Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Alzheimer’s Accountability Act of 2014”.
Alzheimer’s Accountability Act of 2014
A BILL
To amend the National Alzheimer’s Project Act to require the Director of the National Institutes of Health to prepare and submit, directly to the President for review and transmittal to Congress, an annual budget estimate (including an estimate of the number and type of personnel needs for the Institutes) for the initiatives of the National Institutes of Health pursuant to such Act.
Sec. 2 Findings
The Congress finds as follows:
Alzheimer's disease is the most expensive disease in the United States today. Its costs are set to increase like the costs of no other disease and will be carried in substantial measure through the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Through the unanimous, bipartisan passage of the National Alzheimer's Project Act (Public Law 111–375), the 111th Congress recognized the national imperative to act and instructed the Nation's scientists to develop a plan to change the trajectory of this disease.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have prepared and presented to Congress a national plan to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer's disease by 2025, including the underlying specification of milestones and timelines to achieve this goal.
Capital budgeting is a universally accepted best practice for the successful management of such a multiyear project, but such projections have not been prepared and provided to Congress to achieve the 2025 goal, preventing Congress from exercising truly effective oversight over a venture of profound importance to the Nation.
Sec. 3 Professional judgment budget for initiatives of NIH under National Alzheimer’s Project
Section 2 of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (Public Law 111–375) (42 U.S.C. 11225) is amended—
by redesignating subsection (h) as subsection (i); and
by inserting after subsection (g) the following:
“(h) Professional judgment budget—For each fiscal year through fiscal year 2025, the Director of the National Institutes of Health shall prepare and submit, directly to the President for review and transmittal to Congress, after reasonable opportunity for comment (but without change) by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Advisory Council, an annual budget estimate (including an estimate of the number and type of personnel needs for the Institutes) for the initiatives of the National Institutes of Health pursuant to this Act.”