With the coronavirus pandemic still raging nationwide, at least one Texas lawmaker is advocating a leading role for the state in trying to head off such public health calamities in the future. State Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, has proposed creating a state agency – funded with up to $3 billion in taxpayer-backed bonds over 10 years – to provide grants for research into emerging infectious diseases and development of vaccines and other treatments for them. The new agency would be modeled after the state's cancer-fighting agency, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, commonly known as CPRIT. In 2007, Texas voters initially approved the issuance of $3 billion in bonds, in increments of up to $300 million a year, to fund CPRIT grants, and they renewed the effort in 2019 by authorizing an additional $3 billion.