Brain Injury Association of America Opposes Elimination of Brain Injury Programs at CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

Fairfax, Va. – Last week, the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies advanced a proposed budget bill for Fiscal Year 2025 that would eliminate pivotal brain injury programs under the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (Injury Center).

The proposed budget, which could move to a full House vote as early as Wednesday, would completely defund CDC’s Injury Center, eliminating the few programs that are providing accurate, national-level data about brain injury and critical educational resources about brain injury. The Brain Injury Association of America opposes the elimination of the brain injury programs at the CDC’s Injury Center.

“This proposed budget is an enormous step backwards,” said Rick Willis, president and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America. “Brain injury is a chronic health condition that requires long term care and support. Eliminating these critical programs housed within the CDC will have a devastating effect on the more than five million Americans living with a permanent, brain injury-related disability.”

“Eliminating the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control will send a message to our community that brain injury prevention, and the more than five million Americans living with brain injury, are not a priority for the House of Representatives,” said Page Melton Ivie, BIAA’s Chairperson of the Board. “Every nine seconds someone sustains a brain injury, in any number of ways: a stroke, a fall, sports concussion, car accident, military exercise or training, a virus or lack of oxygen. Brain injuries can touch every family and we can’t afford to back off resources for what is a national health crisis.”

Brain injury programs that are housed within the CDC’s Injury Center that would be eliminated under this proposed budget include:

• HEADS UP: The go-to resource for concussion prevention and response education for the public as well as training courses for medical professionals, employers, schools, and sports professionals
• National Concussion Surveillance System: Current data sources may capture only 1 out of every 9 concussions in the United States. The CDC piloted this program in 2019 and has been developing a state-of-the-art data collection effort designed to learn how many Americans (children and adults) get a concussion each year and the leading causes of this injury. NCSS data identified that 17 times more adults and 30 times more children in the U.S. have had a brain injury than what was previously captured by emergency room data alone.
• Core State Injury Prevention Program: A program that supports health department infrastructure, data, and partnerships to identify and respond to existing and emerging injury threats with data-driven public health actions. Under this program, grant recipients have made great strides in identifying efforts to prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences, traumatic brain injury, and transportation-related injury.

ACTION ALERT

The Brain Injury Association of America is strongly opposed to this proposed budget bill. We are urging all of our advocates to email and call their congressional representatives and let them know that you oppose this proposed budget bill. You can click the link below to send a pre-written message to your representative in Congress.

Take action

You can also find contact information for your congressional representative here.