 | Contact: Robert Reilly Deputy Chief of Staff Office: (717) 600-1919 |
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| For Immediate Release | ||||
Traumatic Brain Injury Act Signed into Law |
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Washington, D.C.– U.S. Reps. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-08) and Todd Platts (R-PA-19), the Co-Chairmen of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, today lauded President George W. Bush’s signing of the Traumatic Brain Injury Act into law.
“Every 21 seconds, another person in the United States of America sustains a traumatic brain injury (TBI),” said Congressman Platts. “Congress has acknowledged TBI as the signature injury of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. This legislation will help ensure that the 5.3 million Americans currently living with TBI, especially our injured troops, will receive the necessary services and treatment that they need.”
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.
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. The TBI Act was approved in the House of Representatives on April 8, 2008 and in the Senate on April 10, 2008.
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