[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 27 (Tuesday, February 10, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H1118-H1120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 MISSING ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE PATIENT ALERT PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION OF 
                                  2009

  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 908) to amend the Violent Crime Control and Law 
Enforcement Act of 1994 to reauthorize the Missing Alzheimer's Disease 
Patient Alert Program.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 908

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Missing Alzheimer's Disease 
     Patient Alert Program Reauthorization of 2009''.

     SEC. 2. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE MISSING ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE 
                   PATIENT ALERT PROGRAM.

       Section 240001 of the Violent Crime Control and Law 
     Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14181) is amended--
       (1) by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:
       ``(a) Grant.--Subject to the availability of appropriations 
     to carry out this section, the Attorney General, through the 
     Bureau of Justice Assistance and in consultation with the 
     Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall award 
     competitive grants to nonprofit organizations to assist such 
     organizations in paying for the costs of planning, designing, 
     establishing, and operating locally based, proactive programs 
     to protect and locate missing patients with Alzheimer's 
     disease and related dementias and other missing elderly 
     individuals.'';
       (2) in subsection (b)--
       (A) by inserting ``competitive'' after ``to receive a''; 
     and
       (B) by adding at the end the following new sentence: ``The 
     Attorney General shall periodically solicit applications for 
     grants under this section by publishing a request for 
     applications in the Federal Register and by posting such a 
     request on the website of the Department of Justice.'';
       (3) by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:
       ``(c) Preference.--In awarding grants under subsection (a), 
     the Attorney General shall give preference to national 
     nonprofit organizations that have a direct link to patients, 
     and families of patients, with Alzheimer's disease and 
     related dementias.''; and
       (4) by amending subsection (d) to read as follows:
       ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are 
     authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
     $5,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2010 through 2016.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Johnson) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) each will 
control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia.


                             General Leave

  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Georgia?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, we come to the floor with three elder justice bills, 
each with bipartisan support, and each addressing, in different ways, 
serious problems faced by our ever-expanding aging population. These 
problems range from dementia, and elders who ``go missing,'' to 
neglect, financial exploitation, and physical abuse. The three bills we 
are considering today address these critical problems.
  The bill before us now, H.R. 908, the Missing Alzheimer's Disease 
Patient Alert Program Reauthorization of 2009, addresses the serious 
problem of seniors who go missing each year as a result of dementia. It 
passed the House on suspension last September, but Congress adjourned 
before the Senate could consider it.
  The Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program was created in 
1994, and while Congress has continued to support and fund it, its 
formal authorization expired in 1998.

[[Page H1119]]

