[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2024-2028]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      FUNDING ALZHEIMER'S RESEARCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, ``Alzheimer's,'' a word that brings fear 
and trauma to families all across America and, indeed, around the 
world. Tonight we are going to spend our time talking about this 
dreaded disease for which there is no known cure and which always ends 
in death.
  I would like now to turn to my colleague, this being a bipartisan 
Special Order hour, unusual to be sure, but absolutely appropriate 
given the fact that this illness affects virtually every American 
family. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte).
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Garamendi) for organizing this Special Order for 1 hour to talk 
about the blight that we face here in America, and I am sure in many 
other countries around the world, known as Alzheimer's. I note the 
flyer that the gentleman sent around, a beautiful picture of him and 
his wife, Patti Garamendi, and some other family members, one of whom I 
am sure has had this difficulty themselves. So again, from the bottom 
of my heart and my constituents, I thank you for taking the time to 
organize this Special Order.
  Alzheimer's robs an individual of a most valued possession--their 
memory. But we will not forget the them. I have met with many families 
across the Sixth District of Virginia who have been impacted by 
Alzheimer's, and it has been my honor to represent them by being a 
member of the bipartisan Congressional Alzheimer's Task Force.
  Tonight I would like to take a moment to thank the men and women who 
care for those suffering from Alzheimer's--the spouses, children, 
grandchildren, friends, doctors, and nurses who assure them who they 
are, where they are, and affirm for them their dignity as an 
individual. Though their memories and clarity may fade, who they are is 
not truly gone. And we will not forget those suffering from 
Alzheimer's.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to promote bipartisan 
policies that will benefit the fight against this dreaded disease of 
Alzheimer's.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time to participate.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank the gentleman from Virginia for joining us and 
for his commitment to this very serious issue. There are approximately 
5.1 million Americans who have Alzheimer's today, and it is expected to 
substantially grow. As the baby boomers come into their latter years, 
we would expect to see as many as 13 million Americans with this 
disease in the years ahead. It will be an incredible challenge for this 
Nation.
  I now yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Higgins) for him to 
join us and share his thoughts on this issue.
  Mr. HIGGINS. I thank the gentleman from California for bringing this 
issue to the House floor, underscoring the urgency of investing, 
through the National Institutes of Health, proper funding to find a 
cause and, thus, a cure for Alzheimer's. As the gentleman said, 5 
million Americans are living with Alzheimer's. It is the sixth leading 
cause of death in the United States. Death from Alzheimer's increased 
68 percent between the years 2000 and 2010, while deaths from other 
major diseases decreased.
  The cost to the United States is over $200 billion a year. Without a 
breakthrough, treatment will cost $1 trillion a year by the year 2050. 
We are still seeking an adequate level of funding. For every $100 that 
the National Institutes of Health spends on Alzheimer's research, 
Medicare and Medicaid spend $26,000 caring for those who have the 
disease.
  In Congress we have two pieces of legislation: the Alzheimer's 
Accountability Act, which would ensure that Federal priorities and 
goals for Alzheimer's research actually reflect what scientists believe 
is needed; and the HOPE for Alzheimer's Act, which would provide 
Medicare coverage for the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and 
for care planning of newly diagnosed Americans.
  But all of this, as the gentleman from California pointed out, 
becomes localized and becomes very personal. The origins of Alzheimer's 
are unknown, but the end is absolutely certain. It ends in losing your 
cognitive ability, your dignity, and, ultimately, your life.
  In western New York, we have approximately 130,000 people who are 
impacted by Alzheimer's: 32,000 people who are afflicted, and 96,000 
who love and provide care for the afflicted. That number is expected to 
triple by 2015.
  The Alzheimer's Association of Western New York works year-round to 
highlight the effect of Alzheimer's disease and to help people and 
caregivers touched by this disease.
  One of the people who was touched by this disease is Nancy Swiston, a 
constituent who lost her mom, Grace Swiston, who bravely fought the 
disease for 10 long years. Today, Nancy volunteers with the Alzheimer's 
Association of Western New York to be a voice for those suffering from 
the disease and the families who care for those with Alzheimer's. 
Nancy's story is one of too many families across the Nation we share, 
but we commit to fighting with her to raise awareness in funding for a 
cure that we will all embrace one day.
  I thank the gentleman from California again for committing us to this 
important issue.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Higgins, thank you for sharing your thoughts on 
this dreaded disease for which there is no known cure and there is no 
way to diagnose it until it is present. You cannot get ahead of this 
illness, but there are ways we can make progress. You pointed out what 
has happened over the last decade with extraordinary research efforts, 
and this chart really lays it out there as to where we are.
  For breast cancer, we have seen a decline of 2 percent in breast 
cancer

