Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program Reauthorization of 2009

I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me and for his very warm compliments. Thank you.

Approximately 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, and the majority of them live at home under the care of family and friends. It is estimated that 60 percent of Alzheimer's patients are likely to wander away from their homes. Wanderers are vulnerable to dehydration, weather conditions, traffic hazards, and individuals who prey on those who are defenseless. Up to 50 percent of wandering Alzheimer's patients will become seriously injured or die if they are not found within 24 hours of their departure from home.

The Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program is a Department of Justice program that helps local communities and law enforcement officials quickly identify persons with Alzheimer's disease who wander or who are missing and reunite them with their families.

Since its inception more than 10 years ago, this program has funded a national registry of more than 172,000 individuals at risk of wandering and has reunited over 12,000 wanderers with their families. It is a highly successful program whereby 88 percent of registrants who wander are found within the first 4 hours of being reported missing. A total of 1,288 wandering incidents were reported to the program in 2007. The program has a 98 percent success rate in recovering enrollees who are reported missing.

There are also technology-based options to address wandering that should be considered for funding under the Missing Alzheimer's Patient Program. For example, personalized wristbands that emit a tracking signal can be used to locate wanderers. These wristbands, when combined with specially trained search-and-rescue teams, can reduce search times from hours and days to minutes.

Congress originally authorized $900,000 in appropriations for the Missing Alzheimer's Patient Program for 3 years, that is, 1996 through 1998, but never reauthorized or updated the program. Since then, the program has continued to receive funding on a year-to-year basis, but funding has remained virtually flat since its inception.

H.R. 908 reauthorizes, updates and expands the Missing Alzheimer's Patient Program.

The bill authorizes up to $5 million per year in appropriations for fiscal years 2010 through 2016, a modest increase over the $1 million appropriation in fiscal year 2008.

The bill expands the program so as to allow the Department of Justice to award multiple competitive grants to nonprofit organizations. Preference will be given to national nonprofit organizations that have a direct link to patients, and families of patients, with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

And finally, the bill specifies that the program will be operated under the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance. Currently, the program is operated under the Office of Juvenile Justice, which is obviously not the most appropriate agency for a program serving the mostly elderly.

H.R. 908 has 21 bipartisan cosponsors, including the co-chairs of the Congressional Alzheimer's Task Force, Congressman Edward Markey and Congressman Christopher Smith. The bill has been endorsed by more than 85 national, State, and local organizations, including the Alzheimer's Association and the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

The Missing Alzheimer's Patient Program is a critical resource for first responders. It saves local law enforcement officials valuable time and allows them to focus on other national and local security concerns. It is critical that we reauthorize and expand this small, but very effective, program.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 908.

Madam Speaker, the Judiciary Committee's Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Karen Wilkinson for her work with the Committee for the past 2 years.

Karen came to us as a detailee from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. At the end of December, Karen will return to Phoenix, Arizona to continue her work as an Assistant Federal Public Defender representing indigent clients in federal criminal cases, where she worked for eight years before coming to the Committee. Prior to that, she clerked for the U.S. District Court for Arizona and then joined the law firm of Brown & Bain. Karen graduated magna cum laude from Arizona State University Law School, received a Masters in Business Administration from NOVA University and her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan.

Karen's accomplishments during her tenure with the Committee include a number of bills that are very important to improving our country's criminal justice system. During the 111th Congress, she was responsible for guiding several legislative measures to approval on the floor of the House of Representatives, including: H.R. 448, the Elder Abuse Victims Act of 2009; H.R. 632, the National Silver Alert Act 2009; H.R. 748, CAMPUS Safety Act of 2009; H.R. 908, the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program Reauthorization Act of 2009; H.R. 1333, which amends chapter 40 of title 18 of the United States Code to exempt the transportation, shipment, receipt, or importation of explosive materials for delivery to a federally recognized Indian tribes; H.R. 1727, the Managing Arson Through Criminal History, MATCH, Act; H.R. 1933, a Child is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act; S. 1289, the Foreign Evidence Request Efficiency Act of 2009, and H.R. 2661, the Court Security Enhancement Act of 2009.

In addition, she is shepherding several very important bills pending before the Judiciary Committee, such as: H.R. 503, the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2009; H.R. 3327, the Ramos-Compean Justice Act of 2009; H.R. 2289, the Juvenile Justice Accountability and Improvement Act of 2009; H.R. 2095, the Restitution for the Exonerated Act; H.R. 1149, the Child Protection Reauthorization Act of 2009 and H.R. 1422, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Reauthorization Act of 2009. Karen is also developing the Literacy Education and Rehabilitation Act, LERA, and the Department of Justice Reauthorization Act, legislation that would require a criminal defense representative to be appointed to the United States Sentencing Commission, as well as bills that would correct the firearm recidivist sentencing guidelines and the computation of good time credit in federal prison system.

We would like to thank the Administrative Office of Courts and the Federal Public Defender's Office of Phoenix for their generosity in allowing such a dedicated, responsible, and committed person to become such an integral part of our team. We are deeply grateful to Karen for her service, professionalism, and friendship during the past 2 years. She possesses that rare balance of humility, warmth, wit, and passion without a trace of ego, and she will be sorely missed. We wish her the best of luck and give her our thanks.

