Dennis John Benigno Traumatic Brain Injury Program Reauthorization Act of 2025
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Dennis John Benigno Traumatic Brain Injury Program Reauthorization Act of 2025 reauthorizes and expands two federal TBI programs: the national surveillance and registries program (renamed the Bill Pascrell, Jr. program) and the state grant program. It extends funding from FY2020-2024 to FY2026-2030. The bill broadens surveillance to include prevalence data, higher-risk populations (occupational factors), causes and risk factors, and short/long-term outcomes. It expands the TBI definition to include anoxic brain injuries from trauma and injuries from infection, toxicity, surgery, or vascular disorders. It requires a congressional report on higher-risk populations and a study on long-term TBI symptoms including correlations with dementia and mental health conditions.
Who Benefits and How
TBI patients and survivors benefit from improved data collection, better understanding of long-term effects, and expanded services. Higher-risk populations -- domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, public safety officers, workers in hazardous occupations -- benefit from targeted outreach and data collection. State and Tribal governments benefit from continued grant funding. The CDC benefits from expanded research authority. American Indian consortia are explicitly included as eligible grant recipients.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The federal government bears reauthorized appropriations costs for FY2026-2030. The CDC bears expanded data collection, prevalence tracking, and public data availability requirements. HHS must complete two reports within 2 years. States and American Indian consortia receiving grants must maintain non-federal spending levels (maintenance of effort), though a 50% waiver is available.
Key Provisions
- Reauthorizes TBI programs from FY2026-2030
- Renames the national program after Bill Pascrell, Jr.
- Expands surveillance to include prevalence, occupational risk factors, and higher-risk populations
- Broadens TBI definition to include anoxic brain injuries and injuries from infection/toxicity/surgery/vascular disorders
- Requires CDC to publicly publish aggregated TBI data with prevention strategies
- Mandates congressional report on higher-risk populations within 2 years
- Requires study on long-term TBI effects including dementia/mental health correlations
- Adds maintenance-of-effort requirement for state grants with 50% waiver option
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Reauthorizes and expands federal traumatic brain injury surveillance, research, and state grant programs for FY2026-2030, with enhanced data collection on higher-risk populations, broadened TBI definition, and new studies on long-term health effects.
Key Policy Areas
Healthcare, Public Health, Government Operations
Primary Purpose
Reauthorizes and expands federal traumatic brain injury surveillance, research, and state grant programs for FY2026-2030, with enhanced data collection on higher-risk populations, broadened TBI definition, and new studies on long-term health effects.
Policy Domains
TBI Program Reauthorization and Expansion
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- TBI patients and survivors
- Higher-risk populations (DV/sexual assault survivors, public safety officers, hazardous occupation workers)
- State and Tribal governments (continued grant funding)
- CDC and TBI researchers (expanded authority and data)
- American Indian consortia (explicit inclusion as grant recipients)
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Federal government (reauthorized appropriations FY2026-2030)
- CDC (expanded data collection, prevalence tracking, public availability)
- HHS (two required reports/studies within 2 years)
- States and American Indian consortia (maintenance-of-effort requirement)
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeStar Print ordered on the bill.
Mr. Mullin (for himself, Mr. Kim, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Padilla, …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, …
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
American Indian consortia, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), Secretary of HHS
Positive-direction: American Indian consortia, State governments (TBI grant recipients)
Negative-direction: CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), Secretary of HHS, Secretary of HHS / CDC, State governments (maintenance-of-effort)
Domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, Higher-risk TBI populations (DV survivors, public safety officers), TBI patients and survivors
Nonprofit research organizations (potential contractors), TBI and neurology researchers, TBI researchers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_director"
- → Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Health and Human Services
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
An acquired injury to the brain; may include brain injuries caused by anoxia due to trauma and damage from internal or external sources resulting in infection, toxicity, surgery, or vascular disorders not associated with aging; does not include brain dysfunction from congenital or degenerative disorders or birth trauma
Terms as defined in Section 1253 of the Public Health Service Act
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology