States Step Up
Fall / Winter 2025 | Policy 19
Parkinson’ s advocates came together on Capitol Hill to meet with legislators and encourage action.
States Step Up
This year, we took on an ambitious new goal to pursue state investments in Parkinson’ s research.
While on the Hill, we presented five current and former members of Congress with the first-ever Parkinson’ s Congressional Champion awards for their bipartisan leadership on the National Plan to End Parkinson’ s Act: Senators Shelley Moore Capito( R-WV) and Chris Murphy( D-CT), Representatives Gus Bilirakis( R-FL) and Paul Tonko( D-NY) and former Representative Jennifer Wexton( D-VA).
The Unified Parkinson’ s Advocacy Council— an MJFF-led coalition of 29 national and local organizations— also hosted a virtual Parkinson’ s National Day of Action, allowing thousands more advocates to join from home. Using simple digital forms, advocates emailed lawmakers to echo the Forum’ s inperson messages.
“ Banding together with a unified voice is a powerful way to break through to policymakers,” said Dan Feehan, chief policy and government affairs officer at MJFF.“ They need to hear from people who know firsthand how today’ s research builds on yesterday’ s and how it shapes tomorrow’ s progress.”
Texas
On Election Day, Texans voted in favor of the largest state investment in brain health research in U. S. history: $ 3 billion over 10 years. The ballot question, Proposition 14, is based on bipartisan legislation signed by Governor Greg Abbott( R) to create a new research institute. Passage followed a weekslong MJFF advocacy campaign. In 2026, we’ ll continue pursuing state-level funding strategies. Visit michaeljfox. org / policynews for more.
Kentucky
In March, Kentucky
Governor Andy Beshear( D) signed a bill to make the state 15th in the U. S. to create a Parkinson’ s registry, a database that helps researchers, clinicians and policymakers understand disease patterns and risk factors.
Ohio
Meanwhile, Ohio dedicated $ 1.2 million to get their registry up and running, and in California, MJFF rallied advocates to help save $ 3 million to keep theirs operating.