Younger Onset Alzheimer’s Act

Younger Onset Alzheimer's Act

This bill makes individuals with younger-onset Alzheimer's disease (i.e., individuals who experienced onset of the disease before age 60) eligible for certain federal grants and programs that support older adults. Under current law, these grants and programs serve only individuals 60 and older.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1903 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1903

 To amend the Older Americans Act of 1965 to support individuals with 
                   younger onset Alzheimer's disease.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 27, 2019

Miss Rice of New York (for herself, Ms. Stefanik, Mr. King of New York, 
  Mr. Trone, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, and Ms. Waters) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
                                 Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Older Americans Act of 1965 to support individuals with 
                   younger onset Alzheimer's disease.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Younger Onset Alzheimer's Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Approximately 5,800,000 individuals in the United 
        States are living with Alzheimer's disease. This includes 
        approximately 200,000 individuals with younger onset 
        Alzheimer's disease.
            (2) Alzheimer's disease costs the United States more than 
        $290,000,000 per year, including $195,000,000 in costs to 
        Medicare and Medicaid.
            (3) The Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3001 et 
        seq.) includes services that focus on the needs of individuals 
        with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. The need to 
        specifically support individuals with younger onset Alzheimer's 
        disease is growing.

SEC. 3. YOUNGER ONSET ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.

    The Older Americans Act of 1965 is amended--
            (1) in section 102 (42 U.S.C. 3002), by adding at the end 
        the following:
            ``(55) The term `younger onset Alzheimer's disease', with 
        respect to an individual, means an individual with Alzheimer's 
        disease or a related disorder who has not attained 60 years of 
        age.'';
            (2) in section 302(3) (42 U.S.C. 3022(3)), by inserting ``, 
        including an individual with younger onset Alzheimer's 
        disease'' before the period;
            (3) in section 711(6) (42 U.S.C. 3058f(6)), by inserting 
        ``of any age'' after ``individual''; and
            (4) in section 721(b)(13) (42 U.S.C. 3058i(b)(13))--
                    (A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``; or'';
                    (B) in subparagraph (C), by striking the period and 
                inserting ``; or''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(D) individuals with Alzheimer's disease, 
                including those with younger onset Alzheimer's 
                disease.''.

SEC. 4. REPORT.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 300 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Assistant Secretary 
for Aging shall submit a report, to the committees of Congress 
described in subsection (b), that includes--
            (1) an overview of programmatic functions and performance 
        with respect to the amendments made by section 3, including 
        information about individuals with younger onset Alzheimer's 
        disease; and
            (2) an identification of the gaps in needs of individuals 
        with younger onset Alzheimer's disease.
    (b) Committees.--The committees of Congress described in this 
subsection are--
            (1) the Special Committee on Aging, the Committee on 
        Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and the Committee on 
        Finance, of the Senate; and
            (2) the Committee on Education and Labor, and the Committee 
        on Energy and Commerce, of the House of Representatives.

SEC. 5. DEFINITION OF YOUNGER ONSET ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.

    In this Act, the term ``younger onset Alzheimer's disease'' has the 
meaning given the term in section 102(55) of the Older Americans Act of 
1965 (42 U.S.C. 3002(55)), as added by section 3.
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