Senate Resolution 301 - Recognizing and Supporting the Goals and Implementation of the National Alzheimer's Project Act and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we all know someone who has been affected by Alzheimer's disease or someone else who has.

Everyone has occasional memory lapses, and it's normal to forget names of an acquaintance or forget where you put your keys.

But Alzheimer's is so much more than just memory loss.

It is a debilitating disease that only gets worse as it progresses.

People living with the disease often forget conversations, appointments, and eventually forget the names of close friends and may no longer recognize their spouse or their children.

They struggle to recall the words to identify objects, and eventually lose the ability to read and write.

Alzheimer's makes everyday activities like keeping track of bills and cooking a meal extremely challenging and frustrating.

Although the disease develops differently for every individual, it eventually leads to loss of memory, thinking and reasoning skills.

This year, approximately 450,000 people in the United States will die from Alzheimer's disease.

Currently, more than 5 million Americans are living with the disease, including 210,000 people in Illinois.

But with a new person being diagnosed with Alzheimer's every 68 seconds, the number of people with Alzheimer's will rise to 16 million by 2050.

If nothing is done to change the trajectory of the disease, more people and families will suffer and federal spending linked to the disease will soar.

In 2013, the cost of caring for those with Alzheimer's disease will total an estimated $203 billion for Medicaid and Medicare.

If we stay on this path, the total cost of caring for individuals with Alzheimer's disease is expected to rise to 1.2 trillion by 2050--an increase of more than 500 percent.

But this is a problem that we can solve.

In 2010, Congress recognized the need for additional resources and research to overcome Alzheimer's disease and unanimously passed the National Alzheimer's Project Act.

The National Alzheimer's Project Act created a national strategic plan, which establishes goals and action steps to combat the disease in the areas of research, care, support, and public awareness.

The plan has already resulted in some notable achievements.

In 2012, the National Institutes of Health dedicated an additional $50 million for Alzheimer's research.

The Health Resources and Services Administration invested $2 million to improve the quality of care for people with Alzheimer's.

But more needs to be done and the success of the National Alzheimer's Plan requires continued federal investments for biomedical research and resources for people with Alzheimer's.

President Obama's fiscal year 2014 budget proposed $100 million in new NIH funding for Alzheimer's research.

The Senate Labor, Health, and Human Services appropriations bill which passed the Appropriations Committee adds $84 million to the NIH's National Institute of Aging for Alzheimer's research.

The bill also provides $40 million for the new Brain Initiative, which will help us better understand the brain and Alzheimer's.

These federal investments to fight Alzheimer's disease can lower costs and improve health outcomes for people living with the disease.

People like Janet Dever.

Janet Dever, 73 years old, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease five years ago.

She does her best to not dwell on the negatives or sink into depression.

But she says that the hardest part of the disease is watching her family and friends suffer along with her.

The part of the disease that upsets her the most is that many people don't know how to interact with her anymore, so they have stayed away.

But Janet and her husband Bill aren't giving up. And we shouldn't give up either.

To reinforce the initial steps toward greater investment in finding answers,

I am submitting this resolution, along with Senators Collins, Mikulski, Tim Johnson, Menendez, Wicker, Moran, and Markey, supporting the goals and implementation of the National Alzheimer's Project Act and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease.
But to achieve these goals, the Plan needs federal funding to be fully implemented.

I urge my colleagues to support this Resolution and reinforce our national commitment to turning around the seeming inevitability of this terrible brain disease.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure investments are made in Alzheimer's research and to make the goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer's disease by 2050 a reality.

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