[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 19 (Monday, January 30, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S150-S151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Markey, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Warner, 
        Mr. Moran, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Murkowski, and Ms. Stabenow):
  S. 134. A bill to require an annual budget estimate for the 
initiatives of the National Institutes of Health pursuant to reports 
and recommendations made under the National Alzheimer's Project Act; to 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I rise today to introduce two bills 
aimed at continuing the important progress we are making to prevent and 
effectively treat Alzheimer's disease. I know how devastating this 
disease is to our families. My father, grandfather, and two uncles all 
died from Alzheimer's. I am committed to this effort both as a person 
whose beloved family members have suffered from this terrible disease, 
as well as a Senator concerned about the impact on our families and our 
healthcare system.
  When I founded the Congressional Alzheimer's Task Force in the Senate 
in 1999, there was virtually no focus on Alzheimer's in Washington. 
Twelve years ago, I coauthored the bipartisan National Alzheimer's 
Project Act with my colleague Senator Evan Bayh. Before we passed that 
legislation, there was no coordinated, strategic, national plan to 
focus our efforts to defeat Alzheimer's. NAPA fixed this by convening a 
panel of experts to create a coordinated strategic national plan to 
prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer's disease by 2025. The expert 
council updates the plan annually.
  While the 2025 goal has been elusive, we have made some progress in 
our efforts to find a treatment and a means of prevention. 
Nevertheless, Alzheimer's remains the fifth leading cause of death in 
the United States for people over 65. In addition to the human costs, 
caring for people living with Alzheimer's and other dementias is one of 
the costliest conditions to society, costing our Nation an astonishing 
$321 billion per year, including $206 billion in Medicare and Medicaid 
spending. If we continue along this trajectory, Alzheimer's is 
projected to claim the minds of 12.7 million seniors and nearly surpass 
$1 trillion in annual costs by 2050.
  It takes a tremendous toll on families too. In 2021, family 
caregivers provided 16 billion hours of unpaid care for loved ones with 
dementia, a contribution to society valued at more than $271 billion. 
That job is often 24/7 and often harms the health of the caregiver.
  The first bill I am introducing today with my colleagues Senators 
Warner, Capito, Markey, Moran, Menendez, Murkowski, and Stabenow is the 
NAPA Reauthorization Act. This bill would reauthorize the National 
Alzheimer's Project Act through 2035 and modernize the legislation to 
reflect strides we have made in understanding the disease, such as 
including a new focus on promoting healthy aging and reducing risk 
factors. The National Alzheimer's Project Act is set to expire in 2025. 
We need to reauthorize this critical legislation this Congress in order 
to ensure that our research investments remain coordinated and there 
are no disruptions as we maximize the impact of our investments.
  The second bill I am introducing with my colleagues Senators Markey, 
Capito, Warner, Moran, Menendez, Murkowski, and Stabenow is the 
Alzheimer's Accountability and Investment Act. This bill would continue 
through 2035 a requirement that the Director of the National Institutes 
of Health submit an annual budget to Congress estimating the funding 
necessary for NIH to fully implement NAPA's research goals. Only two 
other areas of biomedical research--cancer and HIV/AIDs--have been the 
subject of special budget development aimed at speeding discovery, and 
this ``bypass budget,'' as it is known, helps us to understand what 
additional funding is needed to find better treatments, a means of 
prevention, and ultimately a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
  Nearly half of baby boomers reaching age 85 will either be afflicted 
with Alzheimer's or caring for someone who has it. In many ways, 
Alzheimer's is the defining disease of this generation. We have made 
tremendous progress in recent years to boost funding for Alzheimer's 
research, most recently providing $3.74 billion--a $226 million 
increase--for NIH Alzheimer's research in the fiscal year 2023 
government funding bill. This investment holds

[[Page S151]]

great promise to ending this disease that has had such a devastating 
effect on millions of Americans and their families, but we must keep up 
this momentum. The two bills I introduce today will make sure that we 
do not take our foot off the pedal just as our investments in basic 
research are beginning to translate into potential new treatments. We 
must not let Alzheimer's define our children's generation as it has 
ours.
  I urge my colleagues to support the NAPA Reauthorization Act and 
Alzheimer's Accountability and Investment Act, and I thank the 
Alzheimer's Association and UsAgainstAlzheimer's for their support of 
this bipartisan legislation to help improve the lives of those affected 
by Alzheimer's throughout the country.

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