Regarding the Ensuring Useful Research Expenditures is Key for Alzheimer's (Eureka) Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Ensuring Useful Research Expenditures is Key for Alzheimer's Act--also known as the ``EUREKA Act'', a bill I introduced earlier today with my fellow Tennessean John Duncan, which would establish a prize competition to accelerate the discovery and development of treatments to alleviate, prevent, and/or cure Alzheimer's disease and related dementia.

This is a bipartisan House companion to a bipartisan bill introduced previously by Senators Roger Wicker, Kelly Ayotte, John Barrasso, Shelley Capito, Susan Collins, Angus King, and Brian Schatz.

Alzheimer's disease is a tragic disease affecting millions of Americans, and it has reached crisis proportions.

There is no effective treatment, no means of prevention, and no method for slowing the progression of the disease.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, five million Americans were living with Alzheimer's in 2013, and those numbers have swelled since then.

Because of the large numbers of patients and the length of time living with the disease, the Alzheimer's Association has called it ``the most expensive disease in America.''

They estimate that the U.S. will spend $236 billion in 2016 on patients who have Alzheimer's and related dementias.

Earlier this month, I and over 70 of my colleagues in the House signed a letter to the House Committee on Appropriations to request a $500 million increase in National Institutes of Health (``NIH'') funding for Alzheimer's research in fiscal year 2017.

And while funding Alzheimer's research directly by the NIH is important to combating the disease, it is not the only way that Congress can act to stimulate discovery and development of new treatments.

The creation of prizes to be awarded for solving difficult problems is a new strategy for U.S. agencies to tap into the limitless ingenuity and creativity of the American people.

Prize competitions are run by more than 80 agencies across the federal government.

The EUREKA Act builds upon these efforts to seek innovative solutions from the public, and bring the best ideas and talent together to solve difficult problems.

If enacted, the EUREKA Act will provide $10 million for the NIH and other agencies to create prizes for new prevention measures, treatments, and cures for Alzheimer's disease.

I urge my colleagues to join our bipartisan effort and help pass the EUREKA Act.

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