Als Disability Insurance Access Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Reed) for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I also want to thank my friend, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), for leading on this important piece of legislation as well.

I rise in strong support, Madam Speaker, of the ALS Disability Insurance Access Act.

We have worked closely on so many issues with the ALS community, and this is another great example of that. I know as I was talking with the majority leader last week during our colloquy, Mr. Hoyer, we worked on getting this bill scheduled.

Madam Speaker, I thank the majority leader for bringing this bill to the floor, because at a time when you hear about Congress' disagreements--which, unfortunately, there are a number of areas where we do disagree--this is one area where we have come together; and not just today, on this issue regarding the timeline that you have to wait for ALS patients to be eligible for SSDI, a timeline that we will now eliminate, properly so, but we have been here before and Congress has come together on other areas.

The Steve Gleason Act is one of those great examples, where speech- generating devices were being denied to people with ALS. It was a ruling that had come out of Medicare that we had all disagreed with, but it took an act of Congress to fix that.

Congress did come together to do that, just as Congress is coming together today to right this wrong and to stand up for those ALS patients who just want to live life to the fullest.

Steve Gleason is one of those examples. He is a constituent of mine and has become a dear friend, and somebody who really does live life to the fullest and doesn't let a disability define him.

He actually has gone out and become a pioneer and inspired so many others to just go out and live their life and let's get government impediments out of the way.

That is what we are doing here today. We are coming together as Republicans and Democrats to stand up for those people with ALS who just want that opportunity to live their life to the fullest.

I want to reiterate that great motto that Steve Gleason lives by: No white flags. It means you never surrender; you just go out there every day and do the best you can.

Today, we are going to help thousands of people across this country do exactly that.

Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill.

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