[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 35 (Tuesday, March 12, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S1681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, shortly we will go to our respective 
party caucuses. I understand that we are going to be joined by the 
President of the United States so he may share with us his insights and 
recommendations to deal with our economy so we can get it going.
  I know one of the issues that often comes up is the so-called 
entitlement reform. This is not the subject we are dealing with on the 
Appropriations Committee, but I would like to talk briefly about how we 
do impact the funding of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
  I would like to take a minute to talk about Medicaid. I want to talk 
about what Medicaid funds. Remember, Medicaid, by and large, is not in 
our Appropriations Committee. Medicaid is not in our Appropriations 
Committee, but the people who work for Medicaid are. And that is a 
different topic.
  I want everybody to understand Medicaid because it is a subject of 
great debate--and often a prickly debate. Eighty percent of the 
beneficiaries on Medicaid are children. Usually they are children of 
the working poor. It helps them to get the health care they need for 
the early detection of hearing problems. It may also be for a child 
with diabetes the family is concerned about.
  Although 80 percent of the beneficiaries are children, 80 percent of 
the money goes to seniors or people in nursing homes or assisted-living 
homes due to some form of neurological or cognitive impediment.
  Now, I don't want to sound like an MD, I don't even have a Ph.D, but 
from talking to my constituents, I do know 80 percent of those in long-
term care facilities are often there due to something related to 
dementia, such as Alzheimer's or a neurological impediment such as 
Parkinson's.
  Let's talk about NIH--and, remember, NIH does funding at the Bethesda 
campus in Maryland, and it also gives grants to brilliant researchers 
who are usually working in academic centers of excellence. Those 
centers could be Johns Hopkins or the University of Maryland or the 
University of Alabama or Kentucky. Those grants are competitive and 
peer-reviewed.
  Let me get to the point I am trying to make. By funding NIH and the 
National Institutes of Aging, we are on a breakthrough trajectory for 
finding the cognitive stretch-out for Alzheimer's.
  I have been on this for more than 20 years because my dear father, 
who ensured my education and looked out for me all the way through 
raising me as a young lady, died of the consequences of Alzheimer's. 
Alzheimer's is an equal opportunity catastrophe for the high and mighty 
and for the ordinary. Our own endearing President Ronald Reagan died of 
the consequences of Alzheimer's, as did my father, ordinary people, men 
and women who helped build America.
  So we need to make public investments in research to find the cure 
for Alzheimer's and, if not a cure, cognitive stretchout. What do I 
mean by cognitive stretchout? It means if we have early detection, new 
tools, new MRI technology, new ways of identifying it early on, what 
could we do to prevent memory loss? If we could do it in 3 to 5 years, 
we would reduce the cost of Medicaid spending. If we find a cure for 
Alzheimer's alone--and I am not even talking about Lou Gehrig's disease 
or Parkinson's--we could reduce the Medicaid budget by 50 percent--5-0.
  Nancy Reagan has spoken about it. Sandra Day O'Connor has spoken 
about it. Barb Mikulski is speaking about it. Most of all, America 
speaks, through the Alzheimer's Association and other groups. They 
march for the cure. They march for the stretchout. In that one area 
alone, we could have a dramatic impact on the lives of American 
families and on the future of Federal spending in Medicaid. It would 
meet a compelling human need. When a person has Alzheimer's, the whole 
family has Alzheimer's. I remember my dear mother, as my father became 
more and more lost in his memory, had to work a 36-hour day, as the 
family did as well, looking out for him. We were more than willing to 
do it.
  I was born in the 1930s. I was a school girl in the 1940s and 1950s. 
There wasn't much talk about educating girls. But not from my father. I 
have two wonderful sisters. My father wanted his girls to have an 
education. He felt that by giving us an education, he could give us 
something nobody would ever take away from us so we would be ready for 
whatever life sent us.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority time has expired.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. I ask unanimous consent for 3 additional minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. GRAHAM. I have no objection but----
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Oh, I am sorry. I didn't realize----
  Mr. GRAHAM. No objection, I just need about 7 or 8 minutes.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Let me just finish this, if I might. I need just 2 
minutes. I didn't realize the Senator from South Carolina was on the 
floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. I just want to make this point. My mother and father 
saw to my education. My father's business burned down when I was a 
senior in high school. My mother moved Heaven and Earth for me to go to 
college. When my father was stricken with the consequences of 
Alzheimer's, I was determined to move Heaven and Earth to help him. 
There was little help available.
  It is not just about my father. It is about mothers and fathers 
everywhere. Let's spend the money where the people want us to spend it. 
Let's meet a compelling human need now and do the research we need to 
do to help those families and help the Federal budget in the future.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.

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