Mr. Speaker, we have an opportunity today to take a very important step in protecting some of our most vulnerable elderly citizens who suffer from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

One American in 10 over the age of 65 suffers from Alzheimer's disease. For those over 85, it is one in two. Alzheimer's patients now number as many as 4.5 million in the United States, and as we baby boomers continue to age, those numbers will only continue to grow.

One of the great dangers for Alzheimer's patients is the tendency to become disoriented and to wander away from home. In fact, some 60 percent of those with Alzheimer's will do so at some point, and half of them will be seriously injured or even possibly die.

We've all heard stories in our local news networks, in our local communities: an elderly person goes missing, perhaps just going on a simple trip to the grocery store. Local search efforts are launched, and there are some great programs around our Nation to have those search efforts. The family will post notices somewhere and pleas for help for that missing person goes out. And the media certainly can help sound the alarm.

But sometimes these stories don't end happily and sometimes they do. The person that has wandered beyond the reach of local search efforts can be in serious trouble. If the weather is bad, or if that person should run across some dangerous individual, and they cross that Alzheimer's patient's path, it can end in tragedy.

In the fall of 2007, a member of my church, a lady named Betty Ledgerwood, left home one day and got into her car, had gas in her car, and ended up driving, not knowing where she was, who she was, and actually was missing for almost a full day. And her family even called me here, frantically trying to get some help with the media to find her. Her family did do all they could to sound the alarm.

Local officials searched for her, but she was eventually found, and she had died from exposure to the weather, just right outside her car, not in my home State of Oklahoma, but actually clear in Missouri. And she didn't know where

she was, and unfortunately, her family didn't know where she was.

It's a story that we hear all too often, that a loved one is confused with dementia or Alzheimer's can be missing.

And that's why the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program today that we're talking about will help protect our moist vulnerable at-risk seniors.

This is a program that has potential, saving and preserving the lives of some of our most vulnerable and threatened elderly citizens. It enlists the capacities of many different agencies, private-public sector. It does not seek to create new agencies. It simply focuses attention and effort on a growing problem.

So, Mr. Speaker, today, I'd like to urge the passage of this measure so we can bring the next Betty Ledgerwood home to her family safely. Thank you so much.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 908) to amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to reauthorize the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program.

I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, we come to the floor with three elder justice bills, each with bipartisan support, and each addressing, in different ways, serious problems faced by our ever-expanding aging population. These problems range from dementia, and elders who ``go missing,'' to neglect, financial exploitation, and physical abuse. The three bills we are considering today address these critical problems.

The bill before us now, H.R. 908, the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program Reauthorization of 2009, addresses the serious problem of seniors who go missing each year as a result of dementia. It passed the House on suspension last September, but Congress adjourned before the Senate could consider it.

The Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program was created in 1994, and while Congress has continued to support and fund it, its formal authorization expired in 1998.

This legislation, Mr. Speaker, sponsored by the gentlewoman from California, the Honorable Maxine Waters, will formally reauthorize the program.

H.R. 908 authorizes the Attorney General to award competitive grants to nonprofit organizations for planning, establishing, and operating locally-based programs to protect and locate missing persons with Alzheimer's disease, dementia, or other problems.

This is an excellent measure that responds to a critical problem, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlelady from California, the great Maxine Waters.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen).

I will, Mr. Speaker, say that I can't think of any legislation that is more timely than this, and more needed, to protect our elderly from all sorts of harm. These are people who have worked productively, given their lives, and now have fallen victim to a disease that we are still searching for cures for. And they need special protection, especially as our aged population increases.

And so I look forward to this measure passing, and I want to thank Congresswoman Waters for her thoughtfulness in producing this legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time that I may consume.

I'm pleased to support H.R. 908, the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program Reauthorization of 2009.

Roughly 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Of these, 60 percent will become lost from their families or their caretakers. If they're not found within 24 hours, up to half of them become seriously ill or even die.

H.R. 908 increases the chance of locating missing persons suffering from these diseases within the critical first 24 hours. Specifically, the bill provides grants to nonprofit organizations to help create and maintain programs to assist in locating missing patients and family members with Alzheimer's.

We passed similar legislation in the last session of Congress, sent it to the Senate, and the Senate made a few changes and sent it back to us for our approval here in the House, but we did not have enough to consider the bill before Congress adjourned at the end of last year. H.R. 908 contains compromise language from the Senate version of the last session of Congress.

These programs and organizations this legislation aims to help are often significantly useful to local law enforcement when a person suffering from these mind-altering diseases goes missing. Because these patients are often disoriented and confused, tips and information from family, friends, and doctors are very critical.

H.R. 908 provides support to these organizations, indirect assistance to local law enforcement, protection to patients, and some peace of mind to the families and loved ones.

I urge all my colleagues to support this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlelady from Oklahoma (Ms. Fallin).

I yield back the balance of my time.