[[Page 2025]]

deaths; prostate cancer, an 8 percent decline; heart disease, a 16 
percent decline; stroke, 23 percent decline; and then one of the great 
victories, HIV/AIDS, a 42 percent decline in the number of deaths. This 
is the result of research, an extraordinary amount of research going 
on, not only in the United States but around the world, resulting in 
significant drops in the death rates for those diseases.
  On the other hand, Alzheimer's, where we have just over $500 million 
of research, we have seen a 68 percent increase in the death rates. 
This is the story of Alzheimer's. This is the challenge that we face. 
This is the challenge that every American family faces and our 
communities. We will talk more about this a little later.
  The cochair of the Alzheimer's Task Force here in the Congress of the 
United States is the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Maxine Waters), 
who has joined us this evening to talk about the work that the task 
force is doing and her own commitment to this profoundly important 
issue. Maxine and I have had the pleasure of working together for 40 
years, so it is all good.
  Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Thank you so very much.
  John Garamendi, I would like to thank you not only for allotting me 
this time this evening, but I would like to thank you for your 
commitment to educating on this issue and to helping our colleagues to 
understand that we must focus on this issue and that we must do more to 
support research. You are indeed a leader. This certainly is not the 
first time that you have organized one of these evening meetings on 
this, and I thank you for the work that you are doing.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you.
  Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, as cochair of the 
Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease, I know how devastating 
this disease can be for patients, families, and caregivers. The task 
force works on a bipartisan basis to increase awareness of Alzheimer's, 
strengthen the Federal response to the disease, and provide assistance 
to Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers. I am proud to lead the 
task force, along with my returning cochair, Congressman Chris Smith, 
and incoming cochairs Michael Burgess and Chaka Fattah.
  Alzheimer's is a tragic disease affecting millions of Americans, and 
it has reached crisis proportions. There is no effective treatment, no 
means of prevention, nor even a method for slowing the progression of 
the disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention, 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease as 
of 2013. This number is expected to almost triple to 14 million by the 
year 2050.
  The cost associated with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of 
dementia are also growing at an unsustainable rate. A recent RAND study 
of adults ages 70 years and older found that the total economic cost of 
dementia in 2010 was estimated to be $109 billion for direct care 
alone. That is higher than the cost of both heart disease and cancer. 
Furthermore, when the cost of informal care is included, the total cost 
rises to between $159 billion and $215 billion.
  We must act now to change the trajectory of this disease. The 
bipartisan-supported National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease calls 
for a cure or an effective treatment for Alzheimer's by the year 2025. 
Reaching this goal will require a significant increase in Federal 
funding for Alzheimer's research.
  Last December, I joined together with task force cochair Congressman 
Chris Smith to call for a $200 million increase in funding for 
Alzheimer's research in the President's budget for fiscal year 2016. 
However, while the President's budget did recognize the importance of 
Alzheimer's research, it only increased funding by $51 million. This 
year, I plan to work with my colleagues on the task force to make 
certain Congress appropriates robust funding for Alzheimer's research 
to meet the urgent need.
  I also plan to reintroduce three bills to expand the available 
resources for Alzheimer's research and assist patients, families, and 
caregivers.

