DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Project Act of 2025

The DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Project Act of 2025 aims to provide permanent legal authority for the "Investigation of Co-occurring Conditions Across the Lifespan to Understand Down syndrome" (INCLUDE) Project at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). While the project was originally launched in 2018 through a congressional directive, this legislation would formally establish it in federal law. The bill is named in honor of DeOndra Dixon, a prominent Down syndrome advocate and sister of actor Jamie Foxx, who passed away in 2020.

If enacted, the bill would authorize approximately $90 million in annual funding for the next five years to support scientific studies on Down syndrome. The research would focus on three main areas: high-risk basic science studies regarding chromosome 21, the creation of a large study group of individuals with Down syndrome to track health across their lifespans, and the inclusion of people with Down syndrome in clinical trials for various diseases.

For everyday citizens, this bill proposes to accelerate medical breakthroughs for conditions that disproportionately affect the Down syndrome community, such as Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and congenital heart defects. Because these conditions also affect the general population, the research funded by this bill could potentially lead to improved treatments and health outcomes for all Americans. The bill also seeks to ensure that individuals with Down syndrome are no longer excluded from clinical trials for common medical treatments.