To require the Secretary of Defense to establish a National Trauma Institute.

Summary: National Trauma Institute Act - Directs the Secretary of Defense to establish a National Trauma Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

States that the Institute shall: (1) develop medical technologies to improve injury prevention and diagnosis, survival, and quality of life for victims of trauma and burn injury; and (2) implement a multidisciplinary, multi-center collaborative research effort, including coordination of trauma research carried out at Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas, University Hospital, the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas, and Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Trauma Institute Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Wars have always generated technological and medical 
        advances.
            (2) Trauma is the number one killer of the Nation's 
        fighting soldiers, having caused over 20,000 injuries and over 
        3500 deaths in the Global War on Terror.
            (3) In the United States, civilian trauma is the leading 
        cause of death from ages 1 to 44 and is responsible for over 
        160,000 deaths annually.
            (4) Each year trauma accounts for 37 million emergency 
        department visits and 2.6 million hospital admissions.
            (5) Trauma is a disease affecting all ages of people, and 
        the impact of life years lost is 4 times greater than heart 
        disease or cancer.
            (6) Injuries in a single year will ultimately cost the 
        United States $406 billion, with $326 billion in lost 
        productivity and $80.2 billion in medical costs (representing 
        approximately 6 percent of total annual health expenditures).
            (7) By the year 2020, injury will equal or surpass 
        communicable diseases as the number one world-wide cause of 
        disability-adjusted life years lost.
            (8) While the mechanisms of injury are different, military 
        and civilian trauma casualties are treated similarly, thus 
        improvements gained by focused, relevant trauma research in 
        each group will benefit both.
            (9) Despite these alarming facts, within the context of 
        years of potential life lost, the National Institutes of Health 
        support ratio for HIV is $3.51, for cancer is $1.65, and for 
        trauma is $0.10 cents.
            (10) Despite a mandate to promote research directed toward 
        specific health issues relevant to the military forces, the 
        Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program within the 
        Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs has spent 
        less than a third of funding on trauma research.
            (11) Among more than two dozen research institutes at the 
        National Institutes of Health, none is devoted to trauma. The 
        National Trauma Institute (NTI) in San Antonio, Texas, can fill 
        the gap by setting a comprehensive research agenda to award 
        grants to the best researchers in the country.
            (12) By 2011, two NTI partners, Brooke Army Medical Center 
        and Wilford Hall Medical Center will combine through the base 
        realignment and closure process to become the largest military 
        trauma research center in the world.
            (13) NTI, as a consortium of civilian and Department of 
        Defense centers, is the natural starting point to translate 
        battlefield innovations to civilians at home.
            (14) NTI, as a centralized institute to coordinate a 
        national trauma research agenda, will substantially reduce the 
        number of injuries and deaths to the Nation's soldiers on the 
        battlefield and civilians at home.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT.

    (a) Establishment.--The Secretary of Defense shall establish a 
National Trauma Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of the Institute shall be--
            (1) to develop and implement revolutionary medical 
        technologies to improve injury prevention and diagnosis, 
        survival, and quality of life for victims of trauma and burn 
        injury; and
            (2) to implement a multidisciplinary, multi-center 
        collaborative research effort, including coordination of trauma 
        research carried out at--
                    (A) Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio, 
                Texas;
                    (B) University Hospital, the University of Texas 
                Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas; and
                    (C) Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas.
    (c) Trauma Research.--The activities of the Institute shall include 
research on the following:
            (1) Injury prevention and education.
            (2) More effective triage.
            (3) Resuscitation.
            (4) Early, effective treatment of compressible and non-
        compressible bleeding.
            (5) Improved burn care.
            (6) Head injury.
            (7) Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
            (8) Orthopedics.
            (9) Improved intensive care unit treatment and management.
            (10) Enhanced rehabilitation and recovery.
            (11) Outcomes.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Defense 
$100,000,000 for fiscal year 2009 for purposes of carrying out the 
activities of the National Trauma Institute as described in this Act. 
Such funds shall not be available for general administrative expenses 
of the Secretary of Defense.