                              {time}  1945

  First, I will reintroduce the Alzheimer's Caregiver Support Act. This 
bill will authorize grants to public and nonprofit organizations to 
expand training and support services for families and caregivers of 
Alzheimer's patients. With the majority of Alzheimer's patients living 
at home under the care of family and friends, it is important that we 
ensure these caregivers have access to the training and resources 
needed to provide proper care.
  Second, I will reintroduce legislation to reauthorize and improve the 
Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program, a small but 
effective Department of Justice program that helps local communities 
and law enforcement agencies quickly identify persons with Alzheimer's 
disease who wander away from their homes and safely reunite them with 
their families. This program is very valuable. It is a valuable 
resource for first responders. More importantly, it protects vulnerable 
Alzheimer's patients and brings peace of mind to their families.
  Several years ago, I offered an amendment to continue funding for 
this program, which cost only $1 million for the year. The following 
year, I called for, and received, a doubling of the funding for this 
important program.
  Since then, I have made sure this program gets funding every year. I 
am not happy with the amount of the funding. We need to do more, and we 
have to fight more beyond 2015 into the 2016 budget to make sure that 
we get more money because it is desperately needed.
  Finally, I will reintroduce the legislation to require the U.S. 
Postal Service to issue and sell a semi-postal stamp, with the proceeds 
helping to fund Alzheimer's research at the National Institutes of 
Health. This would encourage concerned individuals to get involved and 
contribute to Alzheimer's research efforts, just as many have done in 
the case of the popular and successful Breast Cancer Research semi-
postal stamp.
  Our Nation is at a critical crossroads. The situation requires 
decisive action to search for a cure and protect the millions of 
Americans currently living with Alzheimer's disease. Together, we must 
take every possible action to improve treatments for Alzheimer's 
patients, support caregivers, and invest in research to find a cure for 
this dreadful disease.
  Once again, I want to thank John Garamendi, my colleague from 
California, whom I have worked with for many, many years, for again 
organizing yet another night Special Order.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Congresswoman Waters, thank you so very, very much for 
your leadership as cochair of the Alzheimer's task force here in 
Congress. Obviously, it is leading to some good pieces of legislation. 
Last year, when you introduced that legislation, I had the privilege 
and pleasure of being a coauthor. I will join you again as you 
introduce those pieces of legislation. I bet we can get all 194 members 
of the task force on board. That will give us--let's see, we need 18 
plus 6--24 more Members and we can get it past the House of 
Representatives.
  Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Let's do it.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Let's do it. Yes, we can. Si, se puede.
  Thank you very much. I really appreciate your leadership on this. I 
know this is a personal issue for you with family having been impacted 
by it.
  I want to just take a few moments--and I know you are going to have 
to take off and head to another meeting--but Alzheimer's is very, very 
much a personal thing.
  This is my wife, Patti, with her mother as her mother was entering 
the last year of her 15-year struggle with Alzheimer's. We had the good 
fortune of Patti's mom, Merle, living with us in our home, and we were 
able to take care of her. We had a daycare come in to handle the issues 
during the day. But then in the evening, Patti and I took care of her. 
It turned out to be a

[[Page 2026]]

