AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Texas Senators passed legislation Wednesday toward creating the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT), an initiative that will infuse $3 billion of state money over the next 10 years to find a cure for one of the most cruel diseases impacting Texans.
Senate Bill 5 passed with bipartisan support. The legislation is a top priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, is carrying the bill and points out the elderly population in the United States is expected to double to 70 million by 2030.
“I believe this will touch the lives of almost every Texan, and so I can’t think as a body, as a legislature, that we could make a wiser, more prudent, better investment for the people of Texas and for future generations of Texas than to make this investment,” Huffman said before the vote.
The bill now heads to the House. Lawmakers also passed a resolution to trigger a constitutional amendment election in November, where Texas voters would have to approve the creation of DPRIT at the polls.
Texas emphasis on cancer and dementia
DPRIT is modeled after the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, which lawmakers passed and voters later approved in 2007. Huffman even said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing she copied the revised bill that was used to create CPRIT.
Secretary of State Jane Nelson was a lawmaker in 2007 and carried the bill that created CPRIT. She spoke in a public hearing last week about her work 18 years ago.
“It was one of, if not the most important piece of legislation I ever created,” Nelson told the Senate Finance Committee. “Even though we had universal agreement that we needed to step up the fight against cancer it was one of the toughest bills that I carried.”
The bill faced questions about the funding mechanism and whether research was a core function of the state government. Voters and lawmakers eventually approved the initiative and have dedicated $6 billion of state money to CPRIT since then.
Nelson said it was a great investment and made Texas one of the leaders in cancer research in the world. She believes the state should repeat history when it comes to dementia. She shared her personal story about the cognitive disease. Her mother was diagnosed with dementia.
“It’s the cruelest disease, and then we lost her,” Nelson said. She said it is especially hard for families to watch their loved ones slowly lose themselves.
The National Institutes of Health reported in 2024 that Alzheimer’s and related dementia research has advanced in recent years but stressed more needs to be funded to keep finding new answers to a cure and prevention.
“This progress helps move us closer to developing effective prevention and treatment options that benefit all Americans,” the NIH report reads.
Real impact for Texas families
Romi Lessig is excited for the idea of an institute in her home state that is dedicated to finding a cure for dementia, even though that cure will most likely not come in time for her mother.
“I’m not naïve enough to think we can do anything that will help my mom,” Lessig said through tears. But she knows that in order for changes to happen, there needs to be action.
Her mom, Vicki Matthews, is slowly losing herself. As a child in Florida, Lessig said her mom was a rock and always someone can rely on. “She was the mom that everybody could call and talk to about things if they didn’t want to talk to their own mom but they wanted to talk to somebody,” Lessig explained.
But the former librarian is now losing parts of herself. Lessig said her mom does not read anymore, even though she was avid reader when she was growing up, because she is having trouble remembering what she had just read on the previous page.
She hopes the DPRIT is approved this year so work can begin as soon as possible to create a future where her kids will not have to go through the same thing.
“I want something more for them. I want them to have more happiness, more health, and it’s going to take time. We got to start now,” Lessig said.
