Bond May Be Coming

No, not the secret agent. But there may be a $23 billion California bond that would fund a new state-created research foundation which would, in turn, funnel research grants to California universities including UC.

The idea behind the bond would be to make up for the pullback in federal support for research.

At this point, however, we are a long way from such a bond actually being issued. A bill in the legislature - Senate Bill 895 - would need to be enacted to propose the bond and the foundation to voters. Voters would have to approve the proposition.

One enticement for voters is that the bill requires that any drugs developed through research financed by the bond would be offered to Californians at a discount.*

State Senator Scott Wiener (Dem., San Francisco) seems to be a major player with regard to the bond proposal. He is also a candidate to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress when she retires at the end of her current term.

SB 895 can be found at https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB895/2025.

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*https://www.dailycal.org/news/state/legislation-for-science-research-funding-has-a-new-side-effect-lower-medicine-costs/article_a49c142c-e4c6-4930-a29c-cbbb57fdb72d.html.