good experience for us where the family really pulled together, the 
grandchildren and the great-grandchildren all coming together.
  I think our situation was, perhaps, unusual in that my mother-in-law 
was always kind, always gentle, even though in the last couple of years 
she could not speak and was unable to really move very much. But, 
nonetheless, it was a period of time where the grandchildren came to 
know her in a very different way.
  I remember one incident that took place about a year, maybe 14 months 
before she died. Her speech was garbled and not really clear. We 
couldn't understand. But our little 3-year-old granddaughter climbed up 
on great-grandma's bed and was listening to the great-grandmother talk. 
The rest of us adults were gathered around and we were talking about 
whatever it was, and our little 3-year old began to translate what 
great-grandma was saying. We were suddenly caught up in the awareness 
that, while the mind was not functioning fully, it was, nonetheless, 
functioning in a way in which this woman, who was then 90 years old, 
was able to understand what we were saying, but because of this disease 
was unable to articulate, at least to us, her involvement in the 
conversation.
  It was one of those moments when we realized that this illness 
destroys the mind a piece at a time. It doesn't just wipe out, as a 
stroke might, but it takes away the cognitive ability of the mind in a 
slow progression through time. This progression was about 15 years, but 
other progressions might be very, very rapid.
  I know earlier today our colleague from Missouri, Vicky Hartzler, had 
intended to join us, but was called away late this evening. Her mother 
died just 3 weeks ago of this illness. She explained some of the way in 
which it happened. When we come back in about a month to do another 
Special Order hour, I will ask her to join us and, hopefully, she will 
be able to share her experiences.
  But I suspect among the 435 of us here there are, perhaps, more than 
50 percent of us whose families have been personally impacted, and then 
the neighbors, as Mr. Goodlatte was sharing with us.
  If you would like to join in, let's have a colloquy. We will share 
thoughts about what we can do about the research effort. I will put up 
some charts and we can chat on for a few minutes.
  Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Well, thank you so very, very much, 
Mr. Garamendi, again, for your leadership and for affording our Members 
the opportunity to have shared their experiences because all of what we 
learn as we serve as caregivers who happen to be relatives and friends, 
that information is going to be very valuable to our researchers. 
Because of you, we are going to be able to get those stories out. Thank 
you so very much.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Let me just pick up this chart. You mentioned research 
in your opening remarks, and then again. Your leadership on this has 
been absolutely extraordinary--the bills that you have introduced and 
the encouragement you have given to others to introduce legislation and 
push it forward.
  I think this is where we are going to spend our time--fighting for 
research. I am going to go through this.
  Ms. Waters, I know you must leave. Thank you so very much for joining 
us.
  This poster shows how we are spending our National Institutes of 
Health research dollars. We can be thankful for each piece of this 
research that is going on.
  First, on the cancer research ongoing with considerable success--and 
I will come back and show an earlier poster that I had--we are spending 
$5.418 billion. This is in fiscal year 2014--$5.418 billion.
  What does that result in? Well, over the years, between 2000 and 
2010, we have seen breast cancer deaths decline by 2 percent, prostate 
cancer decline by 8 percent. That is what research will do. It is 
successful.
  With HIV/AIDS, just under $3 billion spent annually in 2014, and 
again we are seeing HIV/AIDS an incredible success story. Still with 
us, but nonetheless, we have seen death from HIV/AIDS decline by 42 
percent as we have invested $3 billion over the years; in 2014, $3 
billion, and a little less in the previous years.
  Similarly, cardiovascular illnesses--heart disease, stroke, and heart 
attacks--we are spending around $2 billion of your taxpayer money on 
this particular disease. What is the result? The result is that deaths 
from heart disease from 2000-2010, deaths from heart disease are down 
by 16 percent and stroke down by 23 percent.
  What does this mean? This means that research really works.
  Where are we with Alzheimer's research? Alzheimer's research in 2014 
was $566 million, just over half a billion dollars for Alzheimer's 
research. And where are we with Alzheimer's? Well, that same period of 
time, we have seen Alzheimer's deaths increase by 68 percent, in part 
because there is no cure except death, and that is what has happened. 
As the baby boomers age, as that cohort of the population moves through 
into advanced age, Alzheimer's is taking a grip on those people.
  So this is the story. Our goal this year, along with the research 
that Ms. Waters has already discussed, and some other bills that will 
be discussed in the days ahead, our goal this year is to ramp up this 
research. A project, as a result of the legislation that was passed in 
the year 2011, gave us information from the National Institutes of 
Health and other scientists that the appropriate level of funding to 
understand Alzheimer's, to find a cure or at least a way of prolonging 
health and delaying the onset of the illness, should be about $2 
billion a year, something similar to what we are spending on 
cardiovascular research.
  Fortunately, in last year's budget--that is the 2015 budget, that is 
the current budget--we increased the funding by about $25 million. 
Good. We are not getting very close to $2 billion, which is the goal to 
really get and understand this disease. But, nonetheless, we put $25 
million more into it last year.
  I hope that all of us who are concerned about this make a full-court 
press this year to try to get that number up to a much more substantial 
number so that we can really get at this research. The President, 
recognizing this problem--as was discussed earlier by one of our 
colleagues here--the President has proposed an additional $50 million. 
Good. But, once again, not what the scientists tell us we need to 
really adequately fund this illness. So we are going to work on this.
  I notice that my colleague from California--would you like to join 
us? This is a bipartisan Special Order hour. Unusual, to be sure. 
Usually, we talk both sides--one side talks about the other side, the 
other side talks about them. This time we are talking about a common 
problem that affects all of us--Democrat, Republican, Independent, 
left, right, center, up, and down--all Americans.
  My colleague from California, welcome.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Let me just note that I have been here 26 years, and 
I have always tried to vote for increases in the specific level of 
funding for the National Institutes of Health, which, of course, 
oversees much of this health research that we are talking about today. 
I know we have people coming in all the time talking to us. They want 
us to sign onto a bill to increase this particular disease or that 
particular disease.
  But I think the approach that we have to have is basically let's 
provide as much money as we can to this type of research and programs 
by people who are the experts, and let them determine where is the best 
use of our limited research money. So I have been very much supportive 
of your efforts and the other efforts of many bipartisan people in this 
Congress.
  I would like to add that we can't just rely on the government. The 
next speech I will be giving in a few moments deals with the patent 
issue. We need to make sure that people in the private sector will be 
encouraged to invest in new types of technology and

