[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 185 (Monday, November 26, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7089-S7090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. HATCH (for himself and Mr. Casey):
  S. 3657. A bill to reauthorize the Traumatic Brain Injury program; to 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Traumatic

[[Page S7090]]

Brain Injury Program Reauthorization Act of 2018. I want to thank my 
colleague, Senator Casey, for working with me once again on important 
legislation to reauthorize the Federal Traumatic Brain Injury program, 
which is dedicated to improving the delivery and quality of care for 
persons with traumatic brain injury -- or, TBI.
  Each year, millions of Americans suffer TBIs as a result of 
automobile collisions, falls, recreational accidents, assaults, and 
other tragic incidents. TBI has also been called a signature wound of 
recent wars. In 2016, the Department of Defense reported more than 
18,000 service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. A 
survivor of a severe brain injury typically faces years of intensive 
health and rehabilitation services, with estimated lifetime costs in 
the millions.
  In 1996, I worked with my good friend Senator Ted Kennedy on the 
original TBI Act to help limit the suffering, death, and long-term 
disability that results from TBI. Our legislation marked the beginning 
of a multifaceted Federal endeavor to address the needs of persons with 
TBI and their families. The 1996 TBI law authorized research, not only 
for the treatment of traumatic brain injury, but also for prevention 
and awareness programs to help decrease the occurrence of TBI and 
improve patient outcomes. It was the first Federal legislation to focus 
on improving education, protection, and state services coordination for 
TBI.
  Today's TBI program maintains that original framework of prevention, 
education, access, and protection. The Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC) conducts projects to reduce the incidence of traumatic 
brain injury. Through the Administration for Community Living (ACL), 
the TBI State Partnership Grant Program helps States and territories to 
build service infrastructure and improve access to services and 
supports.
  Through the ACL, the TBI program also supports protection and 
advocacy to provide TBI survivors with information and referral 
services, and to help resolve legal and administrative problems for 
individuals or groups of individuals with developmental disabilities. 
Our bill reauthorizes TBI activities at the CDC and ACL.
  The CDC has reported that about 2.5 million children and adults 
sustain TBIs each year. But we do not truly know the incidence and 
prevalence of TBI or the lifelong disability it can cause. Surveillance 
is especially important to our efforts to reduce the public health 
burden of TBI. Improved data collection can help both primary 
prevention of TBI, and acute care and rehabilitation. Prevention 
programs should be targeted to address at-risk populations and specific 
causes of TBI. And accurate data are needed to improve TBI survivors' 
access to necessary services.
  At present, CDC is piloting a National Concussion Surveillance System 
as a means to fill these gaps and provide a better estimate of the TBI 
burden. This system is an effort that aligns with recommendations made 
in a 2013 report from the National Academies for Sciences, Engineering, 
and Medicine, as well as proposals included in President's Budget 
requests.
  When taken to scale following the pilot study, this system has the 
capacity to provide the first truly comprehensive incidence of TBI in 
children across the lifespan and at a national level. It also has the 
potential to improve our understanding of the full range of 
circumstances leading to TBI and track healthcare utilization and 
services received after a TBI event. By collecting information over 
multiple years, we can also track whether the problem is getting better 
or worse, and if prevention efforts are actually working.
  The Traumatic Brain Injury Program Reauthorization of 2018 is 
supported by the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) and the 
National Association of State Head Injury Administrators (NASHIA). It 
will extend important prevention, education, State program support, and 
protection and advocacy activities for an additional five years. It 
will also help to gather the data that we need to make those programs 
better, and, ultimately, to improve TBI survivors' access to necessary 
services. I urge my colleagues to support our efforts to continue 
improving the delivery and quality of care for persons living with TBI 
by helping to pass the Traumatic Brain Injury Program Reauthorization 
of 2018.

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