  This legislation, Mr. Speaker, sponsored by the gentlewoman from 
California, the Honorable Maxine Waters, will formally reauthorize the 
program.
  H.R. 908 authorizes the Attorney General to award competitive grants 
to nonprofit organizations for planning, establishing, and operating 
locally-based programs to protect and locate missing persons with 
Alzheimer's disease, dementia, or other problems.
  This is an excellent measure that responds to a critical problem, and 
I urge my colleagues to support it.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time that I may 
consume.
  I'm pleased to support H.R. 908, the Missing Alzheimer's Disease 
Patient Alert Program Reauthorization of 2009.
  Roughly 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease or 
dementia. Of these, 60 percent will become lost from their families or 
their caretakers. If they're not found within 24 hours, up to half of 
them become seriously ill or even die.
  H.R. 908 increases the chance of locating missing persons suffering 
from these diseases within the critical first 24 hours. Specifically, 
the bill provides grants to nonprofit organizations to help create and 
maintain programs to assist in locating missing patients and family 
members with Alzheimer's.
  We passed similar legislation in the last session of Congress, sent 
it to the Senate, and the Senate made a few changes and sent it back to 
us for our approval here in the House, but we did not have enough to 
consider the bill before Congress adjourned at the end of last year. 
H.R. 908 contains compromise language from the Senate version of the 
last session of Congress.
  These programs and organizations this legislation aims to help are 
often significantly useful to local law enforcement when a person 
suffering from these mind-altering diseases goes missing. Because these 
patients are often disoriented and confused, tips and information from 
family, friends, and doctors are very critical.
  H.R. 908 provides support to these organizations, indirect assistance 
to local law enforcement, protection to patients, and some peace of 
mind to the families and loved ones.
  I urge all my colleagues to support this bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as she may 
consume to the gentlelady from California, the great Maxine Waters.
  Ms. WATERS. I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me and for his 
very warm compliments. Thank you.
  Approximately 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, and the 
majority of them live at home under the care of family and friends. It 
is estimated that 60 percent of Alzheimer's patients are likely to 
wander away from their homes. Wanderers are vulnerable to dehydration, 
weather conditions, traffic hazards, and individuals who prey on those 
who are defenseless. Up to 50 percent of wandering Alzheimer's patients 
will become seriously injured or die if they are not found within 24 
hours of their departure from home.
  The Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program is a Department 
of Justice program that helps local communities and law enforcement 
officials quickly identify persons with Alzheimer's disease who wander 
or who are missing and reunite them with their families.
  Since its inception more than 10 years ago, this program has funded a 
national registry of more than 172,000 individuals at risk of wandering 
and has reunited over 12,000 wanderers with their families. It is a 
highly successful program whereby 88 percent of registrants who wander 
are found within the first 4 hours of being reported missing. A total 
of 1,288 wandering incidents were reported to the program in 2007. The 
program has a 98 percent success rate in recovering enrollees who are 
reported missing.
  There are also technology-based options to address wandering that 
should be considered for funding under the Missing Alzheimer's Patient 
Program. For example, personalized wristbands that emit a tracking 
signal can be used to locate wanderers. These wristbands, when combined 
with specially trained search-and-rescue teams, can reduce search times 
from hours and days to minutes.
  Congress originally authorized $900,000 in appropriations for the 
Missing Alzheimer's Patient Program for 3 years, that is, 1996 through 
1998, but never reauthorized or updated the program. Since then, the 
program has continued to receive funding on a year-to-year basis, but 
funding has remained virtually flat since its inception.
  H.R. 908 reauthorizes, updates and expands the Missing Alzheimer's 
Patient Program.
  The bill authorizes up to $5 million per year in appropriations for 
fiscal years 2010 through 2016, a modest increase over the $1 million 
appropriation in fiscal year 2008.
  The bill expands the program so as to allow the Department of Justice 
to award multiple competitive grants to nonprofit organizations. 
Preference will be given to national nonprofit organizations that have 
a direct link to patients, and families of patients, with Alzheimer's 
disease and related dementias.
  And finally, the bill specifies that the program will be operated 
under the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance. 
Currently, the program is operated under the Office of Juvenile 
Justice, which is obviously not the most appropriate agency for a 
program serving the mostly elderly.
  H.R. 908 has 21 bipartisan cosponsors, including the co-chairs of the 
Congressional Alzheimer's Task Force, Congressman Edward Markey and 
Congressman Christopher Smith. The bill has been endorsed by more than 
85 national, State, and local organizations, including the Alzheimer's 
Association and the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.
  The Missing Alzheimer's Patient Program is a critical resource for 
first responders. It saves local law enforcement officials valuable 
time and allows them to focus on other national and local security 
concerns. It is critical that we reauthorize and expand this small, but 
very effective, program.
  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 908.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlelady 
from Oklahoma (Ms. Fallin).
  Ms. FALLIN. Mr. Speaker, we have an opportunity today to take a very 
important step in protecting some of our most vulnerable elderly 
citizens who suffer from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of 
dementia.
  One American in 10 over the age of 65 suffers from Alzheimer's 
disease. For those over 85, it is one in two. Alzheimer's patients now 
number as many as 4.5 million in the United States, and as we baby 
boomers continue to age, those numbers will only continue to grow.
  One of the great dangers for Alzheimer's patients is the tendency to 
become disoriented and to wander away from home. In fact, some 60 
percent of those with Alzheimer's will do so at some point, and half of 
them will be seriously injured or even possibly die.
  We've all heard stories in our local news networks, in our local 
communities: an elderly person goes missing, perhaps just going on a 
simple trip to the grocery store. Local search efforts are launched, 
and there are some great programs around our Nation to have those 
search efforts. The family will post notices somewhere and pleas for 
help for that missing person goes out. And the media certainly can help 
sound the alarm.
  But sometimes these stories don't end happily and sometimes they do. 
The person that has wandered beyond the reach of local search efforts 
can be in serious trouble. If the weather is bad, or if that person 
should run across some dangerous individual, and they cross that 
Alzheimer's patient's path, it can end in tragedy.
  In the fall of 2007, a member of my church, a lady named Betty 
Ledgerwood, left home one day and got into her car, had gas in her car, 
and ended up driving, not knowing where she was, who she was, and 
actually was missing for almost a full day. And her family even called 
me here, frantically trying to get some help with the media to find 
her. Her family did do all they could to sound the alarm.
  Local officials searched for her, but she was eventually found, and 
she had died from exposure to the weather, just right outside her car, 
not in my home State of Oklahoma, but actually clear in Missouri. And 
she didn't know where

