America's Small Business Tax Relief Act Of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Mr. President and my fellow colleagues, I once again come to the floor to talk about Alzheimer's and the efforts being made in this country and in this Senate and in this city to find a cure and find better treatments for the scourge of Alzheimer's. Many of you know this is the most expensive disease our country has ever seen; one-half trillion dollars a year in costs to programs that we need to protect like Medicare, Medicaid. This will rise to $1 trillion per year in the lifetime of many people within the sound of my voice unless something is done.

I am so appreciative of the some 1,200 people who descended on Washington this week advocating on behalf of the millions of Americans living with Alzheimer's and their family members. I was honored to be invited to their conference and to speak to over 1,000 people in the hotel where they were meeting earlier this week. They then came to Capitol Hill to visit in the offices of Senators and Members of the House of Representatives, and I had a great meeting on Wednesday in my office. We want to reaffirm our dedication to putting an end to this terrible disease. My mom died with dementia. Most of us have family members who have had Alzheimer's or who have been impacted by Alzheimer's.

I appreciate the support of my colleagues in this Congress for NIH funding. It is very important to continue funding, to continue increasing the funding for the excellent work done by the National Institutes of Health to fight Alzheimer's disease and fund Alzheimer's research.

I appreciate my colleagues voting for a $350 million increase in research for Alzheimer's disease, but of course this falls far short. This is funding that experts say is needed to reach our goal of curing Alzheimer's within the next decade. Along those lines, I have introduced legislation that I think gives us a different way to approach the disease of Alzheimer's. My bill is called the EUREKA Act that involves a prize competition, in addition to everything we are doing in research, everything NIH is doing, and all the research being done around the country. It is a prize competition inviting innovators, inviting people to think outside the box, come forward, and give us their ideas.

EUREKA stands for ``Ensuring Useful Research Expenditures is Key for Alzheimer's.'' Of course, the Greek translation for Eureka is ``I found it.'' That is what we are trying to do--trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's, trying to find milestones that will lead to a cure, and trying to find treatments to help those suffering from the disease.

The goal of my EUREKA Act is to find the best and brightest minds in the country, the best and brightest minds in the world, to come forward and use their ingenuity to solve this complex problem. As I have reiterated in visits with Member after Member, and I have reiterated on the floor, with a prize competition, we pay only for success. Regardless of the amount of money we put on the prize, you don't pay the money until we have success, which is one of the reasons this EUREKA provision wouldn't come out of NIH funding. It would add to it, and we would only pay the money if we got the result, which of course would be far more valuable than the prize.

The numbers associated with Alzheimer's are daunting--even worse, chilling. The disease affects 5 million Americans. The number of people with Alzheimer's is on the rise, as we all know. It is the sixth leading cause of death in America and, again, it is the most expensive disease in America: $236 billion this year and $1 trillion per year by the year 2050. Of course, there is a huge burden for the caregivers also.

There is good news, to be sure. It was announced last week that there's been an analysis by UsAgainstAlzheimer's, and it showed some 17 drugs for Alzheimer's could be launched in the next 5 years. In Mississippi, the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson has developed a service called TeleMIND as part of its MIND Center. Telehealth technology is being used to attack Alzheimer's, to treat Alzheimer's patients, and make life better for them and their family.

Let us try the concept of EUREKA also. Let us try the concept of offering a prize to young minds. Perhaps people from around the world might come to the United States. This might be someone in a basement or in his mom's garage or might be some major international corporation. We don't care. We want to offer an incentive for somebody to come around, think outside the box, and get us to a cure quicker.

Prizes have a history of success. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh achieved a nonstop flight between New York and Paris. He won a prize of $25,000 in so doing. In 2004, the XPRIZE--sponsored by the XPRIZE Foundation-- offered $10 million for the first reusable manned spacecraft. You know what happened. It drew down $100 million in investments, this $10 million prize. In 2011, $1 million was awarded for a breakthrough in oilspill cleanup. So prizes work. It can work, in addition to the research NIH is doing around the country.

