CPRIT is desperately trying to move forward. In December, $183 million in combined grant money was frozen. Now that the moratorium period is over, CPRIT representatives are hoping to use the grants for what the were intended: research. Senator Jane Nelson, who authored SB 149 (which outlines the restructuring and establishes protocols to make sure grants are handled as they were intended), stated, "We will not allow the actions of a few individuals to stand in the way of our effort to find treatments and cures for this terrible disease."
In the end, the people who are being affected by this are the researchers. Without these grants, projects were halted or cancelled. As of now, CPRIT cannot commit to any new grants, but Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and House Speaker Joe Straus decided that they should allow for the grants to 25 researchers that were promised before December.
One of the researchers, Hua Xu of the UT Health Science Center, said, "This is great news. I'll now be able to buy the equipment and hire the people I need to finally get to work on the research project" (Houston Chronicle).
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