[[Page H1120]]

she was, and unfortunately, her family didn't know where she was.
  It's a story that we hear all too often, that a loved one is confused 
with dementia or Alzheimer's can be missing.
  And that's why the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program 
today that we're talking about will help protect our moist vulnerable 
at-risk seniors.

                              {time}  1830

  This is a program that has potential, saving and preserving the lives 
of some of our most vulnerable and threatened elderly citizens. It 
enlists the capacities of many different agencies, private-public 
sector. It does not seek to create new agencies. It simply focuses 
attention and effort on a growing problem.
  So, Mr. Speaker, today, I'd like to urge the passage of this measure 
so we can bring the next Betty Ledgerwood home to her family safely. 
Thank you so much.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen).
  Mr. COHEN. I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding 
the time, and the gentlelady, Ms. Waters from California, for bringing 
this important legislation.
  My father had Alzheimer's and my mother has some form of dementia 
now. My father passed away at age 80, and there was a day when he 
disappeared from the nursing home and they couldn't find him. It took a 
couple of hours. They did find him walking in the neighborhood. He had 
no idea where he was going. I was amazed that he was not hurt or hit by 
a car or anything. He obviously had no idea where he was going.
  This type of program is so prescient because there are so many people 
who have been talked about who are either suffering from this illness 
or will be suffering from this illness, and the needs of the police 
departments to identify them and to have an opportunity to maintain 
contact and save them before something bad happens to them.
  There was a lady in Memphis named Elizabeth Ferguson. She was 86 
years old. In May 2008 she went missing. She suffered from dementia. 
She drove away from her Memphis home after heading to a doctor's 
appointment. Her daughter went around and posted signs and tried to 
find her mother. Seven months later, she was found in a car, 24 miles 
away from her house. She had died in the elements. Her remains were 
near the car. She wandered out in some vacant fields.
  So this bill is very important to people's lives. I commend 
Congresswoman Waters for bringing it. It's the type of activity that 
sometimes people don't recognize that Congress does to help people in 
their everyday lives. I thank you for bringing this proposal and for 
the time offered me.
  Mr. POE of Texas. I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I will, Mr. Speaker, say that I can't think 
of any legislation that is more timely than this, and more needed, to 
protect our elderly from all sorts of harm. These are people who have 
worked productively, given their lives, and now have fallen victim to a 
disease that we are still searching for cures for. And they need 
special protection, especially as our aged population increases.
  And so I look forward to this measure passing, and I want to thank 
Congresswoman Waters for her thoughtfulness in producing this 
legislation.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 908.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________