Congress has renewed the Special Diabetes Program for Indians for another two years.

The program expires in September 2011. Section 112 of H.R.4994, the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010, which passed the Senate on Wednesday and the House on Thursday, extends it until 2013.

"Reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program is critically important in our nation’s growing effort to combat this devastating disease,” Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said in a press release. “The Special Diabetes Program is a smart federal investment - leading to important discoveries and clinical advances as well as providing crucial and often life-saving programs to Native Americans.”

The program provides $150 million a year in grants to tribes and Indian organizations.

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