[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 30, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5567-S5568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Alzheimer's Disease

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to support passage of two 
bipartisan bills aimed at continuing the significant progress we are 
making in treating and, one day, preventing and curing Alzheimer's 
disease.
  These bills--S. 133, the National Alzheimer Project Act, or NAPA, as 
it is referred to, Reauthorization Act, and S. 134, the Alzheimer 
Accountability and Investment Act would help coordinate the tools of 
the Federal Government toward reaching these important goals.
  And I would note, on the floor is the cochair of the Alzheimer's task 
force in the Senate, Senator Markey, along with the other two 
cosponsors we are fortunate to have, Senators Warner and Capito.
  When I first joined the Senate in 1997, there really wasn't much of a 
focus on Alzheimer's in Washington. It was often called senility and 
was thought of not as a disease but just as part of growing old.
  To increase public awareness of Alzheimer's disease, to advance 
research, and to bring the disease to the forefront of the 
Congressional agenda, I founded the Congressional Task Force on 
Alzheimer's in 1999 here in the Senate.
  A true milestone in focusing our efforts was the passage of the 
Bipartisan National Alzheimer's Project Act that I coauthored with 
then-Senator Evan Bayh in 2011.
  Before we passed that legislation, which became known as NAPA, there 
was no coordinated strategic plan to focus our efforts to defeat this 
devastating disease and ensure that our resources were maximized and 
leveraged.

[[Page S5568]]

  NAPA tackled this problem by convening a panel of experts to create a 
coordinated strategic plan to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer's 
disease by the year 2025, an ambitious goal, to be sure.
  The expert council updates its plan annually. While the 2025 goal 
regrettably will not be met, it was still important to set an ambitious 
objective in order to spur research and to instill hope.
  And, indeed, since then, researchers have made great strides in 
understanding this complex disease. To put our progress in context, 20 
years ago we knew of only four genes that were associated with 
Alzheimer's disease. Now, researchers have identified more than 70 
associated genetic areas, opening multiple new avenues for potential 
prevention and treatment.
  There is another point that helps put this into perspective. In the 
early 2000s, the only sure way to know whether a person had Alzheimer's 
was through an autopsy.
  Since then, the National Institutes of Health Research has led to the 
development of imaging techniques, biomarker tests, and data-driven 
approaches to enable more precise and earlier diagnoses.
  And, most recently, decades of NIH research have paved the way for 
disease-modifying therapies targeting amyloid plaques' role in certain 
dementias.
  After directing this decade of progress, the National Alzheimer's 
Project Act law is scheduled to expire soon. We must reauthorize the 
law to ensure that research investments remain coordinated to maximize 
their impact.
  Toward that end, I introduced the NAPA Reauthorization Act with 
Senator Warner, which would extend NAPA through 2035 and modernize the 
legislation to reflect the strides that have been made to better 
understand the disease, such as including a new focus on promoting 
healthy aging, reducing risk factors, and supporting family caregivers.
  The NAPA Reauthorization Act will allow the important work of the 
expert panel to continue through 2035. Among its provisions, the bill 
would reauthorize and expand the Advisory Council that assists annually 
in the development and evaluation of the National Plan. It will also 
ensure that underserved populations, including individuals with Down 
syndrome who are at greatly increased risk for Alzheimer's as they age, 
are included in this important work.
  I have also introduced the Alzheimer's Accountability and Investment 
Act with my colleague from Massachusetts who has been such a leader in 
this area. It would continue through the year 2035 a requirement that 
the NIH submit an annual budget directly to Congress, estimating the 
funding necessary 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. This ``bypass budget'' helps us understand what additional 
funding is required to find better treatments, a means of prevention, 
and ultimately a cure.
  As cochair along with Senators Warner, Capito, and Markey of the 
Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's, I am committed to this effort 
both on a personal level as well as professionally as a Senator 
concerned about the impact on our families and our healthcare budgets.
  On a personal level, I know just how devastating this disease is. I 
just recently lost my brother-in-law to the disease. My father, 
grandfather, and two of my uncles also succumbed to Alzheimer's. It is 
truly a heartbreaking disease. It is heartbreaking when you talk to a 
loved one and receive only a confused look in reply.
  Alzheimer's disease is also one of the greatest health challenges of 
our time. It is currently ranked as the seventh leading cause of death 
in the United States, and nearly 7 million Americans are living with 
the disease. It is also one of the most expensive diseases for society, 
costing an estimated $360 billion last year alone.
  Reauthorization of NAPA and the Alzheimer's Accountability and 
Investment Act would ensure our country is maintaining momentum in our 
fight against Alzheimer's, just as our investments in research are 
beginning to translate into promising new treatments.
  Both laws have no mandatory spending effects, according to the 
Congressional Budget Office. Both bills are cosponsored by nearly half 
the Members of this Senate. Both bills have wide-ranging support from 
national stakeholders, including the Alzheimer's Association, Us 
Against Alzheimer's, the National Down Syndrome Society, and the 
National Down Syndrome Congress. And both bills were reported out of 
the Senate HELP Committee with broad bipartisan support last summer.
  In order to change the trajectory of this disease that otherwise is 
projected to claim the minds of 13.8 million seniors and nearly surpass 
$1 trillion in annual costs by 2050, Congress has a responsibility to 
pursue effective public policy.
  Ultimately, I think we are going to discover that this is a 
multifactorial disease, and that is why all of the research that is 
going on is so critical to finding effective treatments, a means of 
prevention, and, one day, a cure. And that is the purpose of these two 
bills.

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