Let me say, in addition to myself as principal sponsor of this act, we now have 39 cosponsors among this 100-person Senate. We are day-by- day, step-by-step getting toward a majority. It is my hope the leadership of the HELP Committee that is now working on the 21st Century Cures Act that came over from the House with an overwhelming bipartisan vote--I hope we can, in a bipartisan fashion, with the leadership of Senator Alexander, with the leadership of Senator Murray--his lead Democrat on the committee--I hope we can make a decision to add the EUREKA bill to the 21st Century Cures Act, to have this extra opportunity, in addition to everything we are doing, to cure Alzheimer's.

I would urge my colleagues, I would urge the staff members who might be listening to this, to check and see if their Members have cosponsored this and to help us with an additional tool to attack the problem of Alzheimer's.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I thank my colleague from Michigan for deferring for a moment or two while I make these remarks.

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Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I don't know what other Members of the Senate will be doing at 8 p.m. eastern time, but I can tell you I will be in front of my television set watching ``American Idol.'' We all take pride in people from our own States, but I want to boldly predict that the winner of ``American Idol'' tonight will be a contestant from my State of Mississippi. The reason I am so certain of this is that two talented Mississippians are the two finalists remaining in the ``American Idol'' competition tonight.

They say this will be the final season of ``American Idol.'' Perhaps we are only going to have a timeout for a few years, and we will see it back. This is the 15th season of ``American Idol.'' I am so proud to announce to my colleagues in the Senate and to the Presiding Officer that the two finalists are none other than Trent Harmon of Amory, MS, and La'Porsha Renae of McComb, MS.

Now, in Mississippi we proudly call ourselves the Birthplace of America's Music, and I think we do that with some justification. From blues to country to rock and roll, our State has produced more Grammy award winners per capita than any other State in the Nation. Elvis Presley comes from Mississippi, as well as Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Jimmie Rodgers, Charley Pride, Faith Hill, and the list goes on and on and on.

Last month, I was honored to participate in the opening of the Grammy Museum in Cleveland, MS. There are now two Grammy museums in the country. One is in Los Angeles and the other is in the Mississippi Delta in Cleveland. The Mississippi Delta is a testament to the many musical inspirations that have emerged there.

In 1986, Paul Simon sang: ``The Mississippi Delta is shining like a National guitar.'' He sang that line 20 years before the first Mississippi Blues Trail marker was placed, but he was correct. We now have some 200 Blues Trail markers across our State, and I invite each and every Member and all the rest of you to come and visit those locations in Mississippi.

But tonight, the entire State of Mississippi will be shining like a national guitar with talents like La'Porsha Renae and Trent Harmon. They are keeping our legacy alive. They represent the wide range of Mississippi's musical influences. It was wonderfully touching to watch the video of their hometown visits, where the people came out to support them, showing off their Mississippi talent and the dedication of their fans.

Trent Harmon is from Amory, MS. He grew up on his family's farm, working in his parents' restaurant, the Longhorn Fish and Steakhouse. Growing up in Amory is truly a small town beginning. The town has a population of around 7,500 people. Trent's interest in music was apparent from early on, as he spent his time in high school and college performing in musicals. My wife and I have numerous times been to Amory High School to see Trent Harmon perform in programs such as ``Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,'' ``Forever Plaid,'' and other performances. He was a star then, and he is going to be a star in the future. Trent's powerful voice and versatility seem effortless. He can do it all, from southern soul to R & B.

La'Porsha Renae comes from McComb, MS, down in the southwestern part of our State. She worked for a call center before auditioning for ``American Idol.'' She has shared with America the details about her story of survival from an abusive relationship in which she had to seek refuge in a women's shelter. Her soulful voice has been compared to Aretha Franklin, and the emotion she pours into every performance is truly show-stopping. She credits her former high school algebra teacher, Angelia Johnson, as one of her biggest mentors who encouraged her to embrace her own signature style. La'Porsha dedicated last night's moving performance of ``Diamonds'' to her young daughter who was in the audience.

So when it comes to talent, I believe ``American Idol'' may have saved the best for last, and I very much anticipate a great performance tonight. Millions of Americans will choose one of these outstanding young Mississippians as the latest, but perhaps not the last, ``American Idol.''

Trent and La'Porsha have made Mississippi proud. They have made me proud, and I wish them all the best tonight and in their future musical careers. I am quite certain that both of them will be incredibly successful.

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