Wisconsin Legislative Council
AMENDMENT MEMO
One Ea st Ma in Stre e t, Suite 401 • Ma dison, W I 53703 • (608) 266-1304 • le g.council@le gis.wisconsin.gov • http://www.le gis.wisconsin.gov/lc
Memo published: April 3, 2023 Contact: Emily Hicks, Staff Attorney
2023 Assembly Bill 19 Assembly Amendment 1
2023 ASSEMBLY BILL 19
Assembly Bill 19 requires the Department of Health Services (DHS) to establish a program to award
grants to persons in Wisconsin for research into spinal cord injuries. The grants must support research
into new and innovative treatments and rehabilitative efforts for the functional improvement of people
with spinal cord injuries. Research topics may include pharmaceutical, medical device, brain stimulus,
and rehabilitative approaches and techniques. The bill also allows DHS to hold symposia every two
years for grant recipients to present their research findings, and requires grant recipients to agree to
present their research findings at any such symposia.
The bill also requires DHS to appoint a Spinal Cord Injury Council with specified membership,
including persons representing various research facilities, a person with a spinal cord injury, a family
member of a person with a spinal cord injury, a veteran with a spinal cord injury, a physician
specializing in the treatment of spinal cord injuries, a neurosurgery researcher and a researcher
employed by the federal Veterans Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The council is required to develop criteria for DHS to evaluate and award grants, review and make
recommendations on grant applications, and perform other duties specified by DHS. Council members
must also make written disclosures of financial interests in organizations that the council recommends
for grants.
Lastly, the bill provides that DHS may annually expend no more than eight percent of the amount
awarded in grants for administrative or indirect costs and expenses.
ASSEMBLY AMENDMENT 1
The amendment deletes the requirement that DHS may annually expend no more than eight percent of
the amount awarded in grants for administrative or indirect costs and expenses and instead replaces it
with material that provides that a grant recipient may annually expend no more than eight percent of
the grant amount received on administrative or indirect costs and expenses.
Additionally, the amendment changes the symposia provision of the bill to require DHS to hold a
symposia no more than once every two years, if the Spinal Cord Injury Council approves it to do so.
BILL HISTORY
Representative Tittl offered Assembly Amendment 1 on March 22, 2023. On March 30, 2023, the
Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities recommended adoption of the amendment on a vote
of Ayes, 12; Noes, 0, and passage of the bill, as amended, on a vote of Ayes, 13; Noes, 0.
For a full history of the bill, visit the Legislature’s bill history page.
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