[[Page 2027]]

new types of approaches to curing these problems, like medical 
equipment and things that will really help save people.
  I know Al Mann, for example, has a new inhalant so that 60 percent of 
the people who now use needles for diabetes won't have to use them. 
They can just do a little inhale before every meal.

                              {time}  2000

  It took him 10 years to get that through the FDA--10 years. We need 
to make sure the FDA is doing its job, and we need to make sure those 
people who are out in the private sector who are investing in new 
medical technologies have a way to recoup their money. At the same 
time, like you are focusing on tonight, we have to make sure the 
government is doing its part both in patents and in the FDA and, 
especially, for the National Institutes of Health. So thank you very 
much for what you are doing.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Mr. Rohrabacher.
  I know in your district--in the Orange County area--there is major 
medical research going on at the University of California at Irvine 
and, certainly, at UCLA, at the mind institutes there. Out of that 
research do come new technologies, new drugs, new kinds of equipment, 
some of which are patentable; and the licensing of the new drugs 
through the FDA is always a challenge, so we do have multiple tasks 
here. We have to deal with the patent laws and the availability of 
patent research dollars and then have to make sure that the drug 
actually is made available to address the illness. I thank you so very 
much for joining us.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to go back to a couple of things that we were 
talking about earlier on the research side. Our goal is to ramp up this 
research to try to get to the level that is suggested. Now, we always 
look at cost benefit. Is this research going to pay off? I think it 
will.
  As I was preparing for this evening, I came across an email, 
actually, from the University of California at Davis, which I 
represent--near Sacramento--at their California National Primate 
Research Center. They have been using stem cell research to address the 
issue of Alzheimer's. What they have found is that they are able to use 
this Nouvelle stem cell therapy in primates, which is similar to the 
human brain, and to actually have some success. They have now taken it 
the next step further. Here is where we are into the FDA and the 
approval of drugs, Mr. Rohrabacher. They have taken it the next step 
further, and they are doing clinical human trials with this drug, and 
it seems to restore the human brain.
  Now, that is a long way before we get to the end of this story, but 
this is what happens when we have research developing a new therapy--in 
this case, a stem cell therapy with primates--and now transferring it 
over to the human in a clinical trial. How exciting it is--the 
possibilities--not just in slowing down the progress of the disease, 
which has been the short-term goal, but maybe in being able to restore 
the human brain. Wow. Wow. I think of my mother-in-law. I think of 
those whom I know who have come down with this illness, and I am going, 
wow, what if? What if it had been available? Well, it could be.
  I know, Mr. Rohrabacher, you are very interested in international 
work. You have traveled extensively. You are involved with other 
countries and their research. This is not just a United States issue; 
this is an international issue.
  Earlier last year, in June, the new cochair of the Alzheimer's Task 
Force here in Washington, in the House of Representatives, conducted a 
bipartisan international conference in New York at the United Nations, 
pulling together researchers from around the world. We have another 
piece of this puzzle available to us in the United States--
international research, NIH research, research at the universities, at 
the various mind institutes around the Nation--all of that.
  As a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with improvised 
explosive devices and the extraordinary impact that those have had on 
our military--the soldiers, the marines, and others who have suffered 
from those explosions--we are now, in the military budget, 
appropriating a significant amount of money for research into traumatic 
brain injury as well as into posttraumatic stress syndrome, trying to 
understand the human mind. What happens when you get that blow against 
the head? What causes the brain to react and to deteriorate? That 
research also informs us about Alzheimer's.
  One of the goals that I will be pursuing this year is to try to bring 
together all of these research programs that are underway. Even the 
National Football League is engaging in research having to do with 
traumatic brain injury to the football players in the professional 
football leagues. They are trying to understand what it is all about. 
So, if we could pull together all of that research and pool the 
information and make it available--perhaps what is going on at UC Davis 
and at other research institutions--I think we can jump-start the 
solution.
  Fortunately, I won't be doing this alone. Our former colleague here, 
Patrick Kennedy, heads up an organization called the One Mind 
organization, and that is their goal: to pull together the research--to 
get all of the international, the military, the National Institutes of 
Health, the National Football League--and to have all of us working 
towards a common goal of understanding the human mind, what the 
injuries are, and how we can deal with Alzheimer's as a result of all 
of that.
  I am going to put up a couple more pieces of this puzzle and the 
trauma that it brings. We discussed this briefly early on, and I just 
want to come back to this.
  The already high cost of Alzheimer's will skyrocket as the baby 
boomers age. This is driven by three things: one, the cost of treating 
Alzheimer's, which is very expensive and is ongoing; secondly, there is 
no known cure; and, thirdly, the demographic growth of the population. 
Today, you are looking at somewhere around $225 billion spent by the 
government and private and individuals and families on Alzheimer's, and 
it is expected to grow to close to $1 trillion by 2050. This is an 
extraordinary growth rate. A lot of this money is going to be taxpayer 
money spent on Medicare and Medicaid.
  This one shows the cost increases to Medicare and Medicaid. In 2010, 
Medicare and Medicaid were spending about $122 billion. In 2020, it is 
expected to go up to nearly $200 billion and then just continue to 
escalate. This, many think, is the way in which Medicare and Medicaid 
will be bankrupted--just with Alzheimer's alone. Now, this is the 
government spending. The private spending--private insurance and 
families--will probably be spending somewhere around a third of this 
amount in the years ahead. So, if we are able--and we believe we can. 
Just take one look at what is going on at UC Davis, and that is just 
one of dozens and dozens of examples.
  What is happening is that the research is coming on. The first goal 
is to delay the onset. It is anticipated that, if we were able to 
quickly ramp up to $2 billion a year of research, we would, within the 
next 4 to 5 years, be able to find a way, perhaps with a drug therapy, 
to delay the onset of Alzheimer's by 5 years. What does that mean? That 
means that the $2 billion that is spent on research leading to the 
delay--not the cure but just the delay of the onset--would, in the next 
3 years, after that delay goes into place, save the taxpayers the $2 
billion that was spent on research, and then those savings would 
continue on into the future. If you are a financial analyst on Wall 
Street and if you are able to get a payback within 3 years, you are 
thinking that that is a pretty good investment. So we ought to look at 
this in terms of cost benefit, in terms of investment--the financial 
side of it. That is appropriate.
  Yet, on the human side, think what could be done. Think what could be 
done to those families, to my wife's mother--my mother-in-law--if her 
illness were delayed 5 years. She would have had 5 more years of 
healthy life.

[[Page 2028]]

She didn't die of heart disease or cancer. She died of Alzheimer's. She 
could have had an additional 5 years if we had been able, at that 
moment, to have delayed the onset of the disease. As we understand how 
to delay the onset, we will also learn how to cure the disease. This is 
where we are headed. This is our goal. This is what we want to try to 
accomplish.
  I am going to put this one up because it is so dramatic. Here is the 
cost of treatment today for the Federal Government. This is 2014: $150 
billion from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. CMS: $150 
billion. These are actually 2012 expenditures. Then this is where we 
are spending the money: $560 million on research. It is lopsided.
  My final point before I turn back my time today is to take these two 
charts, actually. This one: Research works. Research saves lives. 
Research improves the quality of life for Americans.
  Cancer research: we have decreased the cancer rate for breast cancer. 
Cancer research: we have decreased by 8 percent prostate cancer. HIV/
AIDS research: a 42 percent decrease in the death rate. Heart disease 
and stroke: 23 and 16 percent. Alzheimer's: we are not there yet. We 
are researching, but we are not there yet, so we wind up with a death 
rate that is rapidly increasing.
  Ultimately, it is about this: it is about my family, and it is about 
your family. It is about the American families. It is about the 
American families who are enduring their loved ones--their parents, 
their grandparents--slowly, slowly dying of Alzheimer's, losing their 
mental capabilities. It affected our family, and I suspect it has 
affected your family. It doesn't have to be. We can deal with this. 
Yes, we can--si, se puede. We can do this, and your Congress--Democrat 
and Republican--is working on this issue. We are going to beat 
Alzheimer's. It is our task. It is our challenge.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________