[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

[[Page S3944]]

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

[[Page S3945]]

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.

                          ____________________