[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 99 (Thursday, June 14, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3943-S3945]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STEPHEN MICHAEL GLEASON CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL ACT
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I join Senator Cassidy and many of our
colleagues in recognizing one of Washington State's favorite sons--
Spokane's own Steve Gleason.
I have to say, as a fellow Cougar, sponsoring this legislation to
recognize Steve's legacy of excellence--from
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Martin Stadium in Pullman, to the NFL, to his avid work as an advocate
in the health world--was a no-brainer for me. But our bill to award
Steve the Congressional Gold Medal--the highest honor Congress can
bestow on an American citizen--has been embraced and cosponsored by
more than 70 Members of this Chamber from both sides of the aisle is a
testament not just to the incredible respect Steve has garnered across
our Nation as a standout athlete but to his inspiring leadership and
tireless advocacy that has made an indelible impact on our Nation and
our culture.
Of course, Steve's skills and talents on the football field are
legendary. Many will not soon forget that iconic blocked punt at the
Superdome in 2006--a play that helped lift up the spirits of an entire
community that was still struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina. Yet it has been Steve's work off the gridiron that has had
perhaps the most lasting impact on our country and on our future.
Since being diagnosed with ALS in 2011, Steve has become a passionate
warrior for ALS survivors and their families. Through his Gleason
Initiative Foundation, Steve actively supports critical research
efforts to combat ALS and helps to raise much needed public awareness
about the condition while also providing ALS patients with leading-edge
technology, equipment, and services to help them not only live with
their ALS diagnoses but to thrive.
In motivating others by his lived example, Steve, together with his
wife, his mother, and everyone at Team Gleason, has inspired hope in
individuals throughout Washington State and across the globe, and he
has undoubtedly changed countless lives for the better.
Few people make Washington State as proud as Steve Gleason, and I am
delighted to sponsor this legislation to award him the Congressional
Gold Medal. I urge our colleagues to support our efforts.
I thank my colleague Senator Cassidy for his leadership on this and
for working with me on an important piece of legislation that will
recognize an incredible human being.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I am here to speak about honoring Steve
Gleason with the Congressional Gold Medal.
Steve is well known in Louisiana and throughout the gulf coast and to
football fans across the country. He is a Washington State native, as
Senator Murray recently spoke, but he lives in New Orleans with his
wife Michel and son Rivers.
Steve played in the NFL for 8 seasons, mostly with the New Orleans
Saints. He is famous as a New Orleans Saint. On September 25, 2006, on
``Monday Night Football,'' the first game back in the Superdome when it
reopened after Hurricane Katrina, the Saints were playing their
archrival and division opponent, the hated Atlanta Falcons. The
Presiding Officer probably likes the Falcons.
The Falcons were punting from deep in their own territory. Steve
broke through the line and blocked the punt. Fellow Saint Curtis
Deloatch recovered the ball for a touchdown.
The stadium erupted. There were 70,000 fans in the Superdome stadium.
I was watching on TV. Al Michaels was blown away. It was an incredible
moment, not just for the football team but because it was the first
game in the Superdome, having just been reopened after Hurricane
Katrina, which had almost destroyed the city and, indeed, the whole
gulf coast, and it had much more meaning.
The emotion was for the play but also for what the play symbolized
for the game. Steve Gleason's blocked punt symbolized, as Steve would
say, ``no white flags.'' New Orleans and the gulf coast were back, and
despite Katrina's devastation, we would not surrender.
Now Steve demonstrates that ``no white flags'' resolve in another
arena. In 2011, Steve was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
also called Lou Gehrig's disease. He cannot speak and, except for
moving his eyes and blinking, he cannot move. But Steve can still
think, and because he can think and because of what he has done with
his thoughts is why he inspires and why we wish to honor him with a
Congressional Gold Medal.
He has a difficult challenge, but his accomplishments addressing that
challenge are what is noteworthy. After his diagnosis, Steve and his
wife began a mission to show that patients with diseases such as ALS
cannot only live, but they can thrive.
Steve declared that there would be ``no white flags,'' and that
became the mantra of something he began: the Gleason Initiative
Foundation. This foundation helps to provide individuals who have
neuromuscular disease or other injuries with cutting-edge technology,
equipment, and services. It raises global awareness about ALS to find
solutions and an end to the disease. It has also helped hundreds of
people with ALS experience life adventures they never thought possible.
Steve's story and mission have been chronicled by national and local
media outlets as well as a 2016 documentary, ``Gleason,'' which shows
what his life has been like since 2011.
When first meeting Steve, you would expect to feel pity. Yet, as you
walk in and meet him and see what he has done, as he speaks to you
through the machines he has helped to develop, you feel inspired. His
perseverance and commitment to giving hope to others is amazing.
I will give a partial list of what he and his wife have done since
his diagnosis. He founded the Gleason Initiative Foundation, of which I
just spoke. Steve, in partnership with Microsoft,--and I have a poster
here showing Steve and the Microsoft team--developed eye-tracking
technology that allows him to communicate and to move.
So as Steve looks up--again, he can only move his eyes and blink his
eyes--he can look at this keyboard and if it says, ``Turn my wheelchair
to the right,'' he looks there and blinks his eyes and his wheelchair
will turn to the right.
He has prerecorded statements. So if you walk in, he will blink at a
prerecorded statement that says: ``Hello. My name is Steve Gleason. How
are you?''
If he wishes to say something spontaneously, he can blink, blink,
blink, and it will say: ``Well, let's discuss this further.''
It is not all just ``let's talk business.'' He has his iTunes on
there. He can blink and get his favorite song. There is a multiplicity
of functions that allow the man to live--and not just him, because
among other accomplishments Steve Gleason and his wife Michel have
achieved, he led efforts to enact legislation, the Steve Gleason
Enduring Voices Act, to make these devices available to those suffering
from neurodegenerative diseases. It was a bill that I was privileged to
introduce and that has passed into law.
Steve continues to challenge the heads of industry and medicine to
improve the technology and the science to find a cure for ALS. He
opened the Team Gleason House for Innovative Living, where up to 18
people can live as productively and as independently as possible.
A few years ago, Steve hosted a global summit, bringing together
researchers, patients, caregivers, and others in the ALS community. The
summit resulted in the single largest coordinated and collaborative ALS
research project in the world, called Answer ALS. It has nearly 2 dozen
research institutions, 1,000 patients, and 20 trillion data points that
will help to find unknown pathways to lead to new treatments or to
cures.
In recognition of Steve's work, in April I introduced legislation
with Senators Murray, Kennedy, and Cantwell to honor Steve Gleason with
the Congressional Gold Medal. Steve's story is so compelling that in
less than 2 months, over 70 of our colleagues joined to affirm Steve's
inspiring story and impact upon his fellow Americans to make him worthy
of the highest honor Congress can bestow.
Steve should be awarded this medal. He is an example of what makes
our country great. He has given hope to many. He gives hope to all
those who have ever received a devastating diagnosis, and his message
is simple: Your life still has meaning. Your best years can still be
ahead of you.
Steve is a role model, not just for those in the disability community
but for all Americans. I suspect that what
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he may appreciate most about this honor is the attention it brings to
find solutions and cures for those with diseases such as ALS.
I would like to thank my colleagues, their staff, and everyone else
who has helped build support for this legislation including Microsoft,
the ALS Association, the NFL, and the New Orleans Saints.
I wish to encourage my colleagues in the House to cosponsor this
legislation and to pass it as soon as possible.
I would like to thank Steve for continuing to be an example of
commitment, perseverance, and inspiration.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration of
S. 2652 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will report the bill by title.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 2652) to award a Congressional Gold Medal to
Stephen Michael Gleason.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be
considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be
considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill (S. 2652) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading,
was read the third time, and passed, as follows:
S. 2652
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 ``Stephen Michael Gleason
Congressional Gold Medal Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Stephen ``Steve'' Gleason was born March 19, 1977, in
Spokane, Washington to Mike and Gail Gleason.
(2) Steve attended Gonzaga Preparatory School for high
school where he excelled as both a football and baseball
player.
(3) In 1995, Steve enrolled at Washington State University
where he was a 2-sport athlete for the baseball and football
teams and helped the Cougars football team advance to the
1997 Rose Bowl.
(4) In 2000, Steve signed a professional football contract
with the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League
as an undrafted free agent but later joined the New Orleans
Saints in November of that same season.
(5) Steve would go on to play 7 more seasons as a member of
the New Orleans Saints.
(6) Steve will always be remembered for his blocked punt on
September 25, 2006, against the Atlanta Falcons, the night
the Louisiana Superdome reopened for the first time after
Hurricane Katrina in a game the Saints would win 23 to 3.
(7) In January, 2011 Steve was diagnosed with amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis or ALS, considered a terminal neuro-
muscular disease.
(8) Following his diagnosis, Steve, with the loving support
of his wife, Michel, began a mission to show that patients
can not only live but thrive after a diagnosis of ALS and
established The Gleason Initiative Foundation also known
simply as ``Team Gleason''.
(9) At the time of his diagnosis, however, Steve said there
will be ``No White Flags'', which has become the mantra of
Team Gleason.
(10) The Gleason Initiative Foundation helps provide
individuals with neuromuscular diseases or injuries with
leading edge technology, equipment and services, raises
global awareness about ALS to find solutions and an end to
the disease, and has helped hundreds of people with ALS
experience life adventures they never thought possible after
their diagnosis.
(11) Steve's story and mission have been told by the NFL
Network, ESPN, HBO, ABC, CBS, CNN, and many local media
outlets, as well as in a 2016 documentary titled ``Gleason'',
which was heralded at the Sundance Film Festival and
premiered across the country with Variety calling the
production ``an emotional powerhouse''. The documentary won
several awards, including the 2016 Washington, D.C. Area Film
Critics Association Award for Best Documentary.
(12) Steve was named one of two Sports Illustrated's
Inspirations of the Year in 2014, has been a keynote speaker
for Microsoft and at two United Nations sponsored Social
Innovation Summits, and received the 2015 George S. Halas
Courage Award, given to a NFL player, coach or staff member
who overcomes the most adversity to succeed.
(13) Steve helped advocate for the Steve Gleason Act of
2015 (Public Law 114-40; 129 Stat. 441), and the Steve
Gleason Enduring Voices Act of 2017, H.R. 2465, 115th
Congress (2017), which permanently ensures people living with
diseases such ALS have access to speech generating devices
regardless of their setting, whether at home or a healthcare
institution.
(14) In 2014, Steve and Team Gleason hosted a global summit
to bring together researchers, patients, caregivers, and all
ALS stakeholders to create a plan to ultimately end ALS. That
summit resulted in the single largest coordinated and
collaborative ALS research project in the world, Answer ALS,
which brings together nearly two dozen research institutions,
1,000 patients and 20,000,000,000,000 data points that are
important to the project and that will define the unknown
pathways that will lead to treatments or finally a cure.
(15) In 2015, Steve and Microsoft worked together to create
a method for people who are completely paralyzed to navigate
their power wheelchairs with their eyes. Today, Steve,
Microsoft and all wheelchair manufacturers are working
collaboratively to make it widely available to all who need
this technology. In addition, Microsoft has also made eye
tracking technology part of all Windows 10 products across
the globe.
(16) In 2011, 10 months after his diagnosis, Steve and
Michel made their most significant accomplishment, becoming
parents to their son Rivers.
(17) Steve and Michel Gleason continue to fight to find a
solution for ALS so they can share many years together and as
parents to Rivers.
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Award Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of
Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate
shall make appropriate arrangements for the award, on behalf
of the Congress, of a single gold medal of appropriate design
to Stephen Michael Gleason.
(b) Design and Striking.--For the purposes of the award
referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury
(hereafter in this Act referred to as the ``Secretary'')
shall strike the gold medal with suitable emblems, devices,
and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the
Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the
gold medal struck under section 3, at a price sufficient to
cover the costs of the medals, including labor, materials,
dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses.
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.
Medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for
purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
Mr. CASSIDY. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The Senator from Ohio.
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