Senator Karin Housley (R-Stillwater) introduced a bill for a budget increase for the Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Research Grant (SCI and TBI) Program. This bill received its first hearing yesterday in the Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee. In an effort to expand the program’s reach, this legislation seeks to increase the budget for this grant program from $3 million to $5 million per year.

In 2017, with funding from private donors, Mayo Clinic became the first medical center in the world to validate paralysis recovery results using a spinal neuromodulation treatment, and the first patient in that clinical trial walked independently for more than 100 yards. Funding for this research came in two parts: half from the state’s SCI and TBI research grant program, and the other half came from private donors. 

“We need to get this treatment to those living with paralysis and increasing the budget of this grant program is a step in the right direction,” said Senator Housley. “It’s absolutely heartbreaking that the Governor wants to completely cut paralysis recovery from his budget. The Mayo Clinic has worked on this treatment since 2017, and it is unconscionable that we have a Minnesota-based businesses making such great gains in paralysis recovery, yet our Governor would leave Minnesotans with paralysis to suffer because he does not see the use in this funding. We need to expand the reach of this program, not eliminate its funding completely.”

In January, Governor Walz released his budget, which included a recommendation for eliminating the funding for this program. His reasoning being that the program is misaligned with the Office of Higher Education’s mission and suggested they do not have the relevant expertise to oversee a medical research grant program. To address this concern, this bill also proposes moving the research grant program from Office of Higher Education to the Department of Human Services.

“This is a life-changing program, and we simply can’t afford to get rid of it,” continued Senator Housley. “Governor Walz has previously claimed that ‘a budget is not only a fiscal document—it’s a moral document. There is nothing ‘moral’ about defunding SCI and TBI research.”

This bill successfully passed through the Higher Education Finance and Policy committee and now moves on the Human